Pool Is One Of The Hardest Games
- Thread starter Johnnyt
- Start date
Also, most of them started playing at a very young age. Johnnyt
That is because you don't understand the steroid ear. Steriods made folks already playing at a major league level better... how, because it allowed them to recover quicker from workouts, which means they could work out even more... and get physically stronger, but the hand eye, bat speed and physical abilities were already there... so instead of an all-star player, they became MVP type players....
Barry Bonds was all ready an MVP and certain HOF'er, but that was not enough... he wanted to destroy the record HR record... for others, it meant a bigger pay check by putting up bigger numbers....
So, you can give someone steroids and it will NOT quicken their hand speed or let you hit a 95 mph fastball, if you could NOT do it before...
It's also silly that you believe it is only physical when there are guys are all shapes and sizes in baseball.....
and no offense intended, but if your buddy practiced pool 8 hours a day for a year, and did not get one ball better, he might be retarded
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Sounds like a Wisconsin beer cooler ran dry, one of the Big ones. Or my son in law who manages a fish hatchery, he's definitely a stocker. :grin-square:
Tap, tap, tap....Green for you lol
until THAT INDIVIDUAL actually does it.
FWIW, I have NOT met a SINGLE pro who AWES me! I have YET to see ANYBODY do ANYTHING that I would consider OUT OF THE REALM of someone ELSE accomplishing.
Anybody who can run racks can beat somebody better on any given day. That is the FACTS.
Doing it OVER and OVER and OVER is what separates the TOP Tier from the rest.
That's it in a nutshell... I see some great shots, and but I can down in the basement and practice the same long shot, and get 3 rail position and actually hit once in awhile....yeah it's cool. And yeah, it's cool that the pro has the ablity to make that shot, under pressure to win a tourney... heck, I like pool too
I'm not too sure anyone watching a baseball game can jump into their yard and mimic a pro by throwing 95 mph with pinpoint accuracy, hit a baseball 450 feet, or run full speed for 100 feet, dive in the air and catch the ball before it hits the ground. Heck, MOST folks won't even be able to HIT the ball, let alone hit 450 feet.
heck, most folks could not possibly remember the correct position that every fielder has to take on every play, based on the runners on base. First and second, and a base hit to center field, where does the 3B go, where does the SS go, where does the RF go. what about when it's first and third, or just first base occupied, where does the 2b go, who backs up the catcher, who covers third on an over throw...... heck, major leagues still forget
.Watching two great QBA's battling it out right now... holy cow, sorry folks, that might be the single toughest position to play in all of sports, because of the skill, toughness, and mental ability needed all the while running from 300 pound giants who really do want to hurt you..... and still throw 50 yards in double coverage, while on the run, and complete the pass.... amazing really
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When the op compared pool to, in his words, "just about every major and semi-major sport", I was not aware that he or anyone else in this thread would want the following comparisons in the thread to be limited to sports no more difficult than or along the lines of marbles. I thought it would be fair to compare it to "just about every major and semi-major sport" also. If you or others feel it's an unfair comparison I understand and will bow out of the thread.
No PLEASE, let me bow out !...I finally realized, I am arguing with 2 or 3 people, who don't even know how to debate sensibly !..It is also obvious these few guy's, know absolutely NOTHING about pool, and even less about every other unrelated, off-the-wall comparison they've brought up ! (they missed cock-fighting and arm wrestling)
I guess these few guys never noticed, that most professional athlete's can barely carry on a conversation..Thats why, when they can no longer stand getting their brains scrambled, they make them announcers, and color men, for sports talk shows...Somebody got something right though..only quarterbacks, (and not ALL of them) are smart enough to beat out Barry Bonds, or Floyd Mayweather in an IQ test !
PS..By the way, Golf don't count...Most golfers got through college without cheating. (or being 6' 5" and weighing 300 lbs)... But I know one thing...I'm taking Kanye West, over most stunt biker's, in a head up IQ test !!!
(can't remember who, but I owed someone a sarcastic crack :wink
Adios Amigo's
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I guess these few guys never noticed, that most professional athlete's can barely carry on a conversation..Thats why, when they can no longer stand getting their brains scrambled, they make them announcers, and color men, for sports talk shows...Somebody got something right though..only quarterbacks, (and not ALL of them) are smart enough to beat out Barry Bonds, or Floyd Mayweather in an IQ test !
PS..By the way, Golf don't count...Most golfers got through college without cheating. (or being 6' 5" and weighing 300 lbs)... But I know one thing...I'm taking Kanye West, over most stunt biker's, in a head up IQ test !!!
