Would you be willing to dress nice to raise the opinion of billiards?
- Thread starter Thomas McKane
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Play a 36 hour session with no sleep, few breaks & tell me how you feel afterwards. I don't agree with all manner of dress but golf style wear seems appropriate. Pretty the same motions & exertion level. Anything more than that & you're reaching. As far as dress shoes go I believe one of the most important factors after your cue is your footwear, it needs to be comfortable. It's difficult to maintain the focus & concentration levels elite play requires if all you can focus on is your feet hurting.
jeans and a tshirt for me... sometimes some warmup/trackpants...
sport
noun: sport; plural noun: sports
an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.
"team sports such as baseball and soccer"
synonyms: (competitive) game(s), physical recreation, physical activity, physical exercise, athletics; pastime
"we did a lot of sports"
I would say that it meets the definition of sport.
noun: sport; plural noun: sports
an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.
"team sports such as baseball and soccer"
synonyms: (competitive) game(s), physical recreation, physical activity, physical exercise, athletics; pastime
"we did a lot of sports"
I would say that it meets the definition of sport.
Perhaps you missed my point. Or the point being made by the OP.
Personally, I observe two seasons of the year: flip flop season and boot season. Which is to say that during the warm months, you will see me wearing flip flops 99.9% of the time no matter what I'm doing, even to shoot pool. * gasp*
But that's not the point. The point is, like I said, is that most people are fickle enough to judge others by what they wear. Take the cubicle monkeys for example, in most office environments you are required to wear " professional looking" clothing for no other reason than the image it represents. It has not one thing to do with how well you perform your job yet millions of people have to do it.
Go to a nice retail clothing store, car dealership, doctors office, jewelry store, etc etc etc and you will observe the same phenomenon: people dressing nice simply for the sake of the image it represents.
I don't make this crap up to be right, that's just the way it is.
That said, will nice clothes " fix " pool? No, but clearly the image could benefit from the addition of perceived professionalism, specifically during high profile events.
That all white tux you have is sweet as Canadian maple syrup.
The people are what's wrong with pool though, I agree. Too much *****in and not enough liftin. Next time I'm drinking while hustlin I'll remind myself I don't see the large picture. I did buy a $300 break cue for $400 last night though...something must be right with pool lmao
Yes but why does a sport need to require someone to be in great shape? If you have to train your muscles to do something over and over precisely and skillfully, that is a sport.
If you buy a table with cloth to match the carpet or walls, then use it once a month when you have friends over, to you pool is a game.
If you go to a tournament after practicing for 2,000 hours to grind it out against 128 other guys after traveling in a car for 8 hours, that is a Sport.
A game may be something you can sit on a table and play without any walking around. Cards, Monopoly, etc... You don't need to train your arm and stance to move your doggie token to Park Place.
Even something like darts which does not require nearly the physical abilities that pool does can be considered a sport. You have to train your muscles to do a certain move very well. Shooting, Archery, Pool, Darts, Shuffleboard, if done well, all require practiced muscle movements that only come with practice and training.
That's not exactly the way it is.
If I were to sashay into my local pool room dressed in a suit and tie, the guys would laugh there asses off. So I ain't a gonna do it. :smile:
The man wearing the suit, sometimes wears a tank top and backwards ball cap.
The man wearing the tank top and backwards ball cap, sometimes wears a suit.
Most people dress are able to dress appropriately for the situation they're in. The situation of playing a game of pool does not require formal clothing.
To be honest, the publics opinion of pool has nothing to do with the way people are dressed. You can put whip cream on a hotdog and it's still a hotdog. Pool is still boring for them to watch no matter what the clothing.
LMAO!
Reminds me of the pool hall where I worked as a kid and throughout high school.
We had one old truck driver who used to NEVER take off his truck driver hat (the kind that sort of looks like a policeman's hat) and people used to kid him all the time about it. Most people had NEVER seen him without it...he was quite bald. He went by the name of "Hack" and his son was a good player who was called "Bull".
Anyway, one day a guy says "Hack, I'd like to have two of those hats...one to shit in and one to cover it up with" and then another guy said, "Hack, if I ever see you take that hat off and lay it down, I'm going to shit in it" and it got the crowd crowing.
That is until Hack's comeback...."I can't stop you from shitting in my hat, but I can promise you one thing. If you shit in my hat, the undertaker will wipe your ass!".
THAT got an bigger response from the people.
One of his other noticeable features was that he only had one tooth right in the front and on top and to shark people and get them distracted, he would get ahold of it and wiggle it back and forth to show you it was about to fall out if you looked over at him.
His son "Bull" is another character all together and I die laughing thinking about him and Hack.
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I went to a woman's sand volley ball game once in the LA area. They were wearing bikini's..... I left immediately, because of the complete lack of respect they had for this great game. I was quite disgusted by the amount of skin I saw, and how fit and tan the ladies were. OK, I didn't leave, we all know that
When you go to your local pool hall, or any pool hall, would you be willing to dress up like they used to in the old days? If it would raise the stature of billiards in the public's eye and help the game, would you do it? Hell, it might even bring women back to pool halls.
Cmon.... is this a serious post?
Times change man and so does fashion. That may have been the bomb a hundred years ago but its not like that now.
I dress nice when I go to the pool room , but your proposal is way over the top.
Hell, they would laugh at me too. Plus I hate wearing suits.
However, sorry to disagree but that is the way it is.
Come visit downtown Chicago at 830 am and watch the suits scurry like ants, by the thousand. Clothing makes the man in the business/professional world whether we like it or not.
But again, I'm not suggesting that it will make pool better, I'm suggesting that it wouldn't hurt when it comes to the public eye and major events that they might get a glimpse of. (which is not the same as regular Joes at the local pool hall)
Why would you judge people by appearance?
Probably for the same reason everyone else does.
Of course pool doesn't require formal clothes. Neither does golf. So why do you suppose they do it? Because they want to or because they are required to? Answer: they are required to for image reasons. They dont practice that way when cameras aren't around.
Pool is no less boring than many things on tv, which is mostly a matter of presentation, production, and personal opinion. Either way, we don't make the rules of society. They do. Dress like a beach bum and I promise that most people will think you are. Ask matchroom if you can wear shorts and flip flops and listen for the laughter.
You can put a tux on a pig...but, it is still a pig!
Clothing does NOT build character, and that's what's wrong with pool...it builds characters, not character!