A Different Kind of System

The more I play pool here and experience new tournaments the more I see the differences in the pool culture and the way the entire system is set up. For starters, players PAY to play here, instead of trying to make a living at pool. And the federation actually supports the players and provides a service worth paying for. All players wishing to compete for the Swiss Championships must first buy a license to earn points towards their national ranking. I believe for the women this is about 100-150 Swiss Francs ($110-$165). Every tournament, big and small must be registered with the federation and pay a sanctioning fee. From national qualifiers to weekly tournaments at the local bar, they all pay fees to the federation and they all earn points. The federation runs a nice website (billard-net.ch)that lists all tournaments happening anywhere in the country and every player has a login so they can sign up online, find out all tournament information check their overal rankings. Tournament Directors can manage their event online and even post live scoring during the event. Players wishing to compete for the Swiss Championships must play in qualifiers for each discipline, qualifiers that cost a nominal fee to compete in but have no prize money. The same is true for those that qualify for the championships, no prize money. They just play for the honor of the title. So what does the federation do with all of this money? Well besides running the website, sending support staff to the bigger tournaments to print score sheets and manage the events electronically, they also fund the trips for their top players to compete in international events. This includes things like the European Championships and the World Championships. When Marco represented Switzerland in the world championships, the federation not only paid his hotel and travel, they also gave him extra spending money for the trip. From what I can tell it's a good system. Of course since there are very few tournaments with prize funds this means that weekly tournaments are not a bonus salary for the top players (as it is many times in the states) but it certainly changes the type of people that are involved in the sport.

Here pool is viewed as a Sport, not just a game played in bars. Players actively try to improve their game by studying the game. The run drills, set up practice times and learn all they can. This week the private club that Marco and I play at sent an email survey to all of our members to coordinate practice schedules. Players were supposed to list what days and times they will be at the club to practice. But the funny part is that they were doing this to they can AVOID being there at the same time as other players, not so they can see when they can meet other players at the club. It's a funny concept to me because I get bored easily once I have been shooting alone for awhile. Every time I think about going to the club to practice I call up one of the other girls to see is she is up there or is any other players are there to shoot with. I guess that must seem funny to them.

I played in my first weekly tournament last week at a private club near by called Billard Club Dietikon and had a great time. Marco was nice enough to watch lil Marco on his only night off that week so I could get out and play a bit. Imagine a $20 entry tournament with no payout that fills up every week...would never happen in the states. To my surprise (I didn't know which game it was when I signed up) it was an 8-ball tournament and I was happy to see I can still kind of play that game. I started off a bit rough with a close match in the first round but played pretty well after that. I went undefeated and won the tournament and had a great time getting to know other players from our club and new people from the Dietikon club. It's funny for me because most people I meet always comment on how great it must be to have a guy that is so good at pool that can teach me. I just smile because Marco and I rarely play together. Lately when we have free time at the same time we don't "waste" it on pool but spend it enjoying family time...funny how much my perspective has changed since we had our son. It's pretty cool :)