Ok, we haven’t been doing much here for two months? We’re suffering from Volunteer Burnout, Or What’sthepoint-itis, and/or What-Were-We-Thinking-Syndrome.

But after pondering PoolStudents’ future we have reached a tentative fine, probably, on continuing in at least the short term.

We couldn’t do this without Abie Padilla who does the endless web updating. And Melinda’s design stuff. And the people who have volunteered to commentate or make a few videos.

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January Topic:
”There are numerous pro athletes, entertainers, and other celebrities who are pool enthusiasts. What kind of potential (if any) do you see for celebrity star power to influence media exposure for the pool world? I really believe that we can all have a positive influence in bringing new eyes to this sport with this next post. What’s your opinion?”

There’s so much angst in the tiny pool world about the game’s place in the world order. That is to say somewhere above organized scrabble but at least one level below bowling. The above question is posed for this month’s edition of “Poolsynergy,” a collection of blogs from bloggers around the Internet pool world. Melinda asked me to give my opinion.

The short answer to the above question is, “No, not in my lifetime.’’

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Many folks would say that’s my normal personality status. Fine. I won’t deny it, but still….

Here’s the issue. The words JAM UP. JAM UP? What? What the hell is that. In the pool world if you’re playing good you’re said to be playing JAM UP. JAM UP? What?

The thing about language is words are suppose to conjure up an image. The British and Australians do a much better job than we do in choosing words that make our language come alive but let’s make an effort people.

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I play pool for one reason. Competition. The thing I’m competing against is my brain, nothing else. Success at pool is all mental. And the amount that you can convince your brain who is boss and that it needs to follow your wishes is, well, key.

Right now for me it’s a little like WWI trench warfare or the damn Charge of the Light Brigade. My brain is killing me. Some days I jump out of the trench and head into No Man’s Land and I’m immediately shot in the face with a cannon ball. Other days I get about 20 yards before being hacked into little pieces. Sometimes my brain even lets me think I’m winning just before it strafes me into oblivion with uranium-enriched, 50 caliber bullets.

That’s OK. That’s what I signed up for and I soldier on.

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Well, not exactly the pool room. I count the AZpoolforums on the Internet to be basically the same thing. Same folks. Same, uh, wealth of opinions.

There’s this event called the Mosconi Cup. Five pool players from Europe play five players from the U.S. in a variety of games. Similar to the Ryder Cup in golf but it’s an infinitely smaller deal.

It’s basically a made-for-TV program that’s shown almost everywhere in the world but the U.S. It’s professionally produced and promoted by a European company and is an actual business success.

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There’s this guy Gus who I watch play 1-pocket. There aren’t 40 players in the U.S. that are favorites against him. If I could adapt something he does to my game I think I could be a much better player.

Of course this is an old story. We all know things the top players do that if we could just do it, well, ….

Still, I go through the process of analyzing anyway. It interests me even though I know the issues between me and my brain are both simple and complicated and are at the root of any progress or failure.

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I often challenge better players to matches knowing I’m unlikely to win. I have a sense that I’ve made an incremental improvement and I want to test the theory.

A couple nights ago I played someone who a year ago played about the same speed I played at the time. I knew something had happened with him because for much of the last session he was on top of the league board for percentage of match wins. In our league “A” players usually hold that distinction. A year ago this guy wasn’t an A player so I was curious. And I knew I was improved sooo…..

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Several hundred thousand people play in recreational pool leagues around the U.S.

The leagues come in a few different flavors and are backed by their respective national organizations. There is competition between the operators of these leagues and other issues but for the most part all is well in the pool league world.

Cue Sports International, the owner of the highly successful BCA Pool League, has started a new league called the USA Pool League. No problems there. They are trying to grab market share from another Pool League which is just how business works.

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Poolstudents.net has built a pretty substantial library of one pocket videos that have been expressively developed for the beginning and intermediate player.

Don’t think you can find such a thing anywhere else that doesn’t cost you something.

The only problem is that the game defies any logical description.

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