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This was my thought too. And then also Turning Stone has a fairly low break and run percentage compared to other major events. According to Atlarges stats for the recent Turning Stone, there was a 22% break and run percentage which is lower than I usually see for winner breaks events. This may...

I like this. Kids are really good at mimicking what they see. It’s possible to hurt their progress by forcing them to adhere to text book fundamentals. And then, in there is no better way to burn them out on the game than pushing them into regimented practice drills. If you want her to do...

Their marketing and manufacturing budgets are separate. Pulling back on advertising wouldn’t result in a cost reduction because their prices are likely influenced by cost and demand. If they used their marketing budged to try to reduce the price this year then they will have less revenue next...

If you begin deciding after the fact to include scores it can bias the data. Let’s say player A asks Fargo to include a match because they won 21-0 (or lost 21-0) but stays quiet on matches with a undesirable result. Or you only know about a match because it was notable. While that isnt what is...

You can always expect a transitionary period when the tables are toughened up. But the pros adapt soon enough. I remember when diamonds became the norm there were conversations about how difficult those 4.5” pockets were. But before long we were seeing no miss pool again. Tight pockets are a...

I think there is a not insubstantial amount of people who do it for the experience of “being a pro”. Pool is a pretty unique experience where you can watch the UK Open in 2023 and then sign up in 2024. Imagine showing up to Wimbledon racquet in hand.

I’ve also been a big fan of him since before he qualified for the tour. It’s been a lot of ups and downs but I’m pretty excited to see him get a world championship. While I don’t see him as heir to the Ronnie/Stephen/Steve or anything lofty like that, I can see him being the next major crowd...

Yikes, I don’t think I’d be able to pot more balls on a carom table under those conditions.

I tend to give many of these amateurs the benefit of the doubt. They are playing on tv for the first time against a top player and on likely tighter tables and faster cloth than they are used to. That can make anyone under a 700 level look like a banger.

At least I got the number right! Thanks for that, this always stuck with me as the benchmark for world class play over the long haul.

I’m not the right person to defend the merits of Curling since I’ve only played once and did some research on practice times because I was curious. I understand golf well enough and I’ve played it a bit but never tried to get better at it. But I’m also not trying to rank golfs difficulty at all...

Thanks! This makes sense to me and aligns reasonably closely with what I was thinking was required to win at that level. I remember SJM posting that Irving Crane told him he felt you needed to average 35 balls per attempted inning in order to win a world championship. That doesn’t sound far off.

I think part of that is due to how transferrable athleticism is in some sports. When you see lists of multi sport athletes, it’s usually football players trying baseball or vice versa. But you never see athletes switch to basketball with any modicum of success, and certainly not golf.

Curling is a lot harder than it looks. I tried it a number of years ago and the target feels like it’s a mile away. Though I admit that some of the challenge seems to come from the fact that you cannot practice it. Not like we understand it on pool. There are usually too few sheets available for...

One way to find the comparable standard might be to compare the frequency of scratch golfers to something similar in pool. For example, 1.6% of golfers who carry a USGA handicap are scratch or better (40,000). So what Fargo rating accounts for 1.6% of the Fargo Rated population and how far is...

So what is “par” for pool?

I agree it’s important to compare similar types of activities. I remember ESPN had an article ranking the most difficult sports, but their criteria was silly. They had separate ranking categories for “strength”, “power” and “explosiveness”. When you are rating sports on what is essentially...

They are doing well, but let’s not count our chickens before the fat lady sings.

What would be the average for match winners out of curiosity? Do you have that public? I’d love to see!

The link I posted above is as close as you will get. The data you are looking for is there for the major tournaments but it’s not compiled in any way and I’m pretty sure no one else has done so and released it publicly.