What constitutes being rated an A LEVEL player

[sjm]

America is a very talented country with many gifted atheletes for sure.I love America and have a lot of friends there, however, to suggest with an influction of money that they can dominate everyone in everything is not a fact and I'm sure most American's in their humbleness would recognize and agree with that. RJ

Obviously, you are right. As you noted, culture, climate, and geography can also figure in who's good at what.

American marathon runners have more resources and better practice facilites than the Kenyans, but it seems every year in the New York marathon, four of the top five are from Kenya. Mostly, it is because all Kenyans live in the mountains, their infrastructure is not very developed, and their economics are somewhat unfavorable, making long distance travel on foot far more important there than it could ever be here in the United States. No matter how much money were to become available in running, i suspect that those magnificent Kenyans will continue to set the standard in long distance running. Similarly, skating will never be as deeply embedded in American culture as it is in Canada or Sweden, so the odds are the US will never set the standard in ice hockey.

There are great athletes all over the world, but there are many factors other than money that determine where the best in each sporting discipline will come from.

 

[turquoisecrazy]

Blame all the failures on the population. China should be the best in everything if population is such a key. China has more than 10 billion people! It is more than 10-1!

Competation is the key, and it is simply not there. U do not know it, because you are one of them. U said it yourself, the very top players from your city dont win. Other than Alex and Alain, none of the other guys are champions all over Canada. I dont care what Paul said, cos he is a big mouth with nothing in his head. Ask him to name a friend in the pool world. He is a joke. Any semi pro in Taiwan can beat Paul all day long, he aint telling u the truth. He never gamble any decent money, and when he does, he is hustling, not gambling. And John Horsfall never gamble cos he has no heart. Show me some fact to prove me wrong. Stan is not even a pro, period. Mike is a kid who is throwing his life away. Where else does he play other than some pechauer and the reno? I bet u he lives at home, right?

When you see some 10 dime action in Vancouver, then u can talk to the America and the Asia about action.

Pool players in the US are not that poor as u imagine. Name one pool player in your city who has his own house/condo...

When the US player come, u guy had no chance. Brain Butler and John Schmidt are the prefect example. And they are not even the top in the US.

There are lots of US players who do own htier houses...what does that tell you? Population again? come on...

 

[X Breaker]

LA and Vancouver are very different in demographic and I really cannot see how one can fairly compare the two.

Canada has a long history of snooker and 9 ball is a relatively new game. The pool population in Canada is certainly smaller than that in the US. Nonetheless, the popularity of pool is growing very fast in Canada, given a few more years, I am sure there will be plenty of Canadian talents on the international stage.

.

 

[buddha162]

Heart, however is another contributing factor which can out do money and population. To suggest that the U.S.A can dominate every sport even with money and population is an arrogant statement for sure.

Nono, you misunderstood Pete. It's because Americans are "individualistic" that we dominate the sports arena, it has nothing to do with money or interest or even population.

-Roger (oh and plus, we're non-socialist...LMFAO)

 

[Celtic]

Your last post (Turq) just marks you as a moron who cannot type and would make little sense even if you could. What does owning a house have to do with success in pool? You want to go to the money list for last year and show me all these players getting rich of tournament pool in the USA after expenses?

The fact is there is at least as much pool skill in Canada on average as there is in the USA. If you were to ask yourself which country has more wealthy citizens you dont add up all the money of all the people in each country and then decide, you instead add up all the money of all the people and then divide that amount by the difference in population. If you did that for pool skill the USA would have no hope of matching Canada, for the few players we have going down and playing in tournaments (due to the travel costs) we take ALOT more then our share of victories. The scene of both open and masters level pool in the BCA and VNEA has had WAY more wins by Canadians then should be the case since we tend to only represent maybe 10% of the total people there.

