The Player
good post.
i could be wrong but heres another take.
lets say everybody on earth could play like johnny archer ,but it would take people with no natural ability ten years to play like him.people with tons of natural ability played like him in 2 years.
the people who took ten years would be broke because all they did was play 8 hours a day for ten years.they lost all their savings getting that good.the guy who took 2 years didnt go through his savings and is now making money on tour.
people say all the time if i practiced as much as the pros i would be as good as them.maybe so but the pros got that good so quick that by the time the average player was as good as them the natural player has experience,many wins,sponsors,money saved up etc.
maybe all natural ability will do is make you great much quicker than average.i think that is key though because life is short and if it takes someone to long to be as great as the guy who did it in half the time than youve lost to much ground to him to compete anyway.
all this would be based on the idea that anybody could play pro which im assuming we would all agree is not the case.
you know diliberto was a ranked pro boxer,world class poolplayer,bowled a 300 game a few times i believe,and was on a pro baseball team.hard to believe i know but if people think genetically some are not superior to others i think they are kidding themselves.jmho
Greetings,
I applogize for this rather long post and hope not to ramble but here it is.
There appears to be a lot of wisdom in these posts and I thought I would add my two cents for what it is worth.
I spent a life time in pool halls and on golf courses worldwide for many decades and found some interesting correlations from my perspective.
In my experience I've seen literally thousands of golfers and pool players a few great, some very good and lots of mediocre to poor. Most have the ability but lack the desire, commitment and dedication to overcome the conceptual and technical misconceptions to master the skills required to excel.
Golf is a counter intuitive game in that most things that you think would be essential for success actually turns out to be a detriment that creates a huge negative feedback loop that destroys any long term progress.
Yes, good instruction from an instructor that can actually relate to the student such that visual and mechanical feedback from the learning process can be integrated with the associated muscle feedback memory of actually doing the correct action.
Aside from the physical fundamentals of the game(s) most golfers and pool players have alignment problems and especially in golf alignment is critical in producing the desired ball flight and direction. This problem becomes greater as the distance of the ball to the target increases because of the unintentional spin induced curve of the ball due to poor alignment.
Alignment is critical in both games and if executed properly the ball goes on line. The brain is a complex and awesome biological computer and will subconsciously try to over compensate the alignment errors through other muscle actions producing off target spin induced hits that create that curve off the intended target ball line.
If you ever go to a golf driving range take the time to watch the golfers and just ask them where they are aiming. Some will say aimlessly out there while others will have a more general target area and a very few others a very defined target. However, I find that even the very good golfers who may think they are aligned correctly are not let alone the others who have no clue.
In the early 60's I had the opportunity to watch Ben Hogan one of the greatest all time ball strikers in golf practice and play in the PGA tournament. When I asked what was his target was while practicing on the range with a 2-iron, he pointed to a tree around 220 yards out and said "do you see that patch of gray bark 1/3 the way up the tree, well that's it." Yes he hit that spot 3 out of 10 times and barely missed with the other balls that he rifled at that target.
For Hogan grip and alignment were critical elements providing the foundation for his specific swing mechanics that repeated perfectly through all those years from deeply ingrained knowledge, lessons learned and dedicated practice. Although Hogan was a more mechanical type of player he certainly also relied on the feel of his swing mechanics and the results it produced.
Most pool players know where they should hit the object ball to make the shot but poor alignment creates a host of mis-directed hits on the cue ball.
I hope I didn't bore those who took the time to read these thoughts.
Thanks
