First Thoughts on Real Life Interaction with Pool People

MattPoland said:

I’ll tell my story. My dad was a pool player. There were times he’d cash a paycheck on a Friday and have lost it all before coming home that night. But I was ignorant to those things growing up. Mostly I spent my formative years in the cushiness of his later business successes. But it made his game strong. He was a focused player. Made the most out of smart strategy, clever two-way shots, solid patterns, dependable shotmaking, good breakouts, and the ability to maneuver the table with center ball.

It was an era. I grew up going to pool tournaments hosted at Holiday Inns roughly three times a year. These were family gatherings for us and social gatherings with my friends that would be there too with their families or get to tag along. It ranged from playing in the swimming pool all day as a young cub, to bringing a Nintendo to play on the hotel TV, to being a teen chasing girls or partying hard in my own room. I didn’t play pool then. But it was all around me. You’d stop in and watch a match.

And you met characters. George Middleditch would cut up a spontaneous trick shot exhibition on an open table and draw a crowd. Ed Harmon would shoot a jump shot with his full playing cue at hill-hill to sink the 8 and win first place. A motley crew of degenerate gamblers would bark at each other larger than life. And then lock horns playing well above their normal level and occasionally hitting world class shots and safeties.

It was a family affair. My dad played as I described. My eldest brother was an A player until a backhoe smashed his bridge hand on a pipe. My next older brother was a banger like me. We’d lock horns at home and at bars...and play on teams as adults at the same tournaments we grew up at. And my younger brothers would bang balls too for fun.

I’m a bit different in that I’ll study something to death. I’m super analytical. So I’d be happy to play alone for hours on end. I surprise myself how far I’ve taken my game in solitude. Especially now I’m older and am willing to match-up a bit more. I see now how competition has raised my game the most in recent years. But again, I made it further with simple study and pass time activity than I had any right to.

So pool means a lot to me. I love the satisfaction of being able to demonstrate its elegance and beauty to people unaware of how deep that rabbit hole goes. It’s glory. And it’s therapy. And it’s community. And it’s sport. And most of all, it’s for me.


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justnum said:

Since COVID lockdowns, I've been thinking deeply about my pool biography.

tried it in a bar with my dad, requested to do it more often, years later at home table
years later pool league.

my parents had no idea how to support or monitor my interests growing up.
I spent endless months on my home table on drills. I didnt have ESPN, just Byrnes' trick shots, advanced pool and BCA rulebook. I started making my own drills at one point.

I will share the autobiographical story as my main thread and post for the remainder of the year. I am a pool nobody, but I like writing and writing about pool.

I will post max once a week or once a day to this thread.

Please notify me if I am about to be banned. I need things explained like I am non English speaking. preferably memes in English with max 5 words.

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