Your Americans, Basavich, Duell, ect... they just lost their US Bar box championships. One of your spots on the World Juniors trip to Adelaide Australia, yep taken by a Canadian named John Morra who ended up doing FAR better then any Yank that went (none of your home grown futures of your sport made it to the TV rounds). 3 out of 4 top spots in the 8-ball bar box event, yep Canadians.

You claim Schmidt and Butler make the difference? How about the Northern Lights 9-ball tournament that Archer and Varner came up to only to both be beat by Kevin Cardinal on the A side (a Canadian), and the event ends up being won by a Canadian. Sure some events in Canada may be won by Americans, but the reverse is true as well and that has been proven as recently as yesterday. While a Canadian was winning the 9-ball bar box event a German was winning the Viking event as well, go USA go!

Keep thinking Canada is a B rate pool country, we have won a ton of your events and we will win a ton of them in the future, it seems you have blinders on that dont let you see the truth in front of your face.

 

[recoveryjones]

Nono, you misunderstood Pete. It's because Americans are "individualistic" that we dominate the sports arena, it has nothing to do with money or interest or even population.

-Roger (oh and plus, we're non-socialist...LMFAO)

Hi Budda,

If you refer back to thread #35, Pete was definitly blaming money or a lack of it when it came to the talent pool in America.In a later post I agreed with him about the lack of money in the game of pool. Take care.RJ

Here's Pete in thread #35

"If there were any money in pool, forget it, the US would dominate. No need to say anything more. Same with soccer and any other sport. Not being cockey, just the facts."

 

[buddha162]

Hi Budda,

If you refer back to thread #35, Pete was definitly blaming money or a lack of it when it came to the talent pool in America.In a later post I agreed with him about the lack of money in the game of pool. Take care.RJ

Here's Pete in thread #35

"If there were any money in pool, forget it, the US would dominate. No need to say anything more. Same with soccer and any other sport. Not being cockey, just the facts."

I know. But I can't resist a dig into what he wrote about the US being an individualistic country (and somehow linking that to our great sports talents) and his bash on socialism in general.

I agree as well that money is a huge factor, the Filipinos because they have little of it and winning/losing is highly consequential, and the Taiwanese because they have a lot of it and the government pumps funds into the growth of pool.

-Roger

 

[recoveryjones]

Blame all the failures on the population. China should be the best in everything if population is such a key. China has more than 10 billion people! It is more than 10-1!

Competation is the key, and it is simply not there. U do not know it, because you are one of them. U said it yourself, the very top players from your city dont win. Other than Alex and Alain, none of the other guys are champions all over Canada. I dont care what Paul said, cos he is a big mouth with nothing in his head. Ask him to name a friend in the pool world. He is a joke. Any semi pro in Taiwan can beat Paul all day long, he aint telling u the truth. He never gamble any decent money, and when he does, he is hustling, not gambling. And John Horsfall never gamble cos he has no heart. Show me some fact to prove me wrong. Stan is not even a pro, period. Mike is a kid who is throwing his life away. Where else does he play other than some pechauer and the reno? I bet u he lives at home, right?

When you see some 10 dime action in Vancouver, then u can talk to the America and the Asia about action.

Pool players in the US are not that poor as u imagine. Name one pool player in your city who has his own house/condo...

When the US player come, u guy had no chance. Brain Butler and John Schmidt are the prefect example. And they are not even the top in the US.

There are lots of US players who do own htier houses...what does that tell you? Population again? come on...

LOL, Turqouise you are one entertaining dude.Like an aspiring lawyer you take one quote and make a case out of it. You accuse me of blaming population for the success of a nation and then continue to trash Vancouver players.

If you will refer back to post #39 you will clearly see that I stated that money, population and heart were also determining factors. Never did I state or blame success in pool soley on population. I also agree with SJM about culture,climate and geography.

In an earlier post I also stated that other than Horsfall (2 wins) none of our pros other than a few good showings have done much on the world scene.
Basically I was admitting that yes Archer, Deule, Strickland etc etc have been far more succesful and are definitly more talented.I've been very respectful to the American players and people on this forum, while you continuly diss Canadian players.

