Age Factor

I hold the strong belief that age plays a strong factor in players decline.

Now I am not talking about physical fitness as snooker is not taxing in that way. I am talking more of the mental side of the game where from around the mid-thirties players form and consistency dips as they tend to miss shots they never did in their prime. Sometimes these misses are blamed on loss of concentration, carelessness or eye-to-ball co-ordination mis-aligning the shot. It is the phase that Stephen Hendry has been going through for a few years now and Steve Davis is also battling on with it. Now it is a measure of their greatness that they can still be so competitive with such a handicap.

Now some people will say it is nonsense but show me a 40+ year-old player who is either soaring up the rankings or who is reaching a purple patch in their career. It just doesn't happen hence why, in my opinion, aging is definitely a factor in snooker accounting for greats of the game losing their touch as it were.

Thoughts?

agreed.
Also "eyes focus" tends to become slower and this can disturb the player's rythm as they struggle to perform "transfer" as fast as they used to do. It's also common that although their eyesight remains sharp, it needs more "light" to perform at the top.
Another factor is that they don't cope with tiredness as well as they used to: especially they need more "recuperation" time, and tiredness then affects their concentration.
All of this in turn impacts their confidence and there you have it.

Well, I dont understand what happens because Jimmy White and ronnie played an exhibition a couple of weeks ago and both got a 147 in the two frames they played, so they cant possibly lose skill. Now we all know jimmy would never get a 147 on tv or in tournament. So in my opinion I dont have a clue what happens really.

Psychological I reckon.

That is in a one-off situation though. To ask those afflicted by the 'Age Factor' to compete over long matches going over multiple sessions is a different matter and where their flaws show up. It comes to all players in the end but it would seem the better the player the better they can deal with it but it still diminishes them as a player.

Age certainly plays a factor. They hand eye co-ordination starts to leave you. This does'nt happen at a set age, it affectes people at different stages. Getting ol bites the big nasty one

When I started watching Snooker one thing I didn't get was how they were so young compared to darts players or golfers. If you can compete at those sports up until the age of 50 or 60 then why not Snooker?

The lenght of time you have been playing would be a big factor. In darts the likes of Phil Taylor & Martin Adams are still at their best into their early 50's but neither of them were top players when they were in their 20's. Dennis Priestley is 60 but he only started about 20-25 years ago. Then there are people like Eric Bristow who's around the same age and was dominant in his 20's and is long gone out of it. I'm not a golf fan but I notice players in their 20's and others in their 40's winning majors but never anybody who has done both.

It is certainly a factor in snooker though. Concentration is key so older players get I think they find it harder to give total 100% concentration on every shot like they used to and also eye-to-ball alignment seems to go as well with old age.