Monk Training
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If you are just starting out, you may get something from them. In my opinion, there is much better material out there to spend your money on. I watched one of his DVDs one time that a friend loaned me and could barely stay awake. He is very repetitious, boring, and the points he was making were things I already knew from reading books and visiting pool forums on the web.
I have rented a Monk 101 bring your game to the highest level DVD from smartflix.com I will say without a second's hesitation, it was by far the worse waste of time watching this thing that I've ever spent. It was so bad that I'm still pissed off that I spent 10 bucks renting it.
The only saving grace on the whole thing was finally someone asked about it in this post, and I was able to respond.
How's that?
Get Byrne's vols 1 + 2 if you want good solid info.
The only saving grace on the whole thing was finally someone asked about it in this post, and I was able to respond.
How's that?
Get Byrne's vols 1 + 2 if you want good solid info.
Have have the Monk 101 DVD's they were a gift from a very good friend, and had i not got them as a gift, I would have bought them.
I really think that for the money you would spend, you could do much better. There are several instructors that post here that I would suggest over the monk. Even if you're a beginner, you can do better. I would suggest a BCA instructor over the monk any day.
Best I've seen for good solid pool mechanics.3andstop said:
I think the first video of the 101 series and the eight ball book are good for beginners. The rest of the stuff was not very good in my opinion. Robert Byrnes videos 1,2, and 5 are excellent. Kinister's first three videos are also good. I like the stuff Danny Basavich has put out.
I concur 100% with that and that goes for EVERY Monk production I've ever seen.3andstop said:
The only saving grace on the whole thing was finally someone asked about it in this post, and I was able to respond.
How's that?
Get Byrne's vols 1 + 2 if you want good solid info.
Byrne is great and also Jimmy Reid's dvds.
Stan Shuffett of justcueit.com is a great instructor. Also the Monk's ad, "Turning players into legends"... or whatever it is he says is ridiculous. I would be willing to bet whatever that not one single "legend" will credit the Monk for becoming a great player.
The whole deal about whose videos,instruction etc. are good or bad is pretty much worthlessl.....
all the books, tapes,lessons don't have any value unless you have the desire and discipline to work at becoming a real pool player.
I mean watching tapes and getting some instruction is cool if your looking for entertainment.
But to become a player you have to do the work
all the books, tapes,lessons don't have any value unless you have the desire and discipline to work at becoming a real pool player.
I mean watching tapes and getting some instruction is cool if your looking for entertainment.
But to become a player you have to do the work
HIRUN526 said:
Yes, you have to do the work, but expending a lot of energy without knowledge is a waste of time. Videos are not the be all to end all, but they are one more avenue of information along with other players (a sometimes very dubious source of information), instructors, and books.
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BPG24 said:
If you want to work on the mental side try "The Inner Game of Tennis" or "The Tao of Sports" or Phil Capelle's book the name of which I forget or even "The Pleasures of Small Motions" (though I personally found that book useless).
I think the Monk's mental/philosopical "teachings" are literally jive.
JMHO.
BPG24
Banned
catscradle said:
i actually did read the inner game of tennis, maybe the best book I have ever read regarding the lessor known side of top level sports.
I thought the person who referred it to me originally was joking, but once I read it my golf and pool games went up.
After reading several threads on this subject, I will have to get a copy of Phil Capelle's books. I think I remember that he has a few on the subject
Anyone who hasn't read the books Cats is mentioning, you should do so
BPG24 said:
After renting that DVD as I mentioned, and watching it in almost shock and amazement that someone could release this much self centered garbage, void of any meaningful training instruction, I did find it very strange that his book "Point the Way" was a good read. In fact I'd bet he had quite a bit of help with that work. In a million yrs., if there were no names on each media, you would never guess they were done by the same person.
Brings to mind an old saying. "Those who can, do, those who can't, teach."
As far as the mental game goes, another wonderful source of info is the book "Pleasures of Small Motions."
3andstop said:
I never saw any of his dvds but did read Point the way and when I read what you said about it being a good read, I agree with that.
You can see from going onto the international pool tour's website, where you can see some of monk's teaching videos, that they are almost laughable. In one his "exercises" he closes his eyes to "feel" the spin of the ball. Whats funny is he can't even do it, and they have an obvious camera cut away to make it look like he made a shot, when it was clear the original attempt would have missed. Get a local pros help, even if it is a little pricey, you won't feel like you got robbed spending 70 dollars for a VHS tape (which is usually how expensive I see the monk's tapes out in pool halls or billiard supply stores.) The book answer to a pool player's prayers is an excellent in depth look at aiming, I recommened picking it up.