The Gender Divide in Competitive Pool

The Gender Divide in Pool: Closing the Gap

The gender issue comes up every once in a while when discussing what it takes to be a champion player. People don’t like to lose but boys and men especially don’t like losing to girls and women. I think pool playing should be one of the exceptions to this, after all it’s more about finesse than strength. Women should be able to do as well as men if not better. But the fact is that there aren’t 10 female players that could hold their own against any of the top tier men who could easily number in the hundreds. This isn’t meant to be a slam on the women pool players. To the contrary, I have spent some time thinking about this because I’m a bit stunned by it.

Why can’t the bulk of the women pros keep up with their male counterparts? As I write this, former U.S. Open 9-Ball Champ, John Schmidt is ranked 14th on the UPA tour, Thorsten Homan is 20th. Are there any female players that could honestly be considered favorites against John or Thorsten? It should be mentioned that many of the world’s best players don’t compete on the UPA Tour and so don’t appear in their rankings. Francisco Bustamonte, Alex Pagulayan, Ronnie Alcana and Dennis Orcullo and most of the other great Filipino and Asian players are competing elsewhere as are many of the top Europeans. I don’t know what percentage of the world’s best males are on the UPA ranking list but the WPBA is about the only professional women’s tour and represents most of the best players from around the world.

People used to say that the break was the factor in 9-Ball that accounted for the disparity but with the popularity of the soft break that argument falls flat. I also don’t buy into the whole “killer instinct” thing. The females of most species can be just as fierce as the males (or sometimes more fierce). If you don’t believe me just put yourself anywhere between a momma bear and her cub or try to swipe the meal from the female of nearly every species (including your neighbor’s cute little poodle). For that matter, ask a friend who has gone through a contentious divorce if he thinks women have the capacity for fierceness. If you have ever been a spectator at a WPBA tournament or watched a couple of women in a serious gambling match, I think you’d agree that there is no lack of intensity.

I offer you my theory: It’s all about the numbers. I suspect there are 10 or 20 times as many men as women spending time in pool halls. In America, it’s estimated that 40 million people play pool at least occasionally. True champions are a rare thing, maybe 1 in 10,000 or even more. It stands to reason that as the total group of women who play is tiny compared to the men, the number of great players would be too. It’s the size of the total student population to draw from that causes a small college sports team to be at such a disadvantage with the big State schools. Right this minute, there are probably hundreds of women billiards champions in America and many more all over the world. We just don’t know who they are and either do they… they’ve never touched a cue. It has improved over the years. In the not-too-distant past there were only 2 or 3 women who could even be considered contenders in a major open event with the men. Now there’s two or three times that many. A few years before that, there were none. If you want to see this growth continue and even accelerate, it’s easy: bring your daughters to the pool hall and let her get a taste for the sport. Who knows, you could have the next Johnny or Efren on your hands… hmm, or should I say Joannie or Efrenetta?