(can't remember who, but I owed someone a sarcastic crack :wink
Adios Amigo's
So, you ran out of stuff, so now it's "well, pro athletes are just stupid"... So, now your argument is pool players much be better because they are smarter than 300 pound lineman. But even said, most 300 pound lineman can still beat most pool players in a 50 yard dash, that's kinda funny.
And of course, NOBODY on here was talking about the 300 pound guys being the best... we mentioned baseball players and QB's who weigh 200 to 240 pounds... about the same weight as some pool players. Some more and some a LOT less
and you lost about Kanye as well..... He could have had any woman on the PLANET and he married what is probably the most skankiest and dumb woman on the planet.... geez
Bottom line, to be the best at any sport take skill and determination.
I just gave a 4 hour pool lesson last night. They were from the Ukraine, now living in Chicago. His wife went to college at Wayne State University on scholarship for fencing. She won the NCAA fencing championship every year she was at the school except her junior year... she had the flu that day and took second. This was in 2004, 05, and 07. The fencing discipline was "epee"... don't know what that is, but who cares... you can google Wayne State and see it. Her first name is Anna. She was already inducted into her colleges HOF !!
No woman in NCAA history won 3 NCAA individual fencing national championships . Quite an amazing feat and seeing all the hardware displayed in their basement Just impressive.
I don't even fence, or watch it but I was impressed. I've seen at the Olympics a little bit... but now I might watch more
Heck, shuffleboard aint' that tough, but to the be the best shuffleboard dude in the country, not real good, but number friggin one, it not so easy
I just gave a 4 hour pool lesson last night. They were from the Ukraine, now living in Chicago. His wife went to college at Wayne State University on scholarship for fencing. She won the NCAA fencing championship every year she was at the school except her junior year... she had the flu that day and took second. This was in 2004, 05, and 07. The fencing discipline was "epee"... don't know what that is, but who cares... you can google Wayne State and see it. Her first name is Anna. She was already inducted into her colleges HOF !!
No woman in NCAA history won 3 NCAA individual fencing national championships . Quite an amazing feat and seeing all the hardware displayed in their basement
Just impressive.I don't even fence, or watch it but I was impressed. I've seen at the Olympics a little bit... but now I might watch more
Heck, shuffleboard aint' that tough, but to the be the best shuffleboard dude in the country, not real good, but number friggin one, it not so easy
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And another thing that makes pool difficult to compare to many other sports is the team dynamic. It is tough to tie your output to others'.
This is true statement, but not because they have better brain, it is because usually the instructors, or older good players teaching them are not stingy on them and give them all the information they need and teachers do have high desire for them to be on top. Plus kids do listen and practice what they are taught with diligence and believe in the reward and punishment systems. Once they are old, those two systems fades a way and most likely 95% of them quit all together. This applies to many activities not just pool.
Bottom line when we say someone got talent in pool, it is simply means, they lucked out when they were young and adopted a stance that ensures stroke accuracy.
Originally Posted by SJDinPHX View Post
Mr. (((Satori)))
The singer/entertainer Don Cherry, (google him) who happened to be a PGA touring pro golfer, a 215 avg. bowler, and a VERY good pool player, once put it in perspective... When Johnny Carson, (on one of Don's many appearances on his show) asked him this question..He said; "Don. you seem to be good at everything you do, is there any game you CAN'T play well" ?
Don did not bat an eyelash..He said; "Without a doubt, pool is the hardest game to become highly proficient at..I love the game, and I've been trying for 30 years, but I doubt if I am much better than an average good player" !
What's amazingly true about this statement is, back in his day, NO pros would divulge or give out info on how to get better. Without a solid foundation of understanding of the game and ball collisions and squirt/gearing/dirt/humidity/kicking systems....during the roll out years of two shot'', it was nearly impossible to Ever feel confident when matched up with a player that had that understanding, you could FEEL it. Bowling is pretty basic and one could easily get fairly proficient ''just by watching others'', golf usually starts off the same way each shot and their are instructors and print, but in pool NOT. There were probably Many great depression era players back then, moreso than even baseball players at that time in our country.
Mr. (((Satori)))
The singer/entertainer Don Cherry, (google him) who happened to be a PGA touring pro golfer, a 215 avg. bowler, and a VERY good pool player, once put it in perspective... When Johnny Carson, (on one of Don's many appearances on his show) asked him this question..He said; "Don. you seem to be good at everything you do, is there any game you CAN'T play well" ?
Don did not bat an eyelash..He said; "Without a doubt, pool is the hardest game to become highly proficient at..I love the game, and I've been trying for 30 years, but I doubt if I am much better than an average good player" !
