This right here. It's the same for any endeavor. You can never outwork your talent. Great players are hard workers who had natural talent. There are levels to everything, and to reach the highest level of something takes God-given natural ability.
How To Get A Really Good Player
- Thread starter Sharivari
- Start date
Natural talent and starting at a very young age really helps. And when you say practice a lot you need to understand that unless you are extremely talented, that means a minimum of like 30+ hours a week for 10+ years - nearly the equivalent of a full time job.
My take on this is that it depends.
If one start very young age. He got huge advantage over those that start learning later on life. That how our human brain just works.
So young age starters: Just play and practice as much they can and brain naturally pick a lot of good stuff for learn. Neurocircuits are then very adaptive and learning is very easy.
Those who want to get better and good on later on life(18+) route is lil different. Then you need right kind of practice that will create more neuroplasticity. Also getting to competitive with as good players that one can find, helps a lot. It motivates and gives lessons that one cannot find just in practice.
here is what is neuroplasticity:
Huberman have many episodes where you can learn about learning.
Here is one for those that are interested.
I keep still improving at age of 48 and most of my skills i got after age of 33.
If one start very young age. He got huge advantage over those that start learning later on life. That how our human brain just works.
So young age starters: Just play and practice as much they can and brain naturally pick a lot of good stuff for learn. Neurocircuits are then very adaptive and learning is very easy.
Those who want to get better and good on later on life(18+) route is lil different. Then you need right kind of practice that will create more neuroplasticity. Also getting to competitive with as good players that one can find, helps a lot. It motivates and gives lessons that one cannot find just in practice.
here is what is neuroplasticity:
Huberman have many episodes where you can learn about learning.
Here is one for those that are interested.
I keep still improving at age of 48 and most of my skills i got after age of 33.
Check out the peer reviewed studies on NIH if you want real data.
I don't agree. We are all born with natural attributes. Some blessed with better than others, but those same attributes can be taken to whatever level you're willing to achieve. I'm speaking of non naturals. Naturals have a peak beyond which they cant go further.
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The Old Jaybird
Well-known member
You need the following...
God-given talent, hand-eye coordination, excellent eyesight, physical abilities, mental skills to plan a pattern on the table, commitment to LOTS of GOOD practice, not just shooting balls around but doing so with a plan and purpose, an inner drive to improve and become the best you can be, above average intelligence to learn, remember and apply these skills and knowledge.
And an old man or uncle who owns a pool room.
God-given talent, hand-eye coordination, excellent eyesight, physical abilities, mental skills to plan a pattern on the table, commitment to LOTS of GOOD practice, not just shooting balls around but doing so with a plan and purpose, an inner drive to improve and become the best you can be, above average intelligence to learn, remember and apply these skills and knowledge.
And an old man or uncle who owns a pool room.
Flowchart to excellence right there!!
Better equipment Only exponentially helps Better players!
Because they know how to take Full Advantage of the innovations!
I went through a time where every other day I would play left handed, except for breaking. It was great. I would be mentally drained after just an hour or two, probably less at first.
Eventually I got to a point where I’d forget just for a second which hand was my off hand. I’d get to a shot that was a reach for my off hand and I’d switch back to normal and wonder if I was coming or going.
It’s a major advantage for sure. I’ll have to get back into that habit
Cicerone88
Active member
Don’t forget how important seasoning is. It might not be as vital if your goal is house pro level, but if you want to be a world beater you have to play everybody and play everywhere. And then you need to figure out how to bring your game when you’re up against the top guys at big events/money matches. Each new experience is a lesson.
xX-Wizard-Xx
Well-known member
The very first thing is install a Royal oak tip and use sports craft chalk ..... After that it's all down hill
The Old Jaybird
Well-known member
I own 3 very nice player cues, a Joss and 2 Schons.
My playing level these days is about on par with a $14.99 aluminum cue with screw on 14 mm tip from K-Mart.
My playing level these days is about on par with a $14.99 aluminum cue with screw on 14 mm tip from K-Mart.
The athletic pyramid. To reach the top in any sport. An elite talent and mind are necessary along with an ocd like determination and an unyielding amount of self-confidence. Lack any of these and the pinnacle is out of reach. Can't ride a single gift to the top. A chink in any, all the hard work and talent alone leaves the rest of us somewhere below the top point. Once reached, new factors come into to play. New talents and our undefeated foe, time.
Hard job.
Josh Filler and Fedor Gorst probably standing on the point presently.
Hard job.
Josh Filler and Fedor Gorst probably standing on the point presently.
