Were you naturally good from a young age?

[jdxprs]

I started playing pool in military base youth activities centers when i was very young. even back then when i knew NOTHING about pool, I always seemed to win a lot more than i lost.

thinking back to this made me wonder, are most players that enjoy pool enough to be posting on this forum the same as me, in that pool just came easy to you?

 

[greyghost]

First off I believe talent is more myth than real, talent gets you busted is about it. especially if your a young child when introduced to the game you pick it up fast, the game is simple and is right up a kids alley. Thats why kids ask questions all the time...they want to know answers. If you kept hitting right, and the ball went left....then it sticks an answer is like a punch to the head with a kid. Then throw in the fun involved.....we were hooked like a crack head when we were knee high to a duck.



Grey Ghost

 

[Nature Boy]

I had a lot of talent from a young age. I didn't take to the game right away, but I got pretty good really fast. I just played with people that were much better.

Then I found golf and it was over for a while.

Now, I have found the game again, and I hope to do very well with both.

 

[TheBook]

Not really and I get worse as I get older.

 

[cigardave]

First... define good... and then young.

 

[Tom In Cincy]

At 17 making balls wasn't what I would call 'natural talent', I've seen players at 17 that not only made balls but could compete with players that had been playing for 20+ years and defeating them.

I've seen 13 year old kids make grown men cry.

I've had to work hard for the level of play I have had in the past and even harder to maintain the piss poor level I have now.

 

[Gmanpoke]

Not really and I get worse as I get older.

Well, that sums it up for me too. The only thing I would add is I must be getting really old.

Steven

 

[berry]

As a youth coach I see a lot of youth players at the pool table. Now talent is a wide discription of things that is needed to pocket some balls. I have seen youth players with a good arm, players who are already mentaly strong, young players with hart and fire, youth players with a high learning capability etc.

Research amoung talented (youth selections followed from 15 till 20) show that a high learning capability is most important! (Note: this has nothing to do with level of school or IQ).

Next to that I would like to add that pool is a very mental game and that being young mature (do I spell this correct?) is very handy. Fysical and mental matureness helps a lot in the mental part of the game, but also your overview of the lay out, tactical decisions etc.

Can pool be learned in a later stage of life (like many of us do).... Yes, mainly because you have reached the mental and fysical stage of a mature person, but as we all know the learning capacity goos down, so things are not easy.. The biggest problem I see with older players who want to be pro is that they focus on more things in life (job, wife, childeren, tv etc.) as they have more responsabilities and they cannot combine this.

The way I see youth pool:

8-13 FUNdamentals
13-15 drills, learn to learn
16-18 learn to compete
18-21 learn to be a pro

(a bit of Balyi, a bit of Murphy, bit of other sport coaches on world level and a bit of experiance..)

 

[Jason Koopman]

Nope not at all

 

[JarnoV]

This topic is dear to my heart as I've read numerous articles about the acquisition of expertise. The bottom line is that the most important ingredient of becoming an expert is the amount and quality of deliberate practice one acquires. There are individual differences ranging from the obvious (say, height in basketball) to more subtle (inherent capabilities for fine motor control), but they are almost completely trumped by practice. According to the research on expertise, every single true expert in their field has spent thousands of hours practicing deliberately. This includes even those who have been hailed as statistical outliers, say Mozart or Judith Polgar in chess.

There are individual differences in the ability and willingness to practice. Many average performers don't practice deliberately or systematically. Most don't practice at all. Very few get professional coaching, which is also shown to be a critical component in becoming an expert.

I'm not saying everyone could be the best in the world. (In fact, it's impossible by definition. And there will be some individual differences, which will make it impossible for most people to become the absolute best in the world. But I am saying that everyone should stop worrying about whether they "have it" in them or not. You won't find out whether you can make it to the top without actually practicing for hundreds of hours. Practicing deliberately.

Link for more references about the research on expertise:

http://www.psy.fsu.edu/faculty/ericsson/ericsson.exp.perf.html

 

[JasonS]

I've been playing for almost three years now (started at 23) and I'm able to play consistantly with guys twice my age and 10x more experience... My fiance would say that I act more like I'm 13 lol so in that case then youths have a greater chance of going pro, but honestly I think it simply has to do with a person's learning style and intelligence (not how intelligent, but in what aspect of all that we can do are we most intelligent)... Some people pick up on carpentry quickly but couldn't in a million years figure out how to program a VCR and vise-versa. Simply everyone has natural talents. One of my talents happens to be in understanding science and mathematics; for whatever reason I just get it. Same thing with pool, I just get it for some reason... I've never had to ask twice to see a shot I've seen a more experienced player shoot, it just sinks in and I don't know why it just does lol. I call it intuition but people tend to frown upon that word.

