Run me right off of the forum, but.........

I’ve thought that. He’s still the best in the USA and a threat to win any tournament. But everyone else isn’t playing for second place anymore. It seems to me he used to make less mistakes (often no mistakes) and now he gives more chances. And that still means he is playing world class pool.


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I think he hit the top of the pile a while ago and as a result, lost a good bit of the fire that got him there.

Its understandable. Enjoy it, svb.

I think that the rise of other players is more the story than Shane's fall. It is fair to say that Shane has fallen a hair, but if the talent out there was the same as ten years ago, he'd be mass-producing titles the way he used to.

Shane is still a stone cold killer, but the rise of guys like Filler, Shaw, and JL Chang, the sustained excellence of the Filipinos, the re-emergence of Wu, the rise of numerous other Chinese and Taiwanese players, and the continually growing pedigree of the European contingent of players, mean that Shane will not dominate.

The bar has been raised, and while some will attribute Shane's reduced success in the recent past and in the next few years to his game having slipped, they'll, in my view, likely be mistaken.

Shane is still young and very much in his playing prime, but the biggest titles will be harder and harder to come by.

His break also used to be one of a kind.
Now everyone that breaks well, especially
in 10 ball, has copied it in some shape
or form.
His prime is not over yet.

combination

It's a combination of both.

The competition has improved without a doubt. And the breaking edge has been diminished.

Yet he is also a little less determined. You can see in his body language. You can see in his performance.

It's pretty easy to recognize when someone has burning fire. JL Chang and Filler seem to be the hungriest and fiercest at the moment. Shaw was there a couple of years ago. Mika and Appleton had pretty fiery streaks. And SVB was there for a good 10 year stretch. They all still play great, but there's that little something extra you need to dig deep and work the magic needed to hit that nearly superhuman level.

Of course they're all good enough to win some tournaments and play outstanding matches. But if there was a tournament with all the top 10, who would you rather bet on? Orcullo, SVB, Alex, and Shaw? Or Filler, Chang, and...well, I ran out of people that play as good as those guys but I think you know what I mean.

And I'm not such a big SVB fan that I'm bitter, like if he was still at his peak he'd beat all of these guys. Frankly the overall results might not be all that much different. And I get the argument that it was easier for him to maintain that magic when he was getting more opportunities. As I said, it's a mix.

I agree, a matter of hunger and a flattened out field at the top

Shane doesn't have the same hunger he had in his early years, nothing to prove these days. That isn't to say he won't light up again, he could at any time. People used to see him practicing the break for hours a day, being the first on and last off the practice tables too. If either of those is still true I haven't seen it mentioned lately.

The other thing is that there are a lot of new hungry players at very near his level. I haven't heard lately but it was reported years ago that the chinese government had taken the same interest in pool that they had taken in major olympic events and was grooming players from a very young age. They take children as young as three away from their families and put them in government schools and training centers so that they focus on one area of competition. By they time they are eighteen they have ten to fifteen years of intense training in one area of competition. Are they doing this with pool and other cue sports?

Shane is still very capable of winning the biggest events in the world. So are probably a dozen other players. Nobody can claim a real dominance right now. Big events in Asia and on the pacific rim means that there is a lot of travel involved too. We don't tend to travel and deal with jet lag as well when we get older seems to me. Could be a small issue for Shane. When our body is ten-twelve hours out of sync it is a lot tougher to deal with than being on local time or an hour or two out. Of course the players from some other places face the same issue playing here.

For the time being I think anyone who has a run at the top will be having a shorter run. There is nobody that is head and shoulders above the rest.

Shane may still be the best in the world, particularly when the location, game, and rules suit his play. However, he is a very short head better these days with more players than we have seen in a long long time nipping at the heels of Shane or whomever we consider best at the moment.

Pool competition is great right now. A shame we can't get more of it on TV channels that the general public in the US watches.

Hu

Didn't he snap off the 1P tournament at the Midwest Billiards and Cue Expo this week per Pool Action TV's FB post?

