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Why old men are winning stuff: a theory

Postby Pink Ball

Since Barry Hearn has taken over, old men have too. Never will be's have become the here and now. Our current world champion Stuart Bingham has gone from being a nobody to being more than somebody. The younger generation are floundering badly.

A theory, other than the fact that the youth of today have the attention span of goldfishi. Snooker was in the doldrums from the mid 90's to 2009. In that time, the sport had less appeal than ever before. Therefore, less people took up the game of snooker, making it less likely that we would have great players. Whereas during the glory days of the 80's, people like ROS, John Higgins, Mark Williams, Peter Ebdon, Doherty, Hunter grew up watching and were drawn to the game.

Could be a bullocks theory. I hope it is, because that could mean we'll be another dozen years without a great batch of young snooker players!

Re: Why old men are winning stuff: a theory

Postby Smart

Pink Ball wrote:
Smart wrote:
Pink Ball wrote:
Smart wrote:bullocks theory.

There are loads of great young players, here and now.


There's a lot of rubbish young players too.


Who won the Shanghai Masters.......?

Kyron Wilson is a good player, but I'd be surprised if he'll be great.


DING is 28.

Judd is 26.

Hardly prehistoric are they.

Put this in the Junkyard, NOW !!!!!!!!!! :clap:

Re: Why old men are winning stuff: a theory

Postby SnookerFan

Smart wrote:
DING is 28.

Judd is 26.

Hardly prehistoric are they.

Put this in the Junkyard, NOW !!!!!!!!!! :clap:


Judd = 0 World Championships.

Ding = 0 World Championships.

Combined Total = 0 World Championships.

Re: Why old men are winning stuff: a theory

Postby Smart

SnookerFan wrote:
Smart wrote:
DING is 28.

Judd is 26.

Hardly prehistoric are they.

Put this in the Junkyard, NOW !!!!!!!!!! :clap:


Judd = 0 World Championships.

Ding = 0 World Championships.

Combined Total = 0 World Championships.


they are young though, or is that still up for debate .....?

and does a great have to have won the World Champs ??? (I still think Jimmy is a great of the game and we all know he never won the WC)

Re: Why old men are winning stuff: a theory

Postby SnookerFan

Smart wrote:
they are young though, or is that still up for debate .....?

and does a great have to have won the World Champs ??? (I still think Jimmy is a great of the game and we all know he never won the WC)


I'm just winding you up, sir.

It's all banter. It's all good in the hood.

Re: Why old men are winning stuff: a theory

Postby KrazeeEyezKilla

I've seen it said before that the reason there were so many great players around in the late 90's/early 00's was because of the 80's snooker boom and the number of people it attracted to the game. It would make sense that the decline years of the 00's would see a lack of young players coming through. You could say the likes of Selby, Robertson, Murphy, Allen and Walden were all products of the 90's when Snookers popularity had dropped back a fair bit but was still a lot bigger then it would be a decade later.

Re: Why old men are winning stuff: a theory

Postby KrazeeEyezKilla

Another theory is that the opening of the sport in 1991 caused huge long term damage to the amateur game. It led to a lot of decent players trying to make it and when they failed to dropped away altogether. This meant few competitions for the next generation of players to enter which hindered their development.

Re: Why old men are winning stuff: a theory

Postby Dan-cat

I think Alan McManus had a very good point last year. He said the younger players don't know how to focus properly when practising, always diverting to facebook, Twitter, messaging on their phones while at the table.

It's not just when practising. If you spend all day glued to your phone/internet switching between apps it bucks your concentration levels full stop. So when you are down on your shot your brain is used to hopping all over the place and to play snooker real good it must be trained to be empty of thoughts to get into the zone. It's the modern disease - effectively we all have ADD. I didn't explain this very well. But it's about being present in the moment, fully committing to the task in front of you and not thinking about anything else. This goes for your whole life, not just snooker, obviously.

A while ago I started a short essay entitled: Being present: Why playing snooker real good is a lesson in getting the most out of your life

I didn't finish it though. I got distracted.

Re: Why old men are winning stuff: a theory

Postby PoolBoy

This season has seen 7 tournaments open to pro players - from Pink ribbon to Shanghai Masters. If we also include the World Champs from the end of last season, in the last 8 competitions, only one (Kyren Wilson) has been won by players under 36 years old.

Re: Why old men are winning stuff: a theory

Postby Smart

SnookerFan wrote:
Smart wrote:
they are young though, or is that still up for debate .....?

and does a great have to have won the World Champs ??? (I still think Jimmy is a great of the game and we all know he never won the WC)


I'm just winding you up, sir.

It's all banter. It's all good in the hood.

:spot on:

Re: Why old men are winning stuff: a theory

Postby Sickpotter

Dan-cat wrote:I think Alan McManus had a very good point last year. He said the younger players don't know how to focus properly when practising, always diverting to facebook, Twitter, messaging on their phones while at the table.

It's not just when practising. If you spend all day glued to your phone/internet switching between apps it bucks your concentration levels full stop. So when you are down on your shot your brain is used to hopping all over the place and to play snooker real good it must be trained to be empty of thoughts to get into the zone. It's the modern disease - effectively we all have ADD. I didn't explain this very well. But it's about being present in the moment, fully committing to the task in front of you and not thinking about anything else. This goes for your whole life, not just snooker, obviously.

A while ago I started a short essay entitled: Being present: Why playing snooker real good is a lesson in getting the most out of your life

I didn't finish it though. I got distracted.


Might be on to something here....

http://time.com/3858309/attention-spans-goldfish/

Re: Why old men are winning stuff: a theory

Postby SteveJJ

Whilst it is always good to have an influx of new exciting talent into the game, if the quality of what I'm watching is good then I don't care if its being produced by a 20 year old or a 40 year old.

Re: Why old men are winning stuff: a theory

Postby SnookerFan

SteveJJ wrote:Whilst it is always good to have an influx of new exciting talent into the game, if the quality of what I'm watching is good then I don't care if its being produced by a 20 year old or a 40 year old.


I agree, to an extent. If I'm watching a player play well, I don't care what their birth certificate says.

On the other side of the coin though, in 20 years times when they are all retired, will we be left with a bunch of mediocre talents?

Re: Why old men are winning stuff: a theory

Postby Dan-cat

I was thinking about this yesterday as I played my mate. We hadn't played for a few weeks but I was determined not to play badly.

I had a little mantra running through my head as I lined up the shot:

'look at the object ball look at the object ball and follow through'

This mantra serves two purposes.

1/reminds me to look more at the object ball and to be on it when I push the cue through (I have a bad habit of looking at the white too much) and of course to follow through.

2/ This is the most important one. It stops me thinking about anything else. It means I truly focus on the shot.

I played like a demon!! I smashed my friend up (we are usually pretty equal.) He just texted me to say 'you played like Trump in those last two frames' - high praise indeed.

I remember Willo saying that was one of the things that Terry Griffiths taught him was to sing a song in his head when down on the shot. Apparently Terry had 'Myfanwy' running through his head when he won in '79 and Willo chose 'Waltzing Matilda.' Patriotic Welsh boys :) This serves exactly the same purpose as my mantra - stops you thinking about anything else and puts you in a meditative state when down on the shot.

soz - bit off topic.