Changing my opinion of Pro players.

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bfdlad

T-Wheels
Silver Member
It seem that there has been for the most part a pre conceived notion about Pro players and Their attitudes. I confess I have been a little guilty of it myself. The thought that the pros are just desperate for money and really don't care too much about anything else than their next score. Just doing things for the money and getting out as fast as possible.
Well I have been pleasantly surprised the past couple of weeks. I knew how Archer ad Varner worked and their outlook and just figured I got lucky to have a couple of players who cared about what they were doing while on the exhibition and clinic tours. Well on this trip so far we started with Darren Appleton, he would take as much time as it took to make sure that the students in the clinic got their moneys worth. The clinics are supposed to run for 4 hours and they never finished on time as Nick and Darren would spend alot of extra time working with students more to make sure they got it and hanging around after to continue answering questions. Not a case of "Ok, my time is up show me the money I amd out of here" I expected this of Nick but having never worked with Darren I wasn't sure what to expect but he gave the same attention and time as Nick does and that is a great thing in my opinion.
Darren had to leave and so the "Hitman" Thorsten Hohmann stepped in to help with the final 2 stops here in Colorado. He just arrived and came straight over to the hotel where Nick and I are staying to talk about the clinic tonight in Colorado Springs. He wanted to make sure how many students we were expecting and what was going to be the best format to ensure that the students got their moneys worth and make sure that their experience was a good one. Going into exact detail on how he would run his end of the clinic and wanting as much info as possible on what Nick would be covering so as to not duplicate. He really cared about the students in the clinic not his paycheck.
Just saying that if you have an opinion that ALL pro players are just in it to get what they can out of it and that nothing else really matters to them, please don't judge them all this way. There are obviously players out there who want to put out a good product.
 
Pro pool players are just like all other human beings in other walks-of-life. There's going to be good ones, bad ones, GREAT ones, and just plain a$$holes.

We all like the good and GREAT ones. Their willingness to teach coupled with their intermingling with the masses, make them a pleasure to be around.

It's a shame for the $hitty ones to ruin it for those that try so hard to make improvements to the game and close the gap between the players and the fans!!!

Kudos to Thorsten for filling in and to your tour in general!!!

Maniac
 
Mark - I LOVE what you are doing with this tour and I LOVE it even more knowing that more and more players are stepping up and ensuring that a quality experience is given. I expected that Thorsten would do it, given his contribution to training videos for the IPAT as well as how strongly he feels about mechanics and drills; it follows naturally that he would be a caring and giving instructor. I know almost nothing about Darren outside of his pool character, so that is a great surprise to discover.

I hope you can bring the tour back to the St. Louis area with either of those players, I'd love to attend another clinic. :)
 
I am still sad that you couldn't work out getting up this way last year....

Hopefully some day in the future.

Thanks for sharing this.
 
Thats Cool

I have known lots of the Pros and still do. I think that much of it comes down to the money or the lack there of.., I think if there was more money in the game we would all see the better side of most of them, not all, but most.

The ones that love the game could show it more and we would all benefit.

I hope you bring the good work that your doing through Houston, I think it would be a hit here.
 
That's admirable of you to give kudos to these guys.

Just an observation - it seems the more successful a pro is, the more likely he/she is to be of good moral character. Or is it - the better moral character a player has, the more successful that pro is likely to be?

And I'm not so sure it was luck Mark to have brought quality character pros on your tour. I gotta believe their assessment of you and your character is greatly responsible for them partnering with you. Heck, the worst thing I ever heard about you is that you hold a cell phone camera sideways and try to make people puke.
 
People in general tend to be MUCH cooler in person. My personal experience with lessons with the pros has also been one where they don't look at the clock either.

We had Rafael Martinez doing clinics one year and he didn't look at the clock either, he just kept going as long as the students had questions until we all got tired and hungry.

This is one of the real advantages to being in a small sport. You aren't going to get the reigning world champion to come and give you personal instruction for super low money in a big time sport.
 
After the clinic in Portland was over, I went and picked up my 10 year old son in the hopes that he could just meet the guys. Darren ended up spending at least an hour working with him and said he wanted to see him next year to check his progress. Nick worked with him on some trick shots too. I was really impressed that they spent so much of their free time helping a young kid out.
 
Thanks, Mark.

I like the way this thread says a lot good about some of the pro pool players and Mark. Thanks for sharing with us.
Many Regards,
Lock N Load.
 
If all the top-name pros were interested in was money... well, quite frankly they wouldn't be playing pool.
 
In an interview, Jon Wertheim, the author of the book about Danny Bacevich and a staff member of Sports Illustrated, said that he was amazed how helpful every pool player he approached had been to him in his research and compared pool very favorably in this regard with other sports.
 
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