So long back as December, 1910, The Billiard Monthly published an article under the feature "Things that Matter in Billiards," entitled, "The Disabilities under which Amateurs Labour." The article in question concluded as follows:—"So long as amateurs who play in public, even for a charity, where money is taken at the doors, are classed by billiard rules as professionals, there is little likelihood of their obtaining that practice and experience in real, strenuous contests which are essential if they, in considerable numbers, as well as in individual instances here and there, are to become comparable with professionals."
We are glad to note that this point has now been taken up and dealt with exhaustively by "Hazard" in The Sporting Life, whose excellent notes, with which we cordially agree, we venture here to reproduce — "Why do amateurs fail even to approach within measurable distance the performances of our leading professional experts?" I have known amateurs who practised for four, five, and six hours almost daily, yet have rarely attained to a "10" average. They had an abundance of ability, but in most cases it was overshadowed eventually by other business than knocking billiard balls about. In this connection I remember the case of one particularly fine amateur player. He commenced to play when but a mere slip of a boy, and in the course of years developed perfect stroke-playing capabilities. Constant practice with one or two professionals made him quite a first-rate cueist. He possessed all the elements from which really first-class players are bred, but commercial pursuits claimed his attention, and though he continued to play his 250 and 500 up, he improved no further. That is one typical reason why even a first-class amateur falls a long way short of professional ability in billiards.
Again, amateurs lack continuity of effort. While a certain amount of natural ability is necessary, the amateur, even though he possess the natural aptitude to a material degree, fails to attain professional class owing mainly to the lack of incentive for better work. He lacks the singleness of purpose engendered by, if I may say so, the "bread-and-butter" problem to which professional proficiency is, in the main, subservient.
Another reason for the wide gulf between amateur and professional billiard players may be found in the wide difference in practice methods I have remarked there are many amateurs who practise many hours weekly, but, when you come to think of it, the time so spent is not practice at all, paradoxical though it may seem. As a professional once told me, "real practice means drudgery." "Particular strokes I have practised for months," remarked the same professional, "and the time I have spent over getting cannons is beyond computation."
The majority of amateurs are not systematic with their actual play in games. They do not seem to place any value on the importance of memorizing the correct method of making each shot on the table.
The foregoing are a few of the reasons which, to my mind, account for the vast disparity in the play of good amateurs and even second and third-grade professionals, and which may carry conviction to the mind of my correspondent, and to others to whom the question may have suggested itself.
Possibly if amateurs and professionals were afforded the opportunity of playing together more frequently than is the case nowadays it would materially assist in" bridging "the difference in the quality of their play. But under the existing rules.—drafted, so far as this particular phase of billiards playing is concerned, with the view of protecting the professionals' " preserves "—" mixed "exhibition games or matches are practically ruled out of court. In cricket and in golf amateurs and professionals play together, to their own mutual advantage, and to the advantage of the sport or pastime they represent. There is very little in it between a first-class golfing amateur and a first-class golfing professional—likewise in cricket—and much of this equality in ability can be attributed to the fact that amateurs and professionals may play together without hindrance and without loss of prestige. The day when amateur and professional billiard players can enjoy the same unfettered privileges as their companions on the golf course and in the cricket field will mark an important epoch in the bridging of the gulf that indisputably exists between the ability of the amateur and professional billiard player.
Another point occurs to my mind at the moment: and that is with reference to the" coaching "of billiard players. Most of our professional tutors do, I believe, set up the losing hazard as the first stroke for a beginner. That it is the best initial lesson stroke I beg leave to doubt. It was John Roberts, I think, who once expressed the opinion that winning hazard striking provided the best possible practice for the neophyte at billiards. And I am inclined to agree with the opinion. It teaches accuracy of cue and delicacy and steadiness in aiming. To hole an object ball is quite another thing to going in off it. You have to be so accurate in making contact upon it that the margin for error, which is so comparatively wide in cannons and losers, is, in the winning hazard reduced to very small dimensions. After the beginner has been shown how to stand and how to hold the cue—or given a good idea of what is required for these details of his position at the table—he ought to be put to the winning hazard for his first plain ball-to-ball strokes.
He might begin by just a slow, straightaway, close-range hazard, then make the range gradually longer. The direction of the object ball would check him every time; it would show him his faults, and tell him, if he took interest in what he was doing, how to remedy them. Next, he could play at medium pace, and, having had some manner of success here take to the highest flight of all—the forcing run-on or" stab "shots. In these strokes, any novice, if he has aptitude for billiards at all, would get the first essential— true cue delivery—into his head and into his cue arm. It would instinctively make him grasp the usefulness of a good, true aim and steady pose.