How old were you when you started playing

How old were you when you started playing

  • 0-8 years

    Votes: 24 21.2%

  • 8-12 years

    Votes: 22 19.5%

  • 12-18 years

    Votes: 32 28.3%

  • 18 and above

    Votes: 35 31.0%
  • Total voters
    113
I have to disagree with everybody who says 18 or later is too old. That's bull. As long as you start before your physical attributes start to decline I maintain you can be as good as anybody. Or more accurately you can be as good as YOU could have been if you started younger.
 
I started playing at 7 on a toy table in my house. At about 10 my dad would take me to play with him on Fri nights. Actually he would get me a table (4 x 8 Brunswick) to hit balls on while he played other people. I remember being fascinated with the stop shot..and had him show me that, and it was all I did. Set up stop shots and fire them in. I couldn't much more than get over the table. I played with my dad every Fri night and Saturday morning..until I was around 16 (and got a car). I never took it seriously but slowly progressed over that time period to learn some fundamentals. Then a buddy of mine in school wanted to go to a different poolroom and was impressed that I could barely play at that point..lol. We got into action with other guys our age/experience, and I just got more serious from there. So...I guess if knocking balls at 10 counts I've been playing almost 20 years. I count really starting at age 16 since I was taking it more serious (gambling/tournaments).
 
I got a 6' pool table that went into my bedroom when I was 7 or 8.

The next year my parent's added a snooker room to the house and put in a 12' snooker table.

While I was never that serious in my youth, I played regularly and often by myself and kind of worked out a feel for the game.

It was only after university that I got serious when I realised I wasn't far short of guys who could make money out of the game in local pool comps. Soon enough I could make enough to get by or at least go to bars and come home with more money that I went out with :D
 
I started playin at 17 and have never looked back. It took me two weeks to run my first rack. It was weird I just picked up a cue and it just felt natural to me. I was fortunate because the owner of the local pool room let me play for free alot. I played everyday all day long and looking back I dont know what I would do if I had never picked up pool my life would be so boring. My only regrets is that I did not take the scholarships to play college baseball I did not want it to disrupt my pool practice. So now I just play pool and pay to go to college. Atleast I am happy
 
The Hamster said:
OTOH, I started at the advanced age of 52. I'll never be as good as I could have been if I'd started earlier.
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I started when I was 50 or 51, I really can't remember which as I have old-timer's (I only remember what I want to).

Reading these comments its no wonder to me that so many of you play so well. Obviously I will need to put in the thirty or forty more years to catch up!
:)
 
Guess that I started when I was about 10 or so. A friend down the street had a cheap table in his basement. We just banged balls at that point.

When I got into high school, I started going regularly to a couple of local pool parlors in the western Chicago suburbs of Glen Ellyn (Swank) and Wheaton (Lord and Lady). Nice places... good equipment. That would be back in the mid-60s.

Didn't become a student of the game until '95 or so. Wish that I had started that earlier.
 
My dad bought me a 6ft snooker table when I was 10 and I had it in my room for a good few years, and I played maybe once a week on a 6ft English bar table through college (hardly ever played snooker on a full-size table). Although I played maybe once a year on 6ft bar tables from then to age of 32 (two years ago), when I first discovered the 9ft tables here in the USA, I guess I still had the eye for it from when I was a kid, and I was an APA7 within no time. I just picked up things like english over the last couple of years. So yes, I think it does help a lot to start young.
 
I was hanging around poolrooms by the age of eight, but never played until my father bought a house and saw to it that a Brunswick Gold Crown 1 was one of the first additions. I'd guess I first played on it in May, 1969. I had just turned 11 years old. Sure enough, that unforgettable Brunswick Gold crown 1 is still there, and my father, who is nearing 80 years old and rarely plays, can still run a rack of straight pool.
 
I started in the 8-12 yr. old bracket, but never stuck with it. Been playing on and off since then. I plan on sticking with it more now, especially since I started my business and enjoy cues and cue building. I doubt that I'd ever want to make one, but just knowing how it's done is cool to me.:D Oh yeah, I have a hidden agenda to make the IPT when I'm 40 and I'll be 36 in June, sooo....I guess we'll see. :rolleyes:
 
How old were you when you started playing ?

