A woman doesn't need to be a beginner for her presence to solicit a ton of unwanted advice and lessons. A friend has been practicing like crazy (a solid B player), but only half of that table time is she able to actually shoot balls-- because so many men are interrupting.
One guy wants her to hit everything with center and stay off the rails, another wants her to spin the balls in and loop as many rails as possible. Another likes to cheat pockets to create an angle for shape. One wants her to elevate her cue on draw and another wants the cue perfectly level at all times. One wants to teach her the marvels of the diamond system while another has a specific measurement system for kicking. Yes, there are competing aiming systems. Someone else wants to regale her with stories about his wins and losses. And most of these guys want to pick up the balls and show her their shots and drills- that they then demonstrate themselves. And yet another old guy surprisingly wants to talk smack and make her feel like she's an imposition in the room. Several want her to take their phone numbers so they can go out to a friendly, no pressure lunch one day soon (lots of pressure there).
What is she doing? She comes in wearing normal everyday clothes and ipod headphones, and just wants to do drills by herself on one of the tightest tables. Every interruption she stops, takes off her headphones, and smiles and nods until they tire themselves out talking. Then she puts her headphones on and tries again until the next interruption. She has sometimes attempted to kindly tell these men that's she's working on something specific right now, thank you, but then they want an explanation of that and then to go back to what they've got in mind.
On top of all this, there are some great times when what these guys say and do is fantastic and totally lightbulb Eureka- worthy... But then she often can't practice and own that new knowledge because immediately some other guy is trying to show her something else or talk about something different.
She doesn't want to be rude, and she respects each of these players (they range widely from B- to AA+) but she's frustrated: working full time means she only has so many hours a night/ weekend to practice, and that's chopped at least in half by the talking. These guys are mostly retired and seem to need a sympathetic female audience for some validation of their own latest pool theories.
We've wondered if subconciously there's a fear that she's getting stronger and more solid, and they want to muck it up before she moves up another level. OR they want her improvement to be proof that their pet pool theories are better than the other guys' and then they can say, "See? I showed her that."