 

[jdxprs]

I've been playing for almost three years now (started at 23) and I'm able to play consistantly with guys twice my age and 10x more experience... My fiance would say that I act more like I'm 13 lol so in that case then youths have a greater chance of going pro, but honestly I think it simply has to do with a person's learning style and intelligence (not how intelligent, but in what aspect of all that we can do are we most intelligent)... Some people pick up on carpentry quickly but couldn't in a million years figure out how to program a VCR and vise-versa. Simply everyone has natural talents. One of my talents happens to be in understanding science and mathematics; for whatever reason I just get it. Same thing with pool, I just get it for some reason... I've never had to ask twice to see a shot I've seen a more experienced player shoot, it just sinks in and I don't know why it just does lol. I call it intuition but people tend to frown upon that word.

your post is pretty much exactly what a i meant.

 

[berry]

This topic is dear to my heart as I've read numerous articles about the acquisition of expertise. The bottom line is that the most important ingredient of becoming an expert is the amount and quality of deliberate practice one acquires. There are individual differences ranging from the obvious (say, height in basketball) to more subtle (inherent capabilities for fine motor control), but they are almost completely trumped by practice. According to the research on expertise, every single true expert in their field has spent thousands of hours practicing deliberately. This includes even those who have been hailed as statistical outliers, say Mozart or Judith Polgar in chess.

There are individual differences in the ability and willingness to practice. Many average performers don't practice deliberately or systematically. Most don't practice at all. Very few get professional coaching, which is also shown to be a critical component in becoming an expert.

I'm not saying everyone could be the best in the world. (In fact, it's impossible by definition. And there will be some individual differences, which will make it impossible for most people to become the absolute best in the world. But I am saying that everyone should stop worrying about whether they "have it" in them or not. You won't find out whether you can make it to the top without actually practicing for hundreds of hours. Practicing deliberately.

Link for more references about the research on expertise:

http://www.psy.fsu.edu/faculty/ericsson/ericsson.exp.perf.html

I am sorry to say that you miss the actual point here. Yes there is a 10.000 hour rule with becomming excellent in something and practice is of great importance but your learning capabilities during this practice sessions are most important. This capabilities can be learned or stimulated by a good trainer, and the good players have more of it then less good players.

 

[Gerry]

I've always felt EVERYONE is born with an ability for something great, but only a few are lucky enough to find that one thing and run with it.

Come on, you don't think Efren was born with a "little extra" in the vision, hand eye, determination, spacial awareness depts?

I have been playing pool as long as I can remember. We had a GC II in the basement, and I could play as much as I wanted from about age 6 or 7. No matter what people say I was LUCKY to be born with excellent dexterity, hand eye, co-ordination, whatever you want to call it.

By 15 I had a bowling average over 200 with a 300 game in junior league, and my regional card. I played on our youth ice hockey team. I had a single digit golf handicap, and played number 1 or 2 singles on my high school tennis team.....which was amazing because I was 5'6" and almost 200 pounds!!!!

How does a short fat kid do that? Do you realize what it takes to out play skinny fast tall kids on a tennis court or ice rink?:grin:

anyway, without being lucky enough to have been born with "that little something extra" for games you play by yourself, I could never have done all those things by that young age......how could anyone have enough time from age 6 or 7 to 15 be able to learn all those things? Having a 140 IQ can't hurt, but still!:wink:

G.

 

[berry]

I've always felt EVERYONE is born with an ability for something great, but only a few are lucky enough to find that one thing and run with it.

Come on, you don't think Efren was born with a "little extra" in the vision, hand eye, determination, spacial awareness depts?

I have been playing pool as long as I can remember. We had a GC II in the basement, and I could play as much as I wanted from about age 6 or 7. No matter what people say I was LUCKY to be born with excellent dexterity, hand eye, co-ordination, whatever you want to call it.

By 15 I had a bowling average over 200 with a 300 game in junior league, and my regional card. I played on our youth ice hockey team. I had a single digit golf handicap, and played number 1 or 2 singles on my high school tennis team.....which was amazing because I was 5'6" and almost 200 pounds!!!!

