The Public's Perception on Pool

A

axejunkie

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Sometime around 2033 the average American mallethead sportsfan will consider NFL football the only legitimate sport.
 
cleary

cleary

Honestly, I'm a liar.
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What I don't understand is how people who play pool don't already see things like this. Pool is great, I love it, but it's not a sport. It's a wonderful game and it's very tough but it doesn't take strength or speed or athleticism. Not to mention, how many "sports" are played in dress shoes and occasionally in a bow tie? Case closed.
 
Shawn Armstrong

Shawn Armstrong

AZB deceased - stopped posting 5/13/2022
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Do you actually think pool is a sport, and should be recognized as an Olympic event? Really? Wrestling was nearly removed from the Olympics. Squash isn't an Olympic sport yet. Neither is Ultimate Frisbee. And I'd say that dodgeball and ultimate frisbee are played by more people worldwide than pool.

Should darts be an official Olympic event? I love pool....but it isn't a "sport".
 
JoeyA

JoeyA

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Sobering comments for sure.....

It is not good. But it is important to have a reality check from those who perceive pool from outside of the sub-culture we live in.

JoeyA

P.S. Just wondering what would make pool (to those outside of active involvement) athletic enough, interesting enough to make it so that they would consider it a sport.


ghost ball said:
Snooker/Billiards up for consideration as an olympic sport. Check out the comments and get an idea of what non pool players think about it....hint, it's not good....

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/snooker-billiards-seek-inclusion-2020-tokyo-olympics-134026167.html
Click to expand...
 
krupa

krupa

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JoeyA

JoeyA

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Show some skin......but this could get ugly, real fast.

itsfroze said:
is ribbon dancing (or what ever it's called) more a sport than Pool ? I don't think so.
How about synchronized swimming.

How many people around the World are big fans or participate in these two activity's ?

NOT MANY... ...and yet... ...I know !
Click to expand...

Maybe, we need to play pool in bathing suits.......

JoeyA
 
Shawn Armstrong

Shawn Armstrong

AZB deceased - stopped posting 5/13/2022
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itsfroze said:
is ribbon dancing (or what ever it's called) more a sport than Pool ? I don't think so.
How about synchronized swimming.

How many people around the World are big fans or participate in these two activity's ?

NOT MANY... ...and yet... ...I know !
Click to expand...

Both of the above require a hell of a lot more athletic ability than pool. Artistic gymnastics may not be your preferred thing to watch. Perhaps reruns of The Rockford Files or Gunsmoke are up your alley. As far as world appeal, there will be plenty of Asians tuning into the artistic gymnastics over billiards. Synchro swimming is incredibly athletically challenging. So, I would place both events above pool, based solely on the fact they both require an insane amount of physical strength and technique.

You'd probably rather watch pool than ski jumping. Doesn't mean that ski jumping isn't a sport. Or that pool is.
 
KRJ

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I bet many of those comments, like most on Yahoo, are from the jackasses that are die hard, never miss a game, NFL, NBA, NHL or MLB fans, that NEVER played any of the games or if did, sputtered out around the age of 12. They are usually the drunken loud mouths at sporting events calling everyone a bum because they struck out, or threw an interception. The don't get it, and never will.

Pool is a sport, not a popular sport, or an athletic one, but one the requires very good eye hand coordination, the ability to have "touch", good eye sight, and the skills to know what spin to put on the cueball and when.

If it was NOT a sport, I should be able to teach my grandmother to play excellent pool But I can't. I should expect somone older than 50 to win a world championship, but we can't. Because one's skills, hand eye coordination and eye sight fade with age. Not so with games. Still plenty of top poker players, chess players and bridge players over the age of 50 !!!

If it was just a "game", those APA bangers who are stuck at a 3 or 4 rating for years are either mentally retarded, or lack the hand eye coordination and/or others skills it requires to move up a level or two ;) I tend to think they just don't have the skills. Not everyone has the eye hand coordination to really get good.

I find it funny that some folks compare it to checkers?? I can play checkers or chess, and have someone move the piece for me, I don't even need to be in the same room, building, city or even country with someone and I can still beat them in a chess match.

As long as Curling is a sport, and a recognized Olympic sport at that, than Billiards qualifies. If someone can win a Gold Medal for brushing ice with a broom, then they need to leave the insutls to pool the FCK alone :thumbup:

But the bottomline, I still don't believe Billiards is a good enough athletic endeavor to qualify for an Olympic sport. And it is also about the ratings, and though the ratings might go up in a few select countries for Snooker, the rest of the world would be changing the channel, and that means lost revenue. Nobody wants to spend $10B to buy the TV rights, and then have folks change the channel !!!
 
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DaveK

DaveK

Still crazy after all these years
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ChicagoRJ said:
I bet many of those comments, like most on Yahoo, are from the jackasses that are die hard, never miss a game, NFL, NBA, NHL or MLB fans, that NEVER played any of the games or if did, sputtered out around the age of 12. They are usually the drunken loud mouths at sporting events calling everyone a bum because they struck out, or threw an interception. The don't get it, and never will.
Click to expand...

I agree, which is why I would like to know their nationalities :lol:

ChicagoRJ said:
As long as Curling is a sport, and a recognized Olympic sport at that, than Billiards qualifies. If someone can win a Gold Medal for brushing ice with a broom, then they need to leave the insutls to pool the FCK alone :thumbup:
Click to expand...

See comment above :lol: And BTW, they can make some real money curling :

http://www.thegrandslamofcurling.com/curling/about/

Likely makes you want to weep :lol:

Dave
 
PoolBum

PoolBum

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Sorry to say but I am in the camp of those who consider pool more of a game than a sport. A sport I think requires athleticism in a way that pool does not. Playing great pool obviously requires tremendous hand-eye coordination, and certainly stamina, but not the degree of athleticism in my opinion that would make it a genuine sport.
 
krupa

krupa

The Dream Operator
Silver Member
Anyone who doesn't consider pool a sport is just choosing arbitrary lines and saying "this is a sport and that isn't." Let's ask Mr. Merriam and Mr. Webster what they think...

sport noun
: a contest or game in which people do certain physical activities according to a specific set of rules and compete against each other

: sports in general

: a physical activity (such as hunting, fishing, running, swimming, etc.) that is done for enjoyment
Click to expand...

It's just a semantic argument, anyway. Whether or not pool is a "sport" or pluto is a "planet" doesn't change a thing about them.
 
Shawn Armstrong

Shawn Armstrong

AZB deceased - stopped posting 5/13/2022
Silver Member
Curling is a sport. Anyone who says it isn't has never picked up a stone (rock) in their life. As someone who used to curl, it's quite the workout at the competitive level. That "sweeping" of the rock takes effort. You basically have to move the broom back and forth fast enough to melt ice....

It may not be your cup of tea, but there's more athletic skill required to curl than there is to play pool. Bowling isn't an olympic sport. I also don't consider bowling a sport. You pick up a ball, take a couple of steps, and roll the ball to knock down pins. It's a physically intensive game, but it's stilll a game. Twister would be something similar to pool or bowling. There's a physical component to it, and some people will be better at it than others, based on coordination, muscle strength and flexibility.

Sorry, but every olympic sport currently contested for medals are much more athletically challenging than pool. If you could do something like biathlon, where the pool player had to pedal around the arena, then come back to the table, and speed run a rack of 6 balls, THAT would be a sport. However, I don't see any other event at the olympics that involves more standing than anything else. It would be like olympic yoga, or tai chi.
 
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