It all started with a drive to Wausau, Wi with my good old friend Doc. I drove from Minneapolis and picked him up in Cadott. He's got lots of money but tighter than a drum. When he gets in my van he brings this brown sack with his clothes in. That's what I mean by tight. No suitcase.
I told him I was going to buy him one for Christmas.
We drive the 75 miles to Wausau and get a room for 2 nights at $45.00 per night. get all our stuff unloaded and head down to Mickeys Billiards to see if there was any action.
When we got there we found not many players around. The roads were kind of bad from about 4 or 5 inches of snow that day. Then I saw an old friend Mike Nivers. We played some cheap races to 5 for a few hours.
Then some friends from Minneapolis came in and we all got together for a ring game on the 9' table in the bar. Scott Bergman, David Wiebelhaus, Cory ?, Mike Nivers and Allison Fischer from the Wausau area and myself.
Then I noticed a young man named Corey that I had given a perfect Aim lesson to about 2 months ago. He was shooting in the poolhall part so I walked out there and said a quick hello. I was glad to see him and I asked how his aiming was coming along and his reply was great. The next day in the tournament I was really going to see how great his aim was for sure first hand.
We go back to the room and Doc knows how important it is to get at least 8 hours of sleep before the tournys. I have a machine for sleep apnea that helps me breath when I sleep. I have a power strip that I plug into the wall and also plug in my electric alarm clock and a small fan to make a little noise to cover up other noises.
Well we get to sleep OK. I took me about an hour to get to sleep. Now I'm looking at only 7 hours. Doc wakes up at 8:00 am to use the bathroom and somehow trips on my power strip and unplugs it from the wall shutting off my air for my breathing machine, fan and alarm clock.
He turns the light on and we get everything hooked back up. Doc feels real bad that he woke me up. I didn't say a word but i was just laughing inside at how funny this whole situation was. The part that bothers Doc the most is the money though. He wants to buy me in the calcutta and he knows that if I don't get enough sleep I might not play good. I just laughed some more inside. :rotflmao1:
Doc got up at 10:00 so he could get there at 11:00 to buy me in the calcutta. I had my alarm set for 11:00 so i could be there at noon for the start of the tourny.
Everything went fine with my first 3 or 4 matches in the tourny until I ran into Cory Bloemers. My student of Perfect Aim from 2 months ago.
I missed a couple of shots and never got another chance hardly to recover. I don't think Corey missed a shot.
Like POW I was in the losers bracket. Not a good place to be if you want to win this thing. There's a bunch of good players here and a race to 7 can get over real fast.
Well I kept on winning and I realized I was going to get to play Corey again for second and third. Then I realized that Corey had just got done playing Dave Wiebelhaus from Minneapolis for the hotseat. I have also worked quite a bit with Dave teaching him the Perfect Aim technique.
I had seen Dave play a couple of matches and I was impressed with how he was just firing the shots in. But I had no idea that he was in the hotseat. This was a real accomplishment for him.
I played almost a perfect match against Corey and won 7-5.
Then I played Dave in the final. The first set we were tied up 4-4 at one point. I ended up winning 7-5.
The second set I got it rolling and was ahead 5-1 and got lazy on my shape and lost the game that would have put me on the hill. The next time I got to the table the score was 5-4. dave ran 2 more racks. He just fired right back. Showed alot of salt.
Finally Dave broke and scratched. I kept control of the games after that and won the final set but not until I realized that I was in a real battle.
This kid Dave, I think he can't be more than 25, can really play now. I play with him in all the weekly tournys in the Twin Cities. He's always pumping me for info on how this is or that is. it looks like he's been doing his homework.
After the tourny we're standing around. Corey, Myself and dave. I said to both of them. This is a Perfect Aim ending. 2nd and 3rd were won by recently taught Perfect Aim students and 1st was the teacher.
Corey spoke up and said he now can beat the players he couldn't before and my reply was that I can see why.
Dave said he has never gotten to the Hotseat in a tournament like this.
$50.00 entry. First being $1000 and second being $750. He never could imagine doing what he had done.
I told Dave he belonged where he was at. He beat alot of good pool players to get there. He's going to win a big one in the near future for sure. That;s an easy one to predict.
Then I remembered something. I remembered a simular situation.
When I first started traveling teaching Perfect Aim I was in Phoenix. One of my first lessons was with Frank Robartz. At this time Franks rating was a 9. My rating was a 10-2 which is like saying I am a 12. And Scott frost is a 10-2 also.
Before the Desert Classic tour event that month I told Frank I wouldn't be surprised if we took 1st and second in the tourny. Frank just looked at me and smiled like , Ya right. I told him I wasn't kidding. He was rifling those balls in like they were peas for the past 2 weeks. It had been about a month since he learned Perfect Aim.
Guess what? It was Frank and myself playing for the hot seat. I won so Frank had to play Scott Frost who came up the loser side. Frank took care of Scott handily and then had to play one more match with the teacher,myself.
I won but had come from behind and run 5 to do it. Frank almost took care of me also.
The real story that day was Frank Robartz and what had happened to his game. And what he had accomplished.
There was nobody there that would have picked him to be playing for the hotseat. Absolutely nobody but myself.
In Wausau with Corey and Dave I was really surprised. But then again after I thought a bit, not really. :grin:
For them it will just get better because now that they understand perfect Aim they will just get better at coordinating their body with the correct info the eyes are giving to the brain.
As a teacher I couldn't have been prouder. I have dedicated the last 2 years of my life to teaching this to as many players as I can. Sometimes it gets tough financially but it's moments like this that make it all worth while.
When I started this I thought I can finally give back to the sport that has given me so many great memories by teaching Perfect Aim.
But so many more magic moments and memories are happening all the time.
That's what's so great about this game of pool we all seem to love and are kind of addicted to.
More great moments and so many great memories happening everyday.
Thank You to everyone :grin: Geno.......................
