Taking The Skill Out Of Pool

Johnnyt

Johnnyt

Burn all jump cues
Silver Member
I can remember when if you were a good backyard mechanic you could pick up a light body car and put an old hemi in it and a few other things to make it competitive at the drag strip. I can remember going out and getting old 32 to 1940 coupe, make it track safe, throw a V8 with triple carburetor’s on it in your garage and go to one of the 1/5 to ½ mile stock car tracks around the country like Freeport on Long Island, NY. Those days are long gone when for a few bucks and your own labor you could enjoy your hobby of racing around an oval or down a quarter mile strip. You were the mechanic, body man, and driver.
Now a car comes down the ramps of a tracker-trailer with a crew of mechanics, machinists, and a pit crew. Inside the trailer are an extra car, a machine shop, extra motors, computers, and just about any part for the car.

I also remember pool when you had one cue (maybe), the break cue came off the wall and there were no jump cues. On one hand most want smaller pockets and deeper shelves to make the game harder. Some of those same people want a system that you don’t even have to look at the pocket and the ball goes magically in. I fear in the future the player will be bringing a little hand-held gadget to program each shot, all the patterns, and what the odds are of making all the shots. Will the use of stroke blocks and lasers be legal next? Hell, maybe just have a radio controlled CB and play the game sitting in the chair like a video game. Just press speed, draw, and the angle and WOW what a shot. To me shot making is one of the easiest parts of the game. IMO stroke and position are just as or more important. I really think were taking away from the game of how that it was intended to be played. Johnnyt
 
Jump And break Cues are just the evolution of the game man. I agree I think the aiming systems are silly. Making balls is a basic part of the game. Without position play you will never be any good. The best thing you can do for your game is position and speed control drills in my opinion. Back to the point of the thread .... would you say we should go back to no tips on cues and no rubber on rails because we made it to easy to control the cue ball by adding them?
 
trob said:
Jump And break Cues are just the evolution of the game man. I agree I think the aiming systems are silly. Making balls is a basic part of the game. Without position play you will never be any good. The best thing you can do for your game is position and speed control drills in my opinion. Back to the point of the thread .... would you say we should go back to no tips on cues and no rubber on rails because we made it to easy to control the cue ball by adding them?
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I'm not that old lol. But I could dig going back that far in pool. Maybe start over and get it right this time. Johnnyt
 
Taking the skill out of pool

I think there is still mucho skill involved, we all know Efren can play with a mop handle.

Playing pool is a pretty cheap sport to do, have you looked at golf fees lately. The cost of ammo or like the thread started out with, the cost of a decent sports car. I pay two dollars to play from 11am to 7pm on 9 foot gold crown tables at a pool hall that is ten minutes away from my house.

The jump cues, collector cues, break cues we use now are all because of excess money. People think that this or that is going to improve their game and there are a ton of people waiting to take your money for cues, videos, etc.

I am just as bad, I quit using a collectable $1,500 cue that I paid $175 dollars for in 1981 because I found a sneaky pete cue that played better. So, what do I do, I have the cue maker make me a custom $1,100 cue that looks fantastic and plays the same as the sneaky pete. Why, extra money in my pocket and wanting something that looks nice.

But, in the end, that $1,100 would have paid for 550 days of playing pool for eight hours a day and that would have improved my game the most, hahaha.
 
Johnnyt said:
I can remember when if you were a good backyard mechanic you could pick up a light body car and put an old hemi in it and a few other things to make it competitive at the drag strip. I can remember going out and getting old 32 to 1940 coupe, make it track safe, throw a V8 with triple carburetor’s on it in your garage and go to one of the 1/5 to ½ mile stock car tracks around the country like Freeport on Long Island, NY. Those days are long gone when for a few bucks and your own labor you could enjoy your hobby of racing around an oval or down a quarter mile strip. You were the mechanic, body man, and driver.
Now a car comes down the ramps of a tracker-trailer with a crew of mechanics, machinists, and a pit crew. Inside the trailer are an extra car, a machine shop, extra motors, computers, and just about any part for the car.

I also remember pool when you had one cue (maybe), the break cue came off the wall and there were no jump cues. On one hand most want smaller pockets and deeper shelves to make the game harder. Some of those same people want a system that you don’t even have to look at the pocket and the ball goes magically in. I fear in the future the player will be bringing a little hand-held gadget to program each shot, all the patterns, and what the odds are of making all the shots. Will the use of stroke blocks and lasers be legal next? Hell, maybe just have a radio controlled CB and play the game sitting in the chair like a video game. Just press speed, draw, and the angle and WOW what a shot. To me shot making is one of the easiest parts of the game. IMO stroke and position are just as or more important. I really think were taking away from the game of how that it was intended to be played. Johnnyt
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You do have some points. However, at the end of the day, we are all just playing on a table with six pockets. And, by and large, those pockets are smaller (at least to those of us who play mostly on Diamond pro tables). As far as aiming systems go, there is no magical fix. You must still practice to develop ball pocketing skills, regardless of your methodology.

Pool is still a tough, challenging game. For what it's worth, my entire equipment package consists of a playing cue with one shaft, break cue with one shaft, and a case to put them in. Oh yeah, I try to keep some chalk on hand as well...
 