What's amazingly true about this statement is, back in his day, NO pros would divulge or give out info on how to get better. Without a solid foundation of understanding of the game and ball collisions and squirt/gearing/dirt/humidity/kicking systems....during the roll out years of two shot'', it was nearly impossible to Ever feel confident when matched up with a player that had that understanding, you could FEEL it. Bowling is pretty basic and one could easily get fairly proficient ''just by watching others'', golf usually starts off the same way each shot and their are instructors and print, but in pool NOT. There were probably Many great depression era players back then, moreso than even baseball players at that time in our country.
2 reasons for this ,, one is how many great pool players have kids
And most of the ones that do steer their kids away from the pool hall
I would say now that's changing some because the dingy pool rooms are all but gone and what has been replaced is nicer smoke free environment
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Athletes can barely carry on a conversation so they get hired as announcers and color men when they retire.
Lol, got it, thanks for more brilliant insight and another great post.
This an exert from the article I linked earlier... This is a skill that determines aptitude or inherent ability in individuals for being gifted in certain fields of study. Just like other abilities it can be trained but their will be different ceilings for all of us.. Lack of this skill and it's subsets would limit anyone from having a chance at becoming a professional pool player much like being 5'6 would likely prevent you from becoming a center in the NBA... All sports are hard to reach the pinnacle in... Some are impossible for certain people.. Just depends on what the good lord gave you to work with... Long term this is a skill that can be improved... There is no fast track to it tho thru a syringe..
What is spatial ability?
Spatial ability is the capacity to understand and remember the spatial relations among objects. This ability can be viewed as a unique type of intelligence distinguishable from other forms of intelligence, such as verbal ability, reasoning ability, and memory skills.
Spatial ability is not a monolithic and static trait, but made up of numerous
subskills, which are interrelated among each other and develop throughout your life.
Why is spatial ability important?
Visual-spatial skills are of great importance for success in solving many tasks in everyday life. For instance, using a map to guide you through an unfamiliar city, merging into high-speed traffic, and orienting yourself in your environment (as when you are learning your way around a
new school building) are all activities that involve spatial ability. Other examples of tasks requiring visual-spatial ability include packing (as when you must decide if a certain box is large enough for the objects you want to put into it) and using mirror images (as when you are combing
your hair while looking into a mirror).
Spatial ability is also important for success in many fields of study. Mathematics, natural sciences, engineering, economic forecasting, meteorology and architecture all involve the use of spatial skills: For instance, an astronomer must visualize the structure of a solar system and the motions of the objects in it. An engineer visualizes the interactions of the parts of a machine. Radiologists must be able to interpret the image on a medical X-ray. Chemical sum formulas can be viewed as abstract models of molecules with most of the spatial
information deleted; spatial skills are important in restoring that information when more detailed mental models of the molecules are needed.
More formal evidence on the importance of spatial ability in math and science education has been compiled by many researchers, including Humphreys, Lubinski, Shea, Wai, and Webb. Some of their publications are cited in the Readings section below.
Traditionally, critical features of spatial ability in science education have been the skills required to construct efficient mental models of objects from verbal descriptions in textbooks or instruction. In some fields, textbooks and instruction materials have been developed that are
explicitly designed to use spatial skills as a key to mastering
the subject matter. Several such books are listed in the Readings section at the end of this document. While the development of such materials continues to be an important concern, recent technological developments
have added further emphases to the issue.
Visual-spatial ability is becoming increasingly important with the development and proliferation of new technologies such as imaging, computer graphics, data visualization, and supercomputing. Highly demanding spatial tasks include the construction of mental representations of object configuration from images on several screens representing different perspectives, as in some fields of surgery. In other fields, powerful computer graphic technologies are being used to create complex visual images of processes that occur in the natural world. These techniques are used to depict the intricate workings of the immune system, the complex meteorological interactions that occur in a developing thunderstorm, hurricane, or tornado, and the relations of atoms and molecules in chemistry.
Despite their importance in so many fields, in science education, spatial skills rarely work in isolation from other abilities, such as logical reasoning, efficient memory retrieval, and verbal skills, and deficits in one area can often be compensated by excellence in others. An important type of exceptional talent in math and science, however, is the ability to easily switch form one efficient mode of representation to another (e. g., from a
conceptual to a spatial mode and vice versa).
What is spatial ability?
Spatial ability is the capacity to understand and remember the spatial relations among objects. This ability can be viewed as a unique type of intelligence distinguishable from other forms of intelligence, such as verbal ability, reasoning ability, and memory skills.
Spatial ability is not a monolithic and static trait, but made up of numerous
subskills, which are interrelated among each other and develop throughout your life.
Why is spatial ability important?
