I've taken a lesson or lessons from the following people that I can remember. Here is what my experience was: (In roughly chronological order)
Ron Tocci: old school straight pool player from Nashua, NH. High run over 150. Basically taught right out of Phil Cappelle's books. However, added his own extremely helpful imagery for a variety of things like keeping my hand straight, how the hit should feel, strategic decisions in 8 and 9 ball. I probably took about 6 1-2 hr private lessons with him around the time that I was an APA 5. I found it extremely helpful.
Earl Strickland: Spent about 2 hours alone with him. I specifically asked to go over kicking and safeties. He spent about 1/2 hour having me do a few shots to see how I shoot and how I can spin the ball. Then we did exactly what I wanted...went over kicking and safes. For about an hour after, he would play safe and I would have to kick, then I would play safe and he would have to kick. All the while he was advising me. I would say overall this was one of the better lessons I've had.
Randy Goetlicher: This was a group thing with another PBIA instructor. Randy was sort of the guest instructor. However, I VERY much liked Randy's style. He did not try to force any particular methods on me. He offered very insightful critique. I really liked his approach. I would absolutely love to take a 1 on 1 lesson with him. I can tell it would be great.
Scott Lee: I spent a good 4 hours or so with Scott 1 on 1. He provided video analysis of my stroke. We went over a bunch of stuff. He helped me pick out a few critical areas to focus on. We really drilled on those areas. We went over some strategies and game situations. I specifically mentioned that I didn't at that time want to deal with "pinning the elbow", that I already had a pretty developed stroke in which I drop my elbow. He was fine with that and we moved on to other things. He told me what he thinks, and that making that change might help me, but he didn't beat on the issue. Instead, we focused on other areas that needed work. Overall this was one of the best pool lessons I've ever had. Scott was a good listener, and a good communicator. The very next day I went and won a big 8 ball tourney that more than paid for my lesson!
Pool School in Florida, which involved 4 hours with each of the following instructors in groups of 5 people:
Francisco Bustamante: totally loved him. His english wasn't great, but he was amazingly adept at communicating the physical feelings of shots. We worked on the break, and a variety of things. The number one thing I took from him was the ability to use my grip hand to do things to my stroke. The way to manipulate the grip to produce power, or reduce power. Amazingly useful for the break and stroke shots. He was great.
Efren Reyes: Efren was also awesome. He talked about some great strategic principles. Like how to maximize your odds playing position, how to choose which side of the ball to play on, and how to do a whole bunch of awesome specialty shots. We watched in awe as he kicked 3 rails behind a ball, kicked the ball out and just stuck the cuball up against the back of the interfering ball...and again. And again. And about 10 times in a row. It was insane. Very good info, amazing experience. He said I did a really good kill shot haha.
Thorsten Hohmann: To be fair, Thorsten was sick as a dog this weekend. He was a total trooper though, and powered through the classes. He focused on training. He talked about various drills and how to build a strong game through repetition and precision. It was a perfect counterpart to someone like Bustamante, who was much more feel oriented. I would love to take a one on one lesson with Thorsten.
Tony Robles: Tony was a very good communicator. We went over a variety of things, and talked as a group through some runouts. I think I would like to spend one on one time with him too.
(So those were the 4 guys at the pool school)
Other lessons:
Joe Tucker: I've known Joe for 15 years. He is a great guy, a very intelligent guy, and LOVES pool. Joe has a bit of a different approach to the game. One thing that really sold me on him was he put out a short video many years ago talking about english. He pointed out how conventional instructors advocated staying close to the vertical axis of the cue ball and later in your pool life venturing out into the english zone. Joe believes this is fundamentally wrong. He recognizes the reality that pro players use english on almost every shot. Joe's attitude is that when you are new to the game, you really don't know what is hard or easy, so that is the time to immediately acquaint yourself with english and how it works. His idea is that if you learn it from the get go, you will be able to use that childlike automatic intuition to learn it more easily, and I totally agree. So I spent time with Joe shooting balls in with loads of english, and learning strategies of how to aim effectively. Also, we went over all kinds of position shots, using english off the rail, etc. It was great. When I teach people how to play pool, my style is probably closest to Joe's, in that we seem to both see the role of the instructor as a *collaborator*. We work together to get to the place we are trying to get to. Joe is very open to the individual nuances that define us as people and players, and rather than fight against this, he helps the student integrate new techniques into their existing style, and preserves the uniqueness of each person's game. I love Joe's approach. It is a downright sin that I have this guy like 70 miles from my house and haven't taken more lessons with him.
Earl Strickland: Yeah, I said Earl twice. This is because much more recently, a close friend of mine and I took about 6 hours of lessons from Earl. I must say, this was probably the best lessons I've *ever* had. Earl is an amazingly attentive instructor. He paid attention to the tiniest details of all parts of our mechanics. He was incredibly picky about our bridges. He is totally nuts about the bridge, and thinks it is one of the most important things. He gave us both some fundamental instruction (bridge, arm placement, stance, stroke delivery). He also walked us through runouts. He would sometimes place balls for a 9 ball run out. He put the balls in such a way that the run would feature a variety of important position shots. What I found very impressive is that there is a pretty considerable gap in ability between me and my friend. At this time, I was an A player and she was a C player. Yet oddly you couldn't even tell, because Earl somehow made that difference vanish. We both seemed to get what we individually needed at each step of the way seemlessly. Earl paid such careful attention to everything we did. It really made us feel like he was making a serious investment in us...that how well we did *mattered* to him. Earl *really* knows his S#@T when it comes to pool. His hourly rate was extremely reasonable...no more than any of the other top instructors. And I mean...its Earl!! Multi time world champion, one of the greatest players ever Earl. You can't beat that. I would recommend without hesitation to take lessons with Earl. He was extremely helpful. I will be going back for sure!!
Anyway, sorry if I forgot anyone. Hope this list is helpful to anyone considering any of these individuals.
KMRUNOUT
