Why is there seperate men and women touranments?

Kim Bye

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Like the title says: why is there seperate classes in pool.
Pool strikes me as a sport where gender isn't a factor.
 
Like the title says: why is there seperate classes in pool.
Pool strikes me as a sport where gender isn't a factor.

Actually, rarely are there "men's only" events. Gender-specific events are almost always for women. The reason why it exists is because there is a market for it.
 
I don't follow the Women's tour, but my understanding is that women can play in just about any tourney they want and the men aren't allowed to play in the Women's only tournies. Talking pro level.....
 
Not sure how it was when there was actually last a men's tour but most events are open to women. When the top women don't play it has usually been because they were members of the WPBA and that organization had a problem with it of some sort (scheduling conflicts or whatever).

I think the last major hold out was the US Open 9 Ball Championship and that was opened to women a couple of years ago, IIRC.
 
There are alot of factors that make it not fair for the women to compete on the same level as the men.

One is strength. Testosterone makes alot of difference.

This i think is the biggest factor.
 
I think all would agree on a simple fact: the best women don't play nearly as well as the best men. Why? I'm sure there are many theories. But the facts remain...

KMRUNOUT
 
Like the title says: why is there seperate classes in pool.
Pool strikes me as a sport where gender isn't a factor.

I think the main reason there are men and women tournaments are for the women to compete against other women so they can be more competived against each other,when you mix the women with the men,well we all know what happens then!
 
sarah rousey plays in mens pro tournaments and does well. i believe her height is a factor against men. i believe women like janette lee and allison fisher were always good as the top men players but they would of been dealing with discrimination and they probably wouldnt have given their branch of the sport recognition. there seems to be more WPBA tourneys on tv and im not sure it would be like that if it were a gender open tour.
 
I m still the opinion that the lvl has changed in the past years. The average skill of the female pro s increased and i m sure they could tease many many men in tournaments-also on higher levels.

jmho

Ingo
 
I think all would agree on a simple fact: the best women don't play nearly as well as the best men. Why? I'm sure there are many theories. But the facts remain...

KMRUNOUT

only because the women are much less than the men. Is easier to find a champion beetween ( example ) 100 people or 10 people?
 
I think that woman's stance is the major problem :D

shanelle+loraine1176485461.jpg


U try to aim proprely with these 8oo8z :yeah:
 
Here is Jasmin Ouschan breaking. I don't think she is lacking in strength.

Didn't Jean Balukas compete head to head with the top players in her day, entering and winning men's events? So, who outclassed her?

Another possible factor is motherhood. Taking time off to raise a family and dealing with pregnancy.

The break ?
 

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There are alot of factors that make it not fair for the women to compete on the same level as the men.

One is strength. Testosterone makes alot of difference.

This i think is the biggest factor.

This argument holds less weight with me now because there are sports/games where strength isn't important, and yet we see the same patterns. Chess is a good example, poker perhaps is as well. There are many examples. I think the argument that women aren't as exposed is the best one considering everything nowadays. In 50 or 100 years, I would hope we'll see a lot more equality, i'm sure we will.
 
I hope we see more mixed tournaments. I think the pool comunity as a whole will benefit from the status change mixed events will provide.
I don't think strength is an issue, it's about being creative, shooting straight and mastering the psychological aspect.
 
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Because the women want it that way. They have the option of excluding the men or playing against them.

In reality I also think the men enjoy not having many of them enter their tournaments and not having to put up with all the girly issues.

Years ago our town and I am sure many others had very successful Jaycee chapters that were for males only. It was then determined to be unconstitutional and females had to be admitted. The chapters all started to fail and have never been the same.

Men need a break away from the women and there are only a few sacred things left.



.
 
In the past ten to fifteen years, the women have closed the gap because of the playing equipment. The standard for cloth, Simonis is much faster and allows a softer stroke to move the cue ball around the table.

Twenty years ago you had to have a power stroke to play nine ball. Today, you can roll the cue ball and bunt balls instead of hitting draw and middle ball. The balls explode more on the break, too. Strength is not as important as how you hit the rack. Better breaking techniques allow the smaller player to break much bigger.

There are women who possess the physical tools to play at a high level, but only occasionally win in mixed events. This fact is because of the mental game and I won't opine on that. :smile:

Best,
Mike
 
Here is Jasmin Ouschan breaking. I don't think she is lacking in strength.

Didn't Jean Balukas compete head to head with the top players in her day, entering and winning men's events? So, who outclassed her?

Another possible factor is motherhood. Taking time off to raise a family and dealing with pregnancy.

Jean played great, I watched her play several times and she beat a lot of shortstops and some top players at times. Allison played great.
I'm not saying they can't play good.
They just can't beat the top men.
It's a whole other level of play.
This girl looks to have a good break, I haven't watched her play much , so I can't make a judgement on her speed.
If you ask the men players from 30 to 100 why they are not higher, I think most would say their break was not good enough.
I can think of 50 guys who would have been able to beat any woman giving them at least the 8 Ball. Some the 7 or more.
 
To set the tone, I really enjoy watching the women play on ESPN. Jasmin Ouschan, Allison FIsher, Ga Young Kim, and others, are outstanding. But when I watch someone like Earl Strickland playing there is no doubt in my mind that he is head and shoulders above women players. It's true. that aside from the break, it should be an even game regardless of sex but that just isn't the case. Guys like Strickland, Bustamante, Immonen, Souquet, Efren, and others are just monsters when they get on a pool table. Believe me, I'm not a sexist but in my opinion there is a difference in the perfomance of the top women players and the top men players. I also firmly believe that women should be allowed to play in the US Open or any other tournament. Hope I haven't upset any of our women players. The way I play, a lot of women players can beat me easily.
 
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To set the tone, I really enjoy watching the women play on ESPN. Jasmin Ouschan, Allison FIsher, Guy Young Kim, and others, are outstanding. But when I watch someone like Earl Strickland playing there is no doubt in my mind that he is head and shoulders above women players. It's true. that aside from the break, it should be an even game regardless of sex but that just isn't the case. Guys like Strickland, Bustamante, Immonen, and others are just monsters when they get on a pool table. Believe me, I'm not a sexist but in my opinion there is a difference in the perfomance of the top women players and the top men players. I also firmly believe that women should be allowed to play in the US Open or any other tournament. Hope I haven't upset any of our women players. The way I play, a lot of women players can beat me easily.

Well stated! I agree 100%. The only argument against women playing in men's events is this: since women have (used to have?) their own tour (and hence a number of prize spots dedicated to only women), is it necessarily fair that they would compete for prize spots that the men could win? I don't know the answer to that. Let's face it, pro pool does not really afford the players outside the top 10 a solid living. There are a LOT of men players vying for that 10-25 ranking or so in prize money. If someone like Ga Young Kim, for example, takes 13th place in a mens event, and also gets to dominate in the women's pro tour...not sure that is 100% fair to the men...it turns the women's only tour into essentially "special treatment" for the women.

Now I am not necessarily against that. And likewise, if the objective of the open tournaments is to determine the very best players, then I wholeheartedly agree that any living human should be able to compete. In fact, allowing *anyone* to play really raises the prestige of any tournament, because now you really are determining the best *pool player*, rather than the best women or man pool player.

Tough call, but my guess is that most male pros would favor an open tournament format. Hence I would vote that open tournaments should be open to all.

KMRUNOUT
 
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