The bottom line is, this thread was a post about A LEVEL players.It's gotten a way off topic with the"my daddy can beat your daddy up mentality." Having said that I think our local A LEVEL players are certainly challenged and can learn from the pros in this area. You've got to go to high school before you can attend university. An A level player (locally) playing our best pros will not get(signifigantly) any better by playing America's best pros. Canada's best pro's will improve by stepping into the better competition of what America has to offer. When our local A LEVEL players become A+'s and go on to beat our local pros, THEN it's time to step up out of their comfort zone and go onto the next level and head off to the USA. I agree with you, the better the competition, the better the player, however, there is a time and place when one should step up.

Practice,lessons,videos, reading(pool books), watching pros(accu-stat vids) and playing people better than you all help to make one a better player. Just like the population thing, there is no one single thing that brings on improvement.

This just my opinion and I respect your opinion on how the competition brings out the better player in a person.I agree with it 100% I just don't like how you put down other pool players when making your points. Take care,RJ

 

[Bob Jewett]

If there were any money in pool, forget it, the US would dominate. No need to say anything more. Same with soccer and any other sport. Not being cockey, just the facts.

The median salary of (some group of top) soccer players is reported to be $1,000,000 per year. Is that not enough to try to dominate? When a snooker player gets about $300,000 for one rack of snooker, that's not enough to try for?

 

[pete lafond]

I know. But I can't resist a dig into what he wrote about the US being an individualistic country (and somehow linking that to our great sports talents) and his bash on socialism in general.

I agree as well that money is a huge factor, the Filipinos because they have little of it and winning/losing is highly consequential, and the Taiwanese because they have a lot of it and the government pumps funds into the growth of pool.

-Roger

Money is spark and because we are an individualistic society (proven in history as why we have been successful in many of our ventures) we are independently driven to the challenge that yields the greatest reward - back to money. Clearly without population this is doomed though this is not the #1 factor.

 

[pete lafond]

The median salary of (some group of top) soccer players is reported to be $1,000,000 per year. Is that not enough to try to dominate? When a snooker player gets about $300,000 for one rack of snooker, that's not enough to try for?

Wish we had as much cash infused into billiards here in the US. I'm glad at least other countries do. It is such a great game.

 

[turquoisecrazy]

As a matter of fact, best players re from the Philipine and Taiwan. I guess money rules. If Canada has government supports to develop pool like in Taiwan, or if some big ass rich guy decides to pump millions of dollars in pool like in the philopine, I am sure tones of good players will show up in Canadian. Until then, playing pool is a passion for those who love the game more than money.

RJ, I dont mean to get on ur toe, I have a big month and sometimes got carried away. Yo are a mature dude. I appreciate that...

 

[turquoisecrazy]

The median salary of (some group of top) soccer players is reported to be $1,000,000 per year. Is that not enough to try to dominate? When a snooker player gets about $300,000 for one rack of snooker, that's not enough to try for?

nop, it is not worth to put my whole life into it.

 

[DaveK]

... I am sure tones of good players will show up in Canadian.

That's spelled tonnes ... sheesh !

Dave, who believes in strong development systems...many of the worlds best sportsmen started on their road to greatness before they understood the value of money ...

 

[turquoisecrazy]

Tonnes of theem doo.

 

[recoveryjones]

As a matter of fact, best players re from the Philipine and Taiwan. I guess money rules. If Canada has government supports to develop pool like in Taiwan, or if some big ass rich guy decides to pump millions of dollars in pool like in the philopine, I am sure tones of good players will show up in Canadian. Until then, playing pool is a passion for those who love the game more than money.

RJ, I dont mean to get on ur toe, I have a big month and sometimes got carried away. Yo are a mature dude. I appreciate that...

