Age Vs youth Vs bagadge

excessknowledge

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I had asked Jam how old a player was on another thread,She has said 44 and I thought wow how are these people saying so old.Thats not old .Look at the history some players top out the older they get.I have researched this alot.I inquired 2 years ago before I started my heavy training.It is about time for me to shoot but that will be another story.

I think Balsis-lassiter-Crane-and a long list more played a bit better in their later years.I wish some of the top players would not quit and start cue businsses etc.I think some want to go out on top but I have seen alot of older players hit a slump then charge right back up and be even better.

I think 65 to 70 is when your danger point stops drawing away as a player due to age and the restrictions of age (health).Also the confines of life slow it a bit.I remember Mike (Cpt Hook) was going to put his cue down or loose his wife.That night a birdie talked to me about it.There was just no money.He won that 100k that night and his life changed and so did she a bit.Then she was behind him and he got 10x better with the change of restrictions

So I think obsticles play a bit more in an older persons life that restrict them from the graces a younger athelete gets in pool.We are all not so lucky to have a Wife or Husband who will stick 100% behind us up and down when we are living pool.Yes living pool.

Some of us do just live pool.I mean here we are on a site of nothing but pool.I just layed down my cue at around 6 am after 6 hours training and what did I do to rest-Jump on a pool site and drink from my cue ball mug.Alot of us are like this.

I know a player with a broken back that medicates the heck out of himself to just get up to the table and play pool.He over takes his pills and sits.Then after a while removes his back braces and leg braces and hobbles around the table.Shoots a storm up and I would not play without the 56789 free.Nobody would.After he broke his back and healed for 4 years for training he played Wilky to start to walk again with a cue.Thats before the shirt was the shirt.

Then he is in for sugury again for his kidnys or liver he messed up or they need to get his disks back in order again as his spine is all goofed.He was one of the best.All he says is when he dies and falls laying on a pool table make sure they bury him with his cue.If he did not have this restricton at late 30s or 40 something I think he would be the best in the world.After he healed Wilkys own grandfather asked him to take Wilky on the road and teach him.I heard it myself.The guy could not he is stuck with restictions of a broken back.But I know he throws Shawn a few bones to help him along without the kid aware of it.But that guy would be unbeatable.Plays better than me with a broken back and bad legs.That is a shame and another story and the idiots who nick named him braces should be shot.

Now when you take the age of a person they get experience over the years.I know pool suppliments many of SS checks being way too small.Think those old fellas are just sittin there for nothin.Think again.1 pockets a good game for a very experienced player.

I have researched this a bit and I know youth is great and endurance is a solid issue but I withdraw my belief that age is a major factor in pool other than the restictions you have placed on you when you get older.The responsibilities and health issues etc.

I think if a 45 or 50 year old player restarts training who has no other focus than pool and has or had the touch at one time in their life to be labeled when they were younger as a top shooter.They can be the best again very easy if they train.I just think everything must be lined up.I also do feel an older player who was a top end player has an advantige of knowledge of pool.That is a huge advantige.I am sorry but I will use Keith as example.Keith has won alot of games from knowledge over shooting.Experience wins with Keith alot and that is earned over time.

Just a remark was made of bustamontes age and he was getting old.I know for fact the older pro players years ago were running 150 and 200 balls without missing on a 9ft table and they had 1/2 the gear we have.A nail and a piece of leather on a cue in some cases.Now I love to see a kid thats a firecracker like say Wilky(good kid) out of the box but no way he and his youth will ever hit that mark.Maybe when he gets a bit older but no way now.Alot of the tough kids have problems sometimes with just 9 yes look at it only 9 balls.Now if 50 and 100 years ago most older pro men ran 150 to 200 balls 9 balls would be nothing to them on a tiny table with huge pokets.They would laugh at us.

So my conclusion on age is that requirements of life changed the age bracket for top players and also the quality of play.I think a person like Keith has a 100% chance to reset the values or lets say marks of the game if he choses to do so.Mike could have.I mean why not.Why can't a Woman ?They stay healthyer and live longer and are alot better with money for retirement.