Johnnyt said:
I can remember when if you were a good backyard mechanic you could pick up a light body car and put an old hemi in it and a few other things to make it competitive at the drag strip. I can remember going out and getting old 32 to 1940 coupe, make it track safe, throw a V8 with triple carburetor’s on it in your garage and go to one of the 1/5 to ½ mile stock car tracks around the country like Freeport on Long Island, NY. Those days are long gone when for a few bucks and your own labor you could enjoy your hobby of racing around an oval or down a quarter mile strip. You were the mechanic, body man, and driver.
Now a car comes down the ramps of a tracker-trailer with a crew of mechanics, machinists, and a pit crew. Inside the trailer are an extra car, a machine shop, extra motors, computers, and just about any part for the car.

I also remember pool when you had one cue (maybe), the break cue came off the wall and there were no jump cues. On one hand most want smaller pockets and deeper shelves to make the game harder. Some of those same people want a system that you don’t even have to look at the pocket and the ball goes magically in. I fear in the future the player will be bringing a little hand-held gadget to program each shot, all the patterns, and what the odds are of making all the shots. Will the use of stroke blocks and lasers be legal next? Hell, maybe just have a radio controlled CB and play the game sitting in the chair like a video game. Just press speed, draw, and the angle and WOW what a shot. To me shot making is one of the easiest parts of the game. IMO stroke and position are just as or more important. I really think were taking away from the game of how that it was intended to be played. Johnnyt
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I'm with you all the way man. Put someone in a jam and they just break out their limp dick stubby stick. I too would love to go back to the glory days of billiards. Even back to the days (1700's?) when they played with those funny looking putters instead of cues. My favorite time would probably be the 20's through 40's. Some of those halls were beyond description. Oh yeah, and I can still smell that burnt alcohol and rubber smell after leaving the staging area in my gutted '67 Chevelle with punched out 427. Gives me goose bumps just thinking about right now.

Cheers,
RG
 
Tony_in_MD said:
IMHO skill in pool left when barboxes came to be.
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I could not agree with you more. And just because you may not beat world champions on a barbox doesn't mean they are not easier to play on. It takes considerably less skill to run out and pocket balls on a bar box than on a nine footer. I absolutely hate them.
 
I think Tony_in_Md was probably referring to the generous size of barbox pockets that are, of course, designed to keep the games fast and coins dropping.

As I'm sure Johnny will agree, the skill required to achieve consistent success on barboxes, revolves around speed control and position play. Basically, it's about making it to your next shot without getting hooked. And this definitely requires some skill on the comparitively more-congested seven foot battlefield.

Best,
Brian kc
 
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Johnnyt said:
I fear in the future the player will be bringing a little hand-held gadget to program each shot, all the patterns, and what the odds are of making all the shots. Will the use of stroke blocks and lasers be legal next? Hell, maybe just have a radio controlled CB and play the game sitting in the chair like a video game. Just press speed, draw, and the angle and WOW what a shot. To me shot making is one of the easiest parts of the game. IMO stroke and position are just as or more important. I really think were taking away from the game of how that it was intended to be played. Johnnyt
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Florida weed must be better than New York weed...
 
Johnny - why cry about aiming systems when you were loving JoeT's? It should be loved, it's a GREAT system, imo. Aiming systems don't take the skill out of pool - it just makes that facet of the game easier to learn and easier to repeat. In my opinion, aiming systems are the same as a pre-shot routine (or at least a substantial part of it). It's just a "pre-defined" PSR, that's all.

As far as jump cues--- yeah. You should have to jump with what you play with, imo.
 
SpiderWebComm said:
Johnny - why cry about aiming systems when you were loving JoeT's? It should be loved, it's a GREAT system, imo. Aiming systems don't take the skill out of pool - it just makes that facet of the game easier to learn and easier to repeat. In my opinion, aiming systems are the same as a pre-shot routine (or at least a substantial part of it). It's just a "pre-defined" PSR, that's all.As far as jump cues--- yeah. You should have to jump with what you play with, imo.
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I don't always agree with Spidey but I think he may have hit the nail on the head on how to look at the aiming systems. Thats why every one of em has different people who they work for and who they don't work for..

Extra benefit is you can't argue about who has the best PSR as long as the PSR a person uses works... =)
 
Tony_in_MD said:
IMHO skill in pool left when barboxes came to be.
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Good thing it's just your opinion and not stated as a fact. I play on all sizes of table (except 5 x 10 as there are none around) including 6 x 12 snooker tables and they all offer challenges unique to themselves.

If you don't like bar boxes don't play on them, if you complain about them being to easy someone is likely to take you and your wallet to task on that.
 
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In my opinion, if someone wants to buy mutliple cues and gadgets more power to them it is their money. I also do not think that all those gadgets help you out that much but hey if they want to try that is ok. People like that keep a part of the billiards industry in business which is a good thing.

In regards to racing, unlike pool... MONEY DOES BUY SPEED!
 
This whole thread is nothing but opinion.

Unfortually all of the leagues I play on are on barboxes. There are no real poolrooms left in my area within a 1.5 hour drive.

Anyone who wants my money can play me on my doubleshimmed Gold Crown.

And yeah barboxes are too easy.


supergreenman said:
Good thing it's just your opinion and not stated as a fact. I play on all sizes of table (except 5 x 10 as there are none around) including 6 x 12 snooker tables and they all offer challenges unique to themselves.

If you don't like bar boxes don't play on them, if you complain about them being to easy someone is likely to take you and your wallet to task on that.
Click to expand...
 
MN Kid said:
Oh yeah, and I can still smell that burnt alcohol and rubber smell after leaving the staging area in my gutted '67 Chevelle with punched out 427. Gives me goose bumps just thinking about right now.

Cheers,
RG
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Ain't nothin like a big block,drove my buddie's 1966 427 Vette with side pipes once,still have a chubby over that!
 
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