How does a short fat kid do that? Do you realize what it takes to out play skinny fast tall kids on a tennis court or ice rink?:grin:

anyway, without being lucky enough to have been born with "that little something extra" for games you play by yourself, I could never have done all those things by that young age......how could anyone have enough time from age 6 or 7 to 15 be able to learn all those things? Having a 140 IQ can't hurt, but still!:wink:

G.

lets not start the nature - nurture discussion... that goos back to plato

btw, did you see the wobly stroke of Efren and his history with poor eye-sight, so were is the extra talent in this?

 

[poolplayer2093]

I started playing pool in military base youth activities centers when i was very young. even back then when i knew NOTHING about pool, I always seemed to win a lot more than i lost.

thinking back to this made me wonder, are most players that enjoy pool enough to be posting on this forum the same as me, in that pool just came easy to you?

i always thought i was naturally good but my friends that knew me back then said i was awful. i do remember my friend takashi pointed out that i had a couple of things working in my favor my elbow was at 90 when i was shooting and i never twisted my writs.

 

[tom mcgonagle]

I started playing at the age of thirteen. I gave up playing all the other games and became totally consumed, by the game of pool. It was my drug of choice.

It helped a lot growing up in a small city that had four pool rooms. There were plenty of good players to watch and learn from. I didn't spend two years trying to lean how to hold the cue and stand the right way. I just watched and copied the better players.

I had a lot of natural talent but I also didn't have any inhibitions. I didn't care what I looked like if I did something wrong. I personally think this is the key difference between starting to play at a younger age as compared to an older age. I wasn't afraid to experiment or take risks.

Just My Opinion!

 

[jdxprs]

I've always felt EVERYONE is born with an ability for something great, but only a few are lucky enough to find that one thing and run with it.

Come on, you don't think Efren was born with a "little extra" in the vision, hand eye, determination, spacial awareness depts?

I have been playing pool as long as I can remember. We had a GC II in the basement, and I could play as much as I wanted from about age 6 or 7. No matter what people say I was LUCKY to be born with excellent dexterity, hand eye, co-ordination, whatever you want to call it.

By 15 I had a bowling average over 200 with a 300 game in junior league, and my regional card. I played on our youth ice hockey team. I had a single digit golf handicap, and played number 1 or 2 singles on my high school tennis team.....which was amazing because I was 5'6" and almost 200 pounds!!!!

How does a short fat kid do that? Do you realize what it takes to out play skinny fast tall kids on a tennis court or ice rink?:grin:

anyway, without being lucky enough to have been born with "that little something extra" for games you play by yourself, I could never have done all those things by that young age......how could anyone have enough time from age 6 or 7 to 15 be able to learn all those things? Having a 140 IQ can't hurt, but still!:wink:

G.

so you were like forrest gump with his ping pong paddle!!!! :grin:

 

[stevea]

My parents got me a table when I was 9 and i played all the kids on the block just about every day after school and when I was 12 I played in a tournament at a resort we stayed at for a few weeks. They had two groups 18-under and 19-over, I was to late to sign up for 18 and under so I played in the older group and won. There was only about 10 people in it but these guys were like 30+ years old. A little after that I stopped playing because of High school and such but started playing again at 21 and it's been 6 years now. I'm very competitive and athletic, I have to be good at everything I do or at least try to be!

 

[Andrew Manning]

I was very good at pool for an 8-year-old. I could pocket short shots at a wide variety of cut angles (I understood ghost-ball), and understood a little about how to hit the CB low or high to make it stop (couldn't draw) or follow.

So remembering how I showed a certain natural aptitude for the game when I was young, 15 years later (5.5 years ago) I decided to take up the game. Joined a league, learned to play 8-ball okay within a year. Couple more years and I made my APA 7 rating, started playing a lot more 9-ball. Now I'm a solid B player, and still improving fast despite limited playing time (I only play one night most weeks). I'm terrible at 1-pocket because I haven't spent enough time to really learn the game, and 14.1 frustrates the **** out of me because even though my CB control is pretty good, I miss 1 out of 15 easy short cut shots, and so I can't really run balls.

So I would say I do have a great deal of natural talent, and showed it at a young age, but nevertheless I'm 28 and just got to the point where I can really compete with good players.

-Andrew