Take into account most the old master players were broke when they died and were carried or bummed their way through their lives.They did not worry about that Lexis or how nice the house was.What material objects? None they lived by the day with out a worry in the world.Just a clean set of clothes.They stayed focused on 1 thing pool.Now the younger crowd still has baggadge just not as much and alot less care than the older crowd.

I do love to see the younger players play the wrong shots and pull a masse off a rail out of their hat for a runout.I love it and miss when I was there.I just think an older playing generation is on its way back and the youths best watch out.The low is gone now there is the pieces (players)in place to raise the bar of age.Do not tell Efrin he is not a kid.The world is so messed up us old folk are not starting to care again.

cmon guys those statements I see here and there about a 40 or 50 year olds as too old and raitings should be lowered is opposing to me.At 44 I think jam said was Bustamontes age.Within 5 years he could become the best that ever played and just be impossable to beat.You never know.I think the life change of the world, changed the ages of the players and also their attachments they must worry or carry.Nope I think guys like Keith will change the standards very soon and people should not look at the middle aged players as weak as they are running strong from what I see happening.

Yes it is great to be young and a tough shot but I think it is time to reavaluate the age and sex of the players before commenting on them.I would bet the bar will change soon.

That is my book.We all have one
 
Sorry, I can't make head nor tail of this. Is English not your first language? If nothing else, you need to spell check your post.
 
Use your resources

Pushout said:
Sorry, I can't make head nor tail of this. Is English not your first language? If nothing else, you need to spell check your post.

He is not using all of his "excessknowledge" when he posts. I agree that an error here and there is permissable but to have as many posts with multiple spelling errors and missing letters in words is annoying and so hard to read that most times I just pass on his posts.
 
As I get older I wanna drink more beer when I'm playing with my friends and I know that guys that live in pool halls, young uns will beat me. Still they want to play me though. So I don't mind. I wish I had the fire but I don't. Lately I'm diversifying my sport activities. Its just a game. And nice post..:cool:
 
I think he was saying that age shouldn't be a reason to stop playing pool.

Off the subject a bit - I have a friend, he is 55, had a stroke about 10 years ago - lots of other medical issues due to the stroke - can't use his left side, in a wheel chair, gets his nutrients from an inserted tube, etc, on lots of meds, etc. Well, he decided he was going to visit me - got on a plane from Phoenix to Montana with his family last month. They stayed a week and did some of the tourist things.

But the biggest smile you ever saw from him the whole time was when we got him downstairs and he played pool (with some help) for two days:) :) He hadn't played in several years and didn't want to go to the pool room with everyone staring at him. So he and I played and played til he was plumb tuckered out ---- and I had a really good time.

So age and disabilities don't put out the desire to play pool if you are obsessed like a lot of us on the forum.
 
you're only as old as you let yourself feel and act, which puts me at about 12, at least on the acting part:D :D
 
As I've stormed through middle into advanced age the psychological changes I've experienced inhibited my desire/ability to play this most addictive game at my best levels more than physical challanges. It's no longer important to compete/win/dominate. I think the "hunger" is the first to go....
 
bagadge means he plays so bad he needs an edge. he was eating pizza and trying to talk. "country"
 
ribdoner said:
As I've stormed through middle into advanced age the psychological changes I've experienced inhibited my desire/ability to play this most addictive game at my best levels more than physical challanges. It's no longer important to compete/win/dominate. I think the "hunger" is the first to go....

+1! One advantage to being an old goat is you really don't have the need to "prove" things anymore. Plus, the financial rewards of a lifetime of working gives one more choices. That's really all that money does...gives one more choices. In some ways, this makes things more fun.

