When you love the Green Game as a young shooter full of vim and vigor, it will be almost impossible to get enough playing time. As you enter maturity, a few other things (such as family, kids, making a living, etc.) intrude on your pool playing time. These intrusions might even interfere enough to cause you to give up playing for a decade or two.
Then comes the big 5-O (or 6-O or retirement) and life outside the pool hall settles down. That is a good time to renew your love of the game and its intricacies. After all, you now have the time to make pool a major part of your life again. With new maturity, you are more capable of seeing pool more of a thinking man’s game with actions and consequences to be properly considered.
But that maturity in thinking also includes the consequences of aging. Your body doesn’t quite work as smoothly and easily as it used to do in your memories. You might be overweight or out of shape. Pool does require some physical fitness. As such, there are only so many pool shots that you can shoot in any one time. Once that limit is exceeded for that day, your pool skills and game goes downhill.
One effect of realizing you are on the second half of your life expectancy is the understanding that you will not become the professional player of your youthful dreams. But you can settle down to become one of the top shooting old geezers at your local pool room. You have the time to regularly work on your pool skills. Practice times are more productive as you focus on fine-tuning specific pool skills.
Another benefit of being a regular is that you are now looked up to by the younger crowd – at least the ones that have any brains. These are the ones that show some respect for your age and wisdom. A few of them even ask for advice. With proper presentation, you can become the go-to guy when a shot has to be watched for legality or there is a question about the rules.
There are always a few youngsters who think they can beat up on you. They think that it will improve the rep – or they are just desperate to find someone to play. You should be able to make life difficult for such individuals. Generally, if you have half their pocketing skill, they should be easy meat. (Age & wisdom beats youth and energy.)
Basically, you get comfortable with your abilities, competence, and pool skills. You may not be able to play more than a few hours at a time, but your place in the hierarchy of the pool room and within those of your age group are assured. It’s a good life.
There will be some loss of physical capability over the years affecting your pool skills and shooting accuracy. Longer shots may be more difficult to consistently make, sharper cuts are harder to see. That can be offset by applying the tricks and traps learned over the years. There is always something you can do to gum up your opponent’s opportunities.
There will also be plenty of pool players to compete against. In additional to other regulars in your home pool hall, other pool rooms will have their own collection of geezer shooters to compete against. The pool rooms of senior centers across the world contain plenty of competition. Plus, there are always those young shooters who need a lesson in respect for senior citizens.
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