I was playing a top player last night getting my nuts shot off, my freind from Zimbabwe was watching, he has very little exposier to pool, there just isnt much pool in Africa.
He has seen me beat him a couple times a few years ago, I played good against him but not great several years ago and I explained how I was looking at the patterns and moving the CB to set up the run-out. Simple position play that a C player would understand. When I showed him what I was doing he clearly understood why and how. He is very smart to say the least, he is a professional hunter and is a mechnic on cars as well.
After my nightly beating he commented to me "All I saw was a bunch of balls going every which way" This was hardly the case I was playing a top player and he was just running out on me nothing fancy playing 9 ball-he didnt miss often, I played bad, my back wasnt the problem I just played bad, but my point is here is a 34 year old man who is handy with a gun, mechnics etc and has seen basically no pool in his life and to him it looked like a mess of balls on the table when infact it was a champion playing tight shape very good, not bangers where it is a mess of balls.
I thought about that for a while and realized that thats what most people see when they watch pool and why it dosent sell, look at the NBA, NFL, MLB and golf and soccer, all those games have a simple objective get the ball in 1 or 2 holes or to the end of the field, pool is much more complicated at first glance, since people for the most part,me too, like it the easy way they are attracted to simple games and side step complicated ones, seen chess on TV recently??? same thing for pool its just to much, I told him the objective but he couldnt make sence of it, and thats why pool is where its at, KT had it right 8ball because more people "get-it" with that game but to people like my friend who has never been exposed to it they wont take the time to learn it,
I explained to him that who I was playing was a elite player, he thought I was, I cleared that up fast, i said I'm a accomplished player but far from elite, he replied "how do you understand whats going on?" thats from a very smart well travelled person, pool is to complicated to be self taught for the masses learn and become fans like the major sports, NBA 2 teams 2 holes 1 ball, you do the math.....
they did get into socity in the UK and a few other countrys but that was long ago in simpler times, we have a uphill battle to say the least. what ever happened to bumper pool tables in the Sears and Wards catalogs???
He has seen me beat him a couple times a few years ago, I played good against him but not great several years ago and I explained how I was looking at the patterns and moving the CB to set up the run-out. Simple position play that a C player would understand. When I showed him what I was doing he clearly understood why and how. He is very smart to say the least, he is a professional hunter and is a mechnic on cars as well.
After my nightly beating he commented to me "All I saw was a bunch of balls going every which way" This was hardly the case I was playing a top player and he was just running out on me nothing fancy playing 9 ball-he didnt miss often, I played bad, my back wasnt the problem I just played bad, but my point is here is a 34 year old man who is handy with a gun, mechnics etc and has seen basically no pool in his life and to him it looked like a mess of balls on the table when infact it was a champion playing tight shape very good, not bangers where it is a mess of balls.
I thought about that for a while and realized that thats what most people see when they watch pool and why it dosent sell, look at the NBA, NFL, MLB and golf and soccer, all those games have a simple objective get the ball in 1 or 2 holes or to the end of the field, pool is much more complicated at first glance, since people for the most part,me too, like it the easy way they are attracted to simple games and side step complicated ones, seen chess on TV recently??? same thing for pool its just to much, I told him the objective but he couldnt make sence of it, and thats why pool is where its at, KT had it right 8ball because more people "get-it" with that game but to people like my friend who has never been exposed to it they wont take the time to learn it,
I explained to him that who I was playing was a elite player, he thought I was, I cleared that up fast, i said I'm a accomplished player but far from elite, he replied "how do you understand whats going on?" thats from a very smart well travelled person, pool is to complicated to be self taught for the masses learn and become fans like the major sports, NBA 2 teams 2 holes 1 ball, you do the math.....
they did get into socity in the UK and a few other countrys but that was long ago in simpler times, we have a uphill battle to say the least. what ever happened to bumper pool tables in the Sears and Wards catalogs???
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