10 yrs old at the fire house on a 5x10 brunswick. I was hooked and shooting pool was all I ever did, my friends all hunted, went fishing, swimming etc.
Not me always playing pool. Now that I have my pool room with 8 tables , I can`t stand to play anymore. Its a job now no fun for me to many interuptions.
 
Wasn't sure which category to put myself, as I started in college at age 18, but since I did everything after that, I put myself in the last category...except for one outing to my sister's brand new poolroom in her garage where I promptly tore the felt on my first time.

What a ride it's been!
 
sjm said:
I was hanging around poolrooms by the age of eight, but never played until my father bought a house and saw to it that a Brunswick Gold Crown 1 was one of the first additions. I'd guess I first played on it in May, 1969. I had just turned 11 years old. Sure enough, that unforgettable Brunswick Gold crown 1 is still there, and my father, who is nearing 80 years old and rarely plays, can still run a rack of straight pool.
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very nice, thank you
 
A buddy of mine took me to play pool for my first time ever on my 20th birthday. I had a high run of 4 balls and I was hooked. After that we would play once a week for about 5-6 hrs at a time. After about 6-8 months he was sick of playing, so I continued the tradition without him which is when I got serious into learning how to play.
 
I started playing as soon as I could see over the table, even before then my dad set me on the table to roll balls around. Around 5 or 6 I got my first cue, a bar cue sawed in half to fit me. Probably around 10 or 11 I started playing youth and adult leagues.
 
I remember first playing on my cousin's basement table when I was maybe 10 or 11. I was totally hooked right off and spent hours trying to run the balls, playing solo. It drove me nuts that I couldn't get from certain places to other places because I had no idea how to spin the ball, of course.

Didn't get much chance to play again (cousin's house was 1,000 miles away) until I got to college, at 17. Played a good bit then over the next several years in bars and pool halls, but never absorbed much more than the barest fundamentals. Ran 20+ balls a couple of times, but didn't shoot any too straight, and drifted away from the game in frustration.

Finally started taking the game more seriously (books, tapes, lessons, tourneys, cheap sets, watching the pros, etc.) 3 years ago. Maybe that's when I actually started playing.
 
Josh Palmer said:
I think you have to be introduced to it very early to 'learn to win'.
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Its not something you learn, its a personality trait in my opinion. Tiger Woods said that "you have to ask yourself. Do you just want to play your best? Do you want to play to win? Or do you just want to beat people?" Champions fall into the latter category.
 
Cameron Smith said:
Its not something you learn, its a personality trait in my opinion. Tiger Woods said that "you have to ask yourself. Do you just want to play your best? Do you want to play to win? Or do you just want to beat people?" Champions fall into the latter category.
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I would have to answer yes on all three questions, but Tiger has been playing all his life, so he wouldn't know the difference. He just wins. He doesn't ask himself if he 'has' what it takes, cause he has been doing well for so long. Not everyone does, but people get to a point where they actually learn to win. Take Shannon Daulton for instance. He was gambling, and only accepted winning by the time he was 13. The people that have the right talent, and start at an early age definitely have the advantage. I just think that people who start later in life can reach very high goals, but they would have to be extraordinary people to reach the platform that some have attained from playing since their youth.
 
I started playing in the Marines. I wasn't a big drinker. All there is to do is go to bars and clubs. I can't dance, so I started playing pool. I guess I should've taken up dancing.
 
1974, forget the excact date.

Nine years old. 3.5 x 7 foot table. Old bar box, Grapefruit cue ball, other 15 were worn, yet playable.

Watched my Uncle's (along with my Dad) play and drink beer when the table first came into the house, basement of course.

Watched my Dad's butt get beat over and over, once in a while he'd get a game.

Seeing him just shrug it off, taught me a lot, even before I picked up a stick.

When I picked up a cue for the first time, I knew then that billiards would be a never ending learning experiance. I also know that without it, life would be boring.

Thank you Mr. Mingaud (belated)
 
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