Visual-spatial skills are of great importance for success in solving many tasks in everyday life. For instance, using a map to guide you through an unfamiliar city, merging into high-speed traffic, and orienting yourself in your environment (as when you are learning your way around a
new school building) are all activities that involve spatial ability. Other examples of tasks requiring visual-spatial ability include packing (as when you must decide if a certain box is large enough for the objects you want to put into it) and using mirror images (as when you are combing
your hair while looking into a mirror).
Spatial ability is also important for success in many fields of study. Mathematics, natural sciences, engineering, economic forecasting, meteorology and architecture all involve the use of spatial skills: For instance, an astronomer must visualize the structure of a solar system and the motions of the objects in it. An engineer visualizes the interactions of the parts of a machine. Radiologists must be able to interpret the image on a medical X-ray. Chemical sum formulas can be viewed as abstract models of molecules with most of the spatial
information deleted; spatial skills are important in restoring that information when more detailed mental models of the molecules are needed.
More formal evidence on the importance of spatial ability in math and science education has been compiled by many researchers, including Humphreys, Lubinski, Shea, Wai, and Webb. Some of their publications are cited in the Readings section below.
Traditionally, critical features of spatial ability in science education have been the skills required to construct efficient mental models of objects from verbal descriptions in textbooks or instruction. In some fields, textbooks and instruction materials have been developed that are
explicitly designed to use spatial skills as a key to mastering
the subject matter. Several such books are listed in the Readings section at the end of this document. While the development of such materials continues to be an important concern, recent technological developments
have added further emphases to the issue.
Visual-spatial ability is becoming increasingly important with the development and proliferation of new technologies such as imaging, computer graphics, data visualization, and supercomputing. Highly demanding spatial tasks include the construction of mental representations of object configuration from images on several screens representing different perspectives, as in some fields of surgery. In other fields, powerful computer graphic technologies are being used to create complex visual images of processes that occur in the natural world. These techniques are used to depict the intricate workings of the immune system, the complex meteorological interactions that occur in a developing thunderstorm, hurricane, or tornado, and the relations of atoms and molecules in chemistry.
Despite their importance in so many fields, in science education, spatial skills rarely work in isolation from other abilities, such as logical reasoning, efficient memory retrieval, and verbal skills, and deficits in one area can often be compensated by excellence in others. An important type of exceptional talent in math and science, however, is the ability to easily switch form one efficient mode of representation to another (e. g., from a
conceptual to a spatial mode and vice versa).
Mr. ((((Satori))) One last clarification for you....The reason I am bowing out, is because you, and the few other
[sic] 'experts', have GOTTEN exactly nothing..zero, nil, zilch, nada...The only way this is understandable, (or forgivable)
is if you are all under the age of 8 or 10 ! LOL
PS..I would suggest the mod's require ID/age information, and relegate those that age (or younger) to their own special forum ! ( kinda like they did with 'aiming systems'.)..That way, us 'big boy's' could have a sensible discourse !..LOL :sorry:
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I agree with JohnnyT. Were pool only about pocketing balls, it could be considered an easy game. However, to be good, you have to see patterns, make strategic decisions, pocket balls, vary speed of stroke with great precision and here's the real difference; know where the target is on the CB and consistently hit it with millimeter precision to get position on the next shot. One small error in any of those aspects is often enough to lose the game against another highly skilled player.
Yes, hitting a 90 mph curve ball takes incredible hand eye coordination. But it certainly doesn't require millimeter precision. And the hitter certainly isnt required to place it on a line of plus or minus 1/2 inch. The only sports i can quickly think of that require that kind of precision are darts and the biathlon. Golf to some degree. How those biathletes suddenly stop and hit targets with precision while having an elevated heart rate is amazing to me.
I'll be happy to propose a bet, to those who think pool is so easy, for a series of shots with precise cb position that i believe a pro level player could rather routinely accomplish.
Yes, hitting a 90 mph curve ball takes incredible hand eye coordination. But it certainly doesn't require millimeter precision. And the hitter certainly isnt required to place it on a line of plus or minus 1/2 inch. The only sports i can quickly think of that require that kind of precision are darts and the biathlon. Golf to some degree. How those biathletes suddenly stop and hit targets with precision while having an elevated heart rate is amazing to me.
I'll be happy to propose a bet, to those who think pool is so easy, for a series of shots with precise cb position that i believe a pro level player could rather routinely accomplish.
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Thank you Mr. Nobcity...Another common sense, intelligent observation !..I think the big boy's far outnumber the 'kid's' now...I may hang around a while, after all ! :wink:
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The best hitters in the world hit just over 30 % of the time if pool players could only pocket balls at that clip they would beat no one
One pocket has a lot of strategy 9 ball and 10 ball very little
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