God....this topic could be debated endlessly. I almost think it should. Its just that the variables involved in the process of rating make it literally impossible to truly judge with accuracy how good a person is. This I think, is the reason why. Because in pool we don't go by a point system. In golf you know exactly what handicap you are. In pool I could run out (in ten ball) to the eight and 7 and 9 consistently (making me one hell of a player) and still loose. That is in rotation pool your balls don't count for you. Even in eight ball when your balls do count for you it is still an obvious disadvantage to run out 6 or 7 and get funny on the eight and miss. With that said we all need to use accu-stats (not that im pretending I know exactly how to do that) to judge where we are. The fact that we havent done that yet as a sport overall befuddles me. And is it just me or are all the things ive read on here are typically way overrating the level of play. No it isnt just me, they are. A shortstop can string together five racks? No world class players can do that (sometimes). A C player never gets out (on respectively tough equipment). A B player is good and can run out if the other guy misses, but as far as a break and run, usually not happening, unless its a throw in. And an A player can put together 2 to 3 racks at a time, on a good night, but this isnt the norm. I mean watch the U.S. Open the break alone precludes one from doing that. Sure the world class guys are running racks. But this is not the norm for an A player. I think a little psychology takes a part in all of this, we think we are better than we are, so we inflate ranking systems based off of that over inflation of our own talent in our own heads.
