Bemoaning the rise of the bar box
- Thread starter jalapus logan
- Start date
cueenvy...So, do you call pros who use chalkholders and cue claws bangers too?Those two things have nothing to do with the skill of the player.
Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com
They are also products that contribute to the overall pool economy. One of the inherent problems of pool has always been it is not product driven such as golf or fishing. There are not a lot of people making any money in the pool biz that can even be sponsors.
I would not be surprised that 90% of all money that is spent on pool from table time, coins in the tables and cues and products are paid for by those so called "Bangers". They are the only reason the sport even exists. It takes those 90% bangers (God bless them) to support it so the other 10% even have a place or sport to play. Every sport is the same, be it Golf, Tennis what ever. The casual players are what keep them going.
In terms of table size yes, but the snooker tables they play tournaments on in Europe the pockets are quite large. I was at the Crucible and the pockets were about like a tight pool table. I was very surprised, you could fire balls down the rail and they would go in.
cueenvy...So, do you call pros who use chalkholders and cue claws bangers too?
Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com
I don't see pros sporting the claw. Anybody with a claw and a chalk holder dangling out of their pocket has my action for life.
I know you are something big in pool...but honestly I don't have a clue for what.
cueenvy...Do you know every pro out there? I think not...so I wouldn't be making blanket statements like that. I know a few that would be happy to take you up on your offer of "action for life". Who am I? Nobody...but I know a lot of players, and I've worked with many expert players, up to and including professionals.
Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com
Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com
Just for clarification, could you restate your comment in English. It doesn't make any sense.
The world snooker pockets are 3.25 - 3.5 inches, the balls are 2 1/16 inches, so I'd call that pretty tight!
The pro's rarely take on rail shots, when they do they seem to play them dead weight with minimal or no sidespin (English), I've never played on a pro cut snooker table but on a club table I know it's definitely not easy to play down the rail (but then of course I'm a very low level amateur not a pro)!
I agree ^^
What I find intriguing as an outsider of America looking in, is that everything is BIG!
Bigger cars, bigger highways, bigger houses, bigger burgers etc...
But for some reason, this is not the case for cue sports. Why is that?
I know that space can be an issue, but this can't be completely accurate.
The UK is a small Island, compared to the USA with even some US States that are geographically larger than the whole UK...
Yet here, the chosen cue sport is Snooker played on 12ftx6ft tables. In terms of space a club can easily fit x2 BB tables for every 1 Snooker table. But floor space size in the UK isn't an issue.
Not having a pop (I love American Pool) - It just makes for interesting cultural comparison :thumb:
I would be curious exactly where that measurement is actually taken in the pocket. They are also not as rounded as we are used to seeing on American 5 x 10's. They will accept many shots. I don't know how relevant this is but I found it on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr9eHLxvTtY
watch the clip that follows also
Bar box 'piss in' pool games (TE 9b, APA rules in 8b or 'piss in' 10b) are not good for pool PERIOD. Who wants to win or loose on a 'shit in' pool game? FIX the game structure- standardize the games... ie Stop rewarding 'bad pool' playing... this is what keeps pool going backwards and provides NO incentive for players to try to get better...
Its hard enough to handicap (match up) skill level without adding in a coin toss to every game...This is why people stop coming to pool tournaments *(game structure!!). Its also a real reason why action is DEAD now. That and those horrific 'Valley type' 6 and 7 footers... All of those tables would make good reef structure at the bottom of the ocean imo... they are really bad for pool.
Randy
Its hard enough to handicap (match up) skill level without adding in a coin toss to every game...This is why people stop coming to pool tournaments *(game structure!!). Its also a real reason why action is DEAD now. That and those horrific 'Valley type' 6 and 7 footers... All of those tables would make good reef structure at the bottom of the ocean imo... they are really bad for pool.
Randy
This is a great observation.
You are absolutely correct. Everything is big except the pool tables.
Thats true and not true. Sometimes demand can be created. If a town has no pool room it does not necessarily mean there is no demand. There may be but you don't know it. If you told me 30 years ago there was a demand for $4.00 and $5.00 cups of coffee and people would stand in line I would have thought you were nuts. The same with over priced bottled water.
We did get a taste of it after the Color of money when rooms opened everywhere but the problem was, bad business plans. I must have been in dozens of them back then and you could just stand there, look at the investment and a good guess at the nut and you knew the place would go under. A well run family pool room with a managed overhead can still make a nice living for someone. I have to add, I would not even consider it without serving beer.
I always termed a business like a pool room as "Building yourself a job". You are not going to be an absentee owner, you have to also be an employee. If you begin to think you own General Motors and piss away all the profits, or over invest and have a lot of debt, then yes you will go the way of most small poorly run businesses.
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I wish I was half as good as the guy in that second clip!
(I'd take 1/4 even ;-)
I found this thread:
http://www.thesnookerforum.co.uk/board/threads/55270-Pocket-tightness?highlight=star+pocket+size
Which sort of helps about pocket size (a bit) and sort of just confuses the issue a bit more...interesting though (especially the pictures with the balls/measuring tape)!
The problem with your thinking is it's narrow scope. 90% maybe more of the people who play and support the game don't care one bit if they win or lose, it is just a pass time. They however make it possable for you to have the game you love and want to dedicate yourself to. They are the engine behind it that makes it run.
You can expand on that logic further too in all honesty...being realistic how many people seriously expect to win any given tournament?
I'm not sure what the structure is like over in the US, but here on the GB9 tour, there are a handful of players that have a good % chance of winning, then a few more who on their day could produce a surprise, then its down to those that may beat a top player on a one off, but would be unlikely to produce that form for long enough to get to the later stages, then you get down to players who are simply there to try and get into the last 64....then last of all there's me
My point is that actually even out those of us that take the game semi-seriously, the vast majority are purely donating to the pot and effectively supporting the game.
Its only the top amateurs and pro's that actually stand a decent chance of winning, everyone else effectively (whether they like to believe it or not) is playing for fun/experience.
(Thats meant to be a lengthly way of saying I completely agree with your statement btw)!
You can expand on that logic further too in all honesty...being realistic how many people seriously expect to win any given tournament?
I'm not sure what the structure is like over in the US, but here on the GB9 tour, there are a handful of players that have a good % chance of winning, then a few more who on their day could produce a surprise, then its down to those that may beat a top player on a one off, but would be unlikely to produce that form for long enough to get to the later stages, then you get down to players who are simply there to try and get into the last 64....then last of all there's me
My point is that actually even out those of us that take the game semi-seriously, the vast majority are purely donating to the pot and effectively supporting the game.
Its only the top amateurs and pro's that actually stand a decent chance of winning, everyone else effectively (whether they like to believe it or not) is playing for fun/experience.
(Thats meant to be a lengthly way of saying I completely agree with your statement btw)!
You are right, it is especially true in local tournaments. If you excised the players who have no chance to win and you would not be left with enough players to hold the tournament.
I just wanted to correct a misnomer put forth by a previous poster in this thread. I am not a nine footer elitist. I am a nine footer preservationist. 
....and bar box pool still is a joke....
Show me a photo of 1 top pro with a cue claw or chalk holder and I'll join APA!
Tap tap tap!