The Practicers

I have noticed that there are a few people in the area who always practice.  And I don't mean they are at the pool room every day practicing (well, they might be, but I don't see them); I mean they are ALWAYS warming up and hitting balls all day long between matches at a tournament.

And I mean, ALWAYS.

The morning of a big tourney (say a two-day event or a day-long event), they will hit balls and hit balls until the first match is called.

After they play their first match, they find any open table and hit more balls.  Constantly warming up their stroke and keeping their arms lose (I guess).

One guy in the area does this all the time and he doesn't bother me at all - it's just the way he is and he's not annoying about it.  He's very consciousness of those around him, and even though he yearns for that open table to keep in stroke, he will ensure he's far enough away or not bothering others.  He looks around to ensure he's not bothering any neighboring matches or players.  He literally will play pool for hours, because during his matches his competing, and in between, he's staying in stroke.

I was at a 12-hour, one-day tourney in Jan and he was there and prolly hit balls for 11 hours!  While most of us, will only hit balls to warm up and then only during our matches.

I admit I don't understand this concept, but it's the way he is.  I don't judge him, it's just an observation.

He's similar to this other person from my area, who is female.  She also has to be hitting balls all the time all throughout a tourney.  However, her, I do judge.  And I'm okay to do that.

This female does the same thing:  warms up before the tourney starts on any open table, and then when her matches are complete, she finds an open table and continues to hits balls.  She will do this the entire day.

There is this one tourney in Texas (The Texas State Open) that the pool room only has about ten tables and it gets a full field of guys and girls, so there is never an open table.  So what does she do?  She drives to the closest pool room to hit balls until her scheduled match time. 

At a tournament a couple of weekends ago on 8 foot tables, I happened to walk by the coin tables and I saw this player in the corner of my eye.  She looked in the bin and noticed there were some balls left.  She picked them up and put them on the coin table and shot the balls.  Really?  Are you in that much of a need to hit balls?

I don't mind how much she practices and I'm not making fun of her.  The reason she annoys me, though, is she has no awareness of those around her.  She will hit balls on any open table.  If there are matches next to it or not, she doesn't care.  I have asked her to move several times.  It's EXTREMELY annoying to be on a run and then have to stop to wait on her, when she's ONLY PRACTICING.  It's distracting to have to wait on a player who isn't even in a match to begin with.

She seems to be in her own little world.  Even when she plays in her matches, she doesn't look around and never has to wait on other players on other tables to shoot, because she doesn't realize she's in the way of someone else.  She has no awareness around her at all.

The Ladies tour I play on is nonsmoking during the tourney, while we play our matches.  She has actually lit a cigarette while she practices on a next table, even though all the matches around her are non smoking! 

The few times I have asked her to move (or not smoke), she will apologize and get out of the way.  But I think it's been enough times that she should be more cognizant of those around her who are in matches.  No one else does this, and we wouldn't do it to her. 

/rant off/