It is hard to describe my feeling when i found out he decided to get back to the sport. and in this article, it showed pretty much how Yang and probably newer generation of Taiwanese players work on their game, get discipline and show humility.
http://www.taiwan-panorama.com/en/s...29502116e.txt&table=3&cur_page=1&distype=text
Cold-blooded Killer, Assassin, Taishan Kid, Tiangong Missile, Patriot Missile, Son of Pool... the clash of Taiwan's pool-hall heroes has fans sitting on the edge of their seats.
Nine ball, the most exciting type of pool game, became popular in Taiwan in the 1980s. Nine ball gradually began replacing eight ball and snooker as Taiwan's favorite pool-hall games after Taiwan TV station Star Sports began broadcasting professional pool competitions and nine ball in 1997. When pool was listed as an official event in the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok, Taiwan's team performed exceptionally well as fans cheered them on with ever-increasing enthusiasm.
If one person was to be chosen to represent players in Taiwan today, "Son of Pool" Yang Ching-shun, who snatched the gold in international competitions ten years straight and was the defending champ for two Asian Games, would have to be top pick.
Yang, who is from Kaohsiung City--the center of pool in Taiwan--has played pool for 18 years since he began playing in grade school. Television has made his face and laser-focused eyes the most recognized of any player in Taiwan.
In private, Yang is a shy and nostalgic southern Taiwanese. He has been encouraged by his mother, who has always supported him in the pursuit of his sport, and pool master Chao Fong-pang, but fame has not changed him.
The media likes to package heroes. Yang, a hero in the eyes of many young people, admits that he doesn't want the responsibility, but from dropping out of school to his achievements of today, this sport, originally viewed with disdain by the public, has suddenly come into the spotlight. The record of his struggles is destined to be written into Taiwan's sports history.
The once and lonely lion...
People from ten to 40 years old have elected to spend this weekend night knocking balls around at Chiusheng Pool Hall in Taipei City's Hsimenting. They enjoy the crisp sound of balls rolling across cloth and clicking into each other. Weekend nights are busiest and of half the 40 tables in this pool hall are being used. When not shooting the ball, the fag-dragging players are shooting the bull.
Yang drops coins into a vending machine, then pops the tab on the resultant canned coffee and tosses it back. He generally spends time with his fans, but today, he seems to have retreated into his own little world. He picks up a ball and rolls it across the table. The moment it stops, he begins potting the balls in order from one to nine.
Losses take the wind out of his sails, he explains. When that happens, the King of Nine Ball holes up in a secluded corner to lick his wounds like some injured animal until he's ready to come back out again.
Earlier this evening in the last competition of the year, held in a film studio with a corrugated roof in Sanchung, Taiwan's top-ranking pool players went at it tooth and nail. Yang won his first game with ease--a good sign for him, as he prefers to stay in front. But bad positioning in the second game and his opponent snatched the next five games and the lead. Yang fought hard to bring the score to seven apiece, but in the end still lost.
He realizes that his focus was off. "I was sitting there waiting my turn, but my mind just kept wandering," explains Yang as he practices. Three days of competition doesn't give players much time to adjust. A loss on the second day caused Yang more anguish and for the same reason. "I let a good opportunity slip through my fingers!"
He continues, "This wasn't the most important contest of the year." Competitions are held in Taiwan and abroad throughout the year. He can't always be at the top of his game. Even so, disappointment and self-blame are visible in his eyes. Having just come north the day before, after signing a few autographs he exchanges his competition shirt and vest for a Versace pullover and jeans and hurries off with his girlfriend to catch a late train back to Kaohsiung.
In 2005, Taiwan's Son of Pool racked up seven first places both in Taiwan and abroad, including the Kaohsiung leg of the San Miguel Asian Nine-Ball Tour, which marked the end of an exhausting competitive year.
The next evening, Yang appeared at his own pool hall where he chatted with friends. "Nobody thinks of me as a celebrity here," he says. Finally, after rushing about all year, Yang feels the pressure of competition lift from his shoulders and has reclaimed his old love of the game. Once again, he's that young lad just given permission from mother to focus on his game.
After his parents, originally from the Yencheng District, separated when Yang was still very young, he and his mother only had each other. His mother, a determined and traditional woman, took care of the books in a restaurant. When he fell in love with the game in the fifth grade, she personally went with him to pool halls to make sure the environment was appropriate.
After graduating from elementary school, Yang played pool for an entire year without going to school, with his mother's tacit consent. "I told my mother that I wanted to do what I really liked doing." Although he later returned to school for almost a year, he would later opt to drop out to concentrate on his game.
"Looking back, I think my mother felt that her marriage was already bad enough. She really didn't want to ask too much of me."
His mother saw that he loved billiards and although she hoped with all her heart that he would stay in school and was disappointed when he didn't, she gradually became his staunchest supporter. "My mother worked long hours and rarely had days off. She worked from ten to ten. She had it hard," Yang recalls, "but she knew my choice and after making sure the environment was suitable, she just wanted me to apply myself to learning the game."
Backed by his steadfast mother, Yang Ching-shun's unparalleled skills came to the fore. In 1993, after only three short years and winning the National Kuangfu Open, 15-year old Yang went pro. From then on, his hobby had become his work, filled with both glory and responsibility.
The following year, Yang once again brought home the gold from the National Chungcheng Cup and became the first seeded player in Taiwan. The Son of Pool was gaining fame.
"Competition runs contrary to my personality," he explains, "but as a player, it's unavoidable."
