Since this is my first post on this forum, a little bio is left at the bottom (for your amusement).
As analogies go: I tend to think of pool in the same way I think of golf (and not just how I learned to swing a the golf ball).
When I started to play golf, I just wanted to play. I started out near 100 strokes per round, not including the mulligans,.... loosing 5-10 balls per round and over 5-6 years had brought this down to a disgusting 90-ish sometimes even including the mulligans,... still loosing 4-7 balls per round. Never broke 90 obeying the stroke counting rules.
Then I found myself in a job working for someone I really despised. It was so stressful that I had to hit something every day; hard and often. I choose golf balls to stay out of jail
. I ended up hitting 200 golf balls a day every single day of the week/month/year for over 2 years playing on a golf course only very occasionally. I was not just pounding balls, I was working in the sand, rough, hard-pan, putting,... During this period of time, I wore out two sets of Titlest clubs--not the shafts (although I did go through 4 sets of shafts), the faces of the clubs.
When I found myself back on the golf course, that 90 had suddenly become 76-80, hardly ever missing the fairway, hitting the sand, or getting myself in trouble.
Pool is the same way, if you want to get better, practice more often than you play.
Yet, billiards parlors (n.e. pool halls) need a regular clientele so they can stay in business and allow the non-table owning players to enjoy playing pool. This is where the leagues come in. In order for the leagues to be profitable to the establishments, then need a number of weekly clients, and making it fun is a lot more conductive to clients showing up than making it a "learning" experience. To paraphrase Churchill:: Handicapping is worst form of evening out the 'slate', excepting for all the rest.
Bio: Me:: My father and 3 of his buddies bought all the pool tables of a hall that was going out of business back when I was in high school. So I played 3-5 hours a day for 3 years in HS, then another 3-6 hours a day for 6 years in the frat house while in College, and then did not play pool for 35 years.
I picked pool up a couple of years ago when we moved to an urban setting and I was within walking distance of a bar with a pool table. Its taken 2 complete years playing almost daily, and I am still no where close to where I was "way back when" and it likely that I never will be, physically. I do not participate in leagues (at this point in time) but have several friends that have told me I would be a strong 5 or a week 6 on the APA scale.
As analogies go: I tend to think of pool in the same way I think of golf (and not just how I learned to swing a the golf ball).
When I started to play golf, I just wanted to play. I started out near 100 strokes per round, not including the mulligans,.... loosing 5-10 balls per round and over 5-6 years had brought this down to a disgusting 90-ish sometimes even including the mulligans,... still loosing 4-7 balls per round. Never broke 90 obeying the stroke counting rules.
Then I found myself in a job working for someone I really despised. It was so stressful that I had to hit something every day; hard and often. I choose golf balls to stay out of jail
. I ended up hitting 200 golf balls a day every single day of the week/month/year for over 2 years playing on a golf course only very occasionally. I was not just pounding balls, I was working in the sand, rough, hard-pan, putting,... During this period of time, I wore out two sets of Titlest clubs--not the shafts (although I did go through 4 sets of shafts), the faces of the clubs.When I found myself back on the golf course, that 90 had suddenly become 76-80, hardly ever missing the fairway, hitting the sand, or getting myself in trouble.
Pool is the same way, if you want to get better, practice more often than you play.
Yet, billiards parlors (n.e. pool halls) need a regular clientele so they can stay in business and allow the non-table owning players to enjoy playing pool. This is where the leagues come in. In order for the leagues to be profitable to the establishments, then need a number of weekly clients, and making it fun is a lot more conductive to clients showing up than making it a "learning" experience. To paraphrase Churchill:: Handicapping is worst form of evening out the 'slate', excepting for all the rest.
Bio: Me:: My father and 3 of his buddies bought all the pool tables of a hall that was going out of business back when I was in high school. So I played 3-5 hours a day for 3 years in HS, then another 3-6 hours a day for 6 years in the frat house while in College, and then did not play pool for 35 years.
I picked pool up a couple of years ago when we moved to an urban setting and I was within walking distance of a bar with a pool table. Its taken 2 complete years playing almost daily, and I am still no where close to where I was "way back when" and it likely that I never will be, physically. I do not participate in leagues (at this point in time) but have several friends that have told me I would be a strong 5 or a week 6 on the APA scale.
