National coach - National team - full time coach

[Roy Steffensen]

This weekend The Netherlands just finished another of their many poolcamps for the players on the national team.

I think it is interesting to see that not too many countries that I know off do it like The Netherlands, but some do, but not as professionally as the dutch federation.

The Netherlands have something like 8 poolcamps a year for the national teams in the mens division, youths and womens division. Some only for men, some all together. I think the mens team consist of 7 players who gets the oppurtunity to get all their expences covered for the 7 yearly tournaments in the Eurotour.

The Netherlands have the mens coach travelling on all the Eurotours, the poolcamps of course and the European Championships, and give feedbacks to their players before, during and after each tournament. They have team-meetings (even though each player compete individually) and they back eachother up, watching matches to the other players from Holland and cheer on them.

I think this is the model every country should adopt. The Netherlands is not a big country, yet they have created great poolplayers like Niels Feijen, Nick van den Berg, Rico Diks, Alex Lely, Huidji See, Brian Beekers and young and upcoming players like Roy Gerards and many more.

Do you know of other countries doing it the same way? Would it work in America? How to make it work?

I know Austria, Switzerland, Norway and Sweden are doing it on different levels, but not as professional as the dutchies.

 

[Scaramouche]

Malaysia

APPOINTMENT OF CENTRE DIRECTOR

The MSBF having its national training centre located within the National Sports Complex, Bukit Jalil, invites a suitable candidate to fill its executive position as Centre Director. The scope of duties is to implement and monitor the policies and activities planned for the National Squad, inclusive of their training and participation in both local and overseas championships.

Interested applicants, please apply with resume to the MSBF address below. The starting all-in-salary is RM3,500 per month. Only short-listed candidates will be called for interview.

MSBF Address: MALAYSIAN SNOOKER & BILLIARDS FEDERATION, PO Box 1089, 46870 Jalan Semangat, Petaling Jaya or 16 Jalan 21/22, 46300, Petaling Jaya. Tel:603-78761175; Fax: 603-78771618 or wychin39@hotmail.com; wychin39@yahoo.com

Dated March 27, 2007

Thailand
http://www.thailandsnooker.com/bsat/center_en2.php

http://www.thailandsnooker.com/bsat/center_en3.php

 

[bruin70]

T

I think this is the model every country should adopt. The Netherlands is not a big country, yet they have created great poolplayers like Niels Feijen, Nick van den Berg, Rico Diks, Alex Lely, Huidji See, Brian Beekers and young and upcoming players like Roy Gerards and many more.

Do you know of other countries doing it the same way? Would it work in America? How to make it work?

I know Austria, Switzerland, Norway and Sweden are doing it on different levels, but not as professional as the dutchies.

in the good'ole USofA we have something like that. it's called "pool rooms" and the way it works is called "the school of hard knocks", and the mechanism is gambling.

but if you are specifically referring to the more civilized approach as practiced by the netherlands et.al., that would never happen here.

 

[John Barton]

in the good'ole USofA we have something like that. it's called "pool rooms" and the way it works is called "the school of hard knocks", and the mechanism is gambling.

but if you are specifically referring to the more civilized approach as practiced by the netherlands et.al., that would never happen here.

Yes, and a lot of the pool champions that have come from the Netherlands have sought and found plenty of "coaching" in the United States at the "Roads School of Pool" and have since become verified champions after graduating from the Roads and are now veteran Roads scholars.

Credit should be shared when it is deserved. A lot of foreign champions cut their teeth in the USA before they start winning majors. One current World Champion put in plenty of time on the Joss Tour for example.

Once again this all goes back to the LACK of any real cohesion.

We have pool camps in the USA too. Derby City in January, VNEA/BCA/ACS in May/June, APA in August.... Q-Lympics....

 

[Roy Steffensen]

Yes, and a lot of the pool champions that have come from the Netherlands have sought and found plenty of "coaching" in the United States at the "Roads School of Pool" and have since become verified champions after graduating from the Roads and are now veteran Roads scholars.

Credit should be shared when it is deserved. A lot of foreign champions cut their teeth in the USA before they start winning majors. One current World Champion put in plenty of time on the Joss Tour for example.

Once again this all goes back to the LACK of any real cohesion.

