Being the Best or One Of The Best...How much table time???

M

Mr. J

Jeff Jimenez
Silver Member
Mr. J. here to address another topic for all to ponder on and add to or take away...

I was thinking about Tiger Woods...I would bet that he has a golf club in his hand at least 5 and more than likely 6 days a week at minimum...

I have heard and said before that the Best of anything are the ones who Eat, Breathe, Sleep , Drink and Live the game they are all about...

Shane Van Boening has a practice/ play/compete schedule that is unmatched from what I have heard and read...

Is it true that in order to be The Best or One Of The Best...you just can't get there only playing maybe 3 or 4 times a week??? You will certainly need to play/compete/practice EVERYDAY OR MOST EVERYDAY???

I know that keeping a good Balance in Life is very important for many reasons...no matter what your game is...

Keeping the Mrs. or your signifigant other happy also comes to mind too...

Is it possible that the Good Balance thing will more than likely Not Be In Place if you are striving to Be The Best or One Of The Best???

What do you people think?


Thanks again,

Mr. J.
 
I think to be the best at any given sport..It requires starting at an early age, practing every day for hours on end, a level of competiveness that drives you to be better than everyone else.

Then saying all that you have to be gifted on top of all that hard work..

Skill and practice can only take you so far..

A great anology is Larry Bird vs. Michael Jordan

Bird represents the hard workers + limited athletic ability = greatness

But Jordan represents hard work plus a gifted athlete. = a whole different catergory..
 
I wish i knew the answer too..

I dont do anything except play pool really when I'm not at work. I even carry my cues to work so I can go play on the way home.

I play 6 days a week sometimes 7 over 4 hours a day minimum, have been playing less than 3 years, and dont feel I play terribly bad but.. it makes me respect how tough it is to be at their level.
 
Please Read The Whole Post!!!!

The Kiss said:
I think to be the best at any given sport..It requires starting at an early age, practing every day for hours on end, a level of competiveness that drives you to be better than everyone else.

Then saying all that you have to be gifted on top of all that hard work..

Skill and practice can only take you so far..

A great anology is Larry Bird vs. Michael Jordan

Bird represents the hard workers + limited athletic ability = greatness

But Jordan represents hard work plus a gifted athlete. = a whole different catergory..
Click to expand...


Let me ask a question: How do you know that Jordan had natural ability? Let's pretend that Jordan was a limited athletic ability guy, and that through hard work he achieved the results that he did. How could you tell how easily it came to him?

I believe that there is no such thing as natural ability. People develope different skills at different rates, but we can all get anywhere we wish to go with enough dedication.

I also believe that I can achieve pool greatness while maintaining a happy family and a job.

EVEN IF I AM WRONG, do you think that my attitudes and beliefs will make me play better or worse?

Deciding that you can only play shortstop speed if you are married or 'don't have natural talent' and therefore losing enthusiasm, practicing less, expecting less, and achieving less is a shame.

What if there was a player who appeared to be of ordinary talent that was capable of achieving greatness while holding a job and a relationship, but he quit because he read that it wasn't possible?

What if that player was you?
 
Last edited:
Mr. J said:
Mr. J. here to address another topic for all to ponder on and add to or take away...

I was thinking about Tiger Woods...I would bet that he has a golf club in his hand at least 5 and more than likely 6 days a week at minimum...

I have heard and said before that the Best of anything are the ones who Eat, Breathe, Sleep , Drink and Live the game they are all about...

Shane Van Boening has a practice/ play/compete schedule that is unmatched from what I have heard and read...

Is it true that in order to be The Best or One Of The Best...you just can't get there only playing maybe 3 or 4 times a week??? You will certainly need to play/compete/practice EVERYDAY OR MOST EVERYDAY???

I know that keeping a good Balance in Life is very important for many reasons...no matter what your game is...

Keeping the Mrs. or your signifigant other happy also comes to mind too...

Is it possible that the Good Balance thing will more than likely Not Be In Place if you are striving to Be The Best or One Of The Best???

What do you people think?


Thanks again,

Mr. J.
Click to expand...

I think it takes about 8 years of playing every day,averaging 40-50 hours a week minimum. There were years where I averaged 60-70 hours a week, just couldn't put my cue down.
 
Irvine Crane

I asked that question of Irvine Crane many years ago at the world straight pool championships in NY. His answer was similar to most of what has already said but his statement to me was "it takes a gift that either you have or do not. Practice helps but, the really great players are gifted in a special way. Like a great singer, musician etc. it takes more than hard work and talent." Truthfully, I think he was right!
 
The Kiss said:
I think to be the best at any given sport..It requires starting at an early age, practing every day for hours on end, a level of competiveness that drives you to be better than everyone else.

