Dumb people sometimes make the best players

whitewolf

whitewolf

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
:confused:

This observation was made by a famous trick shot artist whom we have all come to love and admire. I will not memtion his name here in order not to take anything away from this thread. His reasoning was that a very intelligent person has a tendency to become overwhelmed by a greater number of possibilities.

Sometimes I think this may be true because my engineering buddies on my team who were very smart could never learn the game of 8 ball.

What do you think? :D
 
this is somewhat true in almost anything. If you are "smart" and overanalyse things then you can endup unsure if the analytical choice you made is the best option and if you go into a shot thinking about shooting it another way you are likely to miss or mess up. While somenoe whom doesnt think about what they are doing as much will just shoot and possibly get lucky on a leave. Their mind is less cluttered but I think their luck also eventually runs out and the smarter player prevails in the long run.

I cant wait to see how things thread turns out though lol
 
whitewolf said:
:confused:

This observation was made by a famous trick shot artist whom we have all come to love and admire. I will not memtion his name here in order not to take anything away from this thread. His reasoning was that a very intelligent person has a tendency to become overwhelmed by a greater number of possibilities.

Sometimes I think this may be true because my engineering buddies on my team who were very smart could never learn the game of 8 ball.

What do you think? :D
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Too much evidence to the contrary.
 
Well, seeing as only a handful went on to college, Varner and the Miz, and the rest barely made it through high school, you got a point there ;).
 
macguy said:
Too much evidence to the contrary.
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Like what? And what are we talking about when it comes to "smart" and "not so smart"? I did a thread on this exact topic about a year or two ago and it got spun and twisted into the fact that I was racially prejudiced when it had nothing to do with that at all. I discussed how I used to go into predominantly black rooms from the early through the late 60's looking for action, and many times came up against guys that didn't come close to graduating from HS and were dumber than dirt, but had tremendous street smarts, aptitude and negotiating skills for matching up and gambling, who could also shoot the lights out on the table. There were some of the toughest and best players I'd ever seen that could barely read.

If anyone here has the Jan. 2003 issue of Billiards Digest, there's an article in there about all of these PhD.'s, physicists, geochemists, that work out of Argonne National Laboratory just outside of Chicago that play pool in a weekly league, and I can tell your right now based on the articles description regarding how they play...their smarts don't help one iota. Ron Shepard, Ph.D. who has written one thesis after another on pool subjects such as deflection, etc. is a member of that league and is one of the best players.
It also goes on to say that he can consistenly run 4-5 "BALLS". Whoopteefuckindo.....I don't think that was a typo for "racks". Then again, that was a little over 2 years ago. Maybe he had a late night epiphany while at the blackboard that gave him the secret. Must have been that deflection crap. :rolleyes:
 
14.1player said:
Well, seeing as only a handful went on to college, Varner and the Miz, and the rest barely made it through high school, you got a point there ;).
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Going to college is no measurement of intelligence. Most there are just aimlessly clocking time without any idea of what they are going to do with their lives. Many of the most successful people I know in business did not complete college. College is one of the last things I would use to define intelligence.
 
Children, and RETARDED People make wonderful player, as they can Focus 1105 of their attention on the Game.

As they have no worries like:

Job

Kids

Mortgage

Car Payment

Taxes

Retirement

School Fund

Etc.
 
There's two ways to look at it:

1 - The smart player tends to "over think" a shot but should have greater concentration skills

2 - The "less smart" will probably play on instinct and be more of a natural player.

Those are just my thoughts. I'm not sure what category I fall in...don't really matter though. I play for the sheer enjoyment of the game (along with a few gambling excursions).

Jim
 
I don't Believe you can be dumb and play this game. There are many smart people that don't have a so called formal education i.e. degrees. There are also many people that have aptitude in a specific discipline but are not very accomplished in other fields.Regardless I believe you have to have a good degree of intelligence to play this game well.
 
drivermaker said:
Like what? And what are we talking about when it comes to "smart" and "not so smart"? I did a thread on this exact topic about a year or two ago and it got spun and twisted into the fact that I was racially prejudiced when it had nothing to do with that at all. I discussed how I used to go into predominantly black rooms from the early through the late 60's looking for action, and many times came up against guys that didn't come close to graduating from HS and were dumber than dirt, but had tremendous street smarts, aptitude and negotiating skills for matching up and gambling, who could also shoot the lights out on the table. There were some of the toughest and best players I'd ever seen that could barely read.

