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Nick Prinsloo has been playing pool for a total of 21 years, 15 years competitively. Originally a pro-level snooker player and instructor, Nick discovered 9-ball and came to the US in 1998, where he has been playing on regional tours ever since.
Lately, Nick writes more about the game than he actually plays. Nick was the Guide for Billiards at About.com for almost four years. Nick's column archive is located here. |
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Lesson 5: Why Pool?
Pocket billiards is a game
where all intellectual resources have to be summoned to try and achieve any
standard of mediocre proficiency. That is why you will find many highly cerebral
people around pool. They are a special breed of people. Granted, not all pool
players are exceptionally intelligent, but mostly, the ones who tend to reach
that level of mediocre proficiency seem to be solid thinkers, and by that I mean
they use their overactive minds to try and solve the physical and mental
barriers mentioned in the previous two lessons.
I have yet to find a game,
pastime or sport with a combination of aspects as intense as that of pool. You
need physical technical perfection - i.e. a perfect stroke, coupled with utterly
intense concentration and total focus, not to mention courage and tenacity. And
we know it must be possible to achieve this state, as we have seen the likes of
Earl Strickland and Efren Reyes - among others - come close to doing. We know that it is possible
to literally pocket just about any ball, so it must be possible to play a
perfect game every time, namely to run the table at every attempt. Even if you
are not yet at that level, the mere fact that you have pocketed a killer or two,
and perhaps managed to get perfect position on the next ball at the same time,
sets that standard which you try to live up to every time you take your cue out
to play. This is where the eternal
challenge lies. If you have done it once, you can do it again, and nothing will
keep you from going back and trying over and over again. I know very few players
who have actually managed to quit the game for good. Oh, sure, everybody gets
frustrated to the point where they simply give up, or their circumstances take
them away from the game, but believe me, they all make a comeback again, sooner
or later. Once the bug has got you, it's got you for life. It is an addiction,
but one of the healthier things to get addicted to today. If you think about it, you
will figure out for yourself why you love pool so much. But face it, it is a
great game. A few years ago, I wrote a little feature for this site called 31
Reasons To Play Pool. Some of those reasons will make you smile, but most of
them make perfect sense. Personally, I like pool
because there are negligible external factors preventing you from playing the
perfect game; at least compared to golf and tennis where you have to take into
account the weather and altitude. You know that it is really down to yourself to
control the game. You are the one who must be perfect. You have no excuses, not
even bad luck. And that is a challenge which should keep you interested for a
lifetime. Next Lesson: How To Become A Natural Player Copyright © About.com | ||
