Age related decline.

westcoast said:
Some players seem to age more gracefully than others- like Efren, Parica, Bustamante and Souquet. Earl to an extent as well when his head is on straight. Archer seems to be in a noticeable decline in recent years though.
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Yeah last time I played Johnny it was obvious that his head wasn't in it although he could still play, but it was 13 or 14 years ago now.
 
I really haven't been playing for long, at least not regularly, or taking it seriously. Started less than 10 years ago when in my late 50s. I went through the eyesight woes with pistol shooting, which I've done for decades prior to that. I don't have that long history of competition playing pool to look back at for comparison, and I'd say that I'm still learning and getting better. The big difference for me now, seems to be how well lit the table is. I now wear low power readers for most activities, and some stronger ones for reading or any close-up precision stuff. I take the glasses off when playing pool though. If I can give myself a good 5-10 minutes prior to playing, for my eyes to acclimate to the conditions, I'm usually fine. But recently, I'm noticing that in poorly lit environments, I struggle more. A case in point was a recent trip we made to play in a regional APA tournament. Neither the tournament room, nor the room for the minis, had individual table lights. The mini room had a lot of LEDs in the ceiling, and was generally well lit, but the main room had much less ambient light. I struggled in the main room, but had much less trouble, and played much better in the mini room. It could be other factors too, but I just seem to be able to feel a lot more confident with shotmaking in better lit situations. I notice that a lot of older players, and some no-so-older ones too, wear those pool glasses. Those might be an option, but the surgery may fix the issue for everything.
 
Sooner32 said:
Yes, I take Enbrel. I was on it many years ago, lost insurance and was off it for a few years. Those years are when my neck fused. Prior to Enbrel I was on a variety of different anti-inflammation drugs with Indocin being what I took most because it was cheap. I have been back on Enbrel now since at least 2008 or so.

I have never had some of the other symptoms like iritis or issues with my heel (achilles tendon), so I guess I shouldn't complain too much. My issues have mainly been neck, sacroiliac and hips. My shoulders were giving me a lot of issues but Enbrel sort of halted that for me.

I believe the best thing you can do is try to stay as limber as possible. I was told that when I finally was diagnosed at 24 years old but I did not listen and now really wish I had. I am now lifting weights a few times a week but still need to do more stretching or something.
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I'm also on team AS. Neck and back 80% fused. I do what I can with what I have.

AS in action... 🤦‍♂️
 
TipWilson said:
I'm also on team AS. Neck and back 80% fused. I do what I can with what I have.
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Good to see other people doing this that can understand my frustration. You shoot much more softly than I do. I shoot like I'm angry half the time.

My neck is similar to yours. When I still had movement I used to play with my chin on the cue. Now I need to play like Minnesota Fats (upright) but I can't do that. I like to watch Keith McCready videos too because his chin was not on the cue. I get the added benefit of having mine fuse with a tilt to the right to make aiming even more fun. Even with all that crap, I still love to play. Love being in pool halls though I rarely go now.

Aside from pool, neck fusion has ruined me for changing light bulbs, installing ceiling fans and duck hunting.
 
At 79, my biggest problem is consistency and concentration. Some nights I have it, other nights, it’s a crap shoot. The worst time was after rotatator cuff surgery. I was physically unable to break for two years. I finally recovered from that and got some stroke back and now play at least two or three times a week. After two knee replacements, two rotator surgeries, quadruple bypass surgery and macular degeneration in my strong eye I feel truly blessed to be able to continue playing, let alone having occasional nights when I can be competitive. The bottom line is that if you love it, don’t quit. I look forward to every game I play and love being around the younger (everybody) players. I believe it keeps me younger, and it is a definite source of pleasure.
 
Jaden said:
Well let's see. Let me start by saying that I'm confident in saying that there isn't a definitive age where it becomes impossible to compete. It's not like you hit 40 and all of a sudden you're done.

It's not so much age that causes you to not be able to compete, it's more what comes with age and there are remedies. Eye sight starts to decline, lazik. Arthritis gets bad, shoulder, hip, knee replacement surgery. Bad lower back (potentially caused by playing pool for years), steroid injecitions, surgery etc.

I found out after my game declined that I had run away diabetes and massive arthritis. I got the diabetes under control and then found out that I had no rotator cuff movement in my left shoulder, had shoulder replacement surgery and after recovery I started playing well enough to compete again so I signed up for the Arizona open and the Phoenix open, then i found out that my right shoulder needs to be replaced too.

I start practicing like I used to, more than perhaps anyone besides Shane, and my back ( have had lower back issues since I was 17) started making that nigh on impossible. I had one injection a few weeks ago and it was likely in the wrong spot, or I also needed one in a different spot so that's scheduled for late July. We'll see how much of a difference that makes.

I'm still going to compete in both tournaments and depending on how I feel afterwards we'll see whether I continue to try and compete or if I hang up my hat and focus on Ontarget Billiards. I had to delay the surgery on my right shoulder to be able to compete; however the doctor said that if I put it off too long it may not be repairable. I play left handed so my right shoulder doesn't really effecct my quality of play, more so just the pain distracts my focus which is the same with my back pain, it just distracts my focus and anyone who's played top level pool knows that focus is everything in competition.

So we'll see how it goes.

Sorry for the rant if it came off that way,

Jaden
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Can we rename this story to the Johnny Archer story....age related decline
 
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