Hydred Goldberg - Part 4 (Champion, Ambassador and the Future of Parasport Pool)

Allison Fisher 0:13

Did the other players approach you differently when you arrived at a defending champion?

Hydred Goldberg 0:20

Uh yes. Um it was more with open arms and uh a little bit of self-deprecating humor, like oh, I hope I don't get you in the first round type of thing. Or they're getting in your head.

Allison Fisher 0:36

I see how they're doing that.

Hydred Goldberg 0:37

Right. I mean uh yeah, right? It's a is a sort of a totally get it.

Allison Fisher 0:47

Yeah.

Mark Wilson 0:48

Last weekend I learned that Allison has 15 world championships. Uh you now have two. And so, Mike, uh, between the three of us over here, we have 17 world championships. Yeah, that's right.

Mike Gonzalez 1:01

Yeah, yeah. That's right. That's right. I I don't I don't know about on your screen, but but the women are on the top of my screen and the men are on the bottom. Is that huh? Yeah, we're up top in the uh so we wouldn't happen to recognize the lady's name that you played in the final, would we, of that second one?

Hydred Goldberg 1:24

Right. It was really it's yeah, it was a Catherine was her first name, as I recall.

Mike Gonzalez 1:32

So what did you know about each other's games by the time you met her for a second championship? I mean, had had it both advanced in Hayball, and did you know a little bit more about each other?

Hydred Goldberg 1:44

So, Catherine and I, we are both artists. She's a sculptor.

Allison Fisher 1:49

Oh, really? Oh, that's interesting.

Hydred Goldberg 1:52

Really beautiful, and uh I remembered receiving this um beautiful handmade necklace uh it you know as as a gift, and um so we became close and I it w it was very interesting because there was a moment where we were both considering rooming together for the second tournament, and I couldn't do it. Even though we were friends, I was like, I don't know how I'm going to feel. I really, really wanted to win.

Mike Gonzalez 2:34

Yeah.

Hydred Goldberg 2:35

And you know, my mindset in the first one, uh, it's very meditative. I wear these headphones in there, and I'm listening to things like Soothing Waters or Helen Jane Longs. It's like piano music. And uh the second one, I I was uh still, you know, being friendly and rubbing elbows and saying hi. I I really it was hard for me to stay balanced still in trying to do it. So uh I thought that it might be better just just to try and replicate the way that I had uh came into the first tournament. Do my own routine. Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 3:24

That worked out okay.

Hydred Goldberg 3:26

It did. I did. Uh I never did any um uh any kind of sightseeing. I was there to purely win. I really, really wanted to win. So Yeah, you have to have that mindset, I think, really. Yeah, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 3:41

Well let's let's just go to the third because uh you know we had we had alluded to the fact that uh you had taken Catherine down in two successive finals and then uh uh this year she got you in the semifinal. So what was different? Did you play better? Did she play better? Did she do it?

Hydred Goldberg 3:56

She played better and uh yeah, she just played really well. I think also she'd been playing more tournaments as well. But um I was also very kind of inundated with more administrative stuff for pool. Things like videos, stuff like that. So that's my excuse.

Allison Fisher 4:24

But I I I social media stuff gets in the way.

Hydred Goldberg 4:29

Oh my gosh. I don't know how pool players do it, you know, like with the everyday and uh maybe it's just not my it's not my style, it's not something that I'm into really.

Allison Fisher 4:42

I think it's an age thing for me. I think that's an age thing. If you're born into it like the youngsters are now, that's part of their life. We weren't born into that. Right. We were born into greatness. Yeah. That's right. Without a camera in our face every two minutes. That's true. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 5:03

Technically inept greatness.

Allison Fisher 5:06

There you go.

Mike Gonzalez 5:07

Right.

Allison Fisher 5:08

But it's so difficult to have to learn all of that and be comfortable with it. It is, but it's part of everyday life.

