The making of a pro player

8pack

8pack

They call me 2 county !
Silver Member
The making of a pro player
-________________________-
On a scale from 1 ton 10 where should a pro player highest points be.
10 is the best.Rate each one of these as you think it would take to play at pro speed.



The Break-
Shot Making-
Fundamentals-
Safety play-
Jumping-
kicking-
focus-
Decision making-
attitude-
physical health-
 
Last edited:
Working under premise that 10 & 1 are not possible:

The Break- 9
Shot Making- 9
Fundamentals- 2
Safety play- 9
Jumping- 9
kicking- 9
focus- 9
Decision making- 9
attitude- 5
physical health- 2
 
Black-Balled said:
Working under premise that 10 & 1 are not possible:

The Break- 9
Shot Making- 9
Fundamentals- 2
Safety play- 9
Jumping- 9
kicking- 9
focus- 9
Decision making- 9
attitude- 5
physical health- 2
Click to expand...

wont get anywhere in a long tough match with a 2 for these i'm afraid. The other categories will quickly drop, as a result of being unfit and having week fundamentals.

Focus, decision making will drastically come down.
 
lee brett said:
wont get anywhere in a long tough match with a 2 for these i'm afraid. The other categories will quickly drop, as a result of being unfit and having week fundamentals.

Focus, decision making will drastically come down.
Click to expand...

I sure don't think its the best way, but there have been many great players with bad fundamentals and extremely poor health. I agree, it only works against you, but anyone can become great without natural talent and hard work.
 
lee brett said:
wont get anywhere in a long tough match with a 2 for these i'm afraid. The other categories will quickly drop, as a result of being unfit and having week fundamentals.

Focus, decision making will drastically come down.
Click to expand...

Then explain me some Wanderone and Hopkins and Hoppe and Basavich and McCready and Bustamante and St. Louie, v-man?;)

I kid. they may all be/ been better with more orthodox styles and/ or health choices, but they have all been badasses in their own right...
 
cleary said:
I sure don't think its the best way, but there have been many great players with bad fundamentals and extremely poor health. I agree, it only works against you, but anyone can become great without natural talent and hard work.
Click to expand...

And, IMO, that is what makes pool such a unique and great sport (or is it an activity:grin:): you can't reall judge a person's potential by any single set of characteristics. Short-tall-fat-thin-drunk-sober-Korean-Euro-American-old-young-man-woman...I been beat by 'em all!
 
Neil said:
There isn't a pro out there with bad fundamentals. Most of them don't have the "classical" fundamentals, but none have bad fundamentals. Fundamentals are what makes you repeatable. They all have that or they wouldn't be where they are.
Click to expand...
Semantics...though you aren't rhong.
 
cleary said:
I sure don't think its the best way, but there have been many great players with bad fundamentals and extremely poor health. I agree, it only works against you, but anyone can become great without natural talent and hard work.
Click to expand...




Black-Balled said:
Then explain me some Wanderone and Hopkins and Hoppe and Basavich and McCready and Bustamante and St. Louie, v-man?;)

I kid. they may all be/ been better with more orthodox styles and/ or health choices, but they have all been badasses in their own right...
Click to expand...

Im not saying you cant play well, but it will work against you in long tough matches when the heat is on. Try and play your best pool when your over weight and been playing long tough match, the brain starts slowing down and you make bad decisions. And i also think the players of today are far better than the players of yester year, same as tiger with golf, federer, nadal etc. Not saying they weren't great players far from it, before you guys jump on me :wink:
imagine how much better these guys would of been, with better health and fundamentals. The equipment is getting tougher and fundamentals are a must nowadays.
 
What kind of pro are you talking about? Top pros would probably rate a 9 or 10 in every single category. Borderline pros might have one or two weak areas or might just be all around weaker (8 or 9 in every category), but it really varies from person to person.
 
Masayoshi said:
What kind of pro are you talking about? Top pros would probably rate a 9 or 10 in every single category. Borderline pros might have one or two weak areas or might just be all around weaker (8 or 9 in every category), but it really varies from person to person.
Click to expand...

I wonder what the key elements are that separate the top pro,s from the borderline pro,s.
 
billbOK said:
30k to 90k$ per year ;)
Click to expand...

Probably a whole lot of truth to that.Couldnt imagine how tough it probably is to make a living playing this game when there's so much talent out there and very little room for error.
 
Interesting way to break it down. I'm assuming we are talking about 9 & 10 Ball.

The Break - This is where I see the biggest gap between fellow pros. Up near 10 you have guys like SVB and Archer (thinking of just U.S. guys at the moment). You would also have to put Deuel (when he's playing all the time) and Mr. Mills up near 10 for their ability to dictate where the balls are going. On the other end, you could argue that Earl's break could be as low as a 7. There are quite a few others that I've watched that really don't break the balls that well.

