Neil said:
I don't know if you are referring to me or not. But I am one of those down on leagues. Let me start by saying that if you are for leagues and like that kind of pool, more power to you. What really gets me going is when people say that leagues are good for pool. THEY AREN'T! They are good for the bars and poolrooms that serve alcohol, and not much more than that.
Do some good players play? Sure. It's a nice ego boost to be known as a player around a bunch of lower handicaps. Who doesn't like that kind of attention?
But lets look at some points here. How much do you play in your league? 4-5 games tops. And how long are you there? About 4-5 hours? And that is called getting people to play pool? No, that's called getting bodies in the room. 90% of those league players ONLY play on league night. They aren't really trying to get better. After all, if they get better, their handicap gets raised, then their team gets busted up. Don't want that to happen! So keep the handicaps down. There's no reward to practice during the week. To get better. To actually become a pool player. It's actually discouraged!
Now, I will give you this- they are good for the cue dealers and 'gotta have this new item' dealers. They are probably the bulk of their sales. On the other hand, they are the bain of the poolrooms. Very, very seldom wil you see a league player actually in a pool room practicing or playing . It does happen, but rarely. The percentage is amazingly low. When the leagues should be promoting pool, and getting people to practice and involved in the game.
Leagues have their place, but they could and should be doing much, much more to promote the actual game. Not discouraging it. It should be a stepping stone to better things, and for the most part, it's not. Sure, the occasional person will take to the game, and progress farther. But that is the exception, and it should be the rule.
And, no, I don't have the answers to 'fix' it. I have some, but they have been mentioned on here many times. It just irks me that so many think league pool is actually what pool is about. It's only a shadow of real pool IMHO.
Neil:
First, accolades to you for such a well-written and courageous post! Your thoughts come across loud and clear, and you use good analogies. I found myself nodding in acknowledgment at various times while reading your post.
I have to agree with you on all points, except for one seemingly minor detail. All your points are targeted at (and only apply to) one particular league -- the APA. (Granted, this is the largest league in North America, but saying "league = APA" is like saying "Internet = AOL." [Don't laugh -- in the days before broadband Internet access, a couple of family friends/acquaintances who'd asked me for my email address to stay in touch, noticed it didn't have the domain name "aol.com" and asked me the quite hilarious question, "oh, you're not online?" or the even more hilarious variant, "oh, you don't have Internet access?" Grrrr!] But I digress...)
I won't get into specifics, but I happen to run a league that is not afiliated with the APA whatsoever, yet the lion's share of its members are ex-APA. Only one member that I know of is ex-BCA, and that is because he was thrown out of the BCA for, at the time, he'd been trying to use APA mentality (e.g. sandbagging, intentionally playing within his handicap, or just in general playing games with the handicapping system to exploit it) and he got caught. He's coming dangerously close to being thrown out of my league as well, for even though he doesn't appear to mean it intentionally or exploitingly, he appears to not be capable of shaking the that APA school of thought. Once in a while when I do my rounds around the tables to observe the matches (as all good league operators should, IMHO), I overhear him saying things related to his captain or his teammates related to matching-up player so-and-so against a certain opponent, because he feels player so-and-so can't beat that particular opponent and his/her defeat would be "good for the team, because his/her handicap won't get raised." The captain of his team is a good guy, and when this player makes this mistake (seemingly he can't help it -- again, that APA mentality seems to be an ingrained school of thought), the captain jumps all over him. If that captain doesn't, I certainly do!
As far as I know, only the APA forcibly busts-up teams when the total handicap value of all players on that team exceeds a certain value. Other leagues don't do that. Either they'll impose a restriction whereby you can't play, say, two or more 7- or 8-handicap players in the same match, or, like my league, if your team chooses to do so, a certain percentage of your opposing team's ball count is lost. (In my league [8-ball, by the way], there are five matches per team match up; four of which are played by players, the fifth of which is a "ball count" match. Meaning, after all four matches are played, the ball count [opponent's balls still left on the table after the 8-ball is successfully pocketed] for every rack of each player is tallied, and the team with the least total ball count against them "wins" that fifth match. This was one of the many things that were introduced in my league to minimize sandbagging, but rather, to encourage a player to play to his/her ability, not his/her handicap, because the *team* is going to pay the price.)
One thing my league does as reward for someone sweeping their opponent, or a break and run, is to give them "free hour of pool" access cards that they can use at any time. Not cash. This is a reward to encourage practice, not drink or party. And you know what? It goes over quite well. Players will run up to me when I'm making my rounds, telling me how'd they'd just executed a break-and-run, or just swept his/her opponent, asking me for a free-hour-of-pool access card.
Also, in my league, not all of the tables (9-foot GCIIIs, btw) are earmarked for league use. It's encouraged for league players, when they're not in a match, to take a table out amongst themselves (at special league discounts) and practice. Many of them do. These special league discounts are available to them not only during league nights, but at all times -- every day of the week, at any time -- all the player has to do is show his/her league card. I can walk in there any evening on a non-league night, and I'm certainly to find familiar faces in there, practicing.
We have a banquet at the end of every session/playoff, where the prizes are awarded, and this is the only time of the session for "cash time." The top performing teams are awarded trophies and prize monies, and the top performing player -- the player that has the best win/loss ratio -- is awarded a "Top Gun" plaque and cash prize. The theme of the whole banquet *drips* with the message to become a better player. And most players take this message to heart. Sure, as with any league that is made up of different personalities and people from all walks of life, you encounter the whiners and complainers, or people trying to exploit the system, but they are dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
Point is, not all leagues can (or should) be painted with that APA brush. There are a lot of good leagues out there, with their hearts in the right places, and turn out some really fine players. And yes, the establishment benefits because it's predictable guaranteed business (you can't fault them for that -- they're business people).
I hope this is helpful insight!
-Sean
