Instructors
No one seems to post specific replies and most say every instructor is good. Those comments are nice but not very helpful to those trying to choose between $20 an hour and $100 an hour instruction. I hope this is more informative to people looking for an instructor as I was.
Recently I spent $400 with Roger Long in Phoenix. His rate is $20 an hour. He had handouts and went through an outline of soup to nuts over several 4 hour sessions. It would have been very good instruction for a beginner. He could take someone from beginner to intermediate on a very good program. BUT in the long run he taught a canned program and only a very small portion benefited me. I learned we had a fundamentally different approach to the game and would never agree. I believe in "run out pool" I see his more as "one shot at a time and safety play".
Yesterday I spent , coincidentally, another $400 for a single half day session with Jerry Briesath. Interestingly both work out of BullShooters in Pheonix. It was a COMPLETELY different experience. We worked all day on my mechanics. It may sound basic but he corrected many small errors and some major ones I repeated way more frequently than I would have supposed. By the end of the day I felt as though I were a much better player than when I walked in. I really feel like I have something to build on. So for me the $400 with Jerry was better spent than the $400 with Roger even though I spent 5 times more time with Roger. I plan to schedule another session with Jerry to work on "decision making" where I can gain more confidence in my ability to assess situations and choose the best plan of action then use my improved mechanics to make it happen.
One thing they (maybe all instructors) have in common is they are going to teach you what they want to teach you, not what you want to learn. So the closer you are on that subject the better your money will be spent. Roger was not capable of teaching me what I wanted because he simply did not believe in the entire concept. He doesn't look 3 balls ahead or analyze the table to decide to take the stripes or solids, he literally believes you should always take the easiest shot and evaluate things one shot at a time. Jerry is a believer in the mechanics and spent the entire session on that. I told him I would like to book another session to work on patterns, analysis and decisions and he said "that is fine but you know what I am going to look at first".
So my summary conclusion is to find an instructor who you are like minded with in approach and see a common goal with. As for me, I believe you have to know what you should be trying to do (the analysis part) and then have the mechanics to do it. I am much more aligned with Jerry than Roger and will spend another $400 with Jerry but can not go further with Roger. With another person it might be the exact opposite and that is why I think a discussion of the overall approach and goal is important.
Please understand, I am not critical of Roger Long. I felt his instruction was under priced and very valuable but he covered too much ground I was already familiar with and could not go beyond where I already was. If a player were starting out he would be better off with a great foundation like Roger could provide at a very reasonable price.
I hope this helps anyone who is thinking of paying a lot of money for something which is a fun pastime but not a source of income.
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