Originally posted by matski
It dosn't matter how many tournament players there are in Europe, the US has a gun culture which means pball will always develope faster and the players over there will progress against european players a result.
An example of this is people setting up sites where players can practise, in parts of the US you can drive down a road and go past several sites, over here they're like rocking horse ****.
Plus, we have a lack of mentors/role models. A kid in socal can go down to SC Village and model his game on one of the best players in the world, many tournament players over here stay stuck at the same level for years, learning only from their mistakes.
Nexus have progressed very fast due to the input of guys like Pete and Ledz, there are few players with equal ability to 'teach' people how to play in Europe, in the US there are many more and always will be.
Mat, the key thing here is this :- American supremacy is an emergent property of many factors not least of which is their playing pool from which to cherry pick.
As Nick well knows, there is a significant factor difference between the two continents and this is not just the major difference in the number of tournament teams.
Common sense tells us all, or should do, that if you have a playing pool of numbers 'x' and from that you select the best of them, then if you have another playing pool of say '10x' then that selection is going to be significantly improved over the former if the same criterion are used for selection.
No rocket science there.
But as you hinted, the team disparity isn't the only mechanism here, the sites springing up all over the US provide a breeding ground for literally thousands of walk-ons who play Sup' Air.
Go down to SC Village any weekend and you could choose fifty tournament grade players right there.
The playing pool in the US in terms of selection potential is not and never has been limited to just team players.
Aspects like sponsor dollar, convenience of practice etc just go to make matters worse and I also think, and here I am speaking about the differing mindsets between say, us Brits and the Yanks, their philosophy being whole lot more serious than ours, generally speaking.
