"Your Average Pool Player" seems much better than average

November 26, 2021 10:46 PM

Watch Rollie Williams — who you may recognize from the Climate Town series — attempt to re-create incredible shots played in professional pool championships, but with the skill level of an ostensibly average player. Here is a ridiculous jump shot and a swerve shot to get you started.

One thing I really like about this series, which I have recently become obsessed with, is how Williams explains every attempt's strengths and weaknesses. They're funny and captivating, too. As a very occasional player, watching Williams' passion for each of these shots is mesmerizing.

(These are produced in conjunction with a billiards gear brand, I guess — I don't know enough about pool — but I promise this is not an advertisement.)

posted by nickheer (11 comments total)

What impressed me is that Alex "expert" Pagulayan can articulate the necessary details of a) the point of impact b) the angle of incidence "up a little, down a touch" c) the force required; like an artillery sergeant adjusting the various dials and gauges to have the projectile drop just so. That's a level of understanding of the physics, beyond learning how to do things with 10,000 hours of deliberate practice.
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:32 AM on November 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

As the non-billiard-player on my team in a friendly bar game, I was once asked to take a simple game-ending shot. what I ended up doing was jumping the cue ball over the black, bouncing it off the side, and hitting something else entirely. Someone may also have lost a bet.
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 12:51 AM on November 27, 2021

The moral we all learned was that understanding the physics doesn't help much when your arms won't cooperate with the calculation results.
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 12:54 AM on November 27, 2021 [2 favorites]

This seems like a good excuse to post the video of Ronnie O’Sullivan’s 5 minute maximum break.
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 2:54 AM on November 27, 2021 [8 favorites]

My own abilities at pool are hampered by instinctively closing my eyes when cueing so this kind of thing is always impressive to me. I do love a good trick shot, having first seen them on Big Break, as well as the great snooker.
posted by plonkee at 3:56 AM on November 27, 2021

Bloxworth Snout and others, if you get Eurosport (or I think DAZN or maybe matchroom live in the US), you can watch Ronnie playing the man wikipedia knows as "Robbie Williams (snooker player)" in the UK Championship as I type.
posted by sy at 6:18 AM on November 27, 2021

I’m not actually that much of a snooker fan, I haven’t watched it regularly in years. But I go back and rewatch that video every year or two because it’s just amazing.
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 7:34 AM on November 27, 2021

I've played pool as a decent amateur for decades, including bar leagues, and I've made a masse shot (once) and I've made a jump shot (once), but I didn't even know the double bounce shot existed.
posted by hypnogogue at 11:51 AM on November 27, 2021

If you're a player of pool on typical bar tables and have never played snooker (as seen in Bloxworth Snout's link above)...snooker is like the evil incarnate version of "pool". The table is enourmous, the balls are relatively tiny, and the corners of the bumpers around each pocket are round as opposed to angled, which tends to bounce slightly off-target balls back out of the pocket rather than helping the balls in as you find on a "regular" pool table. If you think you're hot shit at nine-ball or whatever an outing on a snooker table can be very humbling.
posted by maxwelton at 11:59 AM on November 27, 2021 [2 favorites]

A side detail I learned here is that the Philippines produces a lot of professional billiards players.
posted by atoxyl at 12:24 AM on November 28, 2021

The moral we all learned was that understanding the physics doesn't help much when your arms won't cooperate with the calculation results.

Assume the cow cue ball is a sphere.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 2:10 PM on November 28, 2021