I wrote about pool.
Here you go...
Pool.
Pool pool pool.
Pool pool pool pool pool.
...And then more pool.
I once watched an interview with a guy who held the world record for quick-draw target shooting. I remember the advice he gave to anyone who wanted to become the best in the world at shooting: "Be the first guy to arrive at the range in the morning, and the last guy to leave at night."
That's how it is with pool (and probably a lot more things besides).
The next time you see someone playing a cue sport, if they appear to have a kind of God-given talent, then it's probably a good idea to keep in mind that appearances can be misleading. The guy on Eurosport or ESPN making the game look easy has certainly spent thousands of hours practising his art.
But why? ...Why invest so much time and effort doing something that is much more likely to cost you money than to make you a dime? Well, try it...
If it sucks you in, then you'll have your answer. If it doesn't, then no explanation will ever suffice. Of course I could leave it there, but then that would be rather a lazy and unsatisfying try at putting my passion into writing. So, here's my best attempt: First of all pool is a game for two (or more people). Right off the bat you're interacting with another human being, which is always a nice thing unless you have a particular kind of autism, or your friends suck, or you're simply in a terrible mood. Next, you're focusing on something. Actually if you're doing it right you're focusing on a lot of things...
To play pool well, it's not good enough to simply lunge at balls and hope that the gods are smiling on you that day. Technique is a huge part of the game. How you stand, how you move your cueing arm, how you aim, how you bridge (that is to say how you position your hand on the table to support the cue), how you breath ...it all matters. A lot.
Pool is a kind of conversation with your opponent. Done right, it's so satisfying that even losing the game will still leave you feeling like a winner. Just like conventional conversations (I mean spoken or written ones), the more you focus on what's being said, the more likely you are to get something out of it. In life almost nobody really thinks about what they say, but that almost never matters as almost nobody ever really listens. In pool it's very much like that. Go into an average pool hall and you'll see rows of tables full of people who've been doing the same thing for years while hardly improving at all. This is quite a good thing if you want to get good enough to win against the average player. In much the same way, you don't have to have flawless elocution or the logical reasoning skills of Bertrand Russell to look like a proficient speaker if everyone around you is mumbling or insulting one another.
But really, that's only going to carry you so far.
Before you get good enough to love winning, you have to acquire a love of the game. You have to love the focus. It becomes a kind of meditation. As you cue up on a shot, you slow your breathing, and go through a little check list of those elements of technique mentioned above (stance, cueing, bridging, aiming, etc). There is something wonderfully calming about finding the kind of mental and physical self-control required to play well. Although it's worth spending half an hour listening to and being guided by a pro, with pool the game is ultimately the best teacher.
The learning process is helped enormously by the instant feedback you receive while playing. ...If you do something wrong, sometimes you'll be lucky and pot a ball anyway, but most of the time you won't. Most of the time you'll see that you've made a mistake, and the next time you take a shot you'll have a chance to do something about it. In little steps you'll see yourself improving, and yet you'll have no trouble spending a lifetime finding new goals to achieve.
Doing better than last time at the game involves working on angles, measuring power, mastering jump shots, masse shots, bank shots. It involves working on your break, your stamina, your cue ball control, your psychology (staying calm and focused under pressure). If you stick at it, you'll get to the point where you can beat all your friends, and then some guy will walk into your pool hall one day and wipe the floor with you. ...And when you find yourself shaking his hand and buying him a beer without any feeling of resentment or ill will. You'll be thankful for the lesson, ...and that's when you know that you've become a pool player.
Here you go...
Pool.
Pool pool pool.
Pool pool pool pool pool.
...And then more pool.
I once watched an interview with a guy who held the world record for quick-draw target shooting. I remember the advice he gave to anyone who wanted to become the best in the world at shooting: "Be the first guy to arrive at the range in the morning, and the last guy to leave at night."
That's how it is with pool (and probably a lot more things besides).
The next time you see someone playing a cue sport, if they appear to have a kind of God-given talent, then it's probably a good idea to keep in mind that appearances can be misleading. The guy on Eurosport or ESPN making the game look easy has certainly spent thousands of hours practising his art.
But why? ...Why invest so much time and effort doing something that is much more likely to cost you money than to make you a dime? Well, try it...
If it sucks you in, then you'll have your answer. If it doesn't, then no explanation will ever suffice. Of course I could leave it there, but then that would be rather a lazy and unsatisfying try at putting my passion into writing. So, here's my best attempt: First of all pool is a game for two (or more people). Right off the bat you're interacting with another human being, which is always a nice thing unless you have a particular kind of autism, or your friends suck, or you're simply in a terrible mood. Next, you're focusing on something. Actually if you're doing it right you're focusing on a lot of things...
To play pool well, it's not good enough to simply lunge at balls and hope that the gods are smiling on you that day. Technique is a huge part of the game. How you stand, how you move your cueing arm, how you aim, how you bridge (that is to say how you position your hand on the table to support the cue), how you breath ...it all matters. A lot.
Pool is a kind of conversation with your opponent. Done right, it's so satisfying that even losing the game will still leave you feeling like a winner. Just like conventional conversations (I mean spoken or written ones), the more you focus on what's being said, the more likely you are to get something out of it. In life almost nobody really thinks about what they say, but that almost never matters as almost nobody ever really listens. In pool it's very much like that. Go into an average pool hall and you'll see rows of tables full of people who've been doing the same thing for years while hardly improving at all. This is quite a good thing if you want to get good enough to win against the average player. In much the same way, you don't have to have flawless elocution or the logical reasoning skills of Bertrand Russell to look like a proficient speaker if everyone around you is mumbling or insulting one another.
But really, that's only going to carry you so far.
Before you get good enough to love winning, you have to acquire a love of the game. You have to love the focus. It becomes a kind of meditation. As you cue up on a shot, you slow your breathing, and go through a little check list of those elements of technique mentioned above (stance, cueing, bridging, aiming, etc). There is something wonderfully calming about finding the kind of mental and physical self-control required to play well. Although it's worth spending half an hour listening to and being guided by a pro, with pool the game is ultimately the best teacher.
The learning process is helped enormously by the instant feedback you receive while playing. ...If you do something wrong, sometimes you'll be lucky and pot a ball anyway, but most of the time you won't. Most of the time you'll see that you've made a mistake, and the next time you take a shot you'll have a chance to do something about it. In little steps you'll see yourself improving, and yet you'll have no trouble spending a lifetime finding new goals to achieve.
Doing better than last time at the game involves working on angles, measuring power, mastering jump shots, masse shots, bank shots. It involves working on your break, your stamina, your cue ball control, your psychology (staying calm and focused under pressure). If you stick at it, you'll get to the point where you can beat all your friends, and then some guy will walk into your pool hall one day and wipe the floor with you. ...And when you find yourself shaking his hand and buying him a beer without any feeling of resentment or ill will. You'll be thankful for the lesson, ...and that's when you know that you've become a pool player.