After winning his first international competition--the Men's Division of the Japan Osaka Open, in 1996--he aspired to win at least one international competition each year. These past ten years, this southerner with a bashful smile and Taiwanese twang has done just that. He has never forgotten to share with his mother the considerable prize monies that he has accumulated over the years.
http://www.taiwan-panorama.com/en/s...29502116e.txt&table=3&cur_page=1&distype=text
Cold-blooded Killer, Assassin, Taishan Kid, Tiangong Missile, Patriot Missile, Son of Pool... the clash of Taiwan's pool-hall heroes has fans sitting on the edge of their seats.
Nine ball, the most exciting type of pool game, became popular in Taiwan in the 1980s. Nine ball gradually began replacing eight ball and snooker as Taiwan's favorite pool-hall games after Taiwan TV station Star Sports began broadcasting professional pool competitions and nine ball in 1997. When pool was listed as an official event in the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok, Taiwan's team performed exceptionally well as fans cheered them on with ever-increasing enthusiasm.
If one person was to be chosen to represent players in Taiwan today, "Son of Pool" Yang Ching-shun, who snatched the gold in international competitions ten years straight and was the defending champ for two Asian Games, would have to be top pick.
Yang, who is from Kaohsiung City--the center of pool in Taiwan--has played pool for 18 years since he began playing in grade school. Television has made his face and laser-focused eyes the most recognized of any player in Taiwan.
In private, Yang is a shy and nostalgic southern Taiwanese. He has been encouraged by his mother, who has always supported him in the pursuit of his sport, and pool master Chao Fong-pang, but fame has not changed him.
The media likes to package heroes. Yang, a hero in the eyes of many young people, admits that he doesn't want the responsibility, but from dropping out of school to his achievements of today, this sport, originally viewed with disdain by the public, has suddenly come into the spotlight. The record of his struggles is destined to be written into Taiwan's sports history.
The once and lonely lion...
People from ten to 40 years old have elected to spend this weekend night knocking balls around at Chiusheng Pool Hall in Taipei City's Hsimenting. They enjoy the crisp sound of balls rolling across cloth and clicking into each other. Weekend nights are busiest and of half the 40 tables in this pool hall are being used. When not shooting the ball, the fag-dragging players are shooting the bull.
Yang drops coins into a vending machine, then pops the tab on the resultant canned coffee and tosses it back. He generally spends time with his fans, but today, he seems to have retreated into his own little world. He picks up a ball and rolls it across the table. The moment it stops, he begins potting the balls in order from one to nine.
Losses take the wind out of his sails, he explains. When that happens, the King of Nine Ball holes up in a secluded corner to lick his wounds like some injured animal until he's ready to come back out again.
Earlier this evening in the last competition of the year, held in a film studio with a corrugated roof in Sanchung, Taiwan's top-ranking pool players went at it tooth and nail. Yang won his first game with ease--a good sign for him, as he prefers to stay in front. But bad positioning in the second game and his opponent snatched the next five games and the lead. Yang fought hard to bring the score to seven apiece, but in the end still lost.
He realizes that his focus was off. "I was sitting there waiting my turn, but my mind just kept wandering," explains Yang as he practices. Three days of competition doesn't give players much time to adjust. A loss on the second day caused Yang more anguish and for the same reason. "I let a good opportunity slip through my fingers!"
He continues, "This wasn't the most important contest of the year." Competitions are held in Taiwan and abroad throughout the year. He can't always be at the top of his game. Even so, disappointment and self-blame are visible in his eyes. Having just come north the day before, after signing a few autographs he exchanges his competition shirt and vest for a Versace pullover and jeans and hurries off with his girlfriend to catch a late train back to Kaohsiung.
In 2005, Taiwan's Son of Pool racked up seven first places both in Taiwan and abroad, including the Kaohsiung leg of the San Miguel Asian Nine-Ball Tour, which marked the end of an exhausting competitive year.
The next evening, Yang appeared at his own pool hall where he chatted with friends. "Nobody thinks of me as a celebrity here," he says. Finally, after rushing about all year, Yang feels the pressure of competition lift from his shoulders and has reclaimed his old love of the game. Once again, he's that young lad just given permission from mother to focus on his game.
After his parents, originally from the Yencheng District, separated when Yang was still very young, he and his mother only had each other. His mother, a determined and traditional woman, took care of the books in a restaurant. When he fell in love with the game in the fifth grade, she personally went with him to pool halls to make sure the environment was appropriate.
After graduating from elementary school, Yang played pool for an entire year without going to school, with his mother's tacit consent. "I told my mother that I wanted to do what I really liked doing." Although he later returned to school for almost a year, he would later opt to drop out to concentrate on his game.
"Looking back, I think my mother felt that her marriage was already bad enough. She really didn't want to ask too much of me."
His mother saw that he loved billiards and although she hoped with all her heart that he would stay in school and was disappointed when he didn't, she gradually became his staunchest supporter. "My mother worked long hours and rarely had days off. She worked from ten to ten. She had it hard," Yang recalls, "but she knew my choice and after making sure the environment was suitable, she just wanted me to apply myself to learning the game."
Backed by his steadfast mother, Yang Ching-shun's unparalleled skills came to the fore. In 1993, after only three short years and winning the National Kuangfu Open, 15-year old Yang went pro. From then on, his hobby had become his work, filled with both glory and responsibility.
The following year, Yang once again brought home the gold from the National Chungcheng Cup and became the first seeded player in Taiwan. The Son of Pool was gaining fame.
"Competition runs contrary to my personality," he explains, "but as a player, it's unavoidable."
After winning his first international competition--the Men's Division of the Japan Osaka Open, in 1996--he aspired to win at least one international competition each year. These past ten years, this southerner with a bashful smile and Taiwanese twang has done just that. He has never forgotten to share with his mother the considerable prize monies that he has accumulated over the years.
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