What do ya do?

Sell the story

BasementDweller said:
I think the problem is pool has been produced as an action sport for too long and much of what's being discussed follows this line of thinking. If you look at what they do with snooker - they produce it as a drama. I think that's the way to go. I don't really believe all the people that watch snooker really understand all the intricacies of the game. What they do understand are all the story lines. They know the players. Here recently at the World Championships, they understood that Stephen Hendry was nearing the end of his career and they tuned in to see how he would do. Also, they knew Ronnie O'Sullivan was still capable of playing great snooker but would he?

People aren't as stupid as we think. Well maybe they are, but they don't need to be that smart. People don't really need to know the difference between inside and outside english. What they do need to know is who is Shane Van Boening. Where did he come from and how did he become the best American player? As far as U.S. pool on TV is concerned all the players are interchangeable. Until that changes, there's no hope.
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Spot on.

You think in the early 70's when Bobby Fischer was playing for the world chess championship anyone watching knew the difference between the king's gambit and the queen's gambit?
 
Island Drive said:
Ya gotta lead em to water first.
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I agree, but "water" for the general public isn't in the finer points of cue ball control. They don't even understand the basic rules of the game (BTW, which game are we trying to get them to watch? 9-ball, 8-ball, one-pocket, etc ?; there's part of the problem).

Ironically the rules of pool are much simpler than most games (try explaining the rules of American football to a non-fan...three minutes before the game begins!). But I've yet to see a tournament video where the Director (or anyone) did more than read the rules in 30 seconds.

The most important concept I've ever told to a non-playing viewer is that where the cue ball goes AFTER it sinks the object ball is just as important as sinking the object ball. Until they understand that (and it takes some time), why would they care about cue ball control techniques?

An earlier poster was absolutely right about selling the "personalities" of the game. But tournament play is the culprit here. How do you promote a tournament as a clash of personalities (Michael Jordan vs. Magic Johnson) when you don't know which of the 128 players will be in the finals? In golf you don't know who will be in the top ten players but at least they'll all (or most) be playing in the final round.

I'm new to the game and I was amazed when I saw AZ's 2012 money leader list. A mid-level football player makes more money in one game than these guys make in a year. And the US Open 9-ball Championship is sponsored by Chalk-Off and Simonis Cloth? That's like the baseball World Series brought to you by Rawlings and Louisville Slugger.

There's a business model out there to bring professional pool to the masses, but it would be very hard to get all the existing pool-powers to agree on it.
 
BasementDweller said:
I think the problem is pool has been produced as an action sport for too long and much of what's being discussed follows this line of thinking. If you look at what they do with snooker - they produce it as a drama. I think that's the way to go. I don't really believe all the people that watch snooker really understand all the intricacies of the game. What they do understand are all the story lines. They know the players. Here recently at the World Championships, they understood that Stephen Hendry was nearing the end of his career and they tuned in to see how he would do. Also, they knew Ronnie O'Sullivan was still capable of playing great snooker but would he?

People aren't as stupid as we think. Well maybe they are, but they don't need to be that smart. People don't really need to know the difference between inside and outside english. What they do need to know is who is Shane Van Boening. Where did he come from and how did he become the best American player? As far as U.S. pool on TV is concerned all the players are interchangeable. Until that changes, there's no hope.
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Absolutely correct. All the snooker players are presented as characters in a great drama...bad boys, good boys, legends still hanging around (but could explode at any moment), crushing stress, controversies, etc. In pool we've got so much history, compelling back stories, courageous stories, comeback stories, on and on and on...something for everyone. We need a reality show to set the table, then a production that if not mimics, at least is inspired by the snooker productions...high drama and thick tension.

I frankly think our TV pool coverage is over-commentated. I don't need someone telling me Ernesto needs to put inside-follow to get shape on the 7...I really liked the coverage this weekend of the matches out of Hard Times. Orcullo was taking Max Eberle apart (Max was playing great, but he was playing Orcullo)...Jay Helfert and Ernie Gutierrez were commenting maybe ever 5th shot...instead Jay was interviewing Ernie on his 50 years of cue making, old tournaments/action war stories, etc. It was AWESOME. More of that could make broadcasts a little more appealing to more people.
 
