What age pro is the best? Poll.

I honestly feel that it really don't matter, Pro player A is 25 and Pro player B is 30 but Pro player B was a better player when he was 25 than Pro player A at his current age.

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

It all depends on the person mentally, you could say he played is best at 25, but he could tell everybody that he feels like he was playing his best at 21.

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

rather small gap to choose from - I'd have gone 10 years on the poll instead of the 5. Still, and JoseV is correct in the "depends on who it is" thought - but I'd go the 35-45 bracket. (I picked the 40-45)

While other sports(?) may top out toward their late 30s (with some notable exceptions), I think in pool it's easier to put aside the back pains, and stick out the hours through the early to mid 40s. With that, I think you see experience become a factor. By your late 40s it becomes harder to focus for long stretches, as some of the aches and pains kick in.

I feel Efren and Earl are good examples of this, but I'll expand a bit. Many "road" players were retired or retiring by their mid-30s, but when the IPT came along and there was actually $$$money$$$ to be had - many of them "UN-retired" and very quickly were back at the top of their games.

Some of the best (classic?) matches I've enjoyed were players in their early 40s or so ... IJS.

Here, using the OP's age groupings, is the distribution of ages* for the WPA World 9-Ball Champions (1990 through 2016**):

15-20 -- 1
21-25 -- 2
26-30 -- 10
31-35 -- 4
36-40 -- 4
41-45 -- 2
46-50 -- 2
51-55 -- 1

*The age used here is year of event minus year of birth. For any players whose birthday occurred between the date of the event and the end of that calendar year, their actual age last birthday on the date of the event was 1 year less than I used.

**Two events in one of the years; no event in two of the years.

Edit -- This list has a couple errors; see post #12 for a corrected list.

And here, agaiin using the OP's age groupings, is the distribution of ages* for the winners of the US Open 9-Ball Championship:

15-20 -- 0
21-25 -- 4
26-30 -- 13
31-35 -- 13
36-40 -- 6
41-45 -- 2
46-50 -- 1
51-55 -- 2

*The age used here is year of event minus year of birth. For any players whose birthday occurred between the date of the event and the end of that calendar year, their actual age last birthday on the date of the event was 1 year less than I used.

Note -- The age used for Louie Roberts (29 in 1979) is an estimate, as I have not yet found a reliable source for his year of birth.

And if we combine the results from the previous two posts, for the WPA World 9-Ball and the US Open 9-Ball events, we have these ages* for the 67 champions:

15-20 -- 1 (1%)
21-25 -- 6 (9%)
26-30 -- 23 (34%)
31-35 -- 17 (25%)
36-40 -- 10 (15%)
41-45 -- 4 (6%)
46-50 -- 3 (4%)
51-55 -- 3 (4%)

*The age used here is year of event minus year of birth. For any players whose birthday occurred between the date of the event and the end of that calendar year, their actual age last birthday on the date of the event was 1 year less than I used.

Edit -- This list has a couple errors; see post #12 for a corrected list.

Thanks AtLarge for confirming what most of us already knew

Here I've added the winners' names for each event. I also found a couple errors in the WPA list, so I have corrected those.

WPA World 9-Ball Championship

15-20 -- 1 (Wu)
21-25 -- 2 (Archer, Hohmann)
26-30 -- 11 (Strickland, Strickland, Chao, Ortmann, Souquet, Archer, Takahashi, Immonen, Pagulayan, Ko, Ouschan)
31-35 -- 4 (Chao, Alcano, Peach, Hohmann)
36-40 -- 3 ( Akagariyama, Appleton, Feijen)
41-45 -- 3 (Okumura, Reyes, Strickland)
46-50 -- 1 (Bustamante)
51-55 -- 1 (Varner)
Total -- 26

US Open 9-Ball Championship

15-20 -- 0
21-25 -- 4 (Sigel, Strickland, Deuel, Van Boening)
26-30 -- 13 (Hopkins, Roberts*, Sigel, Hopkins, Howard, Strickland, Kennedy, Morris, Owen, Pagulayan, Van Boening, Van Boening, Cheng)
31-35 -- 13 (Mizerak, Sigel, Howard, Strickland, Pierce, Archer, Souquet, Jones, Schmidt, Appleton, Appleton, Van Boening, Van Boening)
36-40 -- 6 (Reid, Reyes, Strickland, Strickland, Immonen, Immonen)
41-45 -- 2 (Varner, Varner)
46-50 -- 1 (Hall)
51-55 -- 2 (Lebron, Hall)
Total -- 41

Distribution for the two events combined

15-20 -- 1 (1%)
21-25 -- 6 (9%)
26-30 -- 24 (36%)
31-35 -- 17 (25%)
36-40 -- 9 (13%)
41-45 -- 5 (7%)
46-50 -- 2 (3%)
51-55 -- 3 (4%)
Total -- 67

Note -- The age used here is year of event minus year of birth. For any players whose birthday occurred between the date of the event and the end of that calendar year, their actual age last birthday on the date of the event was 1 year less than I used.

*The age used for Louie Roberts (29 in 1979) is an estimate, as I have not yet found a reliable source for his year of birth.

iusedtoberich said:

Yet it turns out you didn't know according to your vote

Click to expand...

I was close enough lol

Champions are exceptional people....like Wu...Hoppe won his first world title at 18....
...Miz won his first 14.1 title at 18....
...but in general, the top players get it all together a little later...I voted early 30s....
...you still have your physical ability...and you understand yourself, the game, and how
to compete on a much higher level.

Efren says he played his best at a much younger age....I disagree with him....
...he probably hit the ball better....but as he matured, he found shots much more complicated
than just making the ball....he seems to forget that Parica was the MAN amongst the
Pinoys when he was young.

Efren won the bulk of his titles in his 50's...and just beat Shane in Derby city this year.