Consider the source.
POOL MOST DIFFICULT SPORT
- Thread starter CESSNA10
- Start date
DeeDeeCues
Well-known member
Yeah, I remember the '97 Augusta tourney. Earl started Sunday eleven strokes behind a young Tiger. By the fourth hole he had a seventeen stroke lead. He proceeded to play the final fourteen holes with only a four wood. Oops, I mean he played the final fourteen using only four wooden spoons. This would prove to be costly as he only won by fifteen strokes.
Earl's a blowhard.
Absolutely pool is a VERY difficult sport to excel in. What's missing in this thread is not what it takes to make balls but rather what it takes to win a major event especially on the last two days of the event. To compete at the highest level against other top players is truly amazing. It's one of the few games played as an individual where you get to shoot at so many variables. You get to shoot at what the opponent left you, you get to play the table, shooting one difficult shot with position after another, play combinations, difficult cut shots, banks and caroms, shooting off the rail knowing that if you miss--------it's over. Just because you aren't running in a stadium or basketball court doesn't mean your sport isn't as hard or harder to master. We're not talking about going down to the local bar having a few drinks and playing a couple of games of eight ball. At the professional level pool is so demanding and very few of our brethern excel. If you don't think the skills Shane, Alex, Fedor, Jason and many others possess isn't truly amazing then this thread is for not. And, they'll be at the top of their game for decades. That's something other sports can't acheive.
DeeDeeCues
Well-known member
Every competitive activity is demanding at the elite level. Claiming pool is on the high end of demanding is laughable.
The biggest evidence of this is the general attitude toward instructor and coaches. If pool were demanding, it would basically require a coach...you know, like all the actual professional athletes have.
Not all pool players think they know it all, but I know what you mean. I think that is especially an American attitude.
Feijen in particular knows the value of a coach.
WobblyStroke
Well-known member
Feijen is a perfect example. The guy had a world class stroke very early in his career but just didn't know the nuances of the game. He went to Alex Lely, worked on his tactical play and safeties, and boom: world champ. He isn't shy about seeking out help from other top coaches as well. Forever a student of the game, even at his high level.
I think most people would greatly benefit from a competent instructor. Unfortunately, 'competent' is relative and beyond a certain level, guys that can really help you are difficult to get some time with. It's not like one is just hanging out at any decent pool hall like you have great golf coaches at good courses.
As far as strokes go, I think because pool seems so mechanically simple, a lot of people think that they probably have heard what any coach is going to tell them anyway so it is more about putting time in than getting personalized advice. Dead wrong, but a common belief imo.
But he is a lovable blowhard.
I haven't read every post in this thread, so apologies if this has already been said. I think "sport" is too broad a category. When automobiles are compared, a Yugo is not compared to a Ferrari. They are compared to others in their class. I would break classes down into something like this:
Sports: baseball, football, basketball, hockey, tennis, swimming, skiing, track and field, and so on with physically demanding competition,
Games of skill: golf (arguably a sport), billiards, darts, bowling, curling, shooting, shuffleboard, others that require a measure of fitness and coordination,
"Board" games: chess, checkers, backgammon, casino games, crossword puzzles, sudoku, others that require no physical skill other than some stamina in a long tournament.
IMO, golf is the most difficult of the games of skill, followed by billiards.
Sports: baseball, football, basketball, hockey, tennis, swimming, skiing, track and field, and so on with physically demanding competition,
Games of skill: golf (arguably a sport), billiards, darts, bowling, curling, shooting, shuffleboard, others that require a measure of fitness and coordination,
"Board" games: chess, checkers, backgammon, casino games, crossword puzzles, sudoku, others that require no physical skill other than some stamina in a long tournament.
IMO, golf is the most difficult of the games of skill, followed by billiards.
