I think there is some truth to being able to adapt
The Phillipines have no air conditioning anywhere. No wonder there are no decent players coming out of that country.
I used to play on seven to ten foot tables, thin and thick cloth, ac, no ac, and I used house sticks. Played on a snooker table with a house cue too and played just fine. Later I played on pool tables with a house style snooker cue, played just fine. I played on some pretty decent tables, I played on some that were bio hazards at the very least! There wasn't any table I couldn't run a stray rack here and there on playing with whatever I grabbed off the wall.
Now I struggle if the ac is set two degrees too warm, or if the room is crowded. I usually play with my personal cue and the tip shaped to perfection. I refuse to have to have a designer chalk and a purple glove to be able to play but I'm getting close. Now i rarely play on anything but nice tables and it takes me a long time to adapt if I don't play on a Diamond. Even the new ones play quite a bit different from a gold crown in my opinion and of course vastly different from a valley.
I, and I think it fair to say most US players have became hothouse players where the conditions have to be just so for us to put out our best efforts. I think those that are able to adapt almost instantly are the stronger players. Playing indoors or outdoors, balls or wooden pucks, air conditioning, no air conditioning, good lighting or bad, good tables or bad, equips you to play on whatever you find with whatever you find. You also don't tote the mental baggage that the equipment isn't to your liking.
One huge reason that the Filipino players shoot so well is one found success. Once the youth of a country see a sport as an avenue to success then others follow. We see that in boxing and other sports too. All the youngsters with athletic potential focus on the sport their hero succeeded in. Without Parica and the early successes there would never have been an Efren, certainly not a Bustamonte or Marvin Manalo, or it is extremely unlikely.
One other factor, the US bases broght pool tables and gambling on them to the Islands. Being able to support or help support their families on easy money from drunken military men was a huge incentive to learn to play. When one person is playing for the price of a few beers and the other is playing for enough to feed their family for days the person the money means much more to is hard to beat. I think the money differences have evened out quite a bit now but I'm talking about what launched the early Filipino players. There were times when I was playing to eat that day and it is quite an incentive!
Hu
