Do you think Pool is Fun?

The people at the bar watch me watching people play pool; and often come up to me to excuse themselves for how bad they are playing. I tell him/her that watching the physics play out on the table is equally exciting with good players and with poor players. It is !! The physics of almost-elastic balls making contact is interesting in and of itself. It really is !!

This is a partial lie (untruth), I enjoy watching people who can use spin/velocity to maneuver CB around the table too--which the formers cannot and betters can.

On the other hand, there is no real business of an AL7 attempting to take a challenge table away for a bunch of SL2's at best, so I let them have their fun and wait for bigger fish in my little pond. In addition if they allow, I attempt to show them how to make balls and how to think about setting up to make even more balls.

It is my goal to raise the level of play in my bar so that I have more good players to play against--sometimes this works so well I end up with a night with a loosing record--hooray: for my teaching--boo his: on my play that night. Over the last 10 years, this really HAS raised the level of play and I even have a compadre of friends that arrive after the lessers have typically left, just to play me and the 6-ish other players basically on our same level of play!!

As noted about a week ago:: we recently (with 6 months of work) got the average good player to use Ball-in-hand over ball-in-kitchen as the rules set of the upperlings; we still let those having trouble making 2 balls in a row, play BIK rules and the other rules that go with that level of play.
 
jasonlaus said:
I love hitting balls, playing others not so much. I've spent most of my life playing solo and wouldn't have it any other way.
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Hitting balls solo has zero pressure involved. You cannot voluntarily invoke a sense of anxiety, stress, nervousness, doubt,
worry, uncertainty that accompanies winning or losing a game or match that had any consequence or importance hitting balls alone. It is a total waste of time. Now play the ghost or do drills but always practice with a purpose which means your have a plan for what you want to do or achieve. You can’t make this up as you go along your merry way hitting pool balls. You’ll reinforce bad habits, disrespect the difficulty of the table layout and miss shots with zero consequences unless you drop and do 10 pushups every time you miss a shot. Always practice with a purpose or don’t bother because you really learn very little.
 
I'm of the opinion that any pressure beyond the minuscule requirements of simply performing, is added and just an illusion - a suggestion to suck. Players may get addicted to the endorphins (or whatever the chemical) released by the strife but I don't think it's a requirement of stellar quality. Louie Roberts is a good enough example for me. Apparently needed his medication to get to speed but unbeatable in that state. The word oblivious comes to mind.
 
It is fun
if it's not fun and it's not your job. then quit.
It's frustrating when we miss and lose and when thing are not going our way, but if it was easy, it would be getting boring really fast.
The challenge is part of the fun.
Practice can be boring and not fun but it is a mean to an end, and you can find a way to make them more fun, maybe find a partner for doing drills together. I don't practice anymore, a playing sessions with friends is practice time for me. I have no ambitions with pool anymore at my age, just to have fun.
 
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I laughed, I cried, I loved it.
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It’s a game.
Games are fun.
Add money to the game and the game becomes work.
Sometimes work is fun.
But work is always work.
And, in my experience, money brings out the worst in people.

Skor used the word “ambition “.
My only ambition in pool is to play a little better than yesterday & not slide backwards into old bad habits.
No tournament desires.
No desire to gamble.

Am I great? Nope.
Am I a contender? Nope.
But I am a little better than yesterday.
And most importantly, I’m having fun.
 
I've loved pool since I was 5 years old. My dad was a good player and got me hooked early on. (I sure do miss him) I love everything about this entire culture....beautiful cues, great competition, pro tournaments, action, zany characters, dramatic events, playing good (those days when you can't miss and have the cue ball on a string), and playing bad (when you need to work on something). What is better?

When you are feeling low, the wife left you, the boss yelled at you, the dog bit you....just go to the pool room, screw together your favorite two piece, and ask the closest person "Wanna play some?"
 
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Beavis and Butthead used to say : " You need stuff that sucks to have stuff thats cool"
There cant always be fun, there must be some dissapointment.
And asking if pool is fun is funny, couse playing pool isnt just banging balls, one needs some kind of a concept to play pool.
Its a thinking game , like a chess.
But not to many people play chess, and i guess not to many people play pool, they are just banging balls.

I would say the procentage of chess players on this forum should be above avg.
 
Every Sunday we have open pool. We partner up and shoot for fun. We call it No Safe Sunday. No intentional safes. Lot of razzing. You have to take it as well as give it. It is fun.
 
I find pretty much any form of competition entertaining; not quite the same thing as fun! After a dirt track race wearing my dinosaur open faced helmet I would reach in each cheek with a finger and pull out about a tablespoon of dirt! I had been open mouthed laughing most of the time on the track. Practice, racing, testing, anything I did on a dirt track was fun! I get an occasional laugh playing pool but not even a laugh every session. I don't find pool laugh out loud fun but when I have a home table I hit balls every day. When I gambled, I gambled over 350 nights a year. Not just for the cash, I enjoyed crushing the competition. For a few years my goal wasn't just to beat the other person, it was to take all of their cash and anything they had with them they would wager. There is a certain wolfish pleasure in that, not exactly fun.

Pool is rarely fun anymore but the satisfaction is certainly enjoyable. After over fifty years I don't begrudge a minute I have spent on a pool table.

Hu
 
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