How do you figure I'm knocking John? I just used his name as "a pro like John S." meaning ANY pro that shoots around his speed. The last thing I would do is knock John on here or in person. I have too much respect for him. John Terrell
John, I think the Internet and other technology have put player's level of play in the street.
In the pool room I "grew up in", you had to be very close to someone to get them to tell you the speed of another player or that information would be provided to you if the other person was part of your corporation. That was about it. It was every man for himself. Any freely shared information about a players speed was considered knocking and was frowned upon.
Now, with measurements of speed down to almost a science, it is quite easy to acquire or read the information that is shared and posted freely on forums just like this everyday. These days this information is shared freely even amongst complete strangers. That wasn't the case in the old days.
In the old days, the road players received information about potential scores from past experiences and other road players so they had their source of information even back then but that wasn't called knocking even back then. :grin: Some of the players kept little black books detailing the speeds of potential customers in different cities and that information would be shared only with other people who had similar information.
I think the days of "knocking someone's action" are over. Yeah, I think technology has just allowed knocking to "move on", as Stephen King once said in one of his books about the world "moving on". Instead of just the chosen few (the road players) having inside information about other players' speeds, now anyone with a computer or a cell phone can get all of the information they need about how someone plays and what kind of weight you will need to give or get. Sometimes the technology is so good and current, you can even tell how much money a player has in his pocket within 24 hours.
Knocking someone (acquiring information) was considered OK even back then if you provided the information "quietly" and only to one or two "in the know", without a large number of people knowing about it.
Basically knocking was frowned upon by the gamblers by those who INDISCRIMINATELY shared a players speed without the remote chance of that person making a dollar. Nowadays, the world has just moved on and so has knocking. It's not the same anymore......
We all respect John and I know you didn't intend any harm by the thread or using his name. I am pretty sure no harm has been done. John doesn't gamble much with us bangers anyway and he's not out on the street trying to match up. So I am pretty sure that John isn't losing any sleep over guys that play our speed getting a line on him.
It is interesting though, that the spots suggested range from very conservative to very liberal.
JoeyA
