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
Double-Dave

Double-Dave

Developing cue-addict
Silver Member
In a lot off sports the ones that really excel almost always started the sport at a very young age, like 6 or so. I think it has something to do with muscle memory and perhaps even influencing the way your body develops.

I started playing pool at the age of 17 and for me when I don't practice a lot, my game goes downhill real fast. Is this the same for people who started playing pool at a young age? I started pistol-shooting at the age of 10 and it seems to come much more natural to me. Curious to know if this also applies to pool.
 
I don't remember not playing Dave. We had a GC in our basement from day 1. I have gone long spells (up to a year) without playing, and I might lose 20% of my speed. It's not shot making I lose, it's remembering the little things like leaving angles and strategy.

G.
 
I learned to hold a stick and shoot at a very young age, it wasnt until later, around 21 that I got serious about pool.
 
Double-Dave said:
In a lot off sports the ones that really excel almost always started the sport at a very young age, like 6 or so. I think it has something to do with muscle memory and perhaps even influencing the way your body develops.

I started playing pool at the age of 17 and for me when I don't practice a lot, my game goes downhill real fast. Is this the same for people who started playing pool at a young age? I started pistol-shooting at the age of 10 and it seems to come much more natural to me. Curious to know if this also applies to pool.
Click to expand...

I started playing in my late teens and then only sporatically because I lived in a small towns and the closest room was 30 miles away in Boston, though there may have been one 20 miles away in Plymouth.
When I went in the service at 21 I played more often but not more than twice a month.
After the service school then raising a family had no money and no time and was lucky to play once or twice a year.
At about 54, my kids were out of high school, some out of college and I had more time and money on my hands. I started playing seriously at that time. I didn't know about ratings back then, but I doubt I would have qualified as a "D" player. Since then I've improved to probably a 'C'/'C+' and play whenever I can. Maybe I'll be able to call myself a 'B' before I'm dead, but it's getting significantly tougher to improve all the time.
 
I started playing in 1974 when i was 14. My mom had joined a Bowling league and i would go with her. I did not like bowling, so i was bored and
walked into the Billiard room at the Crown bowling alley. For X-mas 74
my mom gave me my very first Pool Cue, a Championship Cue in a flip top case. It was a cheap stick the kind with a screw on tip. I still have that stick and it is straight as an arrow. I hade Wayne Gunn convert it to a normal glue on tip in 1987.:)
 
I was banging ball around in the early teens.. but didn't start playing serious until I was in college.. so around 18-19... i remember my first cue, it was a cheapo graphite that I wouldn't pay 25 cents for today...ahh.. memories
 
Think it was 1954, or 1955 I was first introduced in to the game of Pool at the Boys Club of America in Miami, Florida. Half a Century later I am still playing, loving, and trying to learn how to play Pool better than my competition. I was 7 or 8 Y/O's
 
6 or 7, my uncle gave us a small step stool to stand on so we could play the game at a better hight. That snooker table looked as big as a house to me.
 
Double-Dave said:
In a lot off sports the ones that really excel almost always started the sport at a very young age, like 6 or so.
Click to expand...

That's true - look at kids like John Morra. Plus he had the advantage of having 2 pro's for parents...

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.
 
Ahh...the summer or '79...coming home after that last day of school only to find a truck in front of the house...run up the street, in the house, down to the basement, and there it was...a Pool Table! That would make me 13 going on 14...Dad got the table as a reward for good grades! So you see kids it education really does pay! :D

now go practice...uhh...I mean study! ;)
 
I began playing in 1967 when I was 7. My Grandfather bought a Sears 8' table for the basement. It was a cheapie, had a composite (fiberboard) bed. It was the kind of table that if you hit it soft enough up the long rail, you could pocket it in the side. There were low ceilings, and (2) support poles in the way- which made for some interesting position-play. Still. Grandpa kept it clean, level and it actually rolled pretty nicely.
I was only able to play weekends- when we were taken there to be "babysat" by Grandma. Whenever there, I spent HOURS in the basement. Within 3-years I was regularly beating Grandpa... At age 12, he started taking me to The Polish Falcons (bar/club) where his Slovak friends from General Electric hung out to play pinoccle(sp?), cards, and Pool. Granddad would stake (small) me against his friends. I bought my first Cue in 1974- A $14.95 Brunswick from K-mart (still have it). Unfortunately- we moved 100 miles away from Grandpa's- and I pretty much didn't play (seriously) again until I was about 20.

Ray <--misses Grandpa
 
My dad bought a pool table when I was about seven (the table came from the legendary Gilleys in Pasadena). I had to get a stool to see over the table. I didn't really start playing a lot until I was about thirteen. My mom was going to college and made me go during the summer and I shot pool in a game room there. The pool coach saw me in there everyday playing for hours on end and taught me a bunch of stuff. Played in local tournaments since I was 13 (mom had to take me to the bar so I could get in!) and took off about two years for college. Now I play about 1-4 hours a day.
 
Since before I could tie my own shoes

Just after I had turned four years old, my parents bought a new house that came with a pool table. It was not a high quality table, and didn't even have a slate bed. However, it was good enough to learn the rules of eight ball on.

A few years later, we traded the cheap eight foot table for a better quality (slate) seven footer. I probably averaged an hour of play a day on that table for nearly a decade, until I was old enough to go to bars and pool halls to play.

I can't say I've ever played seriously. It has always been about the fun, and not about the win. However, I used to go to different bars and see how inexpensively I could play all night. Anytime I could hold the table for an hour or more with a single game worth of quarters, I considered it all good. Even better was when I could play all night only paying for a single game.

I've never really had any real indication of my speed, as I haven't played many tournaments. My favorite, most memorable times playing have been against much better players who offered learning opportunities instead of winning opportunities.
 
Ditto the YMCA when I was 8 or 9. What a great organization the YMCA was back in the day (may still be in some areas). The Y kept me and a whole lot of other kids occupied, mentally challenged, and in shape when we otherwise would have been getting into trouble. I think sitting in front of a monitor or Playstation is a poor substitute for the Y, Boys' Club and Scouts. The ONLY advantage to entering Geezerland is the enjoyment of spouting off about the "good ol' days" and knowing that the young 'ens are gnashing their teeth and spitting at the screen. Spit on, misguided youth!
 
20 yrs old... too old I think! lol I only know of Tang Hoa who started around that age and played great. I think you have to be introduced to it very early to 'learn to win'. Damn parents.... never had a pool table in the house. I asked for one when I was 10, and 4 yrs in a row. I always got the same reply from my dad.... "We already had one, and no one ever uses it- it just get's in the way" :mad:
 
my dad owned a bar so i started there. i was too short and had the keith mccready wing stroke and if you dont have that kind of talent and dont practice enough it is really hard to be consistent. it took me months to be able to play with my elbow straight
 
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.
Click to expand...

Yes Dave, but guys who started late like us have the distinct advantage of assuming we would have been Efren if only ... :D
 
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