pool
I don't watch sports. I never really understood sitting behind a screen and rooting for other people to accomplish things with their lives. And when I did root for people, they often let me down. I decided then and there that if you want something done right, do it yourself! Pool is beautiful because you don't need to rely on a team, you get to go out there and get what you earn.
It turns out getting to the highest levels of pool is extremely difficult. Physically with many thousands of hours of practice, competition, and travel. Financially because it ain't cheap to run around the world taking beatings by elite players and chasing a dream. And mentally, because the pressure and challenges to belief are so profound they can be unfathomable to civilians. Best of all, right around the time you're approaching the level you envisioned as a child, other players are raising the bar, now you have to find new ways to break through levels you never believed possible when you set forth.
I don't think there is any surprise not many players can do this. What's amazing to me is that anyone can do it at all. It is that tough. I don't have much time for people calling out and criticizing players levels above them. This wasn't an invitational, there was nothing stopping them from stepping into the ring and showing us how to do it. Either lead the way or stay out of the way. Yes, everyone's entitled to their opinion of these players, but then I get to be entitled to my opinion of those sniping from the side lines.
I'm proud of SVB, Skyler has worked really hard to take his game up levels, Bergman shows heart of a lion calling out the best players when the entire world wants to bet against him, Thorpe and Styer for fighting hard and beating higher rated players out of big events, and the whole darn team for taking back the Mosconi Cup when it was a consensus it was an impossible task. As the international players take the game to a new level and flood the tournament scene they are meeting this challenge head on and giving it all their best. Who knows what the future holds?
In the end, their future is up to them. I'll root them on, but then I need to go practice and focus on my future which belongs to me. I have my own challenges and I'd rather put my energy into myself, rather than holding others to a standard of perfection I gave up on long ago.