At least I try to tell myself that...:rolleyes:
 
Getting older

I still felt like I was 19 at 50. Now I am 59, and the last year and a half, I have noticed a decrease in my stamina, although I haven't exercised as much either. My mental drive has decreased some too. Oh, I still love everything about Pool, but when I play, it is the money motivating me, and I don't get into extended sessions anymore. If there are no money matchups or a good tournament, I, then, just have a little fun playing friends for $5 a game.

But, yes, you can shoot well into latter years. I shot some of my best Pool in my 40's. I won 3 good tournaments when I was 55, including the Ks. State BCA Championship, singles and team. I just got 3rd last month in a Seniors 8 ball tournament here, that had the best players in town playing in it. I played in the semi-final for the winners bracket, made 1 mistake, a scratch, and ended up in 3rd.

We had a guy here, Al Amaro, that used to own The Family Gameroom, and he shot real well when he was 74-75 years old, and a real nice guy too, a real gentleman.
 
"I think the "hunger" is the first to go"....Ribdoner
I agree Ribdoner, the hunger does goes and there can be
somebody better on the day even for the best player of reputation.
Then it becomes the style you play more than the winning that entertains the onlookers.
Still I wanna win too, but I don't want to be a clown or a slow safety player
with one hand in the grave and the other clutching a dollar bill either.
excessknowledge is wisely on the mark highlighting ageism in this sport as a red herring.
I hope so cause I'm only getting older...
:cool:
 
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jay helfert said:
Lassiter said it's the legs that go. I never forgot that.

Bukowski said the legs go last, but he wasn't talking about pool players.

And I agree with the comment about losing that hunger to be the last man standing. It also may have a lot to do with the mixed blessings of being married, for a lot of us.
 
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Snapshot9 said:
I still felt like I was 19 at 50. Now I am 59, and the last year and a half, I have noticed a decrease in my stamina, although I haven't exercised as much either. My mental drive has decreased some too. Oh, I still love everything about Pool, but when I play, it is the money motivating me, and I don't get into extended sessions anymore. If there are no money matchups or a good tournament, I, then, just have a little fun playing friends for $5 a game.

But, yes, you can shoot well into latter years. I shot some of my best Pool in my 40's. I won 3 good tournaments when I was 55, including the Ks. State BCA Championship, singles and team. I just got 3rd last month in a Seniors 8 ball tournament here, that had the best players in town playing in it. I played in the semi-final for the winners bracket, made 1 mistake, a scratch, and ended up in 3rd.

We had a guy here, Al Amaro, that used to own The Family Gameroom, and he shot real well when he was 74-75 years old, and a real nice guy too, a real gentleman.

Ditto. In Charlottesville, Va. there was an old guy named Tommy Pappas who once ran 275 balls against Mosconi in a exhibition. When I watched him play in the late 60s, he was about 75 and had scoliosis so bad he couldn't stand up straight to save his life.

When he got in stroke, everybody ran for the hills, and no one even dreamed of playing him at straight pool during these periods. To watch him shoot was a thing of beauty. Tommy had a marvelous slip stroke which I have never forgotten.

In the similar time period in Eden, NC there was an old guy who was from foreign decent (Yugoslavian or something) who also had a high run of around 275. I wish someone could give me his name again. His stoke was so smooth it was incredible. I have never seen anyone to this day who was as smooth, except Mosconi.
 
Kevin Lindstrom said:
He is not using all of his "excessknowledge" when he posts. I agree that an error here and there is permissable but to have as many posts with multiple spelling errors and missing letters in words is annoying and so hard to read that most times I just pass on his posts.


bobco729 said:
bagadge means he plays so bad he needs an edge. he was eating pizza and trying to talk. "country"

Guys, if I am not mistaken Excess is a she not a he......:)
 
i'm 40 the older i get the easier pool is to play good, i'm playing not like i did before i stopped for a few years, but i know that i will be playhing the best pool of my life soon as my back gets better, i have never been a marathon player, i played 5 hours last night, the last set i played terrible which is normal after 5 hours, i'm good for 3 hours then i'm spent
 
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