What Kind Are You?

What kind of pool shooter are you? The type of style you bring to the table underscores the strengths and weaknesses of your game. Are you:

• dizzy
• crazy
• a pool playin' cat
• a pool dawg
• always learning
• steady and smooth

Although there is some humor involved in discussing these types, see if you fit any of the molds below. Where do you need to grow in your skills?

Dizzy Dean

The dizzy pool shooter is too busy drinking, wenching and smoking to notice whose turn it is or whether they are stripes or spots in Eight Ball.

Weaknesses:

• lost
• ill
• exhausted

Strengths:

• too broke to gamble more
• always the life of the party, even if the party ended yesterday
• a big spender

Crazy Carol

Crazy pool people are perpetually obsessed with swing theories on how to improve their pool stroke. These aspiring Einsteins of the felt can be too busy twisting their arms 35 degrees toward magnetic north to play effectively at all.

Weaknesses:

• mentally disturbed
• wasting their lives when they could hold engineering doctorates instead
• too solitary by nature

Strengths:

• able to lecture for hours about rather small Pool details
• detail-oriented people
• quite amusing unless you are actually playing against them

Cat On The Roof

Cat players have the mindset to stalk their mice patiently until the final strike. These are the folks who seem to miss all the early shots in Nine Ball until they pounce on the game winners when you least expect the strike.

Weaknesses:

• a bit too cagey for their own good, what if the opponent completes the run before they make their big move?
• not much fun to play against
• sometimes too aggressive at the table, missing the high percentage play

Strengths:

• ready to spring upon unwary prey
• their pockets jingle with change
• everybody wants to be a cat

The Dirty Dog

Those who dog the ball disguise their ability and hustle the unwary by missing certain shots purposefully. Intentionally, they "duck" the shots to hide their skills. Unintentionally, the dog is someone who "chokes" and misses as possible victory looms.

Weaknesses:

• no one wants to play them when they get wise to the hustle
• or everyone wants to play them when they figure they choke
• often penniless and desperate

Strengths:

• they can snatch your wallet by hustling or just plain getting lucky
• always good for a laugh as you watch, not play
• very popular in certain circles of society

Ever-Learner

I respect the ever-learning player, the one who assesses after any miss and uses shots as a learning opportunities. The player who wills to learn will eventually improve.

Weaknesses:

• so focused on assessing their personal ability, they often are unable to relax and perform at a high level
• mentally tired by the end of the playing session
• too hard on themselves at times

Strengths:

• can become an encyclopedia of Pool facts and possibilities
• getting better at the game often
• respectful of others' opinions and asking good thought-provoking questions of their peers

Steady Eddie

It's Steady and not Fast Eddie who often triumphs at the game. By playing within themselves, balanced, smooth and neither rushing toward a shot nor over-analyzing the situation at hand, they deliver consistent, successful results. In the all-time classic pool flick, The Hustler, Jackie Gleason as "Minnesota Fats" cleans out Paul Newman as "Fast Eddie" by being the penultimate Steady Eddie and wearing his opponent's energy and patience thin.

Weaknesses:

• not thrilling to watch
• emotionally distant if you play them, not the most fun to partner
• unpopular because they keep winning

Strengths:

• content with all pool has to offer
• likely a respected corporate or civic leader away from the tables
• pool trophies on the walls of their home