Playing billiards or “pocket pool” is an activity involving skill and strategy that many people participate in every day.  Billiards, often considered a leisure sport, has been leaning more to a competitive sport as of recent, one with many various benefits.  Whether you use pool as a leisure activity to pass the time or as a serious player aiming to take their game to the next level, the more you play the better you get.  There is a reason the saying “practice makes perfect” exists and as you practice and play, you take full advantage of the benefits the game of billiards has to offer such as improving your analytical thinking, your sportsmanship, as well as your hand-eye coordination. 

 Pool evolved from a lawn game similar to croquet sometime during the 15^th century somewhere in Northern Europe. The first billiard room was constructed in England in 1765.  The billiard room consisted of a table with one pocket and four balls where they played “One-Pocket”.  Later in the 19^th century, a “Pool room” was a betting parlor where betting on horse racing took place.  Billiards tables were installed in order to pass the time in between races.  This led to the public making the two synonymous and now the two terms are now used interchangeably.  Billiards, once considered a sport for royalty, is now an iconic part of millions of working families ‘ lives.  Due to the popularity of pool tables in various pubs and bars across the world, it has played a major factor in the social aspect of millions of people’s lives but it goes far beyond being a social, fun, and addictive game.  There have been various health benefits we will discuss below.

1. Improves Life skills

            Various studies had proven that billiards helps build essential life skills or skill needed in day to day life.  This is especially true when starting at a young age.  Through the evolution of a game, players are constantly strategizing and planning, calculating distances and angles, determining the power and speed needed for each shot, and the hand-eye coordination to pull all that together to complete the shot as intended.

2.  Strengthens Friendships and Family Bonds

            If you have ever played a game a pool, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to hear it is a great game to play in social environments amongst friends and family.  What may come as a surprise though is that a study conducted by the University of Copenhagen has shown that playing a few games of pool while enjoying a few drinks has been shown to slow the effects of aging in the elderly while also improving many cognitive functions.  This suggests that the social and mental stimulus provided by playing has many strong and beneficial factors.

3.  Playable by All Ages

            Billiards is one of the very rare sports that allows play across virtually all ages.  How many other sports are there where a grand parent can actively play a game with their grand children?  While Billiards does have a pretty steep learning curve, it is also one of the easiest sports to just pick up and play regardless of age.  These factors combined with the various health and social benefits leads to pool being one of the best sports for a family to participate in together.

4.  Aids in Mental Fortitude.

            Studies have shown that those who take part in an occasional game of pool have more honed minds and are less likely to freeze in the midst of emergencies.  The game of billiards requires many mental numerical evaluations, such as geometry, and the ability to determine exact angles and how much power to apply a mid-stroke.  These evaluations and quick decisions lead to quicker mental reactions and less freezing in the moment.

5. Billiards Physical Benefits

            You wouldn’t think pool has many physical benefits but you would be wrong.  It is not uncommon for the average player to walk about a mile in just one game.   Also, take into account all the various stretching and bending to line up a shot just right, sometimes even balancing on one foot to make the shot.  All this aids in the toning of muscles in your legs, hips, and lower back as well as your flexibility and stability.  While playing pool would not be your first thought when it comes to exercising, but it can be a great, low impact option to stay in shape.

Get started playing billiards today. At home, at your local bar/tavern or join a sanctioned/association league in your area. See the following list for sanctioned league information. These organization will direct you to local leagues in your area:

• ACS – American CueSports
• APA – American Poolplayers Association
• BCA – BCA Pool League
• TAP – Pool’s Amateur Tour
• USA – USA Pool League
• VNEA – The Valley National I-Ball League Association

The bar league operator and bar league sportsman needs great online tools!

BarStoolStats changes the way you collect, view and share your bar sports stats and bar sport play. Our cloud-based applications streamline the score sheet stats collection, league, and tournament operations for billiards and other bar league sports.

• Automated Billiards Score Sheets
• Automated Billiards Tournament Tools
• BarStoolStats.TV

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Is pen and paper here to stay? Or will electronic league management take over the bar environment?

As much as I’d like to use this blog post to sell you on our electronic league management software, I would really like to dream of a future. One where the bar is integrated with the player electronically. Where pen and paper is replaced with the tablet, scores are calculated digitally and tournaments are tracked with precision and flair.

As much as we would like to see this vision become a reality, here at BarStoolStats we understand the rustic appeal of pen and paper. There’s a lot of hard work involved, but just as the quill in early billiards games was replaced by the pencil. We may be seeing a switch to the tablet in our future. This isn’t to say there isn’t an art to the quill. Just that newer technology is on the horizon.

I want to ask you, our reader, do you see the future we see here at BarStoolStats? Is this the league operation software of the future, coming to us today? I would also like to ask, where do you stand? Are you really so attached to your pen and paper, and if so, for how long will that love affair continue? These are the things we wonder at BarStoolStats, and we hope you enjoy the upcoming beta release of our application!

This pool game can spice up any league, see how Honolulu can add a whole new dimension of strategy to your pool night

There’s a game out there known by many names, such as Banks, Kisses & Combinations, or Indirect. But here at BarStoolStats we prefer to call it Honolulu. In short, it’s a game where you must not use any straight in shots are absolutely forbidden!

That’s right, one can only use: Banks, Combinations, caroms/kisses, or kick shots to score points. This makes for quite a tricky game! Official rules of the BCA dictate that one must call the ball and target pocket before attempting to score in Honolulu.

The balls in Honolulu are racked on a pool table’s foot spot with a full set of 15 object balls placed in random order. On the opening break shot, the player must either call a ball out of the rack and an intended pocket, or cause two object balls and the cue ball to strike a rail. The failure to do so is a foul.

Just like in One-Pocket, if you commit a foul you will lose one point in Honolulu. This means that the previously pocketed ball must be returned the table’s surface. Such spotted balls are placed on the table’s long string as close as possible to the foot spot, and frozen or as close as possible to frozen to any balls already occupying that space in the direction of the foot rail. However, if the occupying ball is the cue ball, the spotted ball shall not be frozen to it. If a player has no balls to spot, the penalty is owed, and at the end of the player’s next scoring inning, the requisite number of balls owed are replaced