We Use To Be #1

[Johnnyt]

IMO there is one good reason that the USA doesn’t rule the world in pool with its top players anymore. The USA was #1 in the world for many years up to about 1990. By then the PI players had taken over #1 with Tiawan, the UK, and China bunched up for #2.

For years the top U.S players matched up with each other gambling. Now hardly any of them match up unless they feel they have the best of it and get staked 100%. Just banging balls around a few hours a week and a tournament once a month…if that, is not enough tough games to stay in world stroke.

In the PI the top players and the up and coming 2nd tier players gamble with each other all day and all night. They are in stroke when they get out of bed.

If our pros don’t start getting in action a lot more often they will fall further and further behind the above countries. I mean Earthquake was in more action in 1 year than all the US players put together are now…if you leave out Shane. Johnnyt

 

[Fatboy]

We used to be #1 in lots of things, those days are long gone:frown::frown:


Or we just thought we were #1 and are just now finding out the truth because communication and travel are much easier than just a few years ago.

either way we aint all that after-all.

 

[JB Cases]

This subject again?

Yes the USA used to be #1 because the US players had little competition around the world. Very few truly world class players.

But in the intervening 20 years the successes of those players inspired many more to take up the game seriously. And so while the USA has bred less and less players of Archer's speed, the rest of the world has been creating them ceaselessly.

In other words, pool has waned in the USA while it has grown in other lands. And frankly when a Taiwanese, a Chinese, or a Filipino wins a major event then the prize money goes much much farther than the prize money does for a Westerner. So that's a LOT of incentive for players to take up pool which has zero barrier to entry.

 

[Fatboy]

This subject again?

Yes the USA used to be #1 because the US players had little competition around the world. Very few truly world class players.

But in the intervening 20 years the successes of those players inspired many more to take up the game seriously. And so while the USA has bred less and less players of Archer's speed, the rest of the world has been creating them ceaselessly.

In other words, pool has waned in the USA while it has grown in other lands. And frankly when a Taiwanese, a Chinese, or a Filipino wins a major event then the prize money goes much much farther than the prize money does for a Westerner. So that's a LOT of incentive for players to take up pool which has zero barrier to entry.

and because pool pays what it did in the 80's its nearly impossible for guys to earn a American living, just to survive. that's cancer..... the expenses are X3 what they were in the 80 and prize $$$ might be equal to or 110% of what it was, the pool infaltion didnt keep up with the cost of living(surviving) index. And JB is right take the USD$ back home to the PI and it goes lots farther.

the real estate boom has hurt pool, its too expensive to play pool in many areas now so that breeds less players too. $10/hour pool dont work if your playing full time and dont have a trust fund. Think JA would have had a chance if pool was $10/hr when he started? he might have not decided to play or been able to at first, and at first nobody gets a sponsor. There are lots more reasons pool isnt working as well in america and other countries either, FaceBook, video games and indian casinos aint helping ether....

 

[vincentwu817]

and because pool pays what it did in the 80's its nearly impossible for guys to earn a American living, just to survive. that's cancer..... the expenses are X3 what they were in the 80 and prize $$$ might be equal to or 110% of what it was, the pool infaltion didnt keep up with the cost of living(surviving) index. And JB is right take the USD$ back home to the PI and it goes lots farther.

the real estate boom has hurt pool, its too expensive to play pool in many areas now so that breeds less players too. $10/hour pool dont work if your playing full time and dont have a trust fund. Think JA would have had a chance if pool was $10/hr when he started? he might have not decided to play or been able to at first, and at first nobody gets a sponsor. There are lots more reasons pool isnt working as well in america and other countries either, FaceBook, video games and indian casinos aint helping ether....

Thats spot on. It is expensive to play pool here unless you have a deal with the pool room to get a monthly plan or something. Another thing is that the youth in America is not involved. There is no way American pool can stay in contention with Taiwan when Taiwan has kids in middle school that goes to the pool room after school or during school hours to get official training. Then they continue to do this through their younger years and some even go to college and get a degree. The discipline I have witnessed with Taiwanese players is just unmatched by anything I have seen here.

Another thing I have witnessed here is that it isnt easy to learn pool here. There are a bunch of players or wanna be pros out there who give "lessons" at rates like 75 an hr. There is not much free help here as pool players here seem to try to take advantage of anyone they can. 75 dollars is ridiculous. I could have gotten lessons from chao fong pang, a 2 time world champion and legendary coach in taiwan for maybe half of that rate.

 

[Masayoshi]

Geography makes it difficult for top players in the US to regularly spar with eachother. In Japan, most of the top players live in Tokyo or are there regularly for tournaments and the other pool playing metropolis, Kansai, is only a 2 hour ride away by bullet train. Countries like Taiwan and the Phillipines are even more compact so players can easily share notes, gamble, compete, etc. with eachother.