We have pool camps in the USA too. Derby City in January, VNEA/BCA/ACS in May/June, APA in August.... Q-Lympics....

I know that many great European players have spent a lot of time on the road in the US, among them also Niels Feijen. If you read his website he writes about his good experiences from the US and that it made him better. But that was not my point with this thread.

My mainpoint with this thread was to see if there was anyone who meant that the way the Dutch are working is the right way in both becoming better players and getting our sport more respected, but obviously people don't think so.

I think that the mainreason that the pool federation in The Netherlands is getting sponsored from The Dutch Olypmic Committe is because they threat pool as a professional sport.

Anyway, why do I even bother posting this? I believe that the big focus on gambling is the "highway to hell" in pool, and I want the poolworld to look at pool as a sport, and not just a gambling game where people can make some easy money. Imagine how much money poolplayers can make if the world starts to accept pool as a major sport! But to achieve that goal, we, the poolplayers, must accept pool as a sport!

I guess my time in threads like this are wasted... Thanks for reading

 

[berry]

As one of these coaches is me I would like to add a view things.

The governament sees this as a sport and therefore we get some money next to that we have one association that is there for all league players from top to bottom, some money is also made for the Dutch teams.

Because this country is small (200 km by 300 km) we can all get together about 7 times a year for the weekend and train with the youth team, the ladies and the men. For big tournaments like the Europeans we have a special trainingscamp for about 6 to 7 days.

Now lots of tournaments are with the team and things a compensated like entry fee and traveling cost.

We hope that training tougether and having lots of drills will stimulate everybody to get better and better. Now players learn from the other players and hopefully from their coach.

I am the youth coach and every year I select about 10 players that stay on the team for at least a year. During this period we give them lots of info and do lots of training. In august are the Europeans for youth and about 8 kids make the selection for the tournament.

I spend about 10 hours a week on coaching / training / organizing and checking their homework..

 

[Spade]

This weekend The Netherlands just finished another of their many poolcamps for the players on the national team.

I think it is interesting to see that not too many countries that I know off do it like The Netherlands, but some do, but not as professionally as the dutch federation.

The Netherlands have something like 8 poolcamps a year for the national teams in the mens division, youths and womens division. Some only for men, some all together. I think the mens team consist of 7 players who gets the oppurtunity to get all their expences covered for the 7 yearly tournaments in the Eurotour.

The Netherlands have the mens coach travelling on all the Eurotours, the poolcamps of course and the European Championships, and give feedbacks to their players before, during and after each tournament. They have team-meetings (even though each player compete individually) and they back eachother up, watching matches to the other players from Holland and cheer on them.

I think this is the model every country should adopt. The Netherlands is not a big country, yet they have created great poolplayers like Niels Feijen, Nick van den Berg, Rico Diks, Alex Lely, Huidji See, Brian Beekers and young and upcoming players like Roy Gerards and many more.

Do you know of other countries doing it the same way? Would it work in America? How to make it work?

I know Austria, Switzerland, Norway and Sweden are doing it on different levels, but not as professional as the dutchies.

The Germans still seem to be the top dogs in Europe. Souquets credentials alone outweigh all the Netherland players put together(and then factor in engert,hohmann,ortmann...)

I wonder if they are just more talented than the Dutch?

 

[Bob Jewett]

... I know Austria, Switzerland, Norway and Sweden are doing it on different levels, but not as professional as the dutchies.

The World Junior 3-Cushion Championships were just held in Spain at the Spanish billiard training camp for youth. I hope Dennis Dieckman (USBA observer at the event) writes something up about the camp. I think he said the young players get to run two miles every morning to warm up, and that Daniel Sanchez, one of the youngest World Champions ever, was a product of the camp.

 

[crosseyedjoe]

As one of these coaches is me I would like to add a view things.

The governament sees this as a sport and therefore we get some money next to that we have one association that is there for all league players from top to bottom, some money is also made for the Dutch teams.

Because this country is small (200 km by 300 km) we can all get together about 7 times a year for the weekend and train with the youth team, the ladies and the men. For big tournaments like the Europeans we have a special trainingscamp for about 6 to 7 days.

Now lots of tournaments are with the team and things a compensated like entry fee and traveling cost.

We hope that training tougether and having lots of drills will stimulate everybody to get better and better. Now players learn from the other players and hopefully from their coach.

