After 46 years of covering professional pool and closely watching and chronicling the entire careers of multiple generations of players, it takes a lot to leave me (relatively) speechless.

That was the case a few weeks ago during the World Nineball Tour Florida Open in Orlando, where Shane Van Boening — who for me is already in the top two American 9-ball players ever, alongside Earl Strickland — put on a show that simply left me slack jawed.

What Van Boening showed in roaring undefeated through a 256-player field at the Caribe Royale (a venue in which he will perform again in December in his 21st Mosconi Cup) was something I’ve never witnessed before.

At 43, Van Boening went all Time Machine through one of the toughest draws any eventual champion has ever negotiated. After limbering up with three wins to reach the final 64, the “South Dakota Kid” stared down five consecutive world champions. In fact, five consecutive multi-time world champions! And only the first, Germany’s Ralf Souquet (World 9-Ball, World 8-Ball), now 57 was older than Van Boening.

Following Souquet, Van Boening vanquished, in order, two-time World 9-Ball Champion Albin Ouschan of Austria, Germany’s Josh Filler (World 9-Ball, World 8-Ball), Spain’s Francisco Sanchez Ruiz (World 9-Ball, World 8-Ball) and two-time World 10-Ball Champion Eklent Kaci of Albania. And it wasn’t just the run. It was the way Van Boening performed in those matches — stringing racks, playing killer safeties, escaping traps and generally out-moving his decorated foes. Only Filler reached seven games against Van Boening in the races to 10 (to 11 against Kaci in the semifinals).

While the feat itself was noteworthy and received tons of attention on social media, I’m not sure the average fan fully appreciated what they were witnessing. Not only has Van Boening maintained his status as one of the top five players in the world for 20 years, but few players in the history of the sport have likely played more tournaments and more matches over those two decades than Van Boening. And I’d be willing to bet that no one in the world has a bigger trophy case than Van Boening — two world titles, five U.S. Open 9-Ball titles, dozens of U.S. Open 8-Ball, 10-Ball and One-Pocket titles, a storage unit of Derby City Classic titles, and countless others.

And yet, for six hours a day before and during the Orlando event, Van Boening could be found at one of the practice tables slamming into the rack and running balls like a grade schooler forced to write “I will not miss a shot” on the blackboard a thousand times for bad behavior.

And that’s when I realized that I was watching something truly special. Something I don’t think I’d ever seen before. A player who has nothing left to prove to anyone and could probably still do well just showing up and throwing his cue on the table.

But at 43, Shane Van Boening is still as driven to perfection, as driven to making his game stronger than any of his opponents, and as driven to lift trophies as he was 20 years ago. Do you understand how incredible that is?

Even today, there are only a handful of players, of any age, who have the dedication to improvement and perfection that SVB does. Does he still do this 350 days a year like he used to? No. His friends will tell you he has a lazy side, and everyone knows of his penchant for sitting on lakes (in a boat and on ice) for hours and days at a time. He’s earned some down time.

But when it’s “Go” time, no one drives himself harder than Van Boening. How he’s managed to do this after all the pool miles on his body and mind is extraordinary.

Winning a major pro pool tournament these days is an incredible accomplishment, for any player.

SVB long ago cemented his status as a legend in the pool world. But to watch him do what he did in Orlando — and the way he did it — was an epiphany of sorts for me. Something clicked that made me view him on an even higher level.

Shane Van Boening is a stone-cold marvel. Nothing less.