It matters not how young you are/were when you first started shooting pool, what does matter is your ability to master the fundamentals with ease because it's intuative. It helps to have a mentor like Bob Hunter when you are starting out and in your twenties. If you are consistantly in dead stroke then your game will advance rapidly but most have impedaments like jumping up, dominant eye misjudgements, kink in their stroke, reading the table 4 shots ahead, shooting with inside and outside english etc and never break through.
S
SuperDave
Guest
OK, let's set our sights a little lower here. Not because I believe there's a need to, but because popular opinion seems to be that the US Open will never be won by someone who wasn't already playing hours a week before puberty.
I'll postulate that. It may be the truth - I don't know how young today's top-ranked players started.
So, is it impossible for someone, say, to become an APA 7 if they're only a 5 in their early twenties? That has been tossed out into the discussion, and I'd like to differ with that opinion based on my own pitiful personal experience.
Although I've been playing off and on for 35 years, I never really got serious about it until I joined an APA league almost 5 years ago. The tactical side of things was a real eyeopener to me - at one point I was down to a SL2.
But my attitude was there, as it always is. You're going to have to beat me to beat me, because I'm not going to quit. Matches lost were an incentive. Not a learning experience, not a downer. An incentive.
I chose to improve. By the time I was a 4, I was breaking and running 4-5 times a session. My position play didn't improve as quickly as my shots, but I steadily improved. During this period, nobody told me I wasn't going to be able become as good as I wanted to. I wouldn't have listened anyways. I don't do negativity.
I started this session as a new SL6 in both 8-ball and 9-ball. I celebrated by running three racks against a 7. I only lose to 6's these days when I make stupid mistakes, and I don't lose to lower-ranked players. It's pretty obvious to the rest of my team and the rest of my division that it's only a matter of time before I become a 7. Of course, they're not trying to discourage me. It wouldn't matter whether they tried to discourage me or not - I wouldn't listen. Nobody but myself will decide how good I'm going to be. I don't do negativity.
There are two main points to this diatribe of mine. Not for you, Danny, because your negativity is so pervading that it's obvious you'll never be one of the really good ones. You project to the world what you feel inside, and it's obvious to us that you're an unhappy man. I can't help you.
But I can help the Zims and the people like him who are just trying to get better every day. For you who are playing and improving for sheer love of the game: I'm absolutely no fount of talent. I played enough as a kid to be well aware of that. Where I am, I achieved through watching, learning and applying what I saw to my own game until I found what worked for me. I didn't even get here by practicing - my job and family commitments keep me from playing any time except league nights. I've gone from a SL2 to a SL6 on maybe three hours of play a week.
You can get there. Just don't buy into the negativity.
I didn't join the APA until I was almost 40 years old. I intend to be a 7 before I'm 45. I've got two sessions to do it.
Anybody want to bet against me?
I'll postulate that. It may be the truth - I don't know how young today's top-ranked players started.
So, is it impossible for someone, say, to become an APA 7 if they're only a 5 in their early twenties? That has been tossed out into the discussion, and I'd like to differ with that opinion based on my own pitiful personal experience.
Although I've been playing off and on for 35 years, I never really got serious about it until I joined an APA league almost 5 years ago. The tactical side of things was a real eyeopener to me - at one point I was down to a SL2.
But my attitude was there, as it always is. You're going to have to beat me to beat me, because I'm not going to quit. Matches lost were an incentive. Not a learning experience, not a downer. An incentive. I chose to improve. By the time I was a 4, I was breaking and running 4-5 times a session. My position play didn't improve as quickly as my shots, but I steadily improved. During this period, nobody told me I wasn't going to be able become as good as I wanted to. I wouldn't have listened anyways. I don't do negativity.
I started this session as a new SL6 in both 8-ball and 9-ball. I celebrated by running three racks against a 7. I only lose to 6's these days when I make stupid mistakes, and I don't lose to lower-ranked players. It's pretty obvious to the rest of my team and the rest of my division that it's only a matter of time before I become a 7. Of course, they're not trying to discourage me. It wouldn't matter whether they tried to discourage me or not - I wouldn't listen. Nobody but myself will decide how good I'm going to be. I don't do negativity.
There are two main points to this diatribe of mine. Not for you, Danny, because your negativity is so pervading that it's obvious you'll never be one of the really good ones. You project to the world what you feel inside, and it's obvious to us that you're an unhappy man. I can't help you.
But I can help the Zims and the people like him who are just trying to get better every day. For you who are playing and improving for sheer love of the game: I'm absolutely no fount of talent. I played enough as a kid to be well aware of that. Where I am, I achieved through watching, learning and applying what I saw to my own game until I found what worked for me. I didn't even get here by practicing - my job and family commitments keep me from playing any time except league nights. I've gone from a SL2 to a SL6 on maybe three hours of play a week.
