I think when Efren said essentially "You should have seen me before-I was better then" It was basically just kinda 'puffery'. Besides 'one's self' is not always the best judge of 'one's self'. Almost never in fact.
I think he was playing his best from the time he got here through 2005 or so imho. He won the DCC 9 ball in 2005 and 2010! 250/300 players probably.
As has been said it was just too bad that he played during the time that 9 Ball was king as his break was average at best.
I’ve been hearing this about Efren playing his best when he was young for years.Same can be said of Pagualyan. He owned the best "after the break" skills in his era, but his break wasn't good enough to mass-produce titles the way an SVB could. Best one pocket player of his own generation for sure,just like Efren.
Like you, I've often heard that Efren played his best pool in his youth, but I'm not buying it. While it's quite possible that his shot execution skills were at their peak in his youth, his conceptualization skills (which we so often refer to as "imagination" and even "magic") rose and rose and rose from 1990-2005, and, even if his shot execution skills slipped a hair, his game got better.
Like you, I've often heard that Efren played his best pool in his youth, but I'm not buying it. While it's quite possible that his shot execution skills were at their peak in his youth, his conceptualization skills (which we so often refer to as "imagination" and even "magic") rose and rose and rose from 1990-2005, and, even if his shot execution skills slipped a hair, his game got better.
Let me put it this way. It doesn't matter if he's not quite as great as he once was, if he's playing somewhere in my State, I'm going to watch him from the time he starts to the time he quits.
My thoughts exactly!
And while he's currently not at his best EVER (a bit of clickbait hyperbole, I must admit), he certainly seems to be playing better now (specifically since his farewell tour last year) than he's been in recent years (even though my saying so is just based primarily on youtube videos). He's making shots now that I haven't seen him (or anyone else, for that matter) do in his older videos. Case in point:
https://youtu.be/tydl9LjdWfY
I'm just amazed that year after year of hearing that "he's lost it" or "he's past his prime", he still continues to surprise and prove everyone wrong, all at an age when he should be playing the senior tour.
My thoughts exactly!
And while he's currently not at his best EVER (a bit of clickbait hyperbole, I must admit), he certainly seems to be playing better now (specifically since his farewell tour last year) than he's been in recent years (even though my saying so is just based primarily on youtube videos). He's making shots now that I haven't seen him (or anyone else, for that matter) do in his older videos. Case in point:
https://youtu.be/tydl9LjdWfY
I'm just amazed that year after year of hearing that "he's lost it" or "he's past his prime", he still continues to surprise and prove everyone wrong, all at an age when he should be playing the senior tour.
The data show some recent decline. Each dot here represents about 500 games, and if we were to put error bars on each point they might be about 12 points in either direction. So this is more or less 790 for a few years and then some decline.
If you look back at criticism of Fargo Ratings in this forum from a few years ago, one of the themes was how ridiculous it was that we had Efren at near or at world class. But he was in fact performing that strong
Cool! Are they averages? Which games are considered? Where can I see other players' ratings?
He has such a knowledge of the game that it does seem he is just as good as he once was but he is not because you get older , your eyes go etc. it’s called Father Time nobody beats the clock When he was younger he relied on his shot making skills because he didn’t have as much knowledge about position. play,safety play and over all knowledge. But in time time he matured as a player to be one of the best ever. Back in the 80’s Mike Sigel was the best around at 9 ball and nobody was close to him at all. With all that I would drop everything to watch Reyes play again.
I think your right. He just seems to come to the table and does what Efren does.., out think everybody! I hope he never really retires or at lest continues to grace all of us with his presence from time to time.
Long Live the King!