If anyone here has the Jan. 2003 issue of Billiards Digest, there's an article in there about all of these PhD.'s, physicists, geochemists, that work out of Argonne National Laboratory just outside of Chicago that play pool in a weekly league, and I can tell your right now based on the articles description regarding how they play...their smarts don't help one iota. Ron Shepard, Ph.D. who has written one thesis after another on pool subjects such as deflection, etc. is a member of that league and is one of the best players.
It also goes on to say that he can consistenly run 4-5 "BALLS". Whoopteefuckindo.....I don't think that was a typo for "racks". Then again, that was a little over 2 years ago. Maybe he had a late night epiphany while at the blackboard that gave him the secret. Must have been that deflection crap. :rolleyes:
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You are probably overestimating the actual demands of the game, it is really a quite easy game. Except at the very highest levels most players regardless of their apparent intelligence or lack of can play jam up if they really have the desire. Among the top players though, if you know any of them they are far from dumb. Some may not be educated but that is not a measurement of how smart they are. One thing that is often associated with intelligent people is the over analyzing of things and that can inhibit the learning of something like pool, overanalyzing can just be another name for fear. They are often not successful at anything they do because of it. When you talk to many successful people in business they will often tell you, if they know how hard it would be before they started, they may not have done it.
 
RAG said:
I don't Believe you can be dumb and play this game. There are many smart people that don't have a so called formal education i.e. degrees. There are also many people that have aptitude in a specific discipline but are not very accomplished in other fields.Regardless I believe you have to have a good degree of intelligence to play this game well.
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get out more.....LOL...........i've seen total idiots play this game well. and i've seen really smart people play the game well.

i don't think it matters one way or the other honestly.

VAP
 
How do you define 'smarts'

There are different ways of being smart, and all of them enter into Pool
when a person starts playing. I've people that are smart about human
nature, other people that are street smart, and still others that are
suppose to be smart with an eduction.

I've seen people with masters, phd's, or a professional people that can not
run 3 balls, or use simple non-complicated logic to finish running the table.
My uncle that passed away, had only an 8th grade education, but in many
many ways, he was very smart.

There are only 2 kinds of people in the world, those you like better as you
get to know them, and those you like less as you get to know them,
but you won't find out unless YOU take the time to know them.

The smart player will take the time to get to know something about their
opponent and how they play. The smart player will spot weaknesses in
their opponents play and use that knowledge when the oppontunity arises
to their benefit.

Being smart about something means how you apply yourself towards learning
something.

I have stated this before, and I do again....

If you want to learn good common logic to use in Pool, and to greatly
improve your mental toughness as a Player,

Read 'The art of War' by Sun Tzu.
 
vapoolplayer said:
what evidence? serious question

VAP
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Being dumb is not an asset in anything one does, as well being extremely smart may not be a prerequisite. The demands of pool are within the capabilities of most anyone with normal intelligence. Pool has a uniqueness to it though in that it is not only a game that needs to be learned, but mastered physically as well, (Unlike say chess). One can master the skills required but may lack the creative thinking and cleverness that one needs to play at a top level. Another may play brilliantly but be a total spaz when it comes to the physical skills. All things being equal the player that excels both physically and mentally will be the better player. Being dumb as the original poster suggests is not a short track to being a top pool player.
 
whitewolf said:
What do you think? :D
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Some people are 'smart' in math. Others 'smart' in business. Still others are 'smart' when working with cars. Some people are 'smart' in pool. These may overlap, but there is no reason that any of these must. Intelligence, education, and natural ability are not always directed to the same field at the same time.

It could be that the people that haven't discovered their other 'smarts' spent their idle time getting better at pool... ;)

-td -> doesn't measure success in life by the number of people that think I play pool 'smart.'
 
I dunno but I don't see that many ditzy blond in the pro-tour. lol
Advance pool is a game of concentration and nerves.
I ain't gone none of that so I can't run one ball with ball in hand.
 
JoeyInCali said:
I dunno but I don't see that many ditzy blond in the pro-tour. lol
.
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i won't name names, but one YOUNG top top top top player is about as dumb as a box of rocks. i mean this guy has NOTHING between his ears. but he plays jam up pool.

VAP
 
macguy said:
You are probably overestimating the actual demands of the game, it is really a quite easy game.
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Where did you come up with that conclusion about me thinking the game was extremely difficult? The actual demands of the game eventually boil down to nerves, guts, and heart and being able to do everything you ever learned under the gun...regardless of knowledge or smarts.
 
The physical game comes down to a 6" to 8" movement of the cue stick. Hopefully you can do this straight.

Not real difficult.

The difficulty is mental. The learning of the physcis. The understanding of how and why. The decisions.
 
being intelligent definitely will not hurt a person's pool playing ability. they will not suffer 'over-analysis' anymore than 'regular' people. its just indecision when confronted with a difficult choice.
 
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