You can get there. Just don't buy into the negativity.
I didn't join the APA until I was almost 40 years old. I intend to be a 7 before I'm 45. I've got two sessions to do it.
Anybody want to bet against me?
maximillion said:
I've already said this but I'll see if I can say it with a little more clarity. You used Jeannette Lee as an example of someone who started out late, didn't play that good at first, and then became a champion. This actually confirms what I was trying to say. If you have the natural ability to become a champion, that ability is going to become apparent within a fairly short period of time whether you start playing at 15 or 25. The talent is going to shilne through. Conversely, if you don't have that talent, you won't see it shine through ever. Does this mean everyone that doesn't have that talent should not play pool? No. It means that if that talent doesn't shine through after about a year of serious practice, don't throw your life away and try to make it on the road like Danny D, Pro-player, and all the other great players out there. Just have fun with it and try to improve to your top level of play. There is nothing wrong with that at all.
R
rackmup
Guest
Road Runner 711 said:Thats not too smart rackemup telling everyone you are out of town, when You get home, somebody may have cleaned your apt out. Happens all of the time. I don't tell any one where I am going and coming.
It's also not too smart telling someone where you really live in the first place when registering onto an online forum, otherwise, you might step out the front door only to be greeted by a closed fist. This is the thinking that has allowed Fast Larry to keep his dentures secured to his gums.
Regards and in fun,
Ken (besides...the house sitter would just shoot 'em)
R
rackmup
Guest
Danny D said:I told you once, dont mess with me, I am not going to tell you this twice.
Oh, come on...tell me TWICE. Let's see it...come on...
SAY IT...
BAHAHAHAHAHAHA,
Ken
It is true that natural ability can't be learned or taught. I have a friend that plays as a strong B player. He has studied every book or video ever made. He also has the determination and heart of a lion. But he lacks that natural talent that people that have been there can only see & describe. To get to a B level he has worked harder every week than I have in my whole life to get where he is.
When I turned 18 I played foosball on a national level. I played a few games of pool here and there waiting on that game to open up. I didn't even really have a pool interest. I hurt my shoulder in an auto accident and couldn't play foosball for any length of time anymore. So I started playing a little more pool and then my father asked me to join his Busch League team as a sub(early 80's). Within 3 weeks of that I was a SP7(of only 5 then in Fla) and I hadn't been playing pool for more than 6 months. Within a year and numerous offers to go on the road playing, I got coaxed into playing Florida Pro Tour events. Shortly after that came the letter from Larry Hubbert that I was no longer eligible to play Busch League. A person picked me up and sponsored me on the big tour "PBA" and I did that for a full season(about 10 months then). I did pretty well in some events, but hated all of the money pressure of traveling, sleeping in the van, etc.... I saw right then that there was no real money in pool as a future and was enrolled at U.F. a month after I got home. During college I played very little and started back when I got out. I ran with TK for a while before and after he quit gambling. I did this with several other road dogs as well. Again it was the money deal...... So I quit for 8 years and never even looked at a table in that time. Now that I am kind of financially secure, I am starting to play a little again.
The moral here is that no matter how well you play that you have to be one of the top 5 players in the "World" to make any type of decent living playing pool or find daddy warbucks to bankroll you. But in the end you won't be making a living "playing" pool. You may make a living from accessories, etc... But you won't retire a player.
Good Luck in all that you choose
When I turned 18 I played foosball on a national level. I played a few games of pool here and there waiting on that game to open up. I didn't even really have a pool interest. I hurt my shoulder in an auto accident and couldn't play foosball for any length of time anymore. So I started playing a little more pool and then my father asked me to join his Busch League team as a sub(early 80's). Within 3 weeks of that I was a SP7(of only 5 then in Fla) and I hadn't been playing pool for more than 6 months. Within a year and numerous offers to go on the road playing, I got coaxed into playing Florida Pro Tour events. Shortly after that came the letter from Larry Hubbert that I was no longer eligible to play Busch League. A person picked me up and sponsored me on the big tour "PBA" and I did that for a full season(about 10 months then). I did pretty well in some events, but hated all of the money pressure of traveling, sleeping in the van, etc.... I saw right then that there was no real money in pool as a future and was enrolled at U.F. a month after I got home. During college I played very little and started back when I got out. I ran with TK for a while before and after he quit gambling. I did this with several other road dogs as well. Again it was the money deal...... So I quit for 8 years and never even looked at a table in that time. Now that I am kind of financially secure, I am starting to play a little again.
The moral here is that no matter how well you play that you have to be one of the top 5 players in the "World" to make any type of decent living playing pool or find daddy warbucks to bankroll you. But in the end you won't be making a living "playing" pool. You may make a living from accessories, etc... But you won't retire a player.
Good Luck in all that you choose
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