BasementDweller said:
I think the problem is pool has been produced as an action sport for too long and much of what's being discussed follows this line of thinking. If you look at what they do with snooker - they produce it as a drama. I think that's the way to go. I don't really believe all the people that watch snooker really understand all the intricacies of the game. What they do understand are all the story lines. They know the players. Here recently at the World Championships, they understood that Stephen Hendry was nearing the end of his career and they tuned in to see how he would do. Also, they knew Ronnie O'Sullivan was still capable of playing great snooker but would he?

People aren't as stupid as we think. Well maybe they are, but they don't need to be that smart. People don't really need to know the difference between inside and outside english. What they do need to know is who is Shane Van Boening. Where did he come from and how did he become the best American player? As far as U.S. pool on TV is concerned all the players are interchangeable. Until that changes, there's no hope.
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I have been at world snooker tournaments in Europe and the attraction is gambling. They actually have betting windows at the tournaments. They also used to have like 3 TV channels and snooker was a big thing on TV being on for like 10 hours at a time live.
 
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Bill...I like the idea of a camera on the cue. Using fiber optic cable, and wireless technology, you could mount a camera easily on the cue, without it being obtrusive to the player. In fact, if they didn't know it was there, they might not even seen it (done properly :D). That would give a whole new outlook on how the pros aim and stroke! It'd be amazing, I think. jmo

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

Island Drive said:
I think this should be tried out, + the idea of a camera on the players head, can't hurt to try it One Time. Also, involve pool ''SOUNDS'' Waaaaaaaay more than evers been done before, gives the audience more feedback on the moment. Each pros cue sounds different and these sounds should too be added. There is so much going on, I find the typical network programming dry, typical and the players/announcers talk in lingo the public has no clue about. If I ever watch network TV matches, all I care about is the patterns (on Dr House, he said old guys in hospital beds like watching the female players bending over). When the Camel Pro Tour had a professional announcer....''Tommy'' who knew nothing about pool and was in the booth, that was fun. The booth needs a true NON player who is a great public speaker, he asks and percieves the program like 99.6% of the viewers, that works. When I listen to PGA golf announcers, one realizes their audience does understand swing/weight/balance/arm movement, or maybe they don't, but they talk about it ALL THE TIME.
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Basementdweller has it. You play up people and personalities, not the sport itself, which is honestly kind of dull when you're not the guy swinging the cue. I remember the IPT did a decent job of this. Busty playing on after hearing about the death of his daughter... earl fighting with the insurance company about his 10 (11!) rack run... efren fighting with earl for a hundred grand in hong kong... hell, john schmidt's quotes, alex's hair, and jay's hustling stories.... They could never hit a ball and probably keep eyeballs glued to the sets.
 
CreeDo said:
Basementdweller has it. You play up people and personalities, not the sport itself, which is honestly kind of dull when you're not the guy swinging the cue. I remember the IPT did a decent job of this. Busty playing on after hearing about the death of his daughter... earl fighting with the insurance company about his 10 (11!) rack run... efren fighting with earl for a hundred grand in hong kong... hell, john schmidt's quotes, alex's hair, and jay's hustling stories.... They could never hit a ball and probably keep eyeballs glued to the sets.
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I also agree with this. The World Series of Poker did a great job with the personality profiles and side stories/interviews with some of the players and I think it helped the ratings and the overall popularity quite a bit.

Back to the underappreciation of the intricacies. It's been said again and again that non-players and some bangers have no clue about the importance of cue control but I've never had the pleasure of hearing the comment myself until recently. I had a party at my house and let some of the neighborhood kids play on the pool table. After a while I came down and showed them some of the basics then eventually kicked them off so I could play one of the guests. I'm not great but I did run the table on this occasion and one of the kids said the exact quote "all of those shots were easy."

I didn't say anything but I felt pretty good about that.
 
