shane van boening

mikepage said:

My head's going to fall off if I keep shaking it like this. SVB has played 1200 games since last August, and there is ONE person on the planet who has logged more than 200 games at a higher performance rating....One. And that person has only 400 games and has not been mentioned in this thread... Everybody mentioned in this thread has a lower average performance...

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sjm said:

Sorry, but the eye test will always be meaningful, even though I'm as big a fan of the Fargo system as anyone on the planet.

SVB's Fargo has gone up in the three year period in which he has come up empty time and time again in the biggest "internationally diverse field" events. The thing is, though, that, regardless of his Fargo, he hasn't played as well over the past three years as he did before that. A rack is a rack is a rack to Fargo, but the first rack of a match isn't as important as the last couple of racks, and winning the big titles requires winning the big racks, the racks in which late match pressure raises the stakes.

Greatness is, always has been, and always be measured in titles. Fargo, which has added so much to our game, has great value and is objective, but, with due respect, it is not the end all measure of a player's performance.

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sjm said:

Sorry, but the eye test will always be meaningful, even though I'm as big a fan of the Fargo system as anyone on the planet.

SVB's Fargo has gone up in the three year period in which he has come up empty time and time again in the biggest "internationally diverse field" events. The thing is, though, that, regardless of his Fargo, he hasn't played as well over the past three years as he did before that. A rack is a rack is a rack to Fargo, but the first rack of a match isn't as important as the last couple of racks, and winning the big titles requires winning the big racks, the racks in which late match pressure raises the stakes.

Greatness is, always has been, and always will be measured in titles. Fargo, which has added so much to our game, has great value and is objective, but, with due respect, it is not the end all measure of a player's performance.

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sjm said:

Gorst is quite a bit stronger than either of them. He beat Filler in the final of the last European 9-ball Championships, he won the WPA World 9-ball Championship over JL Chang in the final and he has cashed in each of his last two Bigfoot 10-ball Challenges.

Kaci vs either Skyler or Bergman is very close.

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sjm said:

Sorry, but the eye test will always be meaningful, even though I'm as big a fan of the Fargo system as anyone on the planet.

SVB's Fargo has gone up in the three year period in which he has come up empty time and time again in the biggest "internationally diverse field" events. The thing is, though, that, regardless of his Fargo, he hasn't played as well over the past three years as he did before that. A rack is a rack is a rack to Fargo, but the first rack of a match isn't as important as the last couple of racks, and winning the big titles requires winning the big racks, the racks in which late match pressure raises the stakes.

Greatness is, always has been, and always will be measured in titles. Fargo, which has added so much to our game, has great value and is objective, but, with due respect, it is not the end all measure of a player's performance.

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jay helfert said:

Pia Filler had a great insight during her commentary of Joshua's match with Aranas. When asked by her co-commentator what differentiates the best players from the rest, Pia said simply, "It's who plays best under pressure!"

I gained a lot of respect for this young woman in that moment. All the talk we constantly hear about aiming methods and the like means nothing if a player can't hold up under pressure. She gets it!

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Nick B said:

Everyone has their era. The field has caught up to SVB. Still a great player with lots of gas in the tank except the others have copied his methods and are getting closer.

In the 80's you couldn't get an even money bet that a Tyson opponent would make it out of the first round. People would walk into the ring like their were about to be strapped into the electric chair. Real fear.

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pwd72s said:

Mike Tyson became quite a philosopher later in life. Or perhaps it was from bitter experience? Anyway:

"Too soon old. Too late smart." -Mike Tyson

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BeiberLvr said:

Shane hasn't fallen off so much as others have been getting better.

A few have mentioned his age, but he's really not that old, and no reason to suspect he's completely past his prime. Let's not forget that Efren's best years were in his mid 40's to early 50's.

Even Earl had some good years at an older age, and he did win the world 9 ball at 40.

As long as Shane keeps playing, I think we'll still see great things from him.

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kkdanamatt said:

Correction: Efren's best years, according to him, were between the ages of 18 and 25. When he first set foot on US soil, at age 31, he was not at his best. Efren told me that himself.

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sjm said:

That means that his best came during the straight pool era, which, in my personal opinion ended in about 1981. Of course, by all accounts, Efren's specialty back then was fifteen ball rotation.

There's no question that Efren's game rose a lot from 1985-2010, during which time he became the best ever at both one pocket and eight ball, and more and more proficient at rotation pool games.

He may have been a better cueist in his earliest days, but not in the context of the games chiefly played in America. In the years during which he played in America, his game peaked in the late 1990's.

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kkdanamatt said:

Correction: Efren's best years, according to him, were between the ages of 18 and 25.
When he first set foot on US soil, at age 31, he was not at his best.
Efren told me that himself.

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sjm said:

That means that his best came during the straight pool era, which, in my personal opinion ended in about 1981. Of course, by all accounts, Efren's specialty back then was fifteen ball rotation.

There's no question that Efren's game rose a lot from 1985-2010, during which time he became the best ever at both one pocket and eight ball, and more and more proficient at rotation pool games.

(He may have been a better cueist in his earliest days,) but not in the context of the games chiefly played in America. In the years during which he played in America, his game peaked in the late 1990's.

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