I'm new and looking for the best instruction
- Thread starter SFreedman
- Start date
alstl said:
I don't know about anyone else, but I never drop my elbow! I keep my upper arm parallel to the ground at all times. Hell, I don't have my elbow dropped while typing this post! I get some funny looks sometimes, but pool is a game worth sacrificing for!
Billiard Sanctuary DVD's to start
I spent the morning surfing for billiard instruction and found the Billiard Sanctuary Academy. Spent about 45 minutes on their website then spoke to a very informative gentleman there who opened my mind to a depth I never thought existed. I purchased the entire series of DVD's with overnight shipping. He told me that knowledge is what is most important not years of practice and hitting millions of balls. I am not looking to become a professional but have a desire not be frustrated anymore. I hope they are as good as I feel they are today. Thanks for all the information.
I spent the morning surfing for billiard instruction and found the Billiard Sanctuary Academy. Spent about 45 minutes on their website then spoke to a very informative gentleman there who opened my mind to a depth I never thought existed. I purchased the entire series of DVD's with overnight shipping. He told me that knowledge is what is most important not years of practice and hitting millions of balls. I am not looking to become a professional but have a desire not be frustrated anymore. I hope they are as good as I feel they are today. Thanks for all the information.
Billiard Sanctuary Academy
Timothy White is a wealth of information and I have his complete series. Highly recommend them! I have had exception e-mail correspondence with Tim about things I needed clarification on from the videos.
I viewed the DVD's prior to taking a class with Cue-Tech and after my class. The basics of stroke development is the foundation of any good cue instructor and both Timothy White and Randy Goettlicher are both very good BCA Master Instructors.
One thing that may help, is video taping yourself and learning to evaluate yourself after watching the Billiard Sanctuary DVD's. Unless you have feedback, you cannot learn and that is the one reason I took a class in addition to the videos. Watch for bridge length/height, back arm perpendicular to the cue when tip is 1/2" off the CB, loose grip (no white knuckles), smooth back stroke and a follow through where the elbow does not drop.
Good luck and enjoy the game!
Timothy White is a wealth of information and I have his complete series. Highly recommend them! I have had exception e-mail correspondence with Tim about things I needed clarification on from the videos.
I viewed the DVD's prior to taking a class with Cue-Tech and after my class. The basics of stroke development is the foundation of any good cue instructor and both Timothy White and Randy Goettlicher are both very good BCA Master Instructors.
One thing that may help, is video taping yourself and learning to evaluate yourself after watching the Billiard Sanctuary DVD's. Unless you have feedback, you cannot learn and that is the one reason I took a class in addition to the videos. Watch for bridge length/height, back arm perpendicular to the cue when tip is 1/2" off the CB, loose grip (no white knuckles), smooth back stroke and a follow through where the elbow does not drop.
Good luck and enjoy the game!
Hal said:
markcobb1972 said:
Mark, I just purchased the complete set of 10 from the Billiard Sanctuary for the listed price of $269.95 for all 10. I don't think you should be copying DVD's and selling them, that is against the law. I will notify the people you are copying and suggest to them that they take appropriate action against you.
I received a few emails from some people on this site already telling me that they are willing to copy and DVD and sell to me for $5.00. This is very dishonest and I will not be a part of that.
markcobb1972
Banned
you misunderstood
i said i would rent you my originals for $5 each you misunderstood me...
i said i would rent you my originals for $5 each you misunderstood me...
SFreedman said:
You can have all the knowledge in the world but if you cant execute the shots its not going to do you one bit of good.
I have watched the videos, and while I think there was some good information in them, there were a few things that I thought were flat out wrong. His 3 rules that had to be met before a jumpshot is an exceptable choice were wrong, and in fact right after he says that he shoots a shot that wouldnt have passed at least one of his rules.
Of course I think that was that shot when he had the naked chick (well string bikini) on the table. Dont get me wrong, I like lookin at half naked chicks as much as the next guy (probably more) but came accross to me on the video as a horn dog pushing his pool school. He had LOTS of meaningless filler's and every student (exept for landon) was an attractive female. I dont know why but something just didnt sit right with me on his videos.\
Not to mention I didnt really need to see him running around the beach in his swimsuit either
I think the money for these DVD's would be MUCH better spent on actual lessons with Tim himself or with another quality instructor.
Knowledge is fine but there is NO subtitute for lessons with an actual instructor that can point out what you need to work on, and the spending the time to work on them.
EVERY time I have taped someone and then viewed the tape with them (after explaining what to look for) they said "I had know idea I was doing that". And most of the time its something they ALREADY knew they shouldnt do. What you know your supposed to do and what you think you are doing is often times not what you are doing
Woody
woody_968 said:
Ain't that the truth Woody. At 54 I finally got time to be serious about pool 5 years ago. I am an avid reader and between books and videos I soon had more knowledge than you could shake a stick at. Much to my disappointment I found the ability to execute was a commodity not so easily acquired. Over these 5 years I acquired a lot more ability to execute through hard work and a few good instructors mixed with quite few more bad instructors. I've watched more tapes and read more books, bad ones (the name "Monk" comes to mind) and good ones (the name Byrne comes to mind), but ultimately it was the hard work and the few good instructors who attacked my execution problems and didn't just go through the same routine they do with all students. BTW I think BCA certification at any level is somewhat meaningless. Of the instructors I've had though the best was BCA certified, the second best wasn't nor the 3rd best.
swami4u
Banned
For God's sakes i cant take reading this dribble anymore! hehe
Look lessons are very simple....... Go to your local hall, Daytime is best.
