What do ya do?

Island Drive

Island Drive

Otto/Dads College Roommate/Cleveland Browns
Silver Member
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.
 
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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The better pool is played the less impressive it is. I remember when I had pool rooms the front table was usually the action tables and you could have champs matching up and customers would watch for a while till a table was available then off they would go to play themselves never having any idea what they were just watching. It was as if the pool room had different dimensions and these everyday people passed through without ever knowing what was going on around them.

I think there needs to be games that are more spectacular for the general public consumption so they can appreciate what is happening. Let two good bank pool players be playing and people will watch in amazement at what they are seeing.
I don't play golf and every putt looks hard to me. I can't believe they can drive a ball 300 yards and land it within feet of where they want. I guess to the non player Golf probably looks even harder then it is. Pool is the opposite, it looks like you are doing nothing.
 
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The problem with pool on television and the general public is that they don't try to teach the general public what the players are doing.

I always thought they should have John Madden-like illustrations.

Throw in some video graphics of a particular shot and the options that can be done to the cue ball.

Like in tennis, when they show the animation of the tennis ball to determine whether the shot was in or out. Pool needs these type of illustrations to show what the paths are in a game and when they see the players doing this...they will be amazed.

to the average public...all they are seeing is a guy making shots and it looks easy. They need to emphasize the skill aspect of the game more.
 
Reminds me of the first time my wife every saw me play pool. I invited her to a come watch me in a Pro-Am I was playing in in Japan. She only watched one match I was in where I won convincingly, and had a couple good run outs. When I got back to my wife in the gallery, I asked her, "so, what do you think?" And her reply was "not bad, but it seemed like you had nothing but easy shots, and the other guy was the one making all those bank shots and stuff."

It tis wut it tis.

dave
 
I saw one of the Brunswick traveling pros in the late 60s at the student union building in college give an exhibition. He ran over a hundred, turned to one of the other kids watching and said, "So, what do you think?"

Kid says, "Pretty coo but they were all easy shots."
 
thommy said:
I saw one of the Brunswick traveling pros in the late 60s at the student union building in college give an exhibition. He ran over a hundred, turned to one of the other kids watching and said, "So, what do you think?"

Kid says, "Pretty coo but they were all easy shots."
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This is the ultimate compliment.
 
Bill; this is an excellent point.

I am always struck by the obvious knowledge possessed by British snooker audiences. Not much seems to be lost on them. They know the game and respond as they should and it adds a truly enjoyable element to the game.

Unfortunately, you are right that the vast majority of those who watch pool really don't get the subtleties of the game. The beautiful nuance is lost on them and, therefore, there is much less for these fans to cheer about.

If we could come up with an effective way to smarten them up, perhaps coupled with time-clock play, maybe there could be some hope for our sport. ;)

And I still agree with those who feel that a Mosconi Cup match format with all of the audience involvement could play very well on American tv.

That kind of excitement is contagious! :thumbup:

best,
brian kc
 
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Tokyo-dave said:
Reminds me of the first time my wife every saw me play pool. I invited her to a come watch me in a Pro-Am I was playing in in Japan. She only watched one match I was in where I won convincingly, and had a couple good run outs. When I got back to my wife in the gallery, I asked her, "so, what do you think?" And her reply was "not bad, but it seemed like you had nothing but easy shots, and the other guy was the one making all those bank shots and stuff."

It tis wut it tis.

dave
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Funny because I've been down that road too till I tried to teach her how to shoot and she doesn't feel that way anymore.

She now knows it's impressive just to get the ball where they are suppose to be.
 
I love pool so I am not saying this just to fire people up or get a response, but pool is boring for people to watch. The reason it does not get ratings/tv coverage is because it is not as entertaining as other sports. You could make the same arguments about fans or viewers not understanding the intricacies of nfl schemes/playcalling or everything that goes into developing a great jump shot. People still watch basketball and football. The difference between pro sports like football and basketball and pool is that other sports are more action packed and exciting for people and don't require them to know how hard it is in order to enjoy watching it. The hard truth of the matter is that pool is just not as entertaining for spectators as baseball, basketball, football, etc.
 
macguy said:
The better pool is played the less impressive it is. I remember when I had pool rooms the front table was usually the action tables and you could have champs matching up and customers would watch for a while till a table was available then off they would go to play themselves never having any idea what they were just watching. It was as if the pool room had different dimensions and these everyday people passed through without ever knowing what was going on around them.

