Videotaped Runs and Lack of Competition

Rich93

Rich93

A Small Time Charlie
Silver Member
The discussion of Sascha's videos makes me realize how truly blessed we in Chicago are by having two very good 14.1 leagues (Illinois Billiard Club and Red Shoes Billiards) and occasional small 14.1 tournaments at Red Shoes.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I blame the lack of 14.1 competition almost everywhere in the country for the temptation that Sascha succumbed to. Without the opportunity to compete in real games, some forum members' desire to compete gets expressed in taping and posting their high run videos - they have no other outlet to show their progress and have it acknowledged by their peers. Of course, this obviously doesn't apply to most who post videos but I think to some.

If you're in a league you'll have real competition and take the game more seriously. You'll discover weaknesses you didn't know you had (I got out-safed! - or - I make that shot at home 19 of 20 times but when it counted I choked!). You'll learn from the better players (e.g., Smooth Eddie). You'll keep track of your progress (what's happening to my handicap?). Most of all, you'll have fun.

I encourage anyone who has an interest in organizing a 14.1 league but doesn't quite know how to go about it to contact Dennis Walsh or me. Together we organize our two leagues and have the system down pretty well. I'm happy to share gratis our Excel workbook to keep track of win-loss records, handicap adjustments and money collection.

As for Sascha, I'm sure the embarrassment he feels is punishment enough. Let's forgive and move on, and I hope he stays a contributing forum member.
 
I blame the lack of 14.1 competition almost everywhere in the country for the temptation that Sascha succumbed to.
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i been playing the 14.1 ghost for a long time mainly because i live way out in the country. i've never felt the need to defraud anyone with regard to my abilities.
 
Cant we just let it rest already !!!

sascha did some wrong, we have come to terms already. he has admitted his wrong doing already and made his appologize already, and i for one have accepted it already.....

Sascha is the one who has to carry this weight around with him, and he has already regained my trust just for making a very bold appology in the height of the allogations....that right there says alot.

he did not crawl away with his tail between his legs and wait for the smoke to clear when we may have forgotten all about it...that again says alot !


Once Again, Sascha has my support. He is a great contributor to this forum and lets just leave it at that !!!

-Steve
 
stevekur1 said:
Cant we just let it rest already !!!

sascha did some wrong, we have come to terms already. he has admitted his wrong doing already and made his appologize already, and i for one have accepted it already.....

Sascha is the one who has to carry this weight around with him, and he has already regained my trust just for making a very bold appology in the height of the allogations....that right there says alot.

he did not crawl away with his tail between his legs and wait for the smoke to clear when we may have forgotten all about it...that again says alot !


Once Again, Sascha has my support. He is a great contributor to this forum and lets just leave it at that !!!

-Steve
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Steve:

Great post, and is exactly what I was thinking. There are certain factions, though, that think they're experts on the "character" of people, and just won't let it go. They hide behind the "but I'm just expressing my opinion, and you can't stop me from expressing my opinion gahdammit!" facade. And over, and over, and over in multiple posts. To those factions: "You don't like Sascha. You don't trust Sascha. We get it. Now let it go, and let's move on."

Sascha has my support. Just like you say, Steve, he didn't tuck tail and run. He confronted his accusers head-on, faced the indisputable facts, bowed his head, and apologized. He's an intelligent guy. I don't think we need to warn him that he's two strikes against him (to put it in baseball terms). And yes, even though this is his first infraction, it's an egregiously big one, that should count as "two" right out of the gate. He knows he can't commit a third. And unlike the "character experts" we seem to have on this board (character experts who live out in the styx and mainly play 14.1 alone, no less -- like they're an expert on "people"!), I don't think he'll commit a third.

Again, great post. I too plead with the readers to let this go. If you can't, just put Sascha on your "Ignore" list -- then you won't have to ever see his posts again. Problem solved.

Respectfully,
-Sean
 
am i the only one that didn't read this as having to with recent events? the guy is asking for more people to play straight pool.....with whatever else just merely supporting that statement.

jeeez, i agree. more people should play straight pool. nuff said.
 
sascha said:
sorry i don´t understand what you mean
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it wasn't so much about you as it was an argument for more organization and involvement in straight pool.

i think people unfairly jumped on this one, seeing as he didn't attack or judge you, other than to say exactly what the three people you thanked are condoning with respect to your situation.

it will die down, but i think its ridiculous to not be able to talk about it. people need to process events. Rich's post was, imo, objective, and took the situation and "applied" it, as opposed to say, passing judgment on it.

That's the way I read it anyway....

Justin.

edited to add: unless they were referring to sausages post. i won't comment on that.
 
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JusticeNJ said:
it wasn't so much about you as it was an argument for more organization and involvement in straight pool.

i think people unfairly jumped on this one, seeing as he didn't attack or judge you, other than to say exactly what the three people you thanked are condoning with respect to your situation.

it will die down, but i think its ridiculous to not be able to talk about it. people need to process events. Rich's post was, imo, objective, and took the situation and "applied" it, as opposed to say, passing judgment on it.