Hydred Goldberg 5:15

I found once I took over, my sister, she ended up going back to school. She was the one that was actually doing my social media stuff for me. And uh I decided, you know what, I'm going to I'm gonna take this ball by the horns, and I'm gonna try, I'm gonna learn by myself how to use this. I've always had sort of, you know, I just um had a ho uh a bad experience with uh with social media in the past. But I I thought, okay, I have controls, there's you know, things that you can really take take care of on your own there. And um so I was doing content for it, some of my practicing shots, things like that. Yeah, and I realized it's not it's not true practice because I'm stopping every so often and I'm like trying to change the angle, or you know, and it's not it's not real practice, and I found that when I'm doing content, I'm it it's a complete thing for me it's in instead of practice. Practice hour? Content hour, guitar playing. It has to be. That's right. I shelve it. Yeah, there you go. Shelve it. It's gotta like gotta pull it down from the shelf and really give it its its uh role attention there.

Mike Gonzalez 6:34

Yeah, it's called compartmentalizing, right?

Hydred Goldberg 6:36

Compartmentalizing is that's right. I think you have to.

Mike Gonzalez 6:40

Okay, so we've heard all your excuses from the last one.

Allison Fisher 6:43

Yes. I've got those two. Thank you.

Mike Gonzalez 6:45

Right, yeah. So what's the approach going into the next one?

Hydred Goldberg 6:50

So the next one, there's been talks that it's going to be in Africa next June. Oh my. Um very, very specifically. Uh it's more qualitative, um, very metric-based. Um and I really like it. I have I think I'm I've always been more of a a a drill person. Um so I I think it's a lot of it is confidence and trying to work with this new stroke that I'm uh incorporating. So now it's like I have two, you know, like a an underarm stroke, which is for me a little bit more power, um, and then the ciphered stroke for more accurate, straight in shots. Uh, even alignment to the table has changed a lot. So though I I don't know how often one goes through plateau where you just lose focus of uh I could not make any balls.

Mike Gonzalez 8:05

It happens to me every Tuesday night.

Allison Fisher 8:07

Every Tuesday night.

Hydred Goldberg 8:09

Yeah.

Allison Fisher 8:09

Well, I can't imagine, like, for you, lining up your wheelchair perfectly every time. Right. Right. That's so difficult. And if you're off, you get the chicken wing, you know, like if I stand at the table and I'm a little bit off, then something is gonna go wrong somewhere else.

Hydred Goldberg 8:28

Right. Right. And just imagine because half the time I am uh sort of this way. Yeah. And imagine all corner all all sides of the table, including the corners, each shot, you know, you you have to be on right, because you're also on four wheels. So it does depend if you're on concrete and you've got your wheels are fully aired up because there's a lot more movement now, or um or if you're on carpet, you know, there's there's a lot uh it's a little bit easier on the carpet though, because that that acts like a secondary break.

Allison Fisher 9:10

Yeah.

Hydred Goldberg 9:10

Um but yeah, it it is it's kind of tough. So I've learned to incorporate uh I call them heuristics for each shot to make them more less than aiming correctly, uh but rather how you know how the ball is rolling, my alignment to the table, and if I've got chicken arm or underarm. So it's yeah, yeah. I've got chicken wings.

Allison Fisher 9:43

Okay, chicken wings. I've got chicken wings too.

Mike Gonzalez 9:47

I didn't ask you this earlier. Um do you jump and do many parasport pool players jump?

Hydred Goldberg 9:56

I've just found that the most successful wheelchair pool players are able to jump and are also able to do a little bit of left hand or you know, their opposite hand shooting, which is something that I'm learning to do now is is using my left hand as uh as my stroke um swinging arm. Um uh I've practiced uh very rarely with a jump. I can do it, but I don't feel confident enough to bring it into a tournament though. I think I'm I'm I find like um kicking balls is a really strong suit for me. I don't know why, but I can really see the angles in that way really well. Um so I much prefer to kick at a ball than jump. Also, I find it a little bit more maybe pure. It's like more pure to the game is being able to know how the rails work and see Mark nodding his head on this subject.

Allison Fisher 11:10

I think Mark's in approval there, aren't you?

Mark Wilson 11:12

Well and for sure. That was the if you jump with your playing cue, that was always okay.

Hydred Goldberg 11:19

Right.

Mark Wilson 11:20

And then when you go to the Philippines and you're playing 15 ball rotation, jumps are forbidden.

Hydred Goldberg 11:25

That's that's just that's the rule.

