pool players with other interests

macguy

macguy

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
It is interesting some of the things that also attract pool players.
Check out the video at about 1:14
http://www.youtube.com/user/Flatband#p/u/26/xbIp7Jtgx8k

Interview with Jack Koehler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aTkHGUuOi0

As much as I like pool I like all kinds of other things that that seem to have similar related requirements to master. I love shooting hand guns, archery, even knife throwing. I seem to gravitate to things that are hand eye coordinated. When I first picked up pool I just started knocking in balls, it came very easy to me. I am thinking that many pool players are probably above average at other sports. I remember having a pool player over at the house and he was looking at some guns. He said he had never shot a gun in his life. After a few minutes of instructions I let him shoot a nice Colt 38 Diamondback. It was amazing after a few shots he was making tight groups from 15 yards.
 
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macguy said:
It is interesting some of the things that also attract pool players.
Check out the video at about 1:14
http://www.youtube.com/user/Flatband#p/u/26/xbIp7Jtgx8k

As much as I like pool I like all kinds of other things that that seem to have similar related requirements to master. I love shooting hand guns, archery, even knife throwing. I seem to gravitate to things that are hand eye coordinated. When I first picked up pool I just started knocking in balls, it came very easy to me. I am thinking that many pool players are probably above average at other sports. I remember having a pool player over at the house and he was looking at some guns. He said he had never shot a gun in his life. After a few minutes of instructions I let him shoot a nice Colt 38 Diamondback. It was amazing after a few shots he was making tight groups from 15 yards.
Click to expand...


I was shooting guns and throwing knives long before I played pool. When I started work as an industrial insulator and sheet metal mechanic one of the tools of the trade was an Old Hickory boning knife. Mine was actually a full sized Old Hickory butcher knife that had been reshaped to boning knife configuration by the great knife maker Robert Dozier, a friend of mine at the time. Some jobs we got away with throwing knives on. Somebody would draw a target on a sheet of plywood and anywhere from a couple to eight or ten guys would get in at a dollar a throw, closest to center wins. Easy money, I won a lot more than my share. Could throw a knife hard too, when I was annoyed I threw the same knife so hard that the blade and handle went all the way through the face of a hollow core door and I could stand on my Puma boot knife after throwing it into a tree.

Racing roundy round cars was pretty much a parallel thing to playing pool, then I went on to horses owning working cutting and running horses, PPC and steel pistol competition, and benchrest rifle. Coming late to poker, always favored wagering on pool since I wasn't gambling most of the time. Bowled moderately well for awhile too and played decent chess. Snooker I lump in with the pool but comparatively speaking I probably played snooker better than pool for awhile. Nobody to gamble with playing snooker though. Played some sandlot this and that but was never much on team sports. Was scouted by a high school coach and invited to try out for one of the top big high school teams in the state, wasn't interested I was busy playing pool and racing cars outside of school hours.

One year was my year at the state fair. I went every night for two weeks and they came to know me. The first booth coming in the gate was throwing a football through a little tire. They would only let me win two nice stuffed animals and it usually was done in two tries, never more than three. The basketball through the tiny hoops was mine too, and I even managed to throw a softball into the triangle cut into the top of a barrel, almost impossible from the counter. Only did that a couple times. Throwing nickels at the glassware I won enough to keep much of the family in glassware for many years. Helped a friend win some fancy stuff that you had to hit moving too. Next year they had swapped to dimes, twice the price but also much harder to throw accurately.

I'm sure there are a handful of things left out, I was a pretty fair instinctive archer(no sights) as a kid too. I enjoy competition when it is one on one or you against the field and it doesn't particularly matter what. A running gag for a friend across the country is to ask me what I have done for a living every time we meet. The count is up to over twenty totally different things. Competition is the same way, I just enjoy competing at whatever is available.

Hu
 
For me......things I love, do, or have done...that might connect in some way whether it be hand-eye coordination or something else.

Shooting, handguns, rifles, shotguns.....and even black powder flintlock and caplock.......I'm a former pistol instructor

Archery....dabbled in it.....

Surgery.......well....OK, not a hobby.....:wink:

Building custom choppers......

Building custom cars......

