Lesson Question

Johnnyt

Johnnyt

Burn all jump cues
Silver Member
I know today most players think nothing of getting lessons to improve their game. For guys that started playing in the 1940's, 50's, and 60's. Did you take lessons? The pool rooms that I grew up in...the guys would laugh at you if you even asked about lessons. In fact I don't remember anyone going around giving lessons in my neck of the woods.

I have to admit it sounds like I caved in to peer pressure back then but it was a tough croud to play to. If you put on a pair of shorts you got laughed at. Johnnyt has never wore shorts to this day...of course I don't have the legs for it anymore either. Johnnyt
 
I've always wondered the same thing. I'm 27 and when I was an aspiring player, my family simply couldn't afford lessons. I learned the hard way: playing racks of nine ball against myself, watching better players, going to the pool hall and trying my game out. Looking back, this is not the way to go, it was an extremely slow and frustrating process. Even when I got to about a B+ speed, I still didn't know what the hell I was doing. All feel.

I've gotten back into the game since Oct. Couldn't run 3 balls in row playing 8 ball at first. So I decided to do nothing but drills and strengthen my stroke. Currently, I don't even play racks against myself in any game. A friend who says he's a 7 (I clock him more like a 5, C+, B-) comes over once in a while and I'm up about ten games on him, frequently running 5 to the whole rack. My 8 ball game is arguably better than it ever has been. Granted, I didn't play it much back in the day, so I don't really have a high personal standard, but this just shows you the effectiveness of practicing the right way.

Can't wait till I have the jack to hire an instructor. I'm making a concerted effort to take my game to the next level. I regret not doing things the right way when I was younger, but I didn't know any better, and it eats at me that I didn't reach my potential with this game.
 
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Johnnyt...There were no instructors, nor any kind of organized instructional program in the time period you mentioned. The only kind of "instruction" that was available was the "C'mere kid...I'LL show ya sumthin'...for ten bucks a rack!" Not exactly the best form of learning...although most of us older players got started that way. :D Many older players these days are using their intelligence to seek out professional instruction, to help them improve. You're never too old to learn something new about this game!

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
 
Scott Lee said:
Johnnyt...There were no instructors, nor any kind of organized instructional program in the time period you mentioned. The only kind of "instruction" that was available was the "C'mere kid...I'LL show ya sumthin'...for ten bucks a rack!" Not exactly the best form of learning...although most of us older players got started that way. :D Many older players these days are using their intelligence to seek out professional instruction, to help them improve. You're never too old to learn something new about this game!

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
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Yep, and with the age of the net, it's much easier to seek out and contact an instructor. Back then, you couldn't just open the Yellow pages and find one.

I still intend to set something up with you, Scott.
 
Scott Lee said:
Johnnyt...There were no instructors, nor any kind of organized instructional program in the time period you mentioned. The only kind of "instruction" that was available was the "C'mere kid...I'LL show ya sumthin'...for ten bucks a rack!" Not exactly the best form of learning...although most of us older players got started that way. :D Many older players these days are using their intelligence to seek out professional instruction, to help them improve. You're never too old to learn something new about this game!

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
Click to expand...

OK Scott thanks. I kind of figured there were none around back then. I don't feel too bad now. Johnnyt
 
Yes, that is correct as Scott mentioned. You had to learn the hard way.

I remember when I first went into a pool room, you had to be at least 16 years old and have a note from your parents that allowed you to play. (kind of like in a swimming pool, you couldn't go into the deep end unless you proved to the lifeguard that you could swim back and forth across the pools width).:D :D

None of that Junior stuff going on in that time frame. Mostly learned from observation.
 
klockdoc said:
Yes, that is correct as Scott mentioned. You had to learn the hard way.

I remember when I first went into a pool room, you had to be at least 16 years old and have a note from your parents that allowed you to play. (kind of like in a swimming pool, you couldn't go into the deep end unless you proved to the lifeguard that you could swim back and forth across the pools width).:D :D

None of that Junior stuff going on in that time frame. Mostly learned from observation.
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Now Junior champions are world beaters. The line is becoming more and more blurred between a good Junior and a good pro.

