Instructor or pro player?

I have never taken a lesson.

Not even close here. Top instructors practice teaching just as much as top pro players practice playing. The best professional teachers have spent the most time devising and refining their lesson plans, and usually have better communication skills than pro players.

Go to the instructor!

Pro instructor, and I voted with my money. Only had one bad one so far.

Instructor

Having had instruction from both, it's clear that the instructors are better. Communication is key, not skill level. Find one with a good reputation and expect to get worse before you get better.

Black-Balled said:

I have never taken a lesson.

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Certainly not in interpersonal skills.

If your an APA 3 you just need an instructor thats in your area that can teach you some basics and good habits. Get a few lessons, practice, get better. If you get better move up to a better instructor, practice, compete and get better. I have known beginner players to take lessons and get frustrated because they weren’t playing APA 7 speed after a few months. It doesn’t work like that.

Most Instructor are that Instructors. Some actually went to a Pool Instructors Course to get Certified.

Most Pro Player, are just that RO Players.

If you find an instructor you want to take lesson from, do one lesson only, to see if your chemistry is compatable.

IMHO there are many great Instructional DVD available if there are no instructors were you live.

instructor. pro pool players try to teach you how they play, as do some bad instructors. a good instructor will evaluate you and try to work with your ability.

Instructor. However, is this game difficult enough to warrant either for more than a day? The entire game explains itself, that's why an instruction manual isn't folded up into the table, that's also what makes it great. You could teach all teachable information in less than an 8 hour shift, but you can spend a lifetime with what cannot be taught.

Cron said:

Instructor. However, is this game difficult enough to warrant either for more than a day? The entire game explains itself, that's why an instruction manual isn't folded up into the table, that's also what makes it great. You could teach all teachable information in less than an 8 hour shift, but you can spend a lifetime with what cannot be taught.

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'Back in the day Circa 1950's - 1980's
, there was no where the instructional information available today in Books, DVD's, or even U-Tube's.

Everyone should take advantage of these free, or low cost options.:thumbup:

Black-Balled said:

I have never taken a lesson.

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Me too.
Never took one for pool.
Golf is another story.

Just my 0.02, but I think you should consider tracking Mark Wilson down. Additionally, his book is a great resource--pricey but worth it. Finally, he gives out some great nuggets on the 3 part Accu-Stats instructional on youtube.

kollegedave

I have taken many lessons from many instructors and pros.

Some good, some poor.

I would recommend an instructor.

I will get pounded for this, but I would recommend gambling, and playing under pressure. If you have ever seen gambling matches, when guys are just playing for play, they shoot wild ass shots. When you are playing for money, the pockets get tighter, and shot selection gets more serious and risk verses reward becomes much clearer.

JMO

Ken

As a relative beginner I would not do the Pool School atmosphere. I would do lessons no more than 2 hrs in length and have it be with
someone who gives enough lessons that they are in it to promote themselves to players therefore doing it regularly. This means a little at a time
focusing on specific things and not too many things at once.

At level 3 a trip to Mark Wilson is above where you're at. I'm sure he would do a great job with you but I think of him as a guy that's puts polish on
existing good stuff. If his individual lessons were affordable and he was available yeah I'd use him but at level 3 I wouldn't drive 4 hrs for it.

I will say this much if you don't intend to play and work hard on the subjects you go over then save your money. The last lesson I gave I asked the
guy how much he practiced and he looked at me like what? I gave him some stuff to start correcting in his fundamentals but table time is required.
I will be going to Mark Wilson at some point but this Covid mess has gotten in the way. I've seen what he does and he works on areas I'm working
in now in my own game.

A Pool School throws so much at you that a lot of it gets lost on a low level player. You need to feel what right/correct form feels like and then
be able to burn that in.

kaznj said:

Let's say you are a relative beginner. An apa 3 level . You have decided you have some time and money to invest is some lessons. You want to learn from the ground up. Fundelmentals such as stance, grip, stroke etc. The move onto postion and patterns.

WITHOUT mentioning any name who do you think would help you more. Would you feel more confident learning from a top playing pro who gives lesson, or a full time teaching pro. When i say teaching pro I mean someone who makes his living giving lessons.

Again please don't start naming people. I dont want to bash or advertise here.
Please don't join in just to tell everyone that you have never taken a lesson.

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Black-Balled said:

I have never taken a lesson.

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I could tell.

Hey Walter, how you doing.

At a begging level to a low end league player I would vote instructor all day. We know some guys on this forum that run pool schools and whatnot that are best in class at working with both new players who need to learn and experienced players that need to correct their fundamentals. This goes through intermediate levels.

On the other hand when a player has shot pool for 20 years, seen all the videos, read the books, taken the lessons on fundamentals, and is trying to push to make their game competitive in tournament play, I think there is opportunity to benefit from an experienced competitor. Ideally someone that has experience both competing and training.

There. No names were named.

measureman said:

Me too.
Never took one for pool.
Golf is another story.

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I’ve never had a lesson in either game.

In retrospect, that may explain a lot…

I'd go with an instructor. Being a beginner, it's easy to just start again from scratch and learn textbook form. Improvement will be fairly swift after a short while. Instructors will have the patience and knowledge to improve even people with hopeless flaws in their games. A pro player may not. From time to time, beginners ask me to help me with their games. I always oblige, and never accept pay(not a pro btw), but sometimes they have so many quirks and flaws that I don't even know where to start. In those cases I usually recommend an instructor I know, because it is simply too much work and too complicated for someone like me. I can fine tune someones stance if they somewhat resemble a pool player, but if everything is off, its way more difficult. A man's got to know his limitations.

When you become advanced, everything changes. You now need an instructor that plays or at least has played at a higher level and understand the subtleties of the game. Fundamentals is the important foundation of your pool playing house, but you need a roof, too. When you start stringing racks, you'll realize that there is more to pool than just fundamentals. However, without good fundamentals, making progress will be very slow.

I know people who've been playing decades with crippling flaws in their games. They have the knowledge of good players but are stuck at a low level because of chickenwings, jerking their strokes, faulty alignment etc.. Some of them have at one time or another ran many racks in a row, won some tournaments etc. when everything clicked, but they couldn't maintain it, because their fundamentals and psrs are too inconsistent. They spend their pool playing life chasing a dragon that they can never quite catch, forever telling stories of the time they were on the hill against this or that elite player.

Some people can overcome that because they are so talented, but for most people flaws like that will be walls barricading the road to progress.

I didn't take lessons before much later in my development, the first few years nobody showed me a damned thing. If I had a chance, I'd go back in time and get lessons right from the get-go. Instead I had to piece everything together over the course of about 2 decades and with too few lessons in the beginning, more in the last 10 years. I've taken lessons from players and coaches. I benefited from all of them.

I vote for the instructor. As an APA 3, the goal is developing a repeatable stroking motion through learning solid fundamentals that pertain to your own body type. As several stated earlier, communication is key. There are a few pro level players that are also excellent instructors so you could as they say get the best of both worlds. But as a beginner, a qualified instructor is hard to beat.