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Re: Is the technological era spoiling young snooker talent?

Postby snookerguy

Yes, let's blame technology not the obvious.

All the snooker clubs in my area wouldn't admit under 18s without an adult present.

The cost of a table range from £5-7 an hour and in my area you'd be luck to have a third of the snooker hall actually be snooker tables, a sum of money most teenagers don't have for the hours you need to put in to practice snooker. Similarly parents don't have 12 hours a day free to babysit there kid in a snooker hall even if they could afford it. Social/working mens clubs where you can get a cheap game have been shutting all over the country for years.

The kind of kid who'd probably make a great snooker player is unlikely to have room in their house for a full size table.

The popularity of pools sky-rocketed and it's a far easier game, most people play pool as their recreation of choice now. Similarly the popularity of snooker has wained, mainly due to it being seen as antiquated and old fashioned. I'm reasonably young and every time I say I like watching snooker the response is either "oh my dad watches that" or "it's boring". Never "yeah, I like it too."

Re: Is the technological era spoiling young snooker talent?

Postby Dan-cat

snookerguy wrote:Yes, let's blame technology not the obvious.

All the snooker clubs in my area wouldn't admit under 18s without an adult present.

The cost of a table range from £5-7 an hour and in my area you'd be luck to have a third of the snooker hall actually be snooker tables, a sum of money most teenagers don't have for the hours you need to put in to practice snooker. Similarly parents don't have 12 hours a day free to babysit there kid in a snooker hall even if they could afford it. Social/working mens clubs where you can get a cheap game have been shutting all over the country for years.

The kind of kid who'd probably make a great snooker player is unlikely to have room in their house for a full size table.

The popularity of pools sky-rocketed and it's a far easier game, most people play pool as their recreation of choice now. Similarly the popularity of snooker has wained, mainly due to it being seen as antiquated and old fashioned. I'm reasonably young and every time I say I like watching snooker the response is either "oh my dad watches that" or "it's boring". Never "yeah, I like it too."


This is all valid. It doesn't really address what the OP is talking about, however, and is a vast subject. When I was growing up in the 80s we had three TV channels and two of them often had snooker on.

Culture itself, due to the internet and social media has become so wide and dissolute. Watching the recent Oasis documentary made me realise that what happened to them - becoming the biggest band in the world - could not happen again. This was pre-social media times.

Pinkie, I believe, was looking at reasons that the young players that have made it on to the tour aren't much cop.

Re: Is the technological era spoiling young snooker talent?

Postby KrazeeEyezKilla

Maybe it's unfair to judge the younger players too harshly since they can only play for themselves. Most young players in any era never make or take ages to do so. The problem today might just be down to there being a shallower pool of players which means there's less chance of another Hendry or O'Sullivan.

Plus while there aren't as many young players now as in the 90's there isn't so many old fossils hanging around as there was in the 80's and early 90's. The tour is full of players with 20-25 years experience but who are still relatively young. In Ronnie's first season he played a 79 year old Fred Davis and lost 9-8 to a 59 year old Cliff Wilson. Imagine Yan Bingtao playing Ray Reardon or losing a b-o-17 to Dennis Taylor.

Re: Is the technological era spoiling young snooker talent?

Postby Dan-cat

KrazeeEyezKilla wrote:Plus while there aren't as many young players now as in the 90's there isn't so many old fossils hanging around as there was in the 80's and early 90's. The tour is full of players with 20-25 years experience but who are still relatively young. In Ronnie's first season he played a 79 year old Fred Davis and lost 9-8 to a 59 year old Cliff Wilson. Imagine Yan Bingtao playing Ray Reardon or losing a b-o-17 to Dennis Taylor.


Hahaha. Indeed. Brilliant.

Re: Is the technological era spoiling young snooker talent?

Postby Andre147

snookerguy wrote:That stat about Cliff Wilson's interesting, be nice to see Ronnie still on the tour at that age.


He could probably still beat a fair share of the younger players given how good they are :john:

Re: Is the technological era spoiling young snooker talent?

Postby snooker_loopy

The cliché is the cream rises to the top. If a young player is super-talented and puts in the work he can achieve amazing results. Ronnie said there aren't enough snooker clubs in the UK so there's less people interested in pursuing the game in the first place. Perhaps that's the problem? Not enough interest in the game at the most basic 'club' level.

Also, snooker is tough. It doesn't take long to know if you're poor/average/good or with potential great talent. It's hard to invest in snooker if you're average. You got to be good in the first place and you still need to practice for hours. I'm sure some good snooker players just can't be bothered to practice for six hours a day when there's other stuff out there like the internet and other sports/interests.

Re: Is the technological era spoiling young snooker talent?

Postby Andre147

KrazeeEyezKilla wrote:I should have pointed out that Dennis Taylor wouldn't beat Yan Bingtao or any other player in 2016. Mainly because if he had a match he'd show up with a set of Golf Clubs instead of a Cue.


:clap: :lol:


   

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