"We will?"
....and get your money up is all I can say.....in twenty years usa will still be up there on top for several reasons.....we are classier players.....the knowladge from years passed is here. And purer strokes and better metal games under fire for the cash:........
This may seem a little unrelated at first, but bear with me.
20 or 30 years ago the best pool players in this country, gambled and played in every tournament they could find, providing they weren't barred for winning ALL THE TIME!
How much does everybody on top, play today? I know it's safe to say,
LESS. No middle class working stiff's to hustle at every corner pool room, and damn, for the most part, very few, if any major pool rooms left across the mid-west! Without money, that way of doing business as a pro, is pretty much a thing of the past.
One thing hasn't changed though, you wanna be the best, gotta hit balls and play "ALL THE TIME!!!"
The new model for a player seems to be, go to every BIG tournament and play with all the other top players from all around the globe. Now don't get me wrong, this method of attaining proficiency at this sport has it's positive sides, too, but it
cost a whole lot more money,
at a time when that stuff is in short supply. For a top pool-player in the U.S. to keep up with the level of competition and play, in the rest of the world,and especially the East, there will have to be a new model of how to survive these changes in the economy.
I read this in another thread, last week, College kid asked how to keep the expense of his practice time down. I wanted say, you wanna be a pool player or go to s-c-h-o-o-l?
(This has nothing to do with the smart money bet!) You wanna play pool, find a warm environment to live in, (1) a place where there's a lot of working class people with jobs, (2) a couple of pool rooms, (3) a university, and (4) an active younger generation night life, and move there. Now to a hustler from the 70's this probably sounds like paradise! Cause, if there's 1.money, 2.pool rooms,3. kids with daddy's money, and 4.bars with pool tables, you've got the basics to have an income a develop your pool skills every waking moment!
Think this scenario is even economically possible anywhere in the U.S. today? Constant, hustling, gambling with other players, and tournament play, now that's what made the previous generations of top U.S. pool-players the best and TOUGH, too! Modern players in this country have inherited a lot of knowledge but not enough opportunity to professionally harden them up.
20 years have passed away already and now we're watching the rest of the world "OWN THIS SPORT!" We sit on a Knifes-edge, in peril of losing some of our best tournaments, right NOW! If England and Europe are even contenders at this table, "THINGS HAVE ALREADY DRASTICALLY CHANGED!"
I'm not saying Appleton was right, but
if Bustamante, or Orcollo, had said that the ballance of power had shifted permanently to the East, "would anybody involved in pool have doubted it?":idea:
