I recently watched Free Solo. It is a documentary about Alex Honhold’s quest to free solo “El Capitan”. “Free Solo” means climbing a cliff with your hands, chalk, and no rope—in case you didn’t know. Perhaps, this goes without saying, but most “free solo-ers” live a short life.
I could not help but compare Alex—who is widely viewed as the best rock climber to ever live—with professional pool players. They are both engaging in disciplines that have no obvious or safe economic benefit and the market of people who care about these disciplines is somewhat limited. Nobody gives Alex Honhold money when he summits a free solo, he just gets to live another day.
In order to make his dream of pursuing rock climbing a reality, Alex Honhold lives out of a van. He climbs and trains to climb on a schedule he prepares. He controls his diet; his training, and we learn, even his relationships so that he can pursue his mission—rock climbing--an activity that can kill him and gives him no direct income. He does make money from books, tv, outdoor apparel sponsors, etc.
To me, pool players do almost exactly the opposite. They eat whatever, train whenever, their schedule is dictated by whether they can bum a ride to a tournament and split a room. They complain that no one sponsors the sport, etc., etc. Pool players want someone to make pool better. Most of them are not working to make themselves better.
In chasing Mosconi’s High Run, John Schmidt acted more like Alex Honhold, and less like a pool player. He set his own mission. If people wanted to get on board, then cool. If not, that’s o.k. too. He then committed himself to his mission for a period of time that he was willing to allow. To me, this is much braver than people are giving him credit for and indicative of someone that is acting on his life rather than complaining about life acting on him.
Running 626 is great, but pool needs more players like John Schmidt not because he ran 626 (which is totally gangster), but because pool would be better and more marketable if we could see players disciplined in pursuing a mission beyond placing in a bar table tournament—maybe it is placing in more bar table events than anyone. To me, the mission is not important, but having one is.
I hope John can leverage his great accomplishment for every cent he can muster—books, tv, movie, whatever. I think pool would be better, and it may find more success if its players took more responsibility for making their own path. Just my 0.02.
kollegedave
I could not help but compare Alex—who is widely viewed as the best rock climber to ever live—with professional pool players. They are both engaging in disciplines that have no obvious or safe economic benefit and the market of people who care about these disciplines is somewhat limited. Nobody gives Alex Honhold money when he summits a free solo, he just gets to live another day.
In order to make his dream of pursuing rock climbing a reality, Alex Honhold lives out of a van. He climbs and trains to climb on a schedule he prepares. He controls his diet; his training, and we learn, even his relationships so that he can pursue his mission—rock climbing--an activity that can kill him and gives him no direct income. He does make money from books, tv, outdoor apparel sponsors, etc.
To me, pool players do almost exactly the opposite. They eat whatever, train whenever, their schedule is dictated by whether they can bum a ride to a tournament and split a room. They complain that no one sponsors the sport, etc., etc. Pool players want someone to make pool better. Most of them are not working to make themselves better.
In chasing Mosconi’s High Run, John Schmidt acted more like Alex Honhold, and less like a pool player. He set his own mission. If people wanted to get on board, then cool. If not, that’s o.k. too. He then committed himself to his mission for a period of time that he was willing to allow. To me, this is much braver than people are giving him credit for and indicative of someone that is acting on his life rather than complaining about life acting on him.
Running 626 is great, but pool needs more players like John Schmidt not because he ran 626 (which is totally gangster), but because pool would be better and more marketable if we could see players disciplined in pursuing a mission beyond placing in a bar table tournament—maybe it is placing in more bar table events than anyone. To me, the mission is not important, but having one is.
I hope John can leverage his great accomplishment for every cent he can muster—books, tv, movie, whatever. I think pool would be better, and it may find more success if its players took more responsibility for making their own path. Just my 0.02.
kollegedave
