Is Someone That Competes at Pool Considered an Athlete

Playing pool recreational like playing basketball, tennis or football recreational,

JB Cases said:
No, most pool pros are NOT in horrible physical shape.
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It seems surprising that anyone would think the top pros are out of shape. You can see on Face book the pros are always working out and playing golf, tennis, weights, etc.

I'm a Second Degree Black Belt Instructor in the study of 8 Martial Arts (with a foundation in Shaolin Kung Fu), mountain bike regularly (as does other top pros) and I'm probably not the top athlete in pool by any means.

Playing pool recreational like playing basketball, tennis or football recreational, it's not the "real thing".
 
BullBuchanan said:
Personally, I don't consider pool a sport, or by relation, its competitors athletes. This is not to say that a pool player cannot be an athlete, and indeed there are many that are in great physical shape, and use it to their advantage at the table. Being in good shape, however, is not a pre-requisite for success. For this same reason, I consider golf a game. Anything that Minnesota Fats or John Daly can do is not a sport.

I think the golden rule should be this. If you can drink & smoke while you do it, it can't be in the sport category.;)

I do lots of "competitive games/activities": Pool, Poker, Darts, Chess, Target Shooting, but I am by no means an "athlete".
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As was said earlier you can drink and smoke while doing any sport. I assume you mean drink and smoke in general because you can't actually drink and smoke while at the pool table under the rules. You could of course smoke while shooting but you can smoke while performing most activities as well.

It's funny because I have been listening to the commentary at the Jay Swanson memorial and one of the stories was that Jay was very agile despite being large and fat. He would bet people that he could kick an object above his head and anyone who didn't know him would always take that bet on the assumption that a person of his size could not possibly do it. And yet, he would do it and get the money.
 
I feel that a good poolplayer is an 'athletic nerd' who treads a fine line between
perfectionism and OCD.
In many conversations over the years, I recognized bonds with boxing, golf,
chess, backgammon, and martial arts.

I had a long talk with the fiercest man I knew...about how we felt in action.
Naturally, I was fascinated with his insight, but he was equally fascinated
with my experience...he was amazed at the similarity.

So we need a special name for our devotees...athgamers?..a little lame perhaps.

The Greeks may have a word for it...their language has over ten times the
vocabulary of English.
 
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For me, athletics at its purest is competition that displays the beauty and limits of human form and ability. I mean, the original Olympics from Ancient Greece were played in the nude presumably for that reason (and maybe for other reasons that I won't get into here). In that sense, I think it's a bit of a stretch to consider pool a sport, although I can see JB's point that pool involves at least some physicality (and sorry about your neck, by the way--I hope that gets better for you). But I'm not entirely convinced that physicality in an activity should denote it as a sport. Drummers can get pretty physical at a concert, depending on genre, but is playing the drums a sport? Yoga involves some level of flexibility and physicality, but is that a sport?

I think most of the disagreement is that we can't agree on the boundary between a sport and a game, which is complicated by the fact that there is considerable overlap between the two. Can you be fat? Can you drink or smoke? Do they show it on ESPN? With so many factors people are bringing into the discussion there's no way we're ever going to really convince each other that pool players are athletes beyond personal opinion. But as long as I feel good when I'm there at the table, pool players can be considered athletes or criminals or whatever else--I'm still going to play pool.
 
CJ Wiley said:
It seems surprising that anyone would think the top pros are out of shape. You can see on Face book the pros are always working out and playing golf, tennis, weights, etc.

I'm a Second Degree Black Belt Instructor in the study of 8 Martial Arts (with a foundation in Shaolin Kung Fu), mountain bike regularly (as does other top pros) and I'm probably not the top athlete in pool by any means.

Playing pool recreational like playing basketball, tennis or football recreational, it's not the "real thing".
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CJ, I guess out of shape is a subjective thingy.
Let's put it this way. I used to swim and play basketball a little. I competed a little in 200 free style. Then one day while in Mexico, my friend and I made a racing bet. He thought he could swim fast. I beat him in frkn 25-yard race.
I guess b/c I swam for 25 yards in decent speed, I wasn't in horrible shape.
But, I considered myself in freakin horrible shape for so being gassed out after the short race.
I used to jump at around 32".
When I worked out at my gym months ago, I was no frkn no way close to that. My body fat % is around 16%. After getting back to working out, I can work out now w/out getting totally exhausted. I did " Turbo Time " workout one Saturday at the gym ( some cardio workout including as many push-ups, sit-ups and hops you can in a minute; 3 times ). Some people quit. I finished and lost about 1/4" in the waistline. To me, I was still in horrible shape that day.
Now, last night I was watching Busta, Alcano and Dennis. Busta and Alcano have the spider body now to me. They're skinny but they have pouches. Dennis actually works-out but now has a gut too. I think Dennis would be the first one to tell you he's in horrible shape now. He has to play for a living.
Late nights, travel and road food .
Let's upgrade the pro players to OK shape then. Let's just consider those with 30%+ body fat as in horrible shape.
 
Dont think you can call a professional pool player an athlete...

