Carom
ATHENS - The Greek champion and top player Nikos Polychronopoulos has created his own website and application under the name 'Nick Poly, the way to 1.200', in which he offers lots of opportunities to develop the game in three cushion for players of all level.
The application system is already received with a great enthusiasm in many countries.
Kozoom asked Nikos to introduce his application.
Nikos:
,,Welcome to the world of three-cushion billiards. Three cushion billiards is one of the most important parts in my life. I remember the first time I hold the cue in my hands, even though I was only 11 years old, what I felt was awe and love for this game. Today, after 20 years of experience and distinctions, I feel the need to it share with people who love billiards, the way three cushion must be played, hoping that in this way more and more people will discover this fantastic world.''
,,Based on a Chinese saying which claims that 'when you give a hungry man a fish, he has food for one day, but if you learn him how to fish, he will have food for the rest of his life', so let's say: what I wish to do is to teach people the ways how three cushion is played, having great records at the same time.''
,,You have to be sure that if you work hard, you can succeed a lot, and that the game is divided into three parts, according to the level of difficulty. These categories exist even though you change the ball distance and the placing position (as can be seen in the result table) which is unique. But, bear in mind, that while playing, even though you cannot reach this placing position, there are other easy ways where you can make a high run of caroms.''
,,Do not forget to visit our website www.nickpoly.com and register to our Newsletter. In this way, all your queries can be solved, and at the same time more and more videos will be uploaded that will show the game. Last but not least, do not forget to make a 'like' in our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nick-Poly-The-Way-to-1200/257314104430752
I wish you good luck with lots of distinctions.''
The Kozoom questions in addition:
Frits Bakker/Kozoom: Nick... let's say, I'm a 0.500 or 0.750 player, I want to join your ,,club''. Can you explain me the steps:
How to make the subscription?
Nikos Polychronopoulos: ,,The first time that somebody is visiting the site http://nickpoly.com/ a pop up window is coming out. There, the user can be subscribed in our Newsletter mailing list (we will start sending Newsletters with in October). In these Newsletter among other things I will explain questions about some points of the app, that players already started to sent me.''
FB/Kozoom: And the next steps?
NP: ,,At the top of the page http://nickpoly.com/ there is an advertisement for the app Nick poly, the way to 1.200. Following the link you can download the application. For the moment it is only available for devices when they function under android operation system, but very soon it will be available also for IOS.''
,,Also if you want to download the application, he can search at the Google play for Nick Poly, the way to 1.200. Or he can follow the link https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mpapad50yahoogr.theway1
FB/Kozoom: What can you offer the members with your application?
NP: ,,The app Nick Poly, the way to 1.200 offers knowledge for a player that wishes to improve his game and play on a high level.''
FB/Kozoom: What do I need when I want to improve: talent, lot of practicing, experience? And the most important to improve my level?
NP: ,,In my personal opinion you need all three of them. But in the bottom line I could say that most of them you need practising and hard work. You need a lot of practising, but in this point there is a big catch. You 'have to know' how to play in your practice and what is the goal. What I want to say is: as you know I'm also the owner of a billiard club. So a lot of times I'm watching players to do practice, but playing without having absolutely a plan in their practice. They just put the balls on the table and they start playing. Many times they play the same point several times, but those points are useless.''
,,I can assure, all these kind of players will never improve their game practising this way. You can take these words to the bank.''
,,In order to play high averages, you need to know exactly what you are seeking in every point you are playing in the game. You have to know: if you can have position from the point, you're about to play, or if you are just going for the point, or if the point is so difficult that you have to play defence.''
,,So these are all things you need to put them in your practice. You need to practice in specific points playing the point in a specific way. Learning those points, will help you to better understand the high level game, and as the time passes, you will start "seeing" the game from a different advance perspective.''
FB/Kozoom: About the contend in your application, can you explain us what and which is important to know?
NP: ,, As I said before, my application contains 120 essential points. A player who knows how to play those points, can achieve 1.200 general average. In this point I want to mention that there is only ONE WAY to do 1.200 general average. This way is to make big runs in your game. Well, my application is all about this. How to develop a run. How to play the points in order to get position. That is divided in three parts. Each part has a different level of difficulty (1st level easier).''
,,The points are in detailed graphs where I demonstrate the effect, how thick to hit the second ball, type of the stroke, speed of the stroke. In the graph, I also mark the areas where the player has to drive the balls. This is very important, because as you know in three cushion billiards, it is almost impossible to drive ball number 2 or even more difficult ball number 3 in a specific place. So you need to play with areas.''
,,Those areas are marked in the graph, so the player knows exactly what is the goal. Also next to the graph is designed a smaller billiard table, where I demonstrate the best result of the point.''
FB/Kozoom: Which languages?
NP: ,,All the points are in graphs, so everybody can understand them. But I translated an introduction in the following languages: English, Spanish, Dutch, Korean, German, France, Turkish, Russian and of course Greek.''
FB/Kozoom: What was the idea when you started this plan to share your knowledge with other players?
NP: ,, The idea came when I was watching players of 0.600 , 0.700 average to do practice without any plan and practical losing their time while having no improve in their game. So I decided to get advance of technology (everybody has a smart phone or a tablet when he goes to his club) and I developed this app.''
FB/Kozoom: How many participants so far?
NP: ,,,Until today more than 400 players have downloaded the app and about 900 are subscribed in our Newsletter mailing list.''
FB/Kozoom: How to pay and how much?
NP: ,,The cost of the app is 2,99 euro and the way to pay is similar like when you pay for any other app that you're downloading from the google play store.''
Thanks Nikos, for your explanation, we wish you good luck with this wonderful initiative.