Mark Wilson 11:27

Yeah, so uh I do prefer the purity of that.

Hydred Goldberg 11:31

I do, yes, yes. I feel like it shows off a lot more skill and time on the table. Yeah. Um respect for it too.

Mark Wilson 11:44

The converse of that is that maybe the casual fan enjoys the jump thing because they derive excitement and energy, and then it provides manufacturers something to sell. So I I'm a purist, so I like that, but maybe to proliferate the game, maybe I should be more embrace of jump cues.

Allison Fisher 12:03

Right, right. There's nothing I have the same motion. I would say that all day long. Great kickstart. Can't beat that. You can't. I think it's jumping.

Hydred Goldberg 12:13

Jumping more spectacular. Yes, that's right. Yeah. Kick it.

Allison Fisher 12:20

You can hit the ball with a jump, but not always controlled. I mean, obviously the very, very elite ones are really good at it, but a lot of people get away with murder when they jump the ball too.

Hydred Goldberg 12:28

Right, right.

Allison Fisher 12:30

Yeah.

Hydred Goldberg 12:31

Yeah, I'd like to see more tournaments without jumping. That would be great to kind of bring that back into tournament logo. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 12:41

Is there jumping in Hayball, by the way?

Allison Fisher 12:44

Oh, I I have never really remember if there is. I don't know what the rules are.

Mike Gonzalez 12:52

I don't know if it's allowed or not. I don't know anything about the rules, so I don't Do people do it in snooker?

Hydred Goldberg 12:57

No. No. Definitely not.

Allison Fisher 12:59

Definitely allowed.

Mike Gonzalez 13:01

I'm watching you.

Allison Fisher 13:02

Definitely not. That's what I found very difficult when I came to America. I was like, oh my god, they're not too much. What is this, right? Exactly.

Mark Wilson 13:11

Yeah.

Allison Fisher 13:12

Well, I can't remember in Habel if you are or not, because you've got the American bores there. Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 13:19

So Hydrid as a as a two-time world champion now. And we talked about this a little bit earlier in terms of what additional responsibility do you feel? Uh, or or have have you decided you need to take on in this more visible role you have of being a a world really a world leader in in Parasport Pool, and and you know, what should your future role be in helping promote and build the sport, particularly among women worldwide?

Hydred Goldberg 13:50

Uh that's this is um a question in a talk conversation I've had with quite a few people, especially with Henrik Larson. Henrik, by the way, is is uh my pool mentor and doubles partner in uh one of the open professional uh events. And with our just being exposed, you know, to s to show up you know, we are nowhere close to the cream of the crop in the able-bodied pool in terms of rankings and even still, you know, we we want to show people that it n it's not just recreational, you know, it can be taken to another level. Um it's a beautiful mental sport. I always say that it's you know light physical activity, um but it's also uh you know a way to socialize and and uh that's what I really want to impart for um people to to know that this game exists. Um it's really good for mental health, I think, as well.

Mike Gonzalez 15:15

And there's so many issues at play. I mean, it there's access, obviously. Um there's there's the whole uh accepting women as pool players versus just men. Uh as you go across the world country by country, uh people with your situation, some countries provide opportunities for people similarly situated, and others, they don't have a chance in life, do they?

Hydred Goldberg 15:42

Right, right. That's something that we saw in uh in Bucharest, uh, you know, the accessibility to poor hall. Some people are you know driving an hour away. Uh so that's you know, some of the obstacles for this is like, you know, not everyone can uh has a space in their home for a you know for even a a smaller table. Um it's it's going to be definitely an ongoing um endeavor to, you know, come to I don't think it'll be a finite solution, but uh I we definitely and I definitely want more women players uh in in chairs to come out and uh really see how amazing the sport is.

Mike Gonzalez 16:31

Yeah. Do you do you still have a dream yourself of playing in the Paralympic Games in a Q sport discipline?

Hydred Goldberg 16:39

Yes. Well, especially it that that was one of the motivators uh for the 2024 uh the first inaugural um WPA game. Uh and to to have an eye to think, you know, that we could, you know, some of us, one of us could be Paralympians. Um but it also caused a little bit of confusion because I thought that pool would already be at the Olympics. I heard Snooker was for a small time. I don't know. Do you guys know anything? Yeah, yeah, that would be nice.

