Pool Lessons - From Another Angle

Mark Avlon

Mark Avlon

Northwest Pool School
Silver Member
There are many different flavors of instructors available to teach you. There are BCA instructors, pros, strong local talent, and others who will gladly offer lessons for a fee. How would you choose who to take lessons from and why? In what way, and by how much, would you expect your game to improve?
 
I'm taking Scott Lee's instruction this weekend, and expect to be running racks by Sunday.

:rolleyes:
 
Mark, I think your question is a little bit unfair. To quote Oz, they don't know what they don't know. On my feedback forms, I ask which part of the lesson the student felt was most helpful. For some, it was the mechanics video, for others it was Personal Eye Patterns, and others it's speed control, and others might find the Mother Drills most helpful. But until a student has actually been through the course, they often don't realise how much information is included in the course.
When I ask before we start, what you hope to gain from the class, most will say consistancy. After the class, they can be much more specific.
Steve
 
Pooltchr,

I agree that they don't know what they don't know, but when a player chooses to take a lesson, they have a reason they did. They may want to learn what it takes to be consistent, or they may want to learn how to kick, they may be simply tired of losing. There is something that makes them want to take that step. I'm curious as to what that is, or was, for the members of this forum.

They also have to choose an instructor. I'd like to know what is is that they look for in an instructor.

Maybe the questions should be "Why did you decide to take a lesson" and "Why did you choose the instructor you did"
 
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I choose Randy G as an instructor for two main reasons. One, I could not find one single negative comment about him (from former students and otherwise). I must have found comments/recommendations from at least 12 former students on this site. From that 12, I probably PM'd 4 of those students. The second reason I choose Randy was his location, which was about a 5.5 hour drive.

As far as how much did I expect my playability to increase....didn't know that one for sure. I felt my game was at a stand still, no matter how much I practiced and I was practicing anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours a day. I took those lessons about 6 weeks ago. League started about 2 weeks ago and I am off to a good start.....8 wins in a row and undefeated.

Good luck in your search,
Mattman
 
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mattman said:
I choose Randy G as an instructor for two main reasons. One, I could not find one single negative comment about him (from and former students and otherwise). I must have found comments/recommendations from at least 12 former students on this site. From that 12, I probably PM'd 4 of those students. The second reason I choose Randy was his location, which was about a 5.5 hour drive.

As far as how much did I expect my playability to increase....didn't know that one for sure. I felt my game was at a standstill, no matter how much I practiced and I was practicing anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours a day. I took those lessons about 6 weeks ago. League started about 2 weeks ago and I am off to a good start.....8 wins in a row and undefeated.

Good luck in your search,
Mattman
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That's how I feel, It's getting late, and I didn't get this hotel room for nothing. I'll be at BCA Billiards at eight tomorrow morning to meet with Scott and the other instructors.
 
Prior to taking pool lessons I had taken quite a few golf lessons. The first few golf lessons and a helluva lot of practice hours were spend unlearing bad habits I had acquired by not taking lessons to start with. I figured that pool lessons would serve the same purpose and I was right.

I was doing very little correctly and making the changes to accepted stroke techniques began to make a difference immediately. After a couple weeks of work I moved up one handicap notch in the local league and my level of confidence jumped way up. I felt llike I knew what I was doing and I knew that I looked like I knew what I was doing... at least I looked good to anybody who knew proper technique.

The lessons I've taken since those first few have been intended to make sue that I was still doing things correctly and this last lesson with Little Joe Villalpando was the beginning of really working on my game as opposed to my stroke. Things other than pool have been occupying my time since that lesson but I'll get back to the table soon and when Little Joe's systems have become internalized my game will take a significant leap.

I expect that future lessons will be with Little Joe Villalpando and they will be about how to play. I expect I will improve as quickly as I can.. given physical constraints, age, desire, time spent working on lesson assingments etc. My goal is simply to improve and as long as I can see iimprovement I'll continue to pay for lessons. I don't know of any objective way to measure my improvement and I really don't care about objective measurements. I know when I'm playing better than I used to and that's all I need. For me it's all about personal satisfaction. I don't play for any other reason other than to enjoy the game of pool. I don't play in league anymore. I don't currently play in tournaments. I don't gamble and haven't played at the ph for a year or so. I play here at home, usually by myself and almost always just because I like to play.

If anybody suggested that I somehow measure my level of play I'd not so politely tell them to eat sh*t and die.
 
Ot

"No nonchalantin at the pool table." Frank "Sailor" Stellman
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I've noticed your sig quote before but never paid attention to the name - until I met Sailor the other day at my local pool dive in Chicago (Pressure).

