Natural ability
I have to throw my 2 cents in here. When I was younger (now 41) I had a great natural stroke and could have possibly taken pool alot farther than I did if I would had some instruction. The info I picked up was mainly from reading Byrnes standard. I did well then and would win local tourneys and was rated an APA 7. When I was about 30 and married with kids and a mortage I stopped playing. I decided about a year ago to pick it up again and figured no problem, a little practice and I would be there. BOY WAS I WRONG. For one thing I did not have that natural stroke anymore and it showed big time. I decided then to get an instructor and take my game to the next level. Ken (Sarge) Aylesworth is a BCA instructor in Seattle and is also a world ranked trick shot artist. I was told by many people to not go with him since he did not play as well others. I felt my problem was mechanics and not having the natural stroke that I had, I needed to address that first and could benefit from the structure of the BCA training. I took lessons from Sarge for about 3 months and he had me doing the perfect stance and everything.I really spent the time redoing my stance aproach, alignment etc and it has not been easy but I believe I am beter today than before. At least I am more consistent. I have since taken lessons from other A players to improve on other areas. I have also modified the "correct stance" a little to what I am comfortable with. I guess my main point of this long winded post is saying that everone can benefit from lessons from a Qualified instructor, certified or not. I needed that structured lessons at first and now I have other thing to work on that a couple of top players are helping me with. They are by no means certified but they are definitetly qualified. Blackjack's students are very lucky that he has no problem referring to another instructor that may be able to help his student rech another level. I have been playing again for a year and I am more committed ( read ADDICTED) than ever. I think I owe that to Sarge's instruction initially and to my continued improvement from other qualified players.
I have to throw my 2 cents in here. When I was younger (now 41) I had a great natural stroke and could have possibly taken pool alot farther than I did if I would had some instruction. The info I picked up was mainly from reading Byrnes standard. I did well then and would win local tourneys and was rated an APA 7. When I was about 30 and married with kids and a mortage I stopped playing. I decided about a year ago to pick it up again and figured no problem, a little practice and I would be there. BOY WAS I WRONG. For one thing I did not have that natural stroke anymore and it showed big time. I decided then to get an instructor and take my game to the next level. Ken (Sarge) Aylesworth is a BCA instructor in Seattle and is also a world ranked trick shot artist. I was told by many people to not go with him since he did not play as well others. I felt my problem was mechanics and not having the natural stroke that I had, I needed to address that first and could benefit from the structure of the BCA training. I took lessons from Sarge for about 3 months and he had me doing the perfect stance and everything.I really spent the time redoing my stance aproach, alignment etc and it has not been easy but I believe I am beter today than before. At least I am more consistent. I have since taken lessons from other A players to improve on other areas. I have also modified the "correct stance" a little to what I am comfortable with. I guess my main point of this long winded post is saying that everone can benefit from lessons from a Qualified instructor, certified or not. I needed that structured lessons at first and now I have other thing to work on that a couple of top players are helping me with. They are by no means certified but they are definitetly qualified. Blackjack's students are very lucky that he has no problem referring to another instructor that may be able to help his student rech another level. I have been playing again for a year and I am more committed ( read ADDICTED) than ever. I think I owe that to Sarge's instruction initially and to my continued improvement from other qualified players.
