Learning
- Thread starter lfigueroa
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Coos Cues
Coos Cues
Ones from the countries that are cleaning our clock currently.
Kids here in the states have many more team sports and individual sports available that are more appealing and fun for them than pool. They get coaching in those. Unless their father has a pool table in the house, the game has about as much appeal as throwing horseshoes.
I guess i shouldn’t feel bad, I’m over 650 at 68 years old and I’m not the player I was 20 years ago. My Fargo is dropping every year though. I didn’t have a lesson till I was in my 30’s. They didn’t have FargoRate 30 years ago that I know of but I’d guess I was probably a 700 in my 20’s and 30’s.
Maybe if I got professional lessons when I was a teen I could be dead broke like most of the 700+ players I know
It depends. Instruction can be many things. My father started me young with the first 2 years being repetition of a series of shots, no games allowed. 500 balls a day M-T, 750 Friday, 1000 Sat&Sun and 1000 everyday during summer break from school. At 9 he finally let me play 14:1 only until I could run 150 balls. Then I was allowed to add banks and 1 pocket. It was all about table time and repetition, the immersion method.
There’s great instructors out there, especially those that do video as many players aren’t aware of flaws they possess in stance, stroke and movement during their process. Even great players go in for tune ups, nothing like another set of eyes. I will say I’m not a fan of the SPF method instructors. It may work for some but it’s not for everyone. YMMV.
There’s great instructors out there, especially those that do video as many players aren’t aware of flaws they possess in stance, stroke and movement during their process. Even great players go in for tune ups, nothing like another set of eyes. I will say I’m not a fan of the SPF method instructors. It may work for some but it’s not for everyone. YMMV.
boogieman
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that ping.
The ones from Asian and European countries, and not from a phone either, from a coach or instructor. It's why we're getting slaughtered on the world stage. Other countries actually train for the sport. I'd guess we have more teenagers taking bowling instructions (school leagues) than pool instructions.
Still want to shoot
Well-known member
He does have a point. I learned from poolhall junkies and gamblers, and was glad to have that.
Much better than learning from the drunks at the bar.
Would never have occurred to me to see an instructor at a young age.
Would certainly benefit kids, but seems unlikely unless they are treating it like a sport in school. and plan on being a pro.
Coos Cues
Coos Cues
I have a nice pool table and my 13 year old daughter won't go near it. Volleyball, Basketball, Softball, Cellphone, Friends etc.
She even has a cue that she and I built together.
Says she's not tall enough to play properly. I told her she's as tall as Alex Pagulayan @ 5'4".
Breaks my heart, she's left handed and half Filipino.
Many teenagers do. You may want to look into the junior programs in the US. And here is a story about an instructor in South Africa who has managed to get billiard instruction into over 200 schools there:
I'll dip my toe in....
I think an instructor is only as good as the desire of the student no matter how good the instructor is.
A long term "mentor" seems to be the very best way to learn IMO. Someone who fosters the love of
the journey, and can show what needs to be corrected/adjusted when it occurs and lights the 'fire'. A
morsel at a time.
And .... I'm sure some have a distaste for the CJ quote, but "the game" really "is the teacher"!
td
I think an instructor is only as good as the desire of the student no matter how good the instructor is.
A long term "mentor" seems to be the very best way to learn IMO. Someone who fosters the love of
the journey, and can show what needs to be corrected/adjusted when it occurs and lights the 'fire'. A
morsel at a time.
And .... I'm sure some have a distaste for the CJ quote, but "the game" really "is the teacher"!
td
Europe/Asia - millennia of gory, tragic, feuding rewarded with what, I don't know; the right to exist? When a lot of those kids set out to do something, it's a deeply organic thing. Spiritual...
Murkha - Champion is good to be. I mean just cut to the chase right?
(brevitized for sarcasm)
Still want to shoot
Well-known member
Are there junior highs and high schools that have billiards? I wish that was a thing in my area in the 90s.
I was in chess club.
pretty much every sport they had. even golf. pool wasnt an option at school.
I was in chess club.
pretty much every sport they had. even golf. pool wasnt an option at school.
So why aren't you as one of the biggest spokesmen in pool leading the charge to get pool in schools here in the states or other
methods of introduction and training to the game?
I must say and do give great credit to you for being one of the biggest spokesmen in pool for decades by writing articles
in various pool magazines and many other ways.
I don't look into junior programs here in the US because I don't have kids and have no interest. But if I did, I'd take
him/her to the same instructor that I spent days with at his location. Stan Shuffett. (or a couple of others)
If anything, I'd try leading them into golf over pool. It's the big game and sport that would last a lifetime for personal pleasure,
business contacts, classier contacts and people in general, etc.
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Based on the activities and sports she's involved in, pool is probably too passive for her. She needs fast physical action.
Convert that cue into a sword. She'd probably love fencing, and many schools do have fencing teams.
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I did twice that number and walked to the pool hall, in the snow..., up hill....., both ways...
Don't forget all that 'SEEING' we need to be doing but don't know how.
Agree 110% here.
Yeh, but do you have advanced degrees in math, geometry, trigonometry, gravity, Coriolis force and all the other sciences as you're setting up to each shot and factoring it in? If not, you don't know what there is to know and will never get good.
Nor will I. Seeing is all about perspective from different-to-different points on the balls and table. Various ways can be done
to "SEE" things. The more the merrier. Pretty much "cross checks". See what I mean?
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roger that.
DeeDeeCues
Well-known member
Of course all instructors aren't equal. Nobody said they are. Not all instructors are equal for each person, tho, either.
Instructing of any sort is the single profession that a person has the absolute least control on the outcome of their endeavor. An instructor is at the mercy of his students.
Your statements suggest that you have very little respect for instructors. "...if the lesson starts going somewhere you don't want, you stop...". Really? You've hired an expert, but think you know better than he does, that makes you a poor student. A lesson is going to progress how the instructor sees fit because his job is to improve overall performance, if he sees you doing something wrong, he should help correct it, even if you think you are doing it well.
As a student, one should go through four steps:
1. Understand the instructor.
2. Doubt the instructor--which is to say that the student should try to prove or disprove what the instructor teaches with an open mind.
3. Practice the lesson.
4. Reevaluate with the instructor.
If any of the parts is a failure, then the entirety is a failure.
1. If you don't understand the instructor, you can't progress. It is as much the fault of the student as it is of the instructor. For instance, I wouldn't go to a masters level music theory class and expect to understand anything when I can't read music or identify a single chord, but the instructor shouldn't allow me to attend, either.
2. If you blindly follow an instructor, you aren't ever going to fully understand the lesson. If you decide that Instructor Q isn't qualified to teach you anything because he didn't win a world championship, you have closed your mind and consequently, Instructor Q won't be able to teach you anything, but that isn't his fault.
3. Needs no explanation.
4. A student's understanding level will change throughout the process.
I hate the term psr, but having a routine when you approach is indespensable. Always the same so it becomes rote. Then you're free to work on the mental aspects of taking your game to the next level and beyond.
Nice post Lou.