"Congratulations to The South Dakota Kid Shane Van Boening for winning the Pro One Pocket at the 5th Annual Midwest Billiards & Cue Expo which was held at Big Dog Billiards in Des Moines, IA!"

Seems like he's still in top form to me. His last couple 10B matches were sub par by his standards but everyone has a bad day. He won one event and finished 9-12th in the 10B event that had a World Class field. What's most impressive is what Shane has done without a real pro "tour" here in the US. European and Asian players have that luxury in competing against top tier talent more often, not to mention the Chinese and Taiwanese players being backed by their respective governments. Imagine if the US players had that kind of support.

I think maybe he’s enjoying the rest of his life.. good for him. There are not many tiger woods in the world who rise to the top of there game and get all the titles and money and it still isn’t enough...The fire continues to burn. People like tiger woods, Tom Brady, Larry bird, Michael Jordan are few and far between.

Nobody ever plays their best consistently year after year in any game. It just doesn’t happen. It’s actuallly one of the most obvious conclusions that can be made from a scan of any sample of data.

Tin Man said:

It's a combination of both.

The competition has improved without a doubt. And the breaking edge has been diminished.

Yet he is also a little less determined. You can see in his body language. You can see in his performance.

It's pretty easy to recognize when someone has burning fire. JL Chang and Filler seem to be the hungriest and fiercest at the moment. Shaw was there a couple of years ago. Mika and Appleton had pretty fiery streaks. And SVB was there for a good 10 year stretch. They all still play great, but there's that little something extra you need to dig deep and work the magic needed to hit that nearly superhuman level.

Of course they're all good enough to win some tournaments and play outstanding matches. But if there was a tournament with all the top 10, who would you rather bet on? Orcullo, SVB, Alex, and Shaw? Or Filler, Chang, and...well, I ran out of people that play as good as those guys but I think you know what I mean.

And I'm not such a big SVB fan that I'm bitter, like if he was still at his peak he'd beat all of these guys. Frankly the overall results might not be all that much different. And I get the argument that it was easier for him to maintain that magic when he was getting more opportunities. As I said, it's a mix.

Click to expand...

Very nicely analyzed.

getting to the top is not as hard as staying at the top, that's why Efren is so amazing.

rexus31 said:

Didn't he snap off the 1P tournament at the Midwest Billiards and Cue Expo this week per Pool Action TV's FB post?

"Congratulations to The South Dakota Kid Shane Van Boening for winning the Pro One Pocket at the 5th Annual Midwest Billiards & Cue Expo which was held at Big Dog Billiards in Des Moines, IA!"

Seems like he's still in top form to me. His last couple 10B matches were sub par by his standards but everyone has a bad day. He won one event and finished 9-12th in the 10B event that had a World Class field. ...

Click to expand...

The 1-Pkt. event had 12 players. Shane played 4 matches to win the event, beating Thorpe 4-3, Frost 4-2, Deuel 4-1, and Deuel 4-3.

The 10-Ball event had 19 players. Again Shane played 4 matches, finishing 7th/8th with two wins (Styer and Faraon) and 2 losses (Chang and Pagulayan).

Maybe he's just getting burnt out on the whole scene. I mean, all the time in airports & on airplanes, living in hotels or motels, various restaurant meals. Anybody would tire of it quickly. The older you get, the less attractive travel becomes.

rexus31 said:

Didn't he snap off the 1P tournament at the Midwest Billiards and Cue Expo this week per Pool Action TV's FB post?

Click to expand...

Oh sure, but what has he won since then?

It can't be easy with all the travel... that gets exhausting in itself and the tougher fields make would make it even harder. I remember as a kid my dad took a position where he started travelling a lot more. At first he was super excited about it … after 3 months he hated it and took on a different position.

If his 2019 Mosconi Cup performance is any indication, I might argue that he's better than ever. That was his Achilles heel for a long time, but he finally pulled it off this year.