1. There's no real "defense." Obviously you can make a nice shot and stick the guy in a tough spot but your opponent can't actually do anything to effect your shot while your playing.

2. The other big flaw I see in calling a pool player an athlete is it takes 0 athleticism to be good at pool. You could be the clumsiest most uncoordinated person in your pool hall.... but if you practice enough and for a long enough time you can become a good pool player and end up beating anyone in your hall with a break and run (see point 1). I say that in comparison with something like basketball... you can practice all you want but you'll never beat MJ at 1-on-1..... ever. But with pool I could play Efren, win the lag break and run on him and all the sudden I beat him so I'm better than him?

3. Last is... C'mon we all know what an athlete is... I know you've seen people before that are animals on the felt but the guy looks like he couldnt jump 6" off the ground if his life depended on it, that guys not an athlete..

-I don't mean to bag on pool (obviously I registered for this forum) I absolutely love the game and think I'll play for the rest of my life.. but I just dont think it would be fair to compare Earl Strickland and LeBron James :D

-Anyways open to discussion of course!
 
CJ Wiley said:
It seems surprising that anyone would think the top pros are out of shape. You can see on Face book the pros are always working out and playing golf, tennis, weights, etc.

I'm a Second Degree Black Belt Instructor in the study of 8 Martial Arts (with a foundation in Shaolin Kung Fu), mountain bike regularly (as does other top pros) and I'm probably not the top athlete in pool by any means.

Playing pool recreational like playing basketball, tennis or football recreational, it's not the "real thing".
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I love to mountain bike myself. That certainly gives a great workout while having a lot of fun.

I have competed in athletics all my life, some more physically demanding than others. While I love playing pool. I just don't see it as an athletic event. It certainly requires stamina, but it is more mental
Stamina to remain focused than physical stamina. Certainly being in better shape helps that, but it would help a chess player also.

I think drilling in pool requires more stamina than playing does. None the less, the overall experience of pool is not one of athleticism. It does require certain physical skills such as hand eye coordination, but those physical requirements do not equate one to being an athlete in my mind.

None of that changes the great difficulty involved in this game and the high skill level it requires to perform. I would still argue that it is as hard as any other game or sport out their to master. I just don't think it is an athletic event.
 
CJ Wiley said:
It seems surprising that anyone would think the top pros are out of shape. You can see on Face book the pros are always working out and playing golf, tennis, weights, etc.

I'm a Second Degree Black Belt Instructor in the study of 8 Martial Arts (with a foundation in Shaolin Kung Fu), mountain bike regularly (as does other top pros) and I'm probably not the top athlete in pool by any means.

Playing pool recreational like playing basketball, tennis or football recreational, it's not the "real thing".
Click to expand...

This is true BUT the gap between a guy that plays pool as a hobby and the pro is much smaller of a difference than the guy that plays pick up basketball regularly compared to a guy in the NBA.
 
a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games

JoshKC said:
Dont think you can call a professional pool player an athlete...

1. There's no real "defense." Obviously you can make a nice shot and stick the guy in a tough spot but your opponent can't actually do anything to effect your shot while your playing.

2. The other big flaw I see in calling a pool player an athlete is it takes 0 athleticism to be good at pool. You could be the clumsiest most uncoordinated person in your pool hall.... but if you practice enough and for a long enough time you can become a good pool player and end up beating anyone in your hall with a break and run (see point 1). I say that in comparison with something like basketball... you can practice all you want but you'll never beat MJ at 1-on-1..... ever. But with pool I could play Efren, win the lag break and run on him and all the sudden I beat him so I'm better than him?

3. Last is... C'mon we all know what an athlete is... I know you've seen people before that are animals on the felt but the guy looks like he couldnt jump 6" off the ground if his life depended on it, that guys not an athlete..

-I don't mean to bag on pool (obviously I registered for this forum) I absolutely love the game and think I'll play for the rest of my life.. but I just dont think it would be fair to compare Earl Strickland and LeBron James :D

-Anyways open to discussion of course!
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There's no real defense in pool? My only question is "do you gamble?" :wink:

Again, here is the "strict definition" from Websters and the link to see for yourself. An athlete can play either a sport, a game or an exercise. I'm not interested in "if pool is a sport or game," that's subjective and a matter of opinion.

However, the dictionary says an athlete can play a game requiring strength, agility, OR stamina. Are there really opinions that pool requires none of these? And again, my question is "do you gamble?" :groucho: I'm kidding of course, however, the answer appears obvious.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/athlete
Definition of ATHLETE: a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina
 
Are "free throws" and "spot shots" a similar, skillful comparison?

JoshKC said:
This is true BUT the gap between a guy that plays pool as a hobby and the pro is much smaller of a difference than the guy that plays pick up basketball regularly compared to a guy in the NBA.
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I bet if a NBA basket ball player spotted Johnny Archer a 10% spot in making free throws he would lose.

I'll also bet if Johnny spotted the NBA basketball player a 10% spot in shooting "spot shots" he would win.

Are "free throws" and "spot shots" a similar, skillful comparison? I would have to say they are as close as you can get with the two games.
 
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