That's the way I read it anyway....

Justin.

edited to add: unless they were referring to sausages post. i won't comment on that.
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Justin, I think they were referring to sausage's post. I didn't take it that they were jumping on my initial post.

I was prompted to make that post because I wanted to argue for more straight pool leagues. It's hard to sustain an interest in the game if all you can do is play by yourself, although filming your runs and posting them does provide some incentive to improve and competition of a sort. But I think it's a poor substitute for games against real opponents.

My second objective was to offer to share what we Chicagoans know about setting up and running a league in order to encourage others to try it. In the spring we had a total of 54 in our leagues. Sure, Chicago is a big city, but the great majority of our players were from just one part of it (southwest suburbs).

The leagues are a lot less complicated to run than an APA league, for example. No mysterious recordkeeping, no complicated handicapping, no trips to Vegas, no sandbagging. What recordkeeping is required can easily be done by hand, although I can provide an Excel spreadsheet that does a nice job. Dennis Walsh and I will share what works for us with anyone who's interested in setting up a league - for free, of course.

The thread was prompted by the Sascha business but I didn't intend it to be about Sascha, although I did end the post with a suggestion to forgive and move on. That was my mistake, and it looks like I've done it again.
 
I think amateurs in general are pre-disposed to an over focus on high runs, if that makes any sense. The fact that there is little competition in 14.1 seems to contribute to this in so far as practice runs seem to be regarded in the same light as runs in competition.

Sometimes I think people forget that in a 100 point game, three runs of 33 are just as effective as runs of 80, 10 and 10. The exception of course being that the 80 leaves your opponent a little more cold.

I've always said, your high run wins you exactly one game. I'm more interested in my average.
 
Rich93 said:
The discussion of Sascha's videos makes me realize how truly blessed we in Chicago are by having two very good 14.1 leagues (Illinois Billiard Club and Red Shoes Billiards) and occasional small 14.1 tournaments at Red Shoes.
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Chicago should also take great pride in the presence of one of the best pure 14.1 technicians of all time, namely BCA Hall of Famer Dallas West.
 
Chicago resources

sjm said:
Chicago should also take great pride in the presence of one of the best pure 14.1 technicians of all time, namely BCA Hall of Famer Dallas West.
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Dallas is in Rockford, 90 miles northwest of us. He did come to Red Shoes about 4 years ago and played in a straight pool tournament there where Jeff Carter beat him in the finals.

Bobby Hunter is here and as a matter of fact, he gave a lesson to Jeff Mohl at the Illinois Billiard Club, yesterday. Jeff was impressed with what John Schmidt had to say about Bobby.

Not to sidetrack Rich's thread too much, but we do have some pretty good 14.1 stuff going on here.
 
dmgwalsh said:
Dallas is in Rockford, 90 miles northwest of us. He did come to Red Shoes about 4 years ago and played in a straight pool tournament there where Jeff Carter beat him in the finals.

Bobby Hunter is here and as a matter of fact, he gave a lesson to Jeff Mohl at the Illinois Billiard Club, yesterday. Jeff was impressed with what John Schmidt had to say about Bobby.

Not to sidetrack Rich's thread too much, but we do have some pretty good 14.1 stuff going on here.
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Another great Chicago 14.1 player is Tom Karabotsos. IMO, the players in Chicago are some of the strongest supporters of 14.1 in the world.
 
Cameron Smith said:
I think amateurs in general are pre-disposed to an over focus on high runs, if that makes any sense. The fact that there is little competition in 14.1 seems to contribute to this in so far as practice runs seem to be regarded in the same light as runs in competition.

Sometimes I think people forget that in a 100 point game, three runs of 33 are just as effective as runs of 80, 10 and 10. The exception of course being that the 80 leaves your opponent a little more cold.

I've always said, your high run wins you exactly one game. I'm more interested in my average.
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100% agree ^^
a young guy asked me a bit longer ago during *teaching* him a bit strategy in straight-pool what has been *my best tournament game*.
Told him which game it was and in which tournament- was a game to 100 that i finished in 11 innings- with almost perfect safety on the beginning- then followed 8 innings with 14 balls including a perfect safety-shot- and the game ended 100: -2. He was a bit surprised, bc he s also watching out for the highest possible runs^^

Later i played a match with him and the game was nearly the same (ended about 100:15 or so)- and every time when he came to the table it was like seeing *sharks in his bath*- then he understood a bit more, that straight-pool is not *just* shootin hundreds of balls :)

But for sure the Elite-Shooters just waiting in a game for the one chance-and then they make this run. And the intermediate players need dozens of chances to make a high-run. that s the easy tutorial^^

If the ppl began to play straight-pool (or something else) seriously, it s hard to understand, that you have ALWAYS have to check out the situation after every ball-and think over it- the ability to re-organize is a big step to a higher lvl in my opinion :-)


lg
Ingo
 
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