I was determined to just read these posts but not actually comment on them, but it seems to me everyone that is a proponent of men being more skilled than women, are only saying just that. No one actually breaks down the categories of good play and explains it. Let me just take for example the two best players the WPBA tour has seen--Allison and Karen.
Both of them are nearly identical so I will just group them together as I compare them to a man. You may compare them to any man you'd like. Both coming from snooker backgrounds, I would like you to point out any man that can pocket a ball better or more consistently than they? Granted, they miss balls now more than they did, but that is just as much age as it is years of becoming acclimatized to the pockets of a pool table.
Secondly, tell me who can maneuver the cue ball around BETTER than they? When they are in stroke and playing well, they make this look incredibly easy. Thirdly, point out better mechanics/fundamentals than they. Karen Corr is one of the best players, man or woman, to regularly use masse shots in a match, and she executes them rather successfully. Both of these players jump exceptionally well and have very good results along with their execution. Both of them kick exceptionally well and both of them are capable of stringing many racks together. You have to take into consideration that almost all of what you have seen on TV since 2003 with the WPBA is alternating break. Saying the men break and run consistently is accurate, but don't forget they also engage in tactical, drawn out racks very often as well. I have personally seen Karen Corr in other venues other than TV, and her level of play is strikingly higher than you see on TV. I have watched her two and three pack in a single match race to 11 and break and run 4 out of 9 racks in an alternating break format. The only difference between any of the ladies and the men nowadays is the break. Some games that is critical, others not so much. As you have seen, when it's not so important, Jasmin Ouschan achieves third place in the World Straight Pool Championship. And even in 9 ball, breakers like she, Ga-Young, Yu-Ram and Xiaoting have all levelled the playing field a great deal. And, Karen Corr, who has a relatively weaker rotation game break, still performs and wins on both the men and women's circuit. She has indeed won 5 Joss tour events, and placed 5th and 9th twice in the Turning Stone Classic. Not to mention the scalps all these women have over top men. However, those are often dismissed as flukes and not indicative of what women are capable. Believe what you will, but gender is certainly not the dividing partition between the two fields. Anyone can win on any given day and to be honest, it's just a matter of who shows up in stroke that particular day.
And just to let you know, I don't think Gabe Owen would give Kelly Fisher ANYTHING. At the Philippine Open 10-Ball Championship last year she was about to win 9-1, but rattled a 6 ball in the final frame and only won 9-3. Just wanted to put that out there.
The 16 year old girl who won the WPA World 9-Ball Championship this past November in China broke and ran 5 racks in a row in the final against Karen Corr as well. She went on to break and run another time for 6 break and runs out of 9 frames. On TV, in 2001, the WPBA Nationals--Jeanette Lee broke and ran four racks in a row against Allison Fisher. In the mid 90's Belinda Calhoun broke and ran 7 and out in one of her matches. These women can definitely play great pool...we just don't get to see it often.
