The Billiards Workbook

jhendri2

Rack'em Sausage
Silver Member
Does anyone have one of these: www.billiardsworkbook.com ?

If so, what's your opinion? It looks like it has some interesting drills, but for $159, I'd like to hear some opinions of those who have it or have seen it.

thanks,

Jim
 
jhendri2 said:
If so, what's your opinion? It looks like it has some interesting drills, but for $159, I'd like to hear some opinions of those who have it or have seen it.
It has many pages. Too many. There is a practice diagram for pretty nearly every shot on the table. A draw shot with the cue ball a diamond away. Another page with the cue ball two diamonds away. Another page with the cue ball .... I think a mountain of paper is not the best way to get a student to practice drills.
 
In my opinion, the book is way too much money and doesn't sell anywhere but in Valley Forge. It's totally redundant. From what I have heard, she's a D player and she's put nothing but drills in the book. She doesn't even say why these drill are important or why you should do them.

Her concept is to return to the classroom. Well, returning to the classroom is fine but many know that the book will sit just as their previous classroom books do. I know, I have many on the shelf that do nothing but collect dust.

When I tried to talk to her regarding this, she was rude to say the least. It seems to me she looks at players like they're below her.

I feel that she'll go broke promoting this book and I can't see her lasting 2 yrs longer putting countless money traveling to shows trying to sell it.

Keith R
 
DeadAim said:
I saw the stand at Valley Forge last year and the book certainly was gigantic, but I was sure there was nothing inside that I didn’t know or haven’t seen before so I didn’t check it out.
Actually, it does have some things that I hadn't seen before. There are forms to fill out after you play in a tournament about how you and your opponent played as well as psychological profiles.
 
Are You Kidding Me?????

You couldn't just look at her and tell she was gonna be rude? I met her and talked to her for 15 minutes at the US Open. All she talked about was herself and her accomplishments. Didn't know squat about pool. A lot of folk are just here for the money. The woman could have more degrees than a thermometer, I still wouldn't buy anything from her.
Purdman :rolleyes:
 
Thanks for the info guys. I have NUMEROUS books, but this was too expensive to just buy without opinions. Sounds like Ray Martins 99 Critical Shots (which is a great book) is the abridged version and explains things much better. This is the book I pull out when I don't play for a while to get back into it.

Thanks guys, you saved me $159.

Jim
 
Bob Jewett said:
Actually, it does have some things that I hadn't seen before. There are forms to fill out after you play in a tournament about how you and your opponent played as well as psychological profiles.

I actually do that myself without the billiards workbook. I agree with the others, this is waaaay to much money to spend.
 
Heh Heh, Rays book is hard to beat even with the mistakes! After 99 shots how many do you think you can remember? :D
Hunntyr said:
I actually do that myself without the billiards workbook. I agree with the others, this is waaaay to much money to spend.
 
lets clear up somethings

[first off. This book was not written by Dr Diana Sorrentino alone. It was co authored by MS Gerda Hofstetter. The ranked tourning Female professional. Dr D as she is known by did most of the leg work and the writing of the drills for Ms Hofstetter. These 2 ladies put alot of efort into this book knowing full well that they were not going to make any profit. Thay did it purely for the love of the game. If they make a profit, then good for them. Dr D also helps sponsor the ladies JPNEWT tour. I have found her to be both pleasant and cordial the few times we have met in the past. So why bash her book. All she is trying to do is Promote the game we all love and at the same time promote the ladies tour.......................mike
 
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cut shot said:
Heh Heh, Rays book is hard to beat even with the mistakes! After 99 shots how many do you think you can remember? :D


Ray's book was one of the first that I have bought during my first year in a league. I was just learning and my partner was about a 6 or 7 in a Busch League. It was his turn and had a hard shot. I said Oh that is shot number 71. He said what the hell are you talking about. I said it is shot #71 in the 99 Critical Shots. He started laughting and said that he never heard of such a crazy thing. I did not really know the number I was just making it up at the time. I told him how to shoot it. He made the ball. He still laughs about it today and sometimes will ask before he shoots what number shot is this one.
 
Cueball1050 Glad you had some good interactions with the author, I did not. In fact many people I have met have had such a bad taste left from her that they would never even think of talking to her again. No one here is bashing Gerta either, I truly wonder how much time Gerta spent on this book or if it was just her name thay co authored it.

Keith
 
cueball1950 said:
[first off. This book was not written by Dr Diana Sorrentino alone. It was co authored by MS Gerda Hofstetter. The ranked tourning Female professional. Dr D as she is known by did most of the leg work and the writing of the drills for Ms Hofstetter. These 2 ladies put alot of efort into this book knowing full well that they were not going to make any profit. Thay did it purely for the love of the game. If they make a profit, then good for them. Dr D also helps sponsor the ladies JPNEWT tour. I have found her to be both pleasant and cordial the few times we have met in the past. So why bash her book. All she is trying to do is Promote the game we all love and at the same time promote the ladies tour.......................mike

If bringing this information to the pool playing public was their intent, they did a poor job starting with the price. Their effort has turned out to be valueless and it is their own doing. People talked with her before they even had it out and she did not want to hear anything, she knows it all. Is it any good? What does it matter, no one will ever buy one because of the price, so it's value, if any, it is lost to most of the general public. It is a moot issue.
 
Comparing most people's regular drills to the Billiards Workbook is sort of like comparing one of those simple five page automotive tune-up pamphlets to a several hundred page Chilton's automotive service manual.

