How to get the most from your instructor - Teach first!

[Billy_Bob]

I've learned something by teaching a couple of friends how to play pool. That is how to be a good student!

I've noticed the few pool students I have been exposed to refuse to learn what I feel they should learn first, but want to work on advanced stuff right off the bat instead! (Note these are casual players who can't afford a real instructor.)

But I feel being good at the advanced stuff requires mastering the beginner stuff first.

In my mind, I see 100 things I can teach them and I feel that it is necessary to start with number 1 first. They only see about 10 things to learn and want to start with lesson number 5.

So I figure when I go to a pro for instruction, that pro will know 1000 things to teach me. Things I don't know about, but he does.

So the next time I go to get lessons from an instructor, I'm not going to say I want to work on this or that. I'm going to say watch me shoot for a little bit, then you tell me what we should work on. The lessons will be entirely up to *you*. You tell me what I need to work on and learn.

 

[pawnmon]

You have said a mouthful. Also, most people won't take lessons from a pro because of the cost. I'd like to quote a friend of mine on that one. "If you think education is expensive-------try ignorance."

 

[Scott Lee]

You have said a mouthful. Also, most people won't take lessons from a pro because of the cost. I'd like to quote a friend of mine on that one. "If you think education is expensive-------try ignorance."

tap, tap, tap! The last sentence is the ultimate truth. It continues to amaze me, that people will spend hundreds of dollars on a cue, yet balk at spending ANYTHING to really learn how to use it efficiently! LOL

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

 

[DougT]

good points and well said. I've found that lessons are NOT expensive at all. The commitment to learn and follow through with any drills are more effort than the $$

 

[sjm]

Nice thread, and I'll even take it a step further. Teaching anything, whether it's pool or something else, will help you understand why some instructional approaches and philosophies work and why others don't. This knowledge will make you a better student.

 

[quitecoolguy]

Everything you guys said is so true...im lucky to have a friend who is a great shooter take me under his wing to teach me ..he told me he would stop teaching when i stoped wanting to learn.. The one thing i have seen that he continues to tell me over and over.."You dont have to listen to what i say..but this is what you should do" I asked him why he says that some time, because i truly value what he shows me..he said that in the past he has had people come to him for help and when he suggest that they shot a shot this way or do this or that the student would say "Well i dont like doing it that way" I told my coach ..im the student your the teacher if i need to change something , just say the word and ill change it..As for the concept of training..think of a Clock

From 1 to 3 is begginer stuff, stance , stroke , aim
From 3 to 6 is intermediate Shape , cue ball control, angles , rails
From 6 to 9 is pro level stuff
and from 9 to 12 is the begginer stuff again..

 

[chefjeff]

You have said a mouthful. Also, most people won't take lessons from a pro because of the cost. I'd like to quote a friend of mine on that one. "If you think education is expensive-------try ignorance."

This quote is great and attributed to possibly two sources:

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. ~Attributed to both Andy McIntyre and Derek Bok

Here's two other guys you may have heard of giving their takes on education:

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. ~Aristotle


There is only one Education, and it has only one goal: the freedom of the mind. Anything that needs an adjective, be it civics education, or socialist education, or Christian education, or whatever-you-like education, is not education, and it has some different goal. The very existence of modified "educations" is testimony to the fact that their proponents cannot bring about what they want in a mind that is free. An "education" that cannot do its work in a free mind, and so must "teach" by homily and precept in the service of these feelings and attitudes and beliefs rather than those, is pure and unmistakable tyranny. ~Richard Mitchell, The Underground Grammarian, September 1982

Jeff Livingston