Pool shots around the world

Well I was looking around as some billiards trick shots and I ran into this French pool video. This is a great trick shot, but I have to wonder how difficult it was to practice and work out the shot.



Not to be out done the Japanese have a bit of pool finesse as well. Here is a video clip of a Japanese television show featuring a guy that really knows how to make a shot. I have to say that I was really impressed with the champagne glass shot and the best to me was the 16 ball trick shot.



Now as I’m going through these international, televised, pool events I continue to think about why the Olympics refuses to add the game to the competitions. It just doesn’t make sense.

I mean look at this next video. The table may not be regulation size, and it may not be in Las Vegas or some other fancy place, but you cannot question that he spent a long time working to be able to do each of these shots.



Yet not to be outdone are Americans.



Now please, someone, explain to me why a game with so much diversity and challenge is not in the Olympics.

New Olympic sport - Pool

On Monday I was out with a friend after my pool league tournament to get something to eat, and noticed the Olympics on the television. At the time the trampoline competition was on. And it got me wondering. The question was why is pool not part of the Olympic Games?

Now for a bit of disclosure I should mention that I am in 2 pool leagues. I play 8-ball and 9-ball in the APA (American Poolplayers Association) for the Central New York area. I have been playing pool for over 3 decades on and off; and if I must say so myself, I’m quite good. So I have a somewhat biased opinion.

But the question is valid I think. I mean the Olympics have international competitions, as does pool. There are amateur and professional versions of the game. It requires skill, discipline, and the ability to handle pressure. It is a game that millions watch via television and in person. Even better is the fact that the game is incredibly old. While its origin is unknown it is known that it entered America about 1565 via Spain.

Now the Olympics has competitions as fun and interesting as cycling – where competitors race around in a oval, fencing – which just everyone is involved in, Greco wrestling – which outside of high school ahs been completely replaced by the WWE, cross country skiing – which is drama itself to watch, volleyball – which draws viewers for the people in skimpy clothes no doubt and is as widely played as Greco wrestling, and the aforementioned trampoline gymnastics – which virtually anyone can do in their backyard. I won’t even get into synchronized swimming.

The fact is that the Olympics are mostly boring. While a race like event is interesting, most of the other events are boring as hell. Just be thankful that Cricket – a game that can take days to play one match – was discontinued. There are multiple events that people watch just because of the skimpy clothes of the athletes. And there are far more no one watches at all. Then there are the competitions that are based on judges’ opinions, which every Olympics caused cries of bias and cheating.

Pool is very simple to understand. It’s obvious who wins. The rules are simple to understand. And there is no lack of people or countries that play the game. Look in your town or city right now. I virtually guarantee that you are no more than 30 minutes from a pool hall in over 50% of the world. No other Olympic sport can boast such popularity or familiarity by the world populace. A kid in England plays the same game as a kid in Tampa, as in Taiwan, as Minsk. Heck, multiple movies have been made about the sport or involving it, I think the Olympics have 1 maybe 2.

But what are the Olympics thinking of adding instead of pool? Rugby. Now that is popular, in nations that England once ruled, but it has nowhere near the fan-base. And the rules are not known or understood just by watching a game.

How about Squash? I bet if I went down the street in 100 cities around the world I might find 10 random people that either know the rules and/or have watched a game. I doubt that I can find better than 5 people in those same cities combined that have watched the game.

Are they kidding? There over 5 million people that play pool in the Philippines alone. Just this past weekend a friend of mine went to the APA Las Vegas national competition (his team barely succeeded in beating mine for the trip) where the first Japanese APA team was invited to play as well. And from what I was told they were good.

Honestly, I am unaware of a single reason why pool is not an Olympic sport. There is nothing that compares to it in the list of sports being considered currently. It is more popular than ½ the current events. It’s honest. It’s fast. It’s just about the only competition that men and women can compete in together (actually is there an Olympic sport where they compete together?). And it can be played indoors or outside, summer or winter, day or night.

But if it would make a difference, I bet that any pool player in the world would be willing to wear a skimpy skin-tight outfit if it meant that they could win an Olympic gold medal.

2008 Olympic Games: What I hope to see

The 2008 Olympics. The once every 4 year event that circles the globe and features the greatest athletes in the world. The pinnacle of healthy fit human bodies. Supposedly representing the best of every nation, and with little polispeak of those nations.

But that’s not exactly true.

China is a prime example of that, and needs to be addressed before, and during this years games. China is a key supporter of the Sudan, and in this manner supporting the genocide of Darfur. China is the Sword of Damocles over Taiwan. China is the iron fist against Tibet. And while it’s not as commonly discussed as it has been in the past, for all the economic innovations made in the past decade, they are very communist.

On Wednesday many Americans got their first glimpse of the problems that China promotes. The students that crossed the Atlantic Ocean and our country to scale that bridge, at serious risk to themselves, made a statement. The protests, which were far more peaceful than similar events in England and France, got significant attention. But the major news media missed the big boat.

Well let me rephrase that, they missed the big boat of issues that I care about. While much was said of the protesters supporting Tibet, little was said about the other problems of China that have been ongoing for decades. Not to belittle the desire of the Tibetan people to be free. But I have yet to hear more than a polispeak soundbite discussing the continued efforts of China to encourage the Darfur genocide.

But it’s not because some with the major medias eye have not made statements. Stephen Spielberg quit as artistic advisor to the Olympics because of all the issues. French President Nicolas Sarkozy seems ready to boycott the Games. Last night Dennis Miller made perhaps the best statement and idea I have heard on the matter during his time on the Bill O’Reilly show – that every athlete, of every nation, appear at the opening ceremonies dressed like this



Some might say that a bit of clothing is just not enough. That this is not a strong enough statement. That more is required. I agree that more needs to be done. That Darfur needs to be ended, and those supporting the genocide punished in some manner.

“The Chinese have had their way over Tibet. They have openly intimidated those countries who want to have diplomatic relations with Taiwan. And from their point of view, the Tibetans are an ungrateful bunch of peasants who have been dragged from the Dark Age of a Buddhist theocracy to the modern era of paved roads, city plumbing and light bulbs.”

Does that sound familiar? Does it remind you of the European desire to help the African people find civilization? Or the comments of some recently trying to justify the slavery of Africans in America and the current condition of Black Americans. Those kinds of thoughts and comments were not always unaccepted or considered the utterances of minds filled with compost. And even recent Olympics have been the stage for criticisms of American acceptance of those similar thoughts. Many of my readers may be too young to recall the international attention that this one scene created, deservedly so.



The Olympic Games are about the nations that host, as much as they are about the athletes that are competing. Nations are connected to the Games and each other. To accept the Olympic Games without calling attention to the murder of children and the subjugation of countries is an insult to what is on-going.

Thus I agree with Dennis Miller’s thought. I support his idea and add one minor point – every visitor to the Olympic Games’ opening ceremonies, including the political representatives of all the nations, should join the athletes in wearing the robes of the Tibetan monks. Such a display, viewed around the world, would shame China and hopefully be the cause of starting to address these horrible actions in a peaceful non-paranoid realistic manner.

Do you agree?