Not a problem, I can get carried away too. I'm generally not a fighter/arguer, however, once a year I seem to get into a tilt with someone. Last year my pal Drivermaker and I got into a good one and in the end we became friends. I'm not one to hold a grudge so all is forgiven and forgotten.Everyone has their own opinions, you yours and I mine and that's the beauty of these forums. If I was there, I would shake your hand.

Funny thing though, this post brought out a lot of interesting viewpoints as we strayed a bit off topic. As witnessed by 1,200 views, people are quite intrested in a good scrap/debate. I know when others get into it, I go directly to that thread to check out the daily soap opera. The thing I like about AZ is that it doesn't get way out of hand or your gonzo ala Fast Larry.

My peers in Vancouver rate me A level and in my head to head battles with A players in this area, I hold my own.So I guess in Vancouver, in all humility, I'm an A. Personally, however, I think I still sucK and I'm practicing real hard to change that. Other than our pros and SOME of our A+'s, I'm not really in awe of any of them, however, I respect them. IF I could shoot like I do in practice, I'd be right up there.It's under pressure where you seperate the men from the boys and I'm stepping into the fire. Take care Turk, RJ

ps. Thanks for all the comments so far from everyone on what you consider an A level player.

 

[turquoisecrazy]

Not a problem, I can get carried away too. I'm generally not a fighter/arguer, however, once a year I seem to get into a tilt with someone. Last year my pal Drivermaker and I got into a good one and in the end we became friends. I'm not one to hold a grudge so all is forgiven and forgotten.Everyone has their own opinions, you yours and I mine and that's the beauty of these forums. If I was there, I would shake your hand.

Funny thing though, this post brought out a lot of interesting viewpoints as we strayed a bit off topic. As witnessed by 1,200 views, people are quite intrested in a good scrap/debate. I know when others get into it, I go directly to that thread to check out the daily soap opera. The thing I like about AZ is that it doesn't get way out of hand or your gonzo ala Fast Larry.

My peers in Vancouver rate me A level and in my head to head battles with A players in this area, I hold my own.So I guess in Vancouver, in all humility, I'm an A. Personally, however, I think I still sucK and I'm practicing real hard to change that. Other than our pros and SOME of our A+'s, I'm not really in awe of any of them, however, I respect them. IF I could shoot like I do in practice, I'd be right up there.It's under pressure where you seperate the men from the boys and I'm stepping into the fire. Take care Turk, RJ

ps. Thanks for all the comments so far from everyone on what you consider an A level player.

You are a fine gentleman. Thank you.

Have u cast your vote yet? It is something you need to do once a year as well.

 

[Renegade]

so, do any of you guys have day jobs? seems to me that between the time you spend sleeping, practicing pool and typing verbose comments in forums like this, you wouldn't have time for anything else. (or maybe you guys are like me, typing this while at work hehehe)

 

[Ragin1]

"China has more than 10 billion people! It is more than 10-1!"

Your a blathering idiot. I'll wager you getted spanked repeatedly by players you have a genuine disrespect for. Try opening at least a newspaper to develop an informed opine on a subject. 10 bil my ass. The whole world doesn't hold that.

 

[turquoisecrazy]

"China has more than 10 billion people! It is more than 10-1!"

Your a blathering idiot. I'll wager you getted spanked repeatedly by players you have a genuine disrespect for. Try opening at least a newspaper to develop an informed opine on a subject. 10 bil my ass. The whole world doesn't hold that.

I love to take your advice, and I love to develop this thing that you asked me to develop, but what is it?

An informed opine?

Opening a newspaper? As in the opposite of closing a newspaper? Open and Close? Humm...do you mean reading a newspaper?

What is bil my ass? Did someone bill u for your ass?

I like to follow your advice because I really like to improve myself. I am applying to be Sarah's BF, you know? I wish I know what you are trying to say. I will for sure try to develop this "opine" if only I know what it is...and if you want, I can bill your ass as well.