Island Drive said:
I can shoot most any shot with infinite variables and make the shot, yet the public has NO CLUE whats going on and what that means. Because of this, the non playing viewers don't really care about whats happening, if they did, viewership numbers would increase. How does a business model tap into that on the pro side? A good start, utilize the giant, poster size cue ball, I think Rempe was involved in this yrs ago. A non player, looking at this giant cue ball would be lost/amazed, and have no idea of what this means, why not tell em, and show em. Show and tell always worked well in grade school. I say this sarcastically, but the john Q public IS sarcastic, only because of their ignorance and its our fault. Instead of doing business as usual (& we know how that is) I would incorporate this, the secrets of whitey, and show the public how the same shot can be done 4 different ways, and the results, and utilize the poster to illistrate your point, with a pointer. Do this between games. Don't say it in such a way as to act like an instructor or? But set the shot up, and show the results, let the public figure the rest, they may start asking questions.

Ya gotta lead em to water first.
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Found this post:

wendyb
Registered User Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: eureka california
vCash: 500
iTrader: (0)
Posts: 25


Jim Rempe training ball instructions needed

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi!
I bought a used Jim Rempe training ball. there were no instructions. Does any one have a scan of the instruction of using this ball?
Thanks in advance
Wendy
 
Someone needs to get a hold of Oprah. She's the only one I know with the money to put up for production and a cable television network floundering in need of something new. When she finds out just how cheap the worlds most famous pool celebrities will work for how could she say no? Like the beauty of reality shows of all kinds, it costs less for an entire cast and crew then one episode of Charlie Sheen in two and a half men. Pool is raunchy and the problem is everyone is trying to "clean it up" all the time to market it. Well folks guess what? Raunchy sells way better than some boring ass 9 ball tournament with the players wearing suits and such. Instead of trying to change pool, exploit what is has already. People like hard feelings, grudges and weird characters. Pool has what it needs but just can't seem to come to terms with how to market itself properly. THINK REALITY SHOW!!

JC
 
Yep....

Island Drive said:
I can shoot most any shot with infinite variables and make the shot, yet the public has NO CLUE whats going on and what that means. Because of this, the non playing viewers don't really care about whats happening, if they did, viewership numbers would increase. How does a business model tap into that on the pro side? A good start, utilize the giant, poster size cue ball, I think Rempe was involved in this yrs ago. A non player, looking at this giant cue ball would be lost/amazed, and have no idea of what this means, why not tell em, and show em. Show and tell always worked well in grade school. I say this sarcastically, but the john Q public IS sarcastic, only because of their ignorance and its our fault. Instead of doing business as usual (& we know how that is) I would incorporate this, the secrets of whitey, and show the public how the same shot can be done 4 different ways, and the results, and utilize the poster to illistrate your point, with a pointer. Do this between games. Don't say it in such a way as to act like an instructor or? But set the shot up, and show the results, let the public figure the rest, they may start asking questions.

Ya gotta lead em to water first.
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I started playing one hole with this guy and he left a ball a few inches in front of his hole and a few inches off of the rail and left whitey about mid table on my side.

I used inside and cut the ball wide and used the reverse english to throw the ball back into my pocket and the inside to get the cueball out of the way.

This guy was a strong b player but he said "I didn't think it was even possible to make that shot".

I had to explain to him about reverse english and how it's really a necessity to understand and to be able to execute in order to play high level one hole.

not that I play high level one hole.


It's funny because pool is a game that you have to at least understand at a high level in order to really appreciate it, even if you don't play it at a high level.
It's also not like something like golf, because even when golf is made to look easy by the best players, it still is pretty obvious that it's NOT easy. With pool people might be deluded into thinking that it really is easy because the difficulty is much more subtle with pool.

Jaden
 
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Jaden said:
It's funny because pool is a game that you have to at least understand at a high level in order to really appreciate it, even if you don't play it at a high level.
It's also not like something like golf, because even when golf is made to look easy by the best players, it still is pretty obvious that it's NOT easy. With pool people might be deluded into thinking that it really is easy because the difficulty is much more subtle with pool.

Jaden
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Very well said....
 
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