Allison Fisher 17:17

The world games. All the the Q sports are in the World Games.

Hydred Goldberg 17:20

Okay, okay. Snooker. But never in the Olympics, right?

Allison Fisher 17:23

Right, correct. Yeah.

Hydred Goldberg 17:24

Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 17:25

I don't think so. I mean it's a it's a it's a a tall order, right? It's first of all, you know, it's just how do you get traction in in most of the major countries through the federations and um and then you know the IOC and the political nature of that is a whole nother thing in terms of all right, which which sports do you set aside to make room for something like a Q sport? And then it's which Q sport? Because Joy, obviously, uh their dream would be having hayball as the event. Um, you know, to an American you'd look at that and say, well, what is what is hayball, right?

Hydred Goldberg 17:57

Right, right.

Mike Gonzalez 17:58

You know, it's in Brisbane next, and and a Stucker player would say, Well, okay, let's go to let's go to Brisbane with Stucker. Um, maybe not as wildly participating of a sport as as pool would be across the world. But uh let's all hope that it gets there, and let's hope it gets there in time where you could be a gold medal champion in a Paralympics that'd be pretty cool.

Hydred Goldberg 18:25

That would be amazing.

Allison Fisher 18:26

I think just gonna throw this out. Would it be for Great Britain, the Philippines, or USA? Oh, geez, that's so digging deep. Let's take passports first, right? Yeah, how many passports do you have? Yeah, two.

Hydred Goldberg 18:47

I better know what they are. Yeah, right. I've never had a Philippines um passport. Right, that's out the window. Yeah. I do think that I will be representing uh the USA.

Mike Gonzalez 19:02

There you go. The stars and stripes are gonna be during that medal ceremony. That's what's gonna be hanging up.

Allison Fisher 19:08

You've got to work on that accent, though.

Hydred Goldberg 19:12

Yeah.

Allison Fisher 19:13

Haven't we?

Mike Gonzalez 19:16

Uh so so okay, we've talked about your world championships and some of the other things you've been involved in, but what what what's your today life look like? What occupies a lot of your time other than pool?

Hydred Goldberg 19:27

Uh so the uh my animals, my little cat and dog, and uh practice uh on the table. Um it it's been really different because it's been a whirlwind since December 2024. I honestly I swear it's been non-stop. So the since Rome, early August, uh this is like my first kind of downtime. Um and I've been really more focused on uh practice on the tables uh rather than socializing or content making at the moment. So um eventually, you know, I'll do a little self-reader stuff. Um but at the moment I want to just increase my you know, get my skill level better. I want to have a good, beautiful, solid technique uh and keep my foundations uh pool, uh my basics down because I I feel like now I've incorporated more of that side stroke that I I really need to go back to the basics. So it's it's um not isolating, but I'm I I think I'm naturally a solo kind of person working that way, you know.

Mike Gonzalez 20:55

Is there anything else that you might want us to cover with you or people that you want to mention in your life or anything like that uh before we kind of cruise home here?

Hydred Goldberg 21:05

Oh gosh, I don't I don't know where to start with that, but for some weird reason this one thing does come to mind, and it's more of a thought I want to share with you all, but the evolution of pool from like when I was thinking of like the top WPBA back in the 90s, late 90s and 2000s, you know, it was always dress, dress pants, nice cardigan in the top, and heels at some point, right? Not for everyone's heels. Right, right. Uh and uh then became more sporty. So the game I think is taking more uh like with jerseys is what I mean, and representation, a little bit more branding associated with it. Uh even with the the idea of introducing uh jump cues and not just jumping a ball to him. Jumping a ball to make it, but also even like double jumps. I don't know if you've ever seen that. So it's it's like I'm kind of wondering where is Paul going to go? You know, it how how much further or higher can we go with Paul and what would that look like? But that was just thought that I wanted to share.

Mike Gonzalez 22:22

Um uh maybe what what do you think?