Nice guy, likes to talk, makes (made?) nice cues.

pj
chgo
 
Patrick Johnson said:
I've noticed your sig quote before but never paid attention to the name - until I met Sailor the other day at my local pool dive in Chicago (Pressure).

Nice guy, likes to talk, makes (made?) nice cues.

pj
chgo
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His is a real character. I'm glad you got to meet him. I think he's a special guy and I'm proud to call him my friend.
 
Pat...Sailor was at Pressure the other day? :eek: Wow...what brought him there? Did you hit any balls with him? Nice guy and he really does make fine cues...has for more than 30+ years!

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

Patrick Johnson said:
I've noticed your sig quote before but never paid attention to the name - until I met Sailor the other day at my local pool dive in Chicago (Pressure).

Nice guy, likes to talk, makes (made?) nice cues.

pj
chgo
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Scott Lee said:
Pat...Sailor was at Pressure the other day? :eek: Wow...what brought him there? Did you hit any balls with him? Nice guy and he really does make fine cues...has for more than 30+ years!

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
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He was meeting a couple of customers. I think he'll be back soon (from Wisconsin, I guess) to finish up with them.

He's great fun to talk with, and I only saw three or four of his cues (all clutched possessively by devoted users), but I really liked what I saw. Understated and elegant.

pj
chgo
 
Pat
It was great to talk to Sailor on Saturday. On Wednesday, I went to Chris's and met Rodolfo Luat and the man who made your cue, Ed Young. It has been a meet legends in pool week for me

Dave
 
Patrick Johnson said:
I've noticed your sig quote before but never paid attention to the name - until I met Sailor the other day at my local pool dive in Chicago (Pressure).

Nice guy, likes to talk, makes (made?) nice cues.

pj
chgo
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Is that the one (Pressure) on north Clark? I grew up in that neighborhood. I stopped by there last Christmas, but the only guy who looked like he knew what he was doing wouldn't talk to me. (tall guy, gave lessons) Maybe I looked like a schleb.

Cheers,
RC
 
Mark Avlon said:
There are many different flavors of instructors available to teach you. There are BCA instructors, pros, strong local talent, and others who will gladly offer lessons for a fee. How would you choose who to take lessons from and why? In what way, and by how much, would you expect your game to improve?
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That's a tough question to answer. I would choose differently depending on what it is I want to work on.

If I had a choice of any of the four you mentioned, I would be a little hesitant of the last two. It would have to depend on who they are and what they know. I try to learn as much as I can from as many sources as possible.

As for the BCA instructors and Pro's, I think I might be more inclined to choose the BCA instructor if I were looking for a tune up (or fix) in my fundamentals. I would go with the pro to learn positional routes, pattern play and safety play. In general I would go to him/her to learn the professional game.

But it would depend on who we are talking about and how much money is involved. The last paragraph is based around the notion that I had to take lessons and I knew their credentials but not who they were.
 
sixpack said:
Is that the one (Pressure) on north Clark? I grew up in that neighborhood. I stopped by there last Christmas, but the only guy who looked like he knew what he was doing wouldn't talk to me. (tall guy, gave lessons) Maybe I looked like a schleb.

Cheers,
RC
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Yep, that's the one. Just recovered all their tables, so it's nice shootin' these days.

pj
chgo
 
Dave D said:
Pat
It was great to talk to Sailor on Saturday. On Wednesday, I went to Chris's and met Rodolfo Luat and the man who made your cue, Ed Young. It has been a meet legends in pool week for me

Dave
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Yeah, I was getting minute-by-minute updates by text from Zarah. She says Ruth kept Rudolfo all to herself for hours.

LOL.

pj
chgo
 
I stopped by there last Christmas, but the only guy who looked like he knew what he was doing wouldn't talk to me. (tall guy, gave lessons) Maybe I looked like a schleb.
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LOL. Maybe that was me. I try to discourage new players whenever possible so I won't have to wait for a table.

pj
chgo
 
JimS and Cameron bring up two great points......you need to know what you want out of lessons.

I knew that I had problems with my fundamentals. I had video taped myself taking some shots. I then put the video on youtube and post a thread here.....asking for instructors (and others) to evaluate my fundamentals. Even though most all comments on my stance, bridge and stroke were all constructive, but I didn't really understand how exactly I should go about changing them. Point is, there is no replacement for one-on-one/group instruction. All the posts and instructional video tapes/dvds can't replace what I learned from seeing a professional instructor.

As for the record and not to take anything away from Randy, I actually narrowed my search down to the closest instructor and researched their creditials (sp?). I could have easily choose either pooltchr or Scott Lee and would have if they were closer than Randy.

In the future I would like to attend Randy's expert course and possibly seek out another instructor that specializes in the game itself.

Mattman
 
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