Is pool the most difficult sport for an Amateur to turn Pro?

[boogeyman]

Been doing some reading and just got curious. I just read some statistic that 20% of amateur boxers turn pro. I know the number for Pool players is way lower, just curious how low it actually is.

I don't know what the numbers are, but I would think if you had 100 players
who invested their resources and time properly into learning the game of pool,
you would probably get about 5 players who would turn pro (5%).

Now, that doesn't mean these players will make a proper living, it's just that the 5 players
would claim professional status, however recognized or unrecognized that might be.

 

[jasonlaus]

Yoga exploded in the last decade or so. I know many women who took up as a hobby, and now teach it professionally because there is money in it. Unfortunately there is no money in pool. If Yoga knowledge and skill was transposed to pool, we're talking C+s in Yoga being able to earn money teaching.

Pics please:grin-square:

 

[Cameron Smith]

Depends on how you define "amateur" and "pro". 20% is an extremely high percentage though so I think this can be calculated by comparing to other sports besides boxing, something like...

Baseball
- There are about 15 million baseball players in the US (at all levels/"have played baseball at all in the last 12 months").

- There's about 6600 pro players across major/minor/farm.

- 6600 is .044% of 15 Million

Pool
- The BCA says there are about 46 million people playing pool in the US ('have played at all in the last 12 months")

- There are about 1000 professional pool players (very rough guess)

- 1000 is .002% of 46 million

If we only count regular league players and assume there are 1 million league players then it's something like 2.17%

Where's Mike Page or that AtLarge dude when you need them? :grin:

You would have to count only league players and tournament players since that 46 million is diluted by those who play at the bar while drinking. But since that 46 million is in the US, and going by FargoRate the 100th ranked player in the US is at 711 which would seem to indicate that there are less than 100 pro level players in the US.

Also I believe that number professional baseball players also counts players from other countries, so you would need to take their playing percentages into account as well.

There are too many factors to really say if it's harder to become a pro. From a financial perspective, you need to better than your average pro to make even a modest living at the game. From a skill perspective, you need more than an aptitude for the game, you have to be in an area with access to tournaments, instructors and top players to watch, learn from and lose to. That doesn't make the game itself harder, just that the circumstances surrounding it is more challenging.

 

[KRJ]

baseball in general is considered the hardest to turn pro in.....



l

Tru Dat Had a friend that said he could hit 90mph at the cages... Ummm, yeah, you know where the pitch is going, and you can swing way early and look like you are a superstar.

Brought him to a "real" sports facility with a machine that throws major league curve balls.... I told him I'd buy him lunch for a year if he fouls off a pitch. He only gets 3 pitches..... The first pitch he jumped out of the way, and it was right down the middle. The next one buckled his knees and he could not swing. The 3rd pitch he "waved" at and missed by at least a foot.

I said you wanna try the 98 mph fastball, and he took a pass

 

[caff3in3]

pro bass fishing is a dream job for me
Traveling the country
Seeing new sites
Beauty lakes.
Good money prizes
Free 40k bass boats from time to time

Sign me up too! I can never get sick of fishing, or trying new places or gear.

By far my favorite way to spend time.



Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

 

[caff3in3]

Tru Dat Had a friend that said he could hit 90mph at the cages... Ummm, yeah, you know where the pitch is going, and you can swing way early and look like you are a superstar.

Brought him to a "real" sports facility with a machine that throws major league curve balls.... I told him I'd buy him lunch for a year if he fouls off a pitch. He only gets 3 pitches..... The first pitch he jumped out of the way, and it was right down the middle. The next one buckled his knees and he could not swing. The 3rd pitch he "waved" at and missed by at least a foot.

I said you wanna try the 98 mph fastball, and he took a pass

I would have bunted for the lunches

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

 

[Dockter]

Sign me up too! I can never get sick of fishing, or trying new places or gear.

By far my favorite way to spend time.



Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk

What are we classifying as a pro player? It's easy to tell in other sports but when it comes to pool what is a pro? If I decide I can live off $1,500 a month and hit all the bar tournaments I can and that's all I do would I be considered a pro since it's my main source of income?

Most tournaments anyone can sign up for so it's hard to determine what a pro is.. I would say it's easier to become a pro in pool if you don't mind a low paying job and can live off very little.

Off topic- Bowling is probably the easiest. Throw a 220 average and pay the membership fee and you get a pro card. I could have almost anyone doing it within a year if they really wanted to with the shot most places put down now.

 

[greyghost]

Tru Dat Had a friend that said he could hit 90mph at the cages... Ummm, yeah, you know where the pitch is going, and you can swing way early and look like you are a superstar.

Brought him to a "real" sports facility with a machine that throws major league curve balls.... I told him I'd buy him lunch for a year if he fouls off a pitch. He only gets 3 pitches..... The first pitch he jumped out of the way, and it was right down the middle. The next one buckled his knees and he could not swing. The 3rd pitch he "waved" at and missed by at least a foot.

I said you wanna try the 98 mph fastball, and he took a pass

yea i was one hell of a batter....always crazy high on base and hitting percentages, trained and worked with great coaches and pros and such.....and 90+ mph anything much less something moving lik a curve aint no joke.....

and if you think acurve is scary try watching a 85+ mph knuckleball.......your knees dont buckle, you cant even move becaue you feel like is going to track you down like a heat seeking missile no matter what you do lol....like watching a bee or hornet just dance in front of you knowing.....there is no hope.....i will die today lol

 

[deanoc]

it is really easy
just call yourself a pro
plenty do it

 

[greyghost]

it is really easy
just call yourself a pro
plenty do it

..........sweet

 

[PocketPooler]

Well yeah...agree...eventually. You said 1 year though.

I think i could reach a level in a year. A year is a long time. But, there's work, family, friends, etc. You'd have to be an ABSOLUTE hermit with bad sleep deprivation to accompmish this, and even at that, you would have to have some god given talent to help get you there. So is it really possible? No, i cant see it possible whatsoever. 2 -3 years is much more realistic but still tough.

 

[greyghost]

I think i could reach a level in a year. A year is a long time. But, there's work, family, friends, etc. You'd have to be an ABSOLUTE hermit with bad sleep deprivation to accompmish this, and even at that, you would have to have some god given talent to help get you there. So is it really possible? No, i cant see it possible whatsoever. 2 -3 years is much more realistic but still tough.

took Jennifer Baretta 5....and you couldn't pick or make better choices about how, who and such as she did.

 

[(((Satori)))]

If pool paid more you would see a lot of people who would make the game look easy. The Filipino's have that effect.

On the other hand, only a handful of people will ever make it to the NFL no matter how well it pays.

 

[trfitters]

Making it to the PGA Tour in golf is infinitely harder. Anyone can step up and play in a professional pool tournament and win money. There are no rules when it comes to eligibility like there are in other sports. Being a professional golfer is not hard but playing at the highest level is a totally different story. I'm a scratch golfer and I could play professional baseball before I played on the PGA Tour and maintained status.

 

[KRJ]

. I'm a scratch golfer and I could play professional baseball before I played on the PGA Tour and maintained status.

Not bloody likely. Hitting a ball sitting on a tee, versus hitting one being thrown at you at 95mph, and moving in different directions. Please, big difference.

In golf, you have the ball already, and can take all time in the world to hit with nobody playing defense. In baseball, the other team has the ball, does not want you to touch it, let alone hit it, and there are 9 guys trying to stop you besides the pitcher.

There is a reason someone gets a $300M contract in baseball, you gotta win a lot of golf tournaments to win $300M

 

[gunzby]

Of course it's much lower......

Think of a lower paying sport other than pro pool.... bass fisherman make oodles more than pro pool players.