Hydred Goldberg 22:28

I I I have no clue. I'm I'm my it's taken more seriously, you know, even it's got more of uh, you know, this is a a real sport. Yeah. Um you find more people on more of a healthy route to, you know, uh in terms of stamina and um you know conditioning their body and even presentation, uh uh looking presentable and professional in on these tables. So it's like we're gear uh kind of leaning away from the old school gambling, gritty, you know stuff that attracted you in the beginning. Yeah, yeah. Right?

Mike Gonzalez 23:20

Well, from the American perspective, nobody's lived it closer than Mark Wilson and you know, from the tuxedos to the back rooms.

Allison Fisher 23:28

You know for more of it, yeah.

Mark Wilson 23:30

I wonder if you're what do you think, Mark? Minnesota said uh putting a pool player in a tuxedo is like putting whipped cream on a hot dog.

Hydred Goldberg 23:40

Right. It just doesn't go right.

Mark Wilson 23:44

But it should be an athletic thing. I've always felt that way. I don't mind uh you know, if you had slacks and polo shirt, much like a golf attire. I think athletic shoes is important for when you have to stretch and such. So I don't have any objection to that. And and I really didn't mind playing in tuxedos because it did have a air kind of distinguished the sport and maybe and I like right, I like the waistcoats as well.

Allison Fisher 24:09

I just tradition, yeah, and a snooker. I can't imagine if it changed.

Hydred Goldberg 24:13

Right. Um I think yeah, and I and I hope that snooker stays that way where you're not going to do jump shots on a snooker. Oh, yeah.

Allison Fisher 24:23

It's like Wimbledon wearing white, isn't it? That's a tradition in it. Are we ready for our rapid rack today? Are we?

Mike Gonzalez 24:33

Let's do Alice Rapid Rack.

Allison Fisher 24:35

Emphasis on the world. I just want you to know that. It's really not that rapid. All right, excellent.

Hydred Goldberg 24:43

I'm exactly a change, don't worry. All right, go on, I'll try and. You ready then? Okay, Hydra.

Allison Fisher 24:51

Holding on to my wheels. Let's go. Are you ready? Hank or kick? Kick. Tournament morning, music or silence? Um silence. Henrik Larsen in one word. Extraordinary. Oh nice. Catherine Schneeberger in one word. Like that. The pool legend from any era you'd most like to play.

Hydred Goldberg 25:36

God, it w it would it may be it might be your friend Reyes.

Allison Fisher 25:41

I think most people want that.

Hydred Goldberg 25:43

Yeah, yeah.

Allison Fisher 25:44

Just poor room. Yeah, of course. Poor room or movie set pool room. Good answer. Most satisfying sound in poor. It's back of the pocket. It's straight in. Good one. Best tournament city you visited. Oh gosh. Um. I knew that one was coming too. Yeah. A better feeling, first world title or second world title?

Hydred Goldberg 26:22

That's good, Alison.

Allison Fisher 26:24

Okay, good one. Crikey. Okay, second. Another Hayball World Championship or a major nine ball title? Nine ball title. Your greatest strength, creativity, patience, competitiveness or stubbornness? Creativity.

Hydred Goldberg 26:45

Creativeness. Paul in one word.

Allison Fisher 26:53

Beautiful. Nice. Most underrated skill in wheelchair pool. Straight in shot. Shot you never want to see heel heel.

Hydred Goldberg 27:16

Shot you don't want to see in heel hill. For me I'd say draw. A draw shot. Like a long draw shot. I don't want to see that.

Allison Fisher 27:25

Best advice another player ever gave you. Progress is not linear. One rule in Paul you would change.

Hydred Goldberg 27:39

I'd like to do no jump cues. That's a good one.

Allison Fisher 27:44

Tougher. Winning a world championship or defending one. Defending. Better artist, hydrid with a cue or hydrid with makeup? I say makeup. What still sits at the top of Hydra Goldberg's bucket list?

Hydred Goldberg 28:16

I really want to win a match in a women's professional pool event.

Allison Fisher 28:27

Very nice. Thank you very much. That wasn't too painful, was it?

Hydred Goldberg 28:31

It wasn't. That was so cool.

Allison Fisher 28:32

Those are really good questions.