Q ~ How To Get A Really Good Player
A ~ Let it be known you're wealthy and willing to
gamble, the really good players will find you. lol
A ~ Let it be known you're wealthy and willing to
gamble, the really good players will find you. lol
Someone with talent or skills that serve an activity well learn faster. Hard to say they have a higher ceiling. I have studied those that were world class since I was a child, world class at almost anything. A man was an olympic gold medalist shooting a pistol one handed duelist style. He lost his arm in an accident and came back to win another gold medal with the other hand. There are many stories of world champions overcoming great adversity to become champions again. Sicknesses or injuries that kept them in bed for many months and left their bodies wasted away. Having to learn to walk again. Coming back to win. Just watched a runner doing a face plant in a fairly short race, 600 meters I believe. She came back to win.
Speaking for me personally, I was one of the worst pool players ever! It took me six months of near nightly effort to win more beer than I lost in bars. Once I started winning more than losing I kept raising the level of competition I played against and kept winning. The time came that when I was holding home field advantage few road players could even break even. I could take the other local shortstops.
As much as anything else it was simply a refusal to lose. I was known as slow and clumsy as a child and adolescent. Few noticed my timing and accuracy. In later years I selected things that I was best able to compete at. No way I would be a distance runner but I beat one on the pool table. I ran very well, with a stock car or sprint car wrapped around me! Later in life I found a gift for shooting pistols fast but I didn't try to run and gun. I shot benchrest rifle too, that took a lot of expertise but only a bit of talent.
Being good at something is a matter of liking it enough to work like hell at it. One gift I did have as a teenager and young adult, I needed very little sleep. I could go twelve or fourteen days on two hours of sleep a night, sleep twelve to eighteen hours and repeat the cycle. This let me work or go to school and still have plenty of time for pool and other things like building my race cars. When I was ready to sleep I was ready! I have slept a few feet in front of concert amplifiers or with stock cars passing a couple three feet from me while I slept on the inside pit wall with a foot dropped on either side of it to keep from falling.
You can do almost anything at a high level if you want to badly enough. There is so much information available now it is almost easy to play pool very well. The catch is that so many people can learn to play very well that it is harder than ever to cross the tiny gap between "very well" and elite, top handful in the world.
Hu
Speaking for me personally, I was one of the worst pool players ever! It took me six months of near nightly effort to win more beer than I lost in bars. Once I started winning more than losing I kept raising the level of competition I played against and kept winning. The time came that when I was holding home field advantage few road players could even break even. I could take the other local shortstops.
As much as anything else it was simply a refusal to lose. I was known as slow and clumsy as a child and adolescent. Few noticed my timing and accuracy. In later years I selected things that I was best able to compete at. No way I would be a distance runner but I beat one on the pool table. I ran very well, with a stock car or sprint car wrapped around me! Later in life I found a gift for shooting pistols fast but I didn't try to run and gun. I shot benchrest rifle too, that took a lot of expertise but only a bit of talent.
Being good at something is a matter of liking it enough to work like hell at it. One gift I did have as a teenager and young adult, I needed very little sleep. I could go twelve or fourteen days on two hours of sleep a night, sleep twelve to eighteen hours and repeat the cycle. This let me work or go to school and still have plenty of time for pool and other things like building my race cars. When I was ready to sleep I was ready! I have slept a few feet in front of concert amplifiers or with stock cars passing a couple three feet from me while I slept on the inside pit wall with a foot dropped on either side of it to keep from falling.
You can do almost anything at a high level if you want to badly enough. There is so much information available now it is almost easy to play pool very well. The catch is that so many people can learn to play very well that it is harder than ever to cross the tiny gap between "very well" and elite, top handful in the world.
Hu
That is the neuroplasticity mentioned previously.
You grew new connections by doing exactly what you did.
Unfortunately, unless those new connections are used regularly, they shrink and carry less of an effect over time.
Will you give me the last 3?? You're way better than I am.
I can tell you aren't a natural Hu. The fact you have no ceiling is proof of that. I would get frustrated early on as some players just seemed to get it, and had an actual stroke while I struggled, banging away until one day it all finally clicked.
Always been like that for me.
Never looked back.
I'm the only player in my family that struggled to learn this game. Father and brother seemed to take to it like gravy. I was a fish out of water for quite a while. I'm still learning things about this game. Might be stuff I've forgotten over the years, but it's all new to me, so ...
If you can't hit the cue ball within .5 - 1 mm of center or where you aim consistently, forget about becoming a world beater.
When I tested that very thing I found that most people weren't trying to hit an exact spot. When I told them where to hit the nine ball that I was using as a cue ball or to hit the spot on the cue ball for the spin I wanted they didn't pay much attention to where they hit the cue ball and even A+ players and shortstops didn't hit the exact spot. Only when I told them the purpose of the test was to hit the exact spot on the cue ball did they do so.
It wasn't that they couldn't hit the cue ball with great precision, they didn't feel the need to even shooting a pretty tough cut shot. Not sure how that plays into overall skills, might hurt them on really tough shots though.
Hu