I am the youth coach and every year I select about 10 players that stay on the team for at least a year. During this period we give them lots of info and do lots of training. In august are the Europeans for youth and about 8 kids make the selection for the tournament.

I spend about 10 hours a week on coaching / training / organizing and checking their homework..

Very true, if you want something to be respected. It has to be presented "professionally" or else it will remain as a sub-culture.

 

[Flettir]

I think that the mainreason that the pool federation in The Netherlands is getting sponsored from The Dutch Olypmic Committe is because they threat pool as a professional sport.

I guess my time in threads like this are wasted... Thanks for reading

I did leave out alot of what you posted but for the parts I did leave in. I do not think your post was a waste and thank you for posting.

My question goes to the other part of your post. So the Dutch Olypmic Committe is helping to sponsor the sport of professional pool. Do you think they, with the help of some of the other countries, could get billiards added to the Olymics as an official sport? That would do a lot tword raising the level and awareness of pool as a true sport.

Just an idea, and I was wondering what we, the individual players, could do to help make that happen.

 

[John Barton]

I know that many great European players have spent a lot of time on the road in the US, among them also Niels Feijen. If you read his website he writes about his good experiences from the US and that it made him better. But that was not my point with this thread.

My mainpoint with this thread was to see if there was anyone who meant that the way the Dutch are working is the right way in both becoming better players and getting our sport more respected, but obviously people don't think so.

I think that the mainreason that the pool federation in The Netherlands is getting sponsored from The Dutch Olypmic Committe is because they threat pool as a professional sport.

Anyway, why do I even bother posting this? I believe that the big focus on gambling is the "highway to hell" in pool, and I want the poolworld to look at pool as a sport, and not just a gambling game where people can make some easy money. Imagine how much money poolplayers can make if the world starts to accept pool as a major sport! But to achieve that goal, we, the poolplayers, must accept pool as a sport!

I guess my time in threads like this are wasted... Thanks for reading

Ok Roy, a SMILEY means that a person is JOKING.

Don't you think people BET on sports? People are competitive and pool is a way to test your individual prowess.

I certainly think that champions can be formed without gambling. Absolutely they can and have been.

I think the Dutch are doing great with their national pool camps and coach and so on. May I ask WHO is paying for the camps and the coach?

Is is the Dutch goverment? The Dutch billiard association? If it's the billiard association then where does the money come from? Does it come from normal league players who don't benefit from a national coach? Or is everyone invited to pool camp.

Be that as it may, we do have junior programs in the states. We have pool camps that anyone may attend. We have pool academies with elaborate setups that are open to any level of player.

We have free instruction provided by Tom Rossman, and Randy Goetlicher, and Scott Lee coutesy of the APA, BCA, and VNEA pool leagues.

What we don't have however in the USA is the organized structure that assembles the best national players and coaches them. That is great that the Dutch have that.

Wouldn't it be fantastic IF the US team went to the worlds in the Philippines with a coach? Hello BCA???? Hello UPA????

 

[DaveK]

...My mainpoint with this thread was to see if there was anyone who meant that the way the Dutch are working is the right way in both becoming better players and getting our sport more respected, but obviously people don't think so.

I believe it to the the proper way. An active junior program is essential to developing talent. That is pretty much the only way little Saskatchewan with a population of 1 million can put over 50 players in the NHL while only 43 are from Russia.

Anyway, why do I even bother posting this? I believe that the big focus on gambling is the "highway to hell" in pool, and I want the poolworld to look at pool as a sport, and not just a gambling game where people can make some easy money.

It is a strange phenomena. Why couldn't shuffleboard been the big parlor game for the gambling man ? Darts even ! Why aren't the tracks and casinos enough anyway ? In all seriousness, gambling does permeate the pool culture in North America, and to the detriment of the game in my opinion. People always say "but but but golf is doing fine and they gamble like drunken sailors", but of course golf also has a significant development system (school coaches, university coaches, club teaching professionals) and a very active amateur side ... to the extent that the US Amateur Golf Championships finals are televised. What people just don't seem to grasp is that there is huge difference in the act of developing skills versus the act of testing skills.

I guess my time in threads like this are wasted...

Not at all Roy, it is a good thread, and it sounds like the Dutch are on the right track.

Dave