I think there needs to be games that are more spectacular for the general public consumption so they can appreciate what is happening. Let two good bank pool players be playing and people will watch in amazement at what they are seeing.
I don't play golf and every putt looks hard to me. I can't believe they can drive a ball 300 yards and land it within feet of where they want. I guess to the non player Golf probably looks even harder then it is. Pool is the opposite, it looks like you are doing nothing.
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This is exactly right. My father who was near genius if not, mathematician/chemist/ engineer. He'd watch pool on Cable and comment how easy the game looked. He was bored with it. Tried to explain how hard it was to do what he was seeing but he never got it. He was facinated with 3C although he only tried it once @ 85 years old. He couldn't figure out most of the shots. Thats why it intrigued him. Worked on his brain.
 
I can tell you ONE thing that harms the ability of the TV watching public from seeing the finnessé in the shots--quit moving the camera while the shot is ongoing! For the same reason YOU can't see the shot transpire in front of you if your head is moving, NEITHER can the TV public!

But, as an amusing side note, As I read the OP, i though of little micro camera mounted to the cue so that the TV audience could see what the player was doing.
 
Years ago I am at one of Mosconis exhibitions and he runs like 100 balls and never got in trouble or shot anything longer then about 2 foot. It was a work of art to me. After it was over a women says"He's not that good he had all easy shots" :banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead:
 
Ok I have it.....

Get rid of the booth and give the mics to the players. Mic them up and have the players talk about what they're doing, why and how they're gonna do it in real time. All this and a reasonable shot clock. Not every player could/would do this and still play at a high level but it would make the game a whole lot more entertaining to watch no matter what the knowledge level of the spectators. Teach the game to them and make them understand it as you go. Every sport is like that until you know what it's all about. How entertaining is soccer if you don't know the rules and intricacies? How about hockey? Even golf.

JC
 
JC said:
Get rid of the booth and give the mics to the players. Mic them up and have the players talk about what they're doing, why and how they're gonna do it in real time. All this and a reasonable shot clock. Not every player could/would do this and still play at a high level but it would make the game a whole lot more entertaining to watch no matter what the knowledge level of the spectators. Teach the game to them and make them understand it as you go. Every sport is like that until you know what it's all about. How entertaining is soccer if you don't know the rules and intricacies? How about hockey? Even golf.

JC
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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.
 
JC said:
Get rid of the booth and give the mics to the players. Mic them up and have the players talk about what they're doing, why and how they're gonna do it in real time. All this and a reasonable shot clock. Not every player could/would do this and still play at a high level but it would make the game a whole lot more entertaining to watch no matter what the knowledge level of the spectators. Teach the game to them and make them understand it as you go. Every sport is like that until you know what it's all about. How entertaining is soccer if you don't know the rules and intricacies? How about hockey? Even golf.

JC
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Not a bad idea. Even though I like to watch matches on TV, they aren't generally produced very well. There's gotta be a better way. After all, people watch Poker on TV, for God's sake.

And my pet peeve: get rid of the stupid pocket cam. It brings absolutely nothing to the viewing experience. I think they do it just because they can. :cool:
 
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.
 
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 think they *do* need to at least be smart enough to know the difference between what was pointed out in an earlier post where after Mosconi artfully ran a hundred, a lady said she didn't think he was so good because all of the shots he took looked easy. :rolleyes:

best,
brian kc
 
I watched some of the snooker championship recently, very impressed with the graphics used. I also agree that when done right pool looks way to "easy". People who haven't tried it have no idea of how difficult it really is.
 
BobTfromIL said:
I watched some of the snooker championship recently, very impressed with the graphics used. I also agree that when done right pool looks way to "easy". People who haven't tried it have no idea of how difficult it really is.
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Whitey is like a bowling ball, but you can't see as graphically whats happening even with the measles ball, thats more informative to the pros, not John Q public.
My guess, the spinning measles ball means NOTHING to the public viewership.
 
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