The evolution is all for the better. Kids don't have to live in the pool hall, cleaning up the place to get free table time, then play good enough to catch the eye of a low-level stakehorse who'll put them in action against the regular bangers, and then after he cleans the place out, the call of the road beckons. There's a certain romanticism to the scenario, but it's just not practical. With good instruction and a good practice and competition regimen, a kid doesn't have to play 20 hours a day to become a great player.

All the great young talents of the past seemed to have got burned out when they should've been in their prime.
 
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I believe you need to drill your butt off to really learn. Or at least thats my path to learning. Even some pro's take lessons from instructors time to time. Its always a good thing to get somebody elses perspective. Who knows may even help you some. lol.:eek:
 
Oh lessons were available...

but the people giving them just didn't call themselves instructors.
JohnnyT...I started playing heavily in the late 60's and suspect that my lessons cost the same as yours...about $25 a set and a lot of lost sleep just railbirdin'.:D
You either learned (something) quickly or went home broke.
 
LOL, back in the day. I was very fortunate, from the time I was 11 till I was 16, a retired world champion calf roper that bought a pool hall took me under his wing. He and my father were close friends, so basically I played free and he would advise me for about 2 hours a day (after ball practice, played 4 sports). Then later in the mid to late 70s I found an instructor in Shreveport, LA which was a 5 hour drive. I would try to make it to "Guys and Dolls" at least once a month for the lessons. Life has it's demands and I had to "grow up" and raise a large family and a couple of others that were not mine that were simply in bad situations. Then gave up the game completely for several years. Just started back again about 1-1/2 years ago and most of the basics have come back and love the game more than ever. There are a lot more good players out there now than there was in the 70s and early 80s. I am truely thinking about going to the pool school in Dallas, just for my own satifaction and see if I can move up a notch or two. I think it would be a sport along with golf I could enjoy in my upcoming retirement.

cheers----------BW
 
There were a number of good players, some very good, that owned or frequented some of the larger pool rooms, that would help out a new player. And I mean it in a lesson format, not sets. It wasn't as common or as technical as it is now, but there were people around in the 60s or 70s that would help a new player. However if you wanted to get real good, it was difficult to get the top players to open up without some cash on the line.
 
Johnnyt said:
I know today most players think nothing of getting lessons to improve their game. For guys that started playing in the 1940's, 50's, and 60's. Did you take lessons? ...
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In my area, there were several people you could go to for lessons in the 60's, including Dorothy Wise for pool and Jimmy Lee for 3-cushion. Also for pool, there was the semi-retired shortstop named Tugboat Whaley who is mentioned in McGoorty and in Mosconi's autobiography. A friend of mine who is/was one of the best players in this area got lessons from him. I wish I had made that trip to San Francisco. I suspect that there were such people in all regions of the country if you sought them out and asked the right person. Going farther back, you had Lanson Perkins and Maurice Daly, both of whom were celebrated as instructors and taught champions.

It is only since about 1990 that there has been anything like organized instruction in the US. I think Europe is ahead of us there.
 
Just to throw this out there, I don't believe there are any pros on the snooker tour that did not have a snooker coach to teach them the fundamentals of the game and assist with their development. Can anybody who knows more about snooker contradict me there? It seems like you just don't get to the top level of snooker without being coached on the right way to play in your teens or earlier.

-Andrew
 
I have never had lessons by an instructor but look forward to it when the funds are right.I was fortunate enough to work in a room for a year,the owner wouldnt teach me anything,he was trying to steal,lol,but i became very good friends with an older player who played very well,even better then the room owner and he showed me the ropes.He would come in on my shift everyday nearly of the week for an hour or 2 and spot me the 6 or 7 ball,if he won i paid his time which was more often then not but slowly over time i progressed to where we played even.He had excellent knowledge of the rails,so his banking and kicking ability were excellent and i naturally took to it.I was very proud of coming up several balls so fast and got to a level where the room owner who was trying to rob me no longer could,he wouldnt gamble with me anymore,the hunter had become the hunted.He remarked at how fortunate i was to have my friend teach me and how in his days you had to learn the hard way and it would cost alot of money,i guess i was lucky. :D
 
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