Shot Making - If you take the top 50-100 players in the world it's tough to see a difference in their shot making ability but I think it is there. This is a category that I think jumps around slightly for each player depending on if they are really on or not. It doesn't jump around much but anywhere from 8-10.

Fundamentals - That's tricky. You have to define the term. If we are simply talking about having a repeatable stroke (like Neil said), then they all have that. But if you are talking about having a text book type of stroke -- that varies quite a bit. I do think that as the equipment continues to get more challenging players strokes will begin to look more uniform (similar to snooker). This may take at least a generation.

Jumping - Any of them that care to practice the shot get pretty good at it. All 8-10. If they are below that it's just because they are not interested in the shot (Efren, Earl)

Kicking - I think that most of the pros are about in the same area on this. Somewhere in the 7-8 range. I think it is really only the elite cue ball artisans that are in the 9-10 range. These are the guys that could probably REALLY play excellent 3 cushion if they chose to. Everybody always thinks of Efren and for good reason. When you really think about it though - I don't think the time invested in reaching that level of proficiency in the kicking department is really all that beneficial. Of course, it looks really cool when you can play a five rail kick shot in order to avoid giving up ball in hand but I think it is the simpler kicks (mainly 1 and 2 railers) that are encountered the most and that's where the racks are won and lost. Of course, I'll acknowledge that knowing how the cueball tracks around the table will help your overall cue ball control.

Focus - All very high.

Decision making - All very high unless they get bored.

Attitude - depends on the day. They all must struggle with this. How can they not??? If I was working a job and I didn't feel I was being paid enough to support my family I would definitely have attitude issues. I'm sure they all struggle with this from time to time.

Physical health - This never really mattered in the past but I've seen a big change in the past 20 years or so. The European players take this much more seriously it seems. I think many of the U.S. players are behind in this department. I think if there was a bunch of money miraculously poured into the game this would be one of the first things you would see a lot of the players begin to focus in on. They would all start hitting the gym and eating right.
 
Last edited:
8pack said:
I wonder what the key elements are that separate the top pro,s from the borderline pro,s.
Click to expand...

I think it is because one is a little weaker emotionally.
When 2 players are close they usually both have chances to win.
You can watch match after match and in each one there will be just a few mistakes that were made that meant winning or losing.
You see the same players just fall short time after time when the game is tough.
Some try too hard , some lose focus. It seems a very fine line to me.
 
My two cents are not worth much, but I will add them anyway.

I think the greatest advantage of the top players is their mental control, and ability to play under pressure. Pool is a game predicated on mistakes, and the less one makes, the more successful they will be. When the heat is turned up, the top players can still shoot like it was a practice session. This is exactly what seperated Tiger from most other golfers. He is mentally tougher than possibly any other athlete in the world, trained from almost birth to not let his mind get in the way.

The categories on the list are all very important, and I would assume that most pros are extremely proficient in any of those categories that require skill at the table. As far as that is concerned, I have always believed that cue ball control/speed is what really seperates the pros. And some are better than others at this. Ralf Souqet always impresses me with his control and judgment of speed. It is amazing.

This is a cool thread. Thank you to the op for starting it.:thumbup:

Braden
 
The Break- 5 (look at Efren's break)
Shot Making- 10
Fundamentals- 2 (we see PLENTY of pros with unorthodox styles)
Safety play- 10 (huge part of the game today)
Jumping- 2 (How many times have you ever seen Efren jump?)
kicking- 10 (Huge part of the game today)
focus- 10
Decision making- 10
attitude- 10 (TOP TOP champions think they are going to win. None of them show up to a tournament saying they will get 30th place. This may come across as arrogant at times, but it is this desire and viewpoint that gives these guys an edge)
physical health- 10 (look at the past 10 yrs of world and US open champions and their physical health. Being physically healthy helps you stay at the top of your game both in stamina and in focus)
 
Last edited:
The Break- 5
Shot Making- 8
Fundamentals- 9
Safety play-5
Jumping- 5
kicking- 5
focus- 9
Decision making- 10
attitude- 7
physical health- 5

1-10 where 5 is medium talent/ability, 1 is poor and 10 is outstanding (Above is minimum requirements to be a top-pro)

Explanation:
Decision making >> Fundamentals >> Focus >> Shot Making >> Attitude >> Physical Health >> Break & Safety Play >> Jumping & Kicking

If you wanna run many balls you gotta choose the right shoots. Thats what is most important. The better fundamentals you have, the better ability to perform your decisions you have also focus have a part in that matter. Shot making, yes its very important, but the three before are more important because if you are poor at those you're shot making wont matter. Attitude are also important in order to develop. Physical Health is a plus but not that important. Breaking knowledge and safety play knowledge is also important but you could get away with it if you are good at the others before. Jumping & kicking are not necessary in order to be a pro.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top