I wanted to post this because of Fran saying that she put in the blood, sweat and tears to get to where she is. That rang true to me because I know there are certain things in my game that nobody can teach me. You just have to put in the time to know certain things.
I don't know anything about pool instruction certification like how many "sanctioning" bodies there are -- BCA? PBIA? others? or what is required to become certified as a "master" or whatever.
I know in tennis and most likely in golf to become a teaching pro you must pass a performance test. In tennis you must be able to hit ground strokes down the doubles alley x out of 10 times, or be able to hit a spot in the service box, and so on.
Are there any performance requirements to become a legit teaching pro in pool? I don't mean win x number or tournaments, but more like a Dr. Dave list of drills to prove proficiency. If my instructor can't draw the cue ball straight back to the cue tip with regularity then to me that is a problem. An instructor doesn't need to be a world class player to be a good teacher, but IMO if they don't have certain basic skills then they may not know about some of the difficulties in achieving the goal. For instance, if he can't draw back to his tip from say 2 diamonds away consistently then he might not really understand all the ways there are of doing it wrong and how to know you are finally doing it right. Can I draw the ball back perfectly and still be doing it wrong? and so on. Many pool motions are too small to be seen even on video (and I would argue even on digicue type devices) so the instructor needs to have gone through the process of learning how to draw the ball perfectly so he/she can "warn" the student of the various pitfalls they may encounter.
Anyway, if a performance test is already part of the certification process for BCA or PBIA (are there any others?) then ignore this post. If there isn't, then why not? It seems like a performance test would add credibility and reduce the amount of arguing about who is qualified to teach and who isn't.
I don't know anything about pool instruction certification like how many "sanctioning" bodies there are -- BCA? PBIA? others? or what is required to become certified as a "master" or whatever.
I know in tennis and most likely in golf to become a teaching pro you must pass a performance test. In tennis you must be able to hit ground strokes down the doubles alley x out of 10 times, or be able to hit a spot in the service box, and so on.
Are there any performance requirements to become a legit teaching pro in pool? I don't mean win x number or tournaments, but more like a Dr. Dave list of drills to prove proficiency. If my instructor can't draw the cue ball straight back to the cue tip with regularity then to me that is a problem. An instructor doesn't need to be a world class player to be a good teacher, but IMO if they don't have certain basic skills then they may not know about some of the difficulties in achieving the goal. For instance, if he can't draw back to his tip from say 2 diamonds away consistently then he might not really understand all the ways there are of doing it wrong and how to know you are finally doing it right. Can I draw the ball back perfectly and still be doing it wrong? and so on. Many pool motions are too small to be seen even on video (and I would argue even on digicue type devices) so the instructor needs to have gone through the process of learning how to draw the ball perfectly so he/she can "warn" the student of the various pitfalls they may encounter.
Anyway, if a performance test is already part of the certification process for BCA or PBIA (are there any others?) then ignore this post. If there isn't, then why not? It seems like a performance test would add credibility and reduce the amount of arguing about who is qualified to teach and who isn't.