Well, it's been a fun couple of decades, but I'm now done with pool. I have had some very bad showings in the last couple of tournaments, and I simply don't have time to keep my playing level up. My potential for improvements seems to be limited, anyway. You can only go so far without any natural talent. I've got a very good stroke and overall fundamentals, I just don't see the shots as well as the top players. Of course I will miss my pool hall friends, but it's just so disheartening to be losing all the time, even when you play the best players the country has to offer, you can only take so many beatings before it gets to you. I'm at that point. Handicaps and stuff like that have never been my cup of tea, it just makes it pointless.
Pool is just such a competitive sport, there really doesn't seem to be any reason to keep playing by oneself after a certain level has been reached, and at the top, there always seems to be the same players, year after year. Nobody can seemingly break through to that level without some level of natural talent. I have approached it at times, but I can't keep it up. So why show up, year after year, going home after the quarter finals or even on rare occation semis, when you know you'll lose to the same couple of guys no matter how well you play? I have tons of admiration for guys who can endure that and still come back for more.
The one thing that could have kept me in the game is straight pool. It's tough to even get a game these days. That's my very best game, and also my favourite. My regular playing partners quit, and nobody else ever wants to play. Everyone wants to play 10 ball or 9 ball. Frankly, I despise both these games, and especially 9 ball.
As far as knowledge goes, I feel I have gone as far as I can with pool. I mean there is always the small tidbit that can be learned, but overall I don't think knowledge can really help me get better at this point. So why hang around, when there are tons of activities one could learn, that can give you pleasure without necessarily having to be the best at it, or maybe ones I may have more talent for? I remember this sad old guy at the pool hall, playing day after day (terribly), always practising, and dying completely alone and pennyless having spent most of his life playing. That's going to be me in 20-30 years if nothing changes. Well not the pennyless and alone thing maybe, but I'd have wasted my time like he did, at something he could not possibly be any good again, no matter what. It would be ok, if he was at least happy, but that guy was miserable all the time, complaining non-stop. That guy claimed to have ran 10 racks at one point, so maybe it's not so far fetched that one could end up like that.
Well, maybe it's about time to dust off my old G-loomis and fly tying vise again. I found them in my closet the other day as I shoved my pool cue case far into the corner, possibly never to be taken out again.