But correlation is not causation.... so think of the number of amateur golfers out there, and the number of pro golfers in the circuit. I'm not so sure what the percentage is supposed to reflect, other than how many people actually want to turn pro.

For a KVD type fisherman that's true, but for the also rans not so much when you consider the costs of being a pro fishermen. I remember reading a blunt article on the costs of turning pro in BASS. It said costs are around $70,000 a year and that is going cheap (sleeping in your car, or a campground and eating cheap). The guy who wrote it won something like $250,000 that year in a tournament. He said that basically had him breaking even with all the debt he accrued over the last couple years to stay on tour.

 

[one stroke]

baseball in general is considered the hardest to turn pro in.....



speaking of yoga.....

i find it appalling that people send their kids to dance lessons......generally costing 50$ per hour for a CLASS setting with many many other kids......

i had a friend that was sending her kid to some know nothing for such lessons, just common dance instructor, no one special.......complaining about cost.....i said ya know remember i sang for the second ranked choir in nation....she says "yes".....well one of the families who had 3 kids in there, they teach voice and piano lessons for 15$/half hour for either or...the kids all teach, the parents are both professionals (well the kids are all pros now too)....ONE on ONE......

talk about a dam racket right there....i swear the only reason to pu tyour kids in dance....is so they can learn to dance and grow up to rip off other kids an their parents for 50/hr......

just about evey other thing i can think about that lessons can cost even LESS than that....your getting one on one instruction.

pool lessons are cheap compared to lots of stuff, ad generally we get them one on one.

think lessons are expensive? what if ever intructor here and out there all gave classes for 50$ hr that included 25+ people in it........then we couldstart talking about the instructor "illuminatti" lol

Any team sport would be harder by a wide margin
1

 

[Paul Dayton]

Yeah, but in baseball if you have a contract, which you do, a bad year won't put you out of a job. They're not really comparable sports but if you think all you have to do to play on the Tour is just hit a little white ball up on a stick, you ought to try to hit one 300 yards onto a 25 foot wide fairway. The top 125 players get to keep their card next year. How many major league baseball players are there?

 

[(((Satori)))]

Not bloody likely. Hitting a ball sitting on a tee, versus hitting one being thrown at you at 95mph, and moving in different directions. Please, big difference.

In golf, you have the ball already, and can take all time in the world to hit with nobody playing defense. In baseball, the other team has the ball, does not want you to touch it, let alone hit it, and there are 9 guys trying to stop you besides the pitcher.

There is a reason someone gets a $300M contract in baseball, you gotta win a lot of tournaments to win $300M

Before I dig in to this post I will start by saying I agree with you. Baseball is tougher.


But the difference in baseball and golf is consistency. Golf like pool requires consistency in order to win. In baseball you get a hit 3 times out of 10 and you are a great player. What I'm saying is it's not as easy as saying it's tougher to hit the ball in baseball so baseball is a tougher sport because it's damn tough to be consistent enough to play top notch golf.

Having said all of that, I still say baseball is tougher though because sports like golf and pool are all mental. Baseball, as you know is incredibly mental also but also physical too. Imo, the toughest sports are require both mental and physical and baseball is probably one of the toughest, you have to be quick, have a good arm, good coordination, the mental aspects. It's one of the toughest for sure.

 

[trfitters]

Not bloody likely. Hitting a ball sitting on a tee, versus hitting one being thrown at you at 95mph, and moving in different directions. Please, big difference.

In golf, you have the ball already, and can take all time in the world to hit with nobody playing defense. In baseball, the other team has the ball, does not want you to touch it, let alone hit it, and there are 9 guys trying to stop you besides the pitcher.

There is a reason someone gets a $300M contract in baseball, you gotta win a lot of golf tournaments to win $300M

I wouldn't have to hit the ball. I would be a pitcher.

Golfers on average make considerably more than baseball players if you take endorsements into it. They also have higher expenses because of travel. You can't really compare, as they are quite different sports, but to answer the OP, pool is probably the easiest of any major sport to make money as a professional.