Mike Gonzalez 28:35

That's pretty good. Okay, so I'll ask you one, and then we've got three final questions we've asked each of our guests over 30 some now interviews. So it's kind of interesting for us to compare and contrast the kind of responses we get. But this isn't one of them, but I'd I'd ask you this. So I'm going to give the opportunity to go back to August 11th, 1993. And today Hydrid is sitting down with young Hydrid who's just experienced this horrific accident. What do you tell her?

Hydred Goldberg 29:03

Okay.

Mike Gonzalez 29:04

What do you tell her?

Hydred Goldberg 29:11

Be patient. Um be patient. Um stay strong. Oh, I've never been asked that before. That is pretty deep. That is a very deep question. Wow. I never, yeah, I've always thought about asking my younger self in general, but after the action, that that is really where my life changed. Yeah. Yeah.

Allison Fisher 29:52

Patience and strength.

Mike Gonzalez 29:54

That's a good start. That's a good start. So let's go into our final three questions. And I'm gonna let Mr. Wilson ask the first question.

Mark Wilson 30:03

If you knew when you were 20 what you know now, what would you have done differently?

Hydred Goldberg 30:13

Oof. Uh okay, so I had a modeling career until I shaved my head. I had regrets because I I didn't uh do any mainstream modeling after that. But there there honestly, it was a weird regret because um I would have not shaved my head. But at the same time, I wouldn't be who I am. I don't know.

Allison Fisher 30:50

It's one of those you have to do it once in your life at least, right? Yeah, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 30:56

All right, I'll take question number two. I don't know uh you I don't think you you told me I think you you were not a golfer, but we're gonna give you one career mulligan, one shot to do over that might have made a difference in a match. Where would you take it?

Hydred Goldberg 31:15

Um it was um I think it was an eight ball match. Uh and I remembered um it it was such an easy shot. It was on the seven-foot table. Um and it really it grated me because I just I just took advantage of the shot. I didn't look at it, and I just swung as if uh as if the ball was just going in because previously all the other balls seemed to be going in automatically. You know, I'm I'm like lined up just naturally. So uh there are many, you know, there are that's not the only one, but I uh at this point that's really it. It's more of an easy shot that should not have been taken advantage, you know, or I just shouldn't have taken it for granted.

Mike Gonzalez 32:19

Yeah.

Hydred Goldberg 32:19

Um I think those are the ones that really upset me the most is there was no reason for that unforced error, you know.

Mike Gonzalez 32:31

Hey Mark, do you think we'll ever have anybody give us the answer it was the lag in my Moscone Cup match?

Allison Fisher 32:39

No, I don't think it'll be that ever.

Mike Gonzalez 32:42

Yeah, it's a big deal.

Allison Fisher 32:43

Yeah, I know, but I don't think anyone would say that.

Mike Gonzalez 32:46

Probably not. I don't know. Allie, final question.

Allison Fisher 32:48

And the last question is how would you like to be remembered?

Hydred Goldberg 32:54

Oh. I be I I would like to be remembered as um person that was present. Um was was caring and kind. I say this because I I don't think that my um exterior sometimes shows that, you know. But I I think so. I think that would be it. That's lovely.

Allison Fisher 33:27

I think that's a great one. Yeah, that's a really lovely answer. And thank you for joining us on Legends of the Queue and sharing your love and light with us. It's been a pleasure. Thank you. My pleasure, absolutely. It's been it all now.

Mike Gonzalez 33:38

And Mark Wilson, I'm sure you've gotten the appreciation for who Hydrat is now and enjoyed meeting her virtually.

Mark Wilson 33:44

I I so admire your courage and the positive spark that you present and the uh positivity, and I really think it sets a great example for everyone that uh what you've overcome and and the person you portray.

Hydred Goldberg 33:59

I really appreciate it, and I love what you guys are doing. Continue on. Um I recently read the Justin Bergman podcast transcript, and I just like there's there's lots of tidbits in in all of your podcasts that everyone can relate to, and I I hope this too, someone can glean something off of it too. So thank you for existing.

Mike Gonzalez 34:24

Well, thank you very much, and uh we appreciate you adding your story to all the grades here on Legends of the Cube.

Allison Fisher 34:31

So cool.

Mike Gonzalez 34:33

Thank you. Thanks.

Allison Fisher 34:35

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