Hendry vs Hearn

Watched his interview with Steve Davis on the channel.

I was shocked at how poor Davis was, and Hendry was missing a few too that he would've easily bagged in his prime.

Granted they were chatting the whole time and not giving it their full concentration, but shows just how hard the game is.

Made me feel a little bit better about my own incredibly low standard of snooker.

Indeed, booky. It's all about ball striking precision. These type of players were simply machines in their pomp, functioning like well oiled pistons. Any significant  drop off in maintenance/practice/motivation will be clearly seen in the ageing process.

I've noticed that any player at the top of their game who is reported to have just had their first nipper will almost certaily see their form take a serious nose dive.

The player who immediately springs to mind is Mark Williams.

*certainly

tbf I reckon Williams, along with Higgins and O'Sullivan have done remarkably well to still be around mixing it with the best @ the majors for as long as they have. Those highly skilled disciplined asians were supposed to have taken complete control by now..

I remember Williams being quite dominant around 2000, then he spawned a sprog, and then his snooker went to sh*t for years... .

Apparently, according to the Racing Post's Steve Palmer, the same thing happens in golf : initial sprog = downturn in form.

I.e., have finally been able to sow my oats in spite of looking pretty ropey, thanks to many hours spent grinding on the baize/driving range with concomitant success, but objective achieved, so time to slacken off.

Stands2reason. The committed focus required to hold dominant position gets blurred(being through choice or not)

when looking at the likes of tennis and snooker (as well as probably other sports), it got me thinking that we had it so good in the early 2000s sport wise, then the next generation that were supposed to be knocking all these old guys off their perch and dominate just never materialised. Djokovic/Nadal/Federer playing each other in their prime, ronnie/williams/higgins/hendry earlier/sely bit later. its been literally years waiting for the next contenders, and only really trump and now alcaraz have looked top notch

No doubt, SERY. The odd cluster of FREAKS in any sport can set our expectation to unrealistic levels. Special* talent WILL always be about, we just don't know in which era/decade it will spring from..