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Forgive the sudden question, but do you have someone you champion?
Idols, actors, athletes, YouTubers: cheering on the people and things you love, what Japan calls “oshi-katsu,” has become a culture that has spread across the whole country.
Today, let me suggest something new to champion.
How about championing pool?
Around the world, pool runs this hot
“Isn’t pool a sport you watch in silence?”
If that’s what you think, I’d like you to know this first.
The Mosconi Cup, pool’s international team event held every year and spoken of in the same breath as golf’s Ryder Cup, is known for its packed crowds, swept up in excitement and heat.
Over four days, roars and cheers fly back and forth: the thrill of a true sporting event is right there.
What is mentioned as spectator etiquette for pool abroad is consideration for the players, such as “don’t talk loudly right beside the table during play.”It does not forbid cheering or applause itself.
Watching a sport, cheering on a favorite player, getting swept up in it.
Pool is no different.
👉 To witness a flash of inspiration. — In that moment, you hold your breath.
But what about the pool world in Japan?
Few people go to watch matches. Few people introduce players on social media.
Even when professional matches are played, most people never hear of them.
That is not because pool isn’t interesting.
It is because there are still so few people championing it.
Precisely because it is a niche sport, each person’s actions carry great weight.
Put the other way, it means that moving just a little could change the whole pool world.
Five things you can do
None of it is difficult.
All of it, you can start today.
1. Go and watch a match Professional matches or amateur tournaments, either is fine. Feeling the air of the venue in person is where everything begins. Many tournaments are free to watch, too.
👉 Watch, think, and want to watch again. — Pool as a spectator’s art of thought.
2. Follow your favorite players on social media, and share “Like” a player’s post, repost it: that alone gives the player more exposure and puts them in front of new eyes. As followers grow, so do the player’s chances of finding sponsors. In other words, your “like” has the power to build an environment in which players can focus on their game.
3. Watch the YouTube streams, and subscribe View counts and subscriber numbers become figures that show a tournament’s value. Just watching, just subscribing, it adds up, without fail.
4. Invite a friend “Want to come watch a pool match with me?” That one line creates a new fan. You can be the doorway.
5. Share tournament news One post saying “there’s a tournament like this” reaches people who had no idea. Spreading the word is a fine way of championing, too.
Your “like” reaches someone you’d never expect
Have you heard of “six degrees of separation”?
It is the idea that you can reach anyone in the world through six people.
In today’s world of social media, that distance is said to have grown even shorter.
So say you share a pool post today. A friend sees it and gets curious, that friend tells someone else, and if the chain keeps going, the appeal of pool may reach someone you have never met.
Your one small post might give someone you’d never expect a player to champion.
And that’s not all.
Sharing a player’s post might put them in front of someone at a company who had never heard of them, and that could even lead to talk of sponsorship.
Spreading tournament news might give people who never had any connection to pool a reason to come to the venue.
Precisely because it is a niche sport, what each person puts out into the world carries great influence.
Let’s make six degrees of separation work for us, and widen the circle of pool.
When more people champion it, a culture is born
A player you love gets noticed.
Shared on social media, matches draw spectators.
More spectators bring more sponsorship for tournaments.
More sponsorship raises the prize money.
Higher prize money brings more top professionals to compete in earnest.
When top pros gather, the level of play rises and draws still more spectators.
More spectators mean more attention on the players, and sponsors become easier to find.
With sponsors, players gain an environment in which they can focus on their game.
And as more players can focus on their game, the level of play rises again—
The one who sets this virtuous circle in motion is not someone with special powers.
It is the accumulation of each person who turned the feeling of “I love this” into action.
Even the fervor of the Mosconi Cup must have begun with someone’s “I love this.”
When pool becomes better known, it does you good too
Players and tournaments are not the only ones who benefit when pool spreads.
You, reading this right now, will surely feel the good of it too.
For example, pool becomes something you can talk about at work.
It becomes a way to connect with clients.
Billiard halls start being chosen as the place for business entertaining and get-togethers.
For years golf has played that role, but golf comes with high hurdles: equipment, clothing, course fees.
Pool, on the other hand, is easy for anyone to enjoy, young or old, man or woman.
Physical limitations matter less, too.
If anything, pool should be able to work as a social sport that even more people can join.
The day pool can aim for the place golf holds is by no means a dream.
What we need first is for the people who play pool now to keep taking small actions, and to keep at it.
And to hold a mindset that welcomes new fans warmly and helps their numbers grow.
A culture grows from within.
Let’s champion pool, together
The Yokohama Open Organizing Committee aims to bring energy to pool, from Yokohama.
We create tournaments. We stream them. We write articles.
That is what we can do.
But that alone is not enough.
Your support will change pool.
If you love it, champion it.
We believe that is the simplest way to grow the culture of pool.
👉 Billiards resources from Japan and around the world, organized by purpose: Billiards in Depth (latest updated hourly)