Foosball.....1984-85.....that game is flipped out when played really well.....and I did it well....until I actually began damaging my tendons from it and had to stop, sure I'll knock it around still, I specify those years because that's when I had the honor of playing some of the best at it.

Golf....can't stand the game. The few times I played it seemed to be an excuse to drink beer. I just can't get my head around a game with balls and pockets where I have no hope of running out....it has never been done. :confused:



Conversation I had with a pool player about surgery: He said "Yeah, it's really the same, just hand-eye coordination." Me: "You don't have to have 26 years of education to be a pool player, most of which you don't even get to watch surgery let alone actually try it, and when you miss a shot nobody dies."

Old Joke: A mechanic and a heart surgeon are talking in a bar. The mechanic says "I don't know what the big deal is, I really do the same thing as you. I diagnose the problem, open up the engine, fix or replace the parts, and close everything up again." The surgeon says "Yeah? Try it with the engine running." :grin: I always liked that one.
 
I just got into shooting again this year. For my wifes birthday I set up a pistol range (45 feet max) in our basement. We have only shot high powered (600fps) pellet guns so far, but I have been able to group them to about 5 inches.

My wife shoots a Sig 380ss and a Bereta 25 bug. I just ordered a 1911 .45ACP should be fun. Next I think I will go with something tacticle?

G.
 
surgeons and mechanics

Chopdoc said:
For me......things I love, do, or have done...that might connect in some way whether it be hand-eye coordination or something else.

Shooting, handguns, rifles, shotguns.....and even black powder flintlock and caplock.......I'm a former pistol instructor

Archery....dabbled in it.....

Surgery.......well....OK, not a hobby.....:wink:

Building custom choppers......

Building custom cars......

Foosball.....1984-85.....that game is flipped out when played really well.....and I did it well....until I actually began damaging my tendons from it and had to stop, sure I'll knock it around still, I specify those years because that's when I had the honor of playing some of the best at it.

Golf....can't stand the game. The few times I played it seemed to be an excuse to drink beer. I just can't get my head around a game with balls and pockets where I have no hope of running out....it has never been done. :confused:



Conversation I had with a pool player about surgery: He said "Yeah, it's really the same, just hand-eye coordination." Me: "You don't have to have 26 years of education to be a pool player, most of which you don't even get to watch surgery let alone actually try it, and when you miss a shot nobody dies."

Old Joke: A mechanic and a heart surgeon are talking in a bar. The mechanic says "I don't know what the big deal is, I really do the same thing as you. I diagnose the problem, open up the engine, fix or replace the parts, and close everything up again." The surgeon says "Yeah? Try it with the engine running." :grin: I always liked that one.
Click to expand...



I was an auto mechanic from my early teens, working as a journeyman mechanic at fifteen and owning half a new shop by the time I was eighteen. I had a tremendous amount of respect for surgeons and doctors of all kinds until I was a bit older. One day I realized that they were working on a hell of a lot more complicated equipment than I was and doing a lot more guessing!

I annoyed my back surgeon when after six months of asking him what was wrong and him saying "I don't know" I put forward an idea. He seemed dubvious. My response "Well you keep saying you don't know so I reckon my guess is as good as yours!":thumbup: We never did get along too well after that. Went to a heart doctor for the first time in many years yesterday. Kinda hope his guess is right!

While ragging doctors gotta mention this, an old friend alwas claimed the best doctors in the world were vets, their patients couldn't tell them what was wrong. Have to admit maybe the finest orthopedic surgeon I ever met was my horse vet, would have rather had him cut on me had he been willing! A very good friend was another old vet, known as the finest small animal surgeon in the city, drunk or sober!

Hu
 
I'm mostly a golfer today, play to around a +1 even though I started shooting pool in bars around age 6. I've played competitive tennis for the last 15 years and am rated 5.5 in USTA which is pretty strong and I have carried a pretty high average as a bowler for many years even racking up a few amateur and state championships before the first of my 3 rotator cuff surgeries took me out of the game.

And apparently like everyone else ;) Im pretty involved in shooting sports from handgun to clays to 3D archery. I guess if your going to be a lifetime pool player you better know how to handle a pistole. :)
 
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