Then saying all that you have to be gifted on top of all that hard work..

Skill and practice can only take you so far..

A great anology is Larry Bird vs. Michael Jordan

Bird represents the hard workers + limited athletic ability = greatness

But Jordan represents hard work plus a gifted athlete. = a whole different catergory..
Click to expand...

Jordan, during his days in the NBA, worked harder than anyone in the league. Everything he got from HS on up was through hard work. While he
and Larry Bird might have had different abilities both HAD to have major
natural skills to hone into thier champion form.

Every now and then you find guys like Bo Jackson. He didnt work at it overly hard to get to a high level. However, everyone like him is a freak and the exception to the rule.

If it was just about hard work then there would be many champions in the worlds sporting arenas. Most of the hardest workers I know have no chance of reaching anywhere near Pro level or a few steps below Pro level and that is in all sports.
 
There is natural ability w/o a doubt that comes into play for any sport.

Then comes the drive to want to be the best, some have it, most don't.

Then comes the mental capacity .......... you can have a lot of natural ability and a lot of drive but if you can't handle it mentally then you might be very good, but you'll never be great.

Now to be one of the all time greats in anything it takes all of the above combined at once. Very rare.
 
Tin Man said:
Let me ask a question: How do you know that Jordan had natural ability? Let's pretend that Jordan was a limited athletic ability guy, and that through hard work he achieved the results that he did. How could you tell how easily it came to him?

I believe that there is no such thing as natural ability. People develope different skills at different rates, but we can all get anywhere we wish to go with enough dedication.

I also believe that I can achieve pool greatness while maintaining a happy family and a job.

EVEN IF I AM WRONG, do you think that my attitudes and beliefs will make me play better or worse?

Deciding that you can only play shortstop speed if you are married or 'don't have natural talent' and therefore losing enthusiasm, practicing less, expecting less, and achieving less is a shame.

What if there was a player who appeared to be of ordinary talent that was capable of achieving greatness while holding a job and a relationship, but he quit because he read that it wasn't possible?

What if that player was you?
Click to expand...



Jordan had the ability to run fast and jump high..that was God given we know that pay attention..

Bird could'nt run fast or jump nearly at all. We know that.


The point is some get to where they are going solely on hard work and hours spent. While others have a God given talent and hard work pays off faster

I think if you polled most Pro's some guys picked the game up fast and others had to work harder. And most guys have a ceiling on how well they can play.

There are very few World Class Players that is a PLAIN fact..

No one says to quit but like Clint Eastwood says

" A man has got to know his limitations"


I'd bet Shane has been playing since he could walk or there abouts. Just like Tiger Woods most of us can't go back and make up those years and practice
 
MikeMaaen said:
I asked that question of Irvine Crane many years ago at the world straight pool championships in NY. His answer was similar to most of what has already said but his statement to me was "it takes a gift that either you have or do not. Practice helps but, the really great players are gifted in a special way. Like a great singer, musician etc. it takes more than hard work and talent." Truthfully, I think he was right!
Click to expand...

I agree with Mr. Crane. There are definitely differences in natural ability among different people, both physically and mentally. I've always thought that this difference should be understood in terms of a person's potential in a particular field or endeavor. Champions had to have that potential to begin with, or they could never have become champions. How much hard work and dedication they put in is part of what goes into the realization of their potential. For those without that natural ability or potential to begin with, no amount of hard work will make them a champion (although through hard work and dedication they can still realize more of their potential than others who are more naturally gifted, but who might not be as dedicated or work as hard). No amount of hard work will make William Hung a great singer.
 
MikeMaaen said:
I asked that question of Irvine Crane many years ago at the world straight pool championships in NY. His answer was similar to most of what has already said but his statement to me was "it takes a gift that either you have or do not. Practice helps but, the really great players are gifted in a special way. Like a great singer, musician etc. it takes more than hard work and talent." Truthfully, I think he was right!
Click to expand...

TAP! TAP! TAP! Absolutely right! You either got it or you don't. For example, consider some of the stroke shots performed by players like Mike Massey or Larry Nevels. The majority of us could practice those shots 24/7 for the rest of our lives and never be able to pull them off consistently the way they do. They have a god given gift! That doesn't mean you have to have that kind of stroke to be a champion because there's been lots of champions with less powerful strokes. The point is you can only go so far on dedication alone. Music is probably the best example of this.
 
The question about how much time would you need to invest at the table is simply not measureable. Nobody would ask a Hall Of Fame pitcher, how many pitches did it take to become a professional? How many books will I need to read before I can become a Pulitzer Prize winning writer? Well, what is certain, no matter what it is, you have to do it a lot if you want to distinguish yourself from the rest.