Find the old geezer thats drinking coffee every day at the same time.
Get a table close to his area and every day you can setup shot after shot. DONT act like a moron and break and run all day, just setup shots you dont like and fire till you love it. do this for a few weeks. Now one day find something (a shot) you dont like and ask said geezer what he thinks about making it. Buy him his next coffee and a hotdog or something and shoot that shot the way he showed you 1000 times. ect ect...... If the old geezer has a pool backround then im quite sure you can ask him anything in the future you need to know. And if you get better over time in front of him then im also sure that he can make it easyer for you to get more advanced help. all for the cost of a few coffee's and some snacks. just as easy as that.....
I call it the hook the geezer trick and i still use it and respect them like family who share!
Look lessons are very simple....... Go to your local hall, Daytime is best.
Find the old geezer thats drinking coffee every day at the same time.
Get a table close to his area and every day you can setup shot after shot. DONT act like a moron and break and run all day, just setup shots you dont like and fire till you love it. do this for a few weeks. Now one day find something (a shot) you dont like and ask said geezer what he thinks about making it. Buy him his next coffee and a hotdog or something and shoot that shot the way he showed you 1000 times. ect ect...... If the old geezer has a pool backround then im quite sure you can ask him anything in the future you need to know. And if you get better over time in front of him then im also sure that he can make it easyer for you to get more advanced help. all for the cost of a few coffee's and some snacks. just as easy as that.....
I call it the hook the geezer trick and i still use it and respect them like family who share!
markcobb1972 said:
Mark, I am quite sure no one else posted your messages but you and as you know there was no mention of "rent" in any of them
. Even if so "RENTING" is illegal also. I checked with a friend of mine in the FBI and he informed me that the penalty for this is 5 years and $50,000 fine per occurance. That would be like buying a bunch of movies at Wal Mart and opening up your own video store with them. I would highly suggest you not solicit that type of offer in a public forum.
catscradle said:
Being in the BCA program I may be somewhat biased. But I will try and answer this as best I can
I actually had a conversation with someone from the boards about the same thing you mention in the above quote. He felt that there are many players out there that agree with your viewpoint that BCA certification doesnt mean much, and sometimes people may even look down on someone that is in the BCA program. His recommendation was to pay a recognized pro to teach me how to teach that way I could use the pros name when I advertise for more crediblity. A valid point that I did consider.
I chose to join the BCA for several reasons, one of which is while the program may have room for improvement (what program doesnt) I think they are making the most effort at this point and I feel its important to give support whenever possible.
When I made the decision to become an instructor I tried to find out who were considered the best instructors in the BCA program and these are the people that I tried to learn from. Im sure there are some big name players that can teach (Tony Robles obviously comes to mind) but just because they can play doesnt always mean they can teach. For this reason I didnt just pick a pro's name to ride under so I could have more people to come to me for lessons. I wanted to make sure that I could actually teach and help people with their games. And now that Im in the BCA program it doesnt mean that I stop trying to learn. There are still several instructors that I want to spend time with so I can pick their brains and find out what other things I may not know.
There are great instuctors both in and out of the BCA program, the trick is finding the instructor/instructors that fits you and your game the best. And then trusting them enough to practice what they teach you, even if it means going through a little bit of a slump during the adjustment period
Woody
SFreedman said:Mark, I am quite sure no one else posted your messages but you and as you know there was no mention of "rent" in any of them
I fear your FBI friend is quite mistaken.
Selling copies of DVDs: quite illegal, and given the paucity of money in the pool world, fairly unethical.
Renting DVDs that you own: fully legal. This is called the "First Sale Doctrine", which basically means that when you buy something, you own it and can do whatever you want with it, including re-selling it and renting it. You only own the copy you bought and have no right to distribute copies. After winding its way up the court system, this principle was fully established in 1984 in "The Betamax Case" (464 U.S. 417). You can read a nice plain English over view here.
So rent away, but don't copy.
And it's funny that you mention buying at WalMart and then renting those copies. Every now and then, bargaining between a movie studio and BlockBuster reaches an impasse where a studio refuses to provide BlockBuster with a hot movie unless it gets a better deal (as I recall, this happened with Universal's Jurrassic Park). What does BlockBuster do when this happens? Send it's floor people to WalMart to buy copies. (This is part of the reason why you'll sometimes see WalMart limit the number of copies you can buy at one time.)
Cory
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Cory in DC said:
Nice post Cory. Very informative. I've also heard of video stores buying bulk copies of a certain movie from Wal-Mart. Either because it's unavailable to them or to increase their inventory of that particular movie.
It appears his FBI friend should spend more time in the "field".
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Bruce S. de Lis said:
tap tap tap
Every year, I go over Volume I and make sure I've not acquired any stupid habits (in pool...lol).
The thing I like about Byrne is he gives you just enough info. to understand the basic principles involved. Then you can use those for bigger things.
Jeff Livingston
drivermaker
Banned
SFreedman said:
For somebody that was initially interested in just having a variety of sources for instruction and only 4 posts on this forum...you seem to be coming on real strong about now taking personal action against someone and notifying the company that puts them out in order for them to be prosecuted.
Are you really Spiderman working to make earth a perfect crime free environment? Or are you a part of the Billiard Sanctuary that's not only trying to get publicity and exposure for the DVD's, but are now pissed off that they're not being ordered and paid at full price. Seems kinda strange to me....(maybe you're the new Pope)
drivermaker said:
His persistent failure to say his location does certainly lend credence to your Billiard Sanctuary insider theory. Certainly I don't know how he can expect to get a good recommendation if nobody knows where he is.