As you said: golf (arguably a sport). I think it doesn't need to be argued. It is a sport. The reason is because golf has changed over the last decade and especially over the last five years. Pro golfers no longer go out for drinks after their round or sleep in to only practice a little for their assigned tee time. A big-time fitness craze among the pro golfers has taken place where they're pounding weights in the gym and doing all kinds of different exercises for speed and flexibility. None of the other participants in "Games of skill" do much if any of the workouts pro golfers are now doing.
I agree it’s important to compare similar types of activities. I remember ESPN had an article ranking the most difficult sports, but their criteria was silly. They had separate ranking categories for “strength”, “power” and “explosiveness”. When you are rating sports on what is essentially strength, strength and strength pool is always going to have a bad time.
But I think you also need fair and consistent success metrics. If success in pool is defined as how hard it is to hit the cue ball on most attempts in desired directions, while golf is defined by how difficult it is to execute a 200 yard drive, then yeah, pool loses every time. But I could easily flip it and say that I could teach anyone to chip their ball down the fairway and hole out in 10 strokes every hole.
tomatoshooter
Well-known member
Nobody seemed to have a problem when Ted Williams said hitting a baseball was the hardest thing to do in sports. I've also heard Earl is a very good golfer, although certainly no pro.
I think high level pool requires more strategy than other games of skill. It's a game of skill that requires a lot of strategy and a game of strategy that requires a lot of skill.
Definitely. Those tournaments are grueling, and to win, you have to repeatedly execute at an extremely high level. Imagine if nobody in the NBA got a paycheck unless their teams made the playoffs.
Arguably, the act of sinking a ball in pool is easy. But to sink a ball and get on the next ball, in a way that you can get on the next ball... that's what makes pool difficult.
Ronnie also said it would take him two years to be a good pool player.Well if he is talking about sports with sticks. I would guess he has never tried LaCrosse.
If he is talking about sports with cue sticks, has he never tried Snooker? You know the sport that Ronnie O'Sullivan compared to pool using a chess and checkers analogy.
They do, but it's often not a coach coach, more of a road partner and mentor type of thing. The top players do use instructors and value mechanics over many other players. I don't know of any player that just got good playing in a bubble of no one else teaching him.
Great point. Is chess considered a sport or a game? They both require thinking and planning well in advance. So does golf.
Golf is defined by how difficult it is to shoot par or sub-par on any and all golf courses. Not by how far a drive is hit. There are par 3 holes, par 4 holes, par 5 holes, and a total par for each course. Hole distances range from a little over 100 yards to over 600 yards. 10 strokes on every hole wouldn't be considered playing golf, it would be a total hacker that's infuriating everyone else
that's stuck playing behind him.
SeniorTom
Well-known member
Anybody can pick up a golf club and hit a ball, throw a football, hit a baseball, and roll a bowling ball. The hard part or difficulty is mastering the game to a point where you match the best in the world. Imagine what it would take to get to a point to play like and Earl Strickland, svb, and so on. It takes a lifetime of dedication and practice. These guys live and breathe Billiards their entire life to compete at their level, but a person like me who has been playing 6 months thinks he's a decent pool player would be hammered down instantly in the presence of one of these people playing pool.
WobblyStroke
Well-known member
This is true for any beginner vs an all-time great in literally anything. Earl and SVB make many people's top10 of all time list so comparing anyone in their first year of play to those guys isn't even apples to oranges, it's more like apples to sawdust...and even those might have more in common.
You want to compare a guy golfing 6 months to Tiger and Nicklaus while you're at it?
Maybe a guy whose been skating 6 months to Gretzky or Lemieux?
It obviously takes a lifetime to get to where these all timers are. But you reach 'good at pool' status many many levels below Earl and SVB.
What is good at pool really? Like a 600FR? That is 30 in 1million people or 1in 33000 according to the Fargo site. Maybe that's too high a standard as well. A 'good local league player' is a fargo 500. Are they 'good at pool'? Cuz if that is the bar, pool is absurdly easy lol. It is really really hard to be a good local league player in a run of the mill golf men's league at a cheap municipal course. The two aren't close.