Many would agree it would take several thousand hours (300,000 balls pocketed) but I'm sure some will be able to do it in less and others, no matter how much time they put in, will fall short.
 
The Kiss said:
Jordan had the ability to run fast and jump high..that was God given we know that pay attention..

Bird could'nt run fast or jump nearly at all. We know that.
Click to expand...

But Bird had tremendous hand-eye coordination, a great instinct for the game, and an unsurpassed mental toughness and competitive fire, as well as a great work ethic and drive to win, all of which contributed to his being a great basketball player. Being able to run fast and jump high are not the only skills/talents that make a great basketball player.

Jordan had those same attributes, but I think was also more physically gifted than Bird, which translated into even greater achievements in the game, and is why ultimately he was considered the greater player. There are of course countless numbers of athletes who can run very fast and jump very high who aren't great basketball players.
 
Most pros will have you think they have to play 8-12 a day. That's because they don't want non-pros to know that they could have at least a part time job and be just about as good as they are now. Not all...but most could work and still be as good. Johnnyt
 
Tin Man said:
Let me ask a question: How do you know that Jordan had natural ability? Let's pretend that Jordan was a limited athletic ability guy, and that through hard work he achieved the results that he did. How could you tell how easily it came to him?

I believe that there is no such thing as natural ability. People develope different skills at different rates, but we can all get anywhere we wish to go with enough dedication.

I also believe that I can achieve pool greatness while maintaining a happy family and a job.

EVEN IF I AM WRONG, do you think that my attitudes and beliefs will make me play better or worse?

Deciding that you can only play shortstop speed if you are married or 'don't have natural talent' and therefore losing enthusiasm, practicing less, expecting less, and achieving less is a shame.

What if there was a player who appeared to be of ordinary talent that was capable of achieving greatness while holding a job and a relationship, but he quit because he read that it wasn't possible?

What if that player was you?
Click to expand...

Jordan sucked in H.S. He did not blossom until he developed his work ethic in College.
 
Jude Rosenstock said:
The question about how much time would you need to invest at the table is simply not measureable. Nobody would ask a Hall Of Fame pitcher, how many pitches did it take to become a professional? How many books will I need to read before I can become a Pulitzer Prize winning writer? Well, what is certain, no matter what it is, you have to do it a lot if you want to distinguish yourself from the rest.

Many would agree it would take several thousand hours (300,000 balls pocketed) but I'm sure some will be able to do it in less and others, no matter how much time they put in, will fall short.
Click to expand...

Grady said years ago, you need to hit at least 2 million balls, not sure what that translates into, but Grady was and is excellent with numbers. He could go almost anywhere in the country and tell you within a minute when he would arrive in his cadillac for his next billiard appointment/match.
 
Island Drive said:
Grady said years ago, you need to hit at least 2 million balls, not sure what that translates into, but Grady was and is excellent with numbers. He could go almost anywhere in the country and tell you within a minute when he would arrive in his cadillac for his next billiard appointment/match.
Click to expand...

No offense, but as far as "numbers" are concerned, if Grady gave the odds he often spouted in his Accu-Stats videos, he's have stayed permanently broke. :D :D :D "But those aren't booking odds, Billy!"

That being said, he does have a flair for the dramatic, and will sometimes exaggerate greatly. On the other hand, after doing a rough calculation where a player hits a ball every 10 seconds for 10 hours a day, 300 days out of the year, one arrives at about 1 million balls struck per year. His 2 million ball estimation may not be too darn far from the truth! :0

Russ
 
you could spend your whole life 10 hours a day on a table and NEVER become a world beater, the key's are IMHO What to Practice, the right State of mind , and solid fundamentals... Then you need challenges, Try pool as your main source of income for groceries, If you no win you no eat. This is the dedication and wrok commitment needed to be the best. IMHO. With this in mind, the majority of EVERYONE who loves pool can become a champion. If your not willing to sacrifice your never going to make it. I myself am trying to help, I have started a web site(see sig) with cridical information whitch I believe will aid in players who want to go over the top to the next level of gameplay.

Like everything else however things like this cost money, and apparently my site has caused some flack because Im having trouble getting support.

Ofcourse my site could use a professional touch, this is my FIRST site I did myself, to try to save money. I plan on adding Video's with Practice routines, How to use the information on the site, and diagrams with break downs of runouts (even the tough ones) Im also working on banking techniques such as the mirror method, whitch in real time you can see this in action.

With Knowledge like this, you will at the very least have a "system" to base your game from, and have an idea what to practice so that your time at the table is extruding everything you can from it..

Im not trying to compete wih AZ or any other site, Im just trying to share my idea's and belief's whitch I believe isnt the mainstay of billiards today.

SPINDOKTOR
 
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