For example; where your regular drills may include a little safety shot practice, the Billiards Workbook goes in-depth and explores safety shots from every which way. You might spend 15 minutes on safety shot practice with your regular drills, but with the Billiards Workbook, I suppose you could spend a week working several hours a day on just safety shot drills alone.

So if you wanted to *really* work on a specific area of your game, and spend weeks working on only that specific area, then I would suggest buying the Billiards Workbook.

For myself, my regular drills take about 2 hours a day to complete. So even though I have the Billiards Workbook, I don't really have time to use it on a regular basis. But I'm glad it is sitting on my shelf, if I need to really work on something specific. And that is kind of the way I am. If I repeatedly lose matches because of my being bad at one specific shot, I'll spend a lot of time (sometimes months) working on that specific shot.

The Billiards Workbook is HUGE. What I did was to buy about 8 small three ring binders and break the one book down into many different notebooks with two or three subjects for each notebook. Then labeled each notebook for what it contains.

I suppose she could sell them this way, but the price would need to be higher for the entire set. But maybe she could break the book down like this and people could just buy the sections covering what they want to work on, then buy additional sections in the future as needed?
 
It seems like most of the people here are bashing the Billiards Workbook and they have never seen it or worked with it. I believe that is unfair.

I have seen and worked with the Workbook and it does what it claims to do. It provides a lot of drills

It is not an instruction book and, in fact, it would be best used with an instructor, for the lower skilled players.

Yes, it is very large and very expensive, but if you want drills to do, to improve your game, it is an excellent source.

Keep in mind, part of the reason that it is so large is that it has been produced in the loose leaf notebook style, with print on only one side of the pages. This is so you can remove whatever sections and/or pages you want to work with and take them to the table, or your pool room, without having to carry the entire book. Because the print is only on one side of the page, you can lay the pages out on the table for quick reference, when doing the drill. I actually used the pages as the targets for some of the drills.

I am not a person who likes to do drills and I will not lie and tell you that I use the Billiards Workbook a lot, but it is an excellent book.
I am not the only one who feels this way, as you can see in the October issue of Billiards Digest Magazine, George Fels gave the Workbook a very favorable review.

I will also comment on those of you who took the liberty of attacking Dr. D personally.
Dr. D is a very nice and straight forward woman. She is very intelligent and, first and foremost, she is an extremely organized business professional. That may be why some of you may not have liked her, but that is something lacking in yourselves, not Dr. D.

It is apparent that Dr. D. did not compile this Workbook of drills to become rich. There is no way that will ever happen.
With the proceeds from this Workbook, and most likely some of her personal money, she provides some sponsorship for professional player Gerda Hofstatter, as well as regional and aspiring pro Carol Clark. She also provides some sponsorship to the J. Pechauer North East Women's Tour and the Chesapeake Area Tour.
If some of you provided even a fraction of support to pool, that Dr. D does, the game of pool would be in a much better situation, than it is today.
 
I'm sorry someone got the wrong impression of Dr. D. She is used to working in a business environment and perhaps has difficulty transforming to the informality of the poolplayer's world. :D

I talked to her briefly at the Open and she seemed like a nice person.

Maybe she did not target her book to the right market in regards to price. It is a bit of money but I want you guys to think about something. I see guys on here who think nothing of spending $1000 on a (or "another") cue. Which is going to make you play better, a comprehensive book of drills or a $1000 cue? Of course you have to use the book for it to help you.

I'll probably buy the book because I'm the type of person that would use it. I'm saving my pennies :D
 
Wally in Cincy said:
I'll probably buy the book because I'm the type of person that would use it. I'm saving my pennies :D


Which means, that if you DON'T make one post a day on here...in essence saving your $.02 cents worth, in just about 22 short years you'll have it!! :D
 
Wally in Cincy said:
I'm sorry someone got the wrong impression of Dr. D. She is used to working in a business environment and perhaps has difficulty transforming to the informality of the poolplayer's world. :D

I talked to her briefly at the Open and she seemed like a nice person.

Maybe she did not target her book to the right market in regards to price. It is a bit of money but I want you guys to think about something. I see guys on here who think nothing of spending $1000 on a (or "another") cue. Which is going to make you play better, a comprehensive book of drills or a $1000 cue? Of course you have to use the book for it to help you.

I'll probably buy the book because I'm the type of person that would use it. I'm saving my pennies :D

You would like to have it and have not bought it. The average player who could possable benefit from it will never buy it. For a busines person as some have said, doesn't sound like such a good business plan.
 
macguy said:
For a busines person as some have said, doesn't sound like such a good business plan.

Dr. D is an excellent business person. Actually, her main business is helping corporations that are in trouble.

The book is expensive and no one will argue that point. It is a major investment. But, as some one else has said, most people on this board would not think twice about paying $1000 or more for a cue. Why not for the Workbook, if you think you will use it.
In my area, the cost of this Workbook is the equivalent to less than 20 hours of table time. That is not a huge investment in your pool game.

More of these Workbooks than you can imagine, have been sold to instructors all over the country.

If you don't think you will use it, that is fine. Don't buy it.
But, don't bash it, because you don't want it.
 
Rich R. said:
Dr. D is an excellent business person. Actually, her main business is helping corporations that are in trouble.

The book is expensive and no one will argue that point. It is a major investment. But, as some one else has said, most people on this board would not think twice about paying $1000 or more for a cue. Why not for the Workbook, if you think you will use it.
In my area, the cost of this Workbook is the equivalent to less than 20 hours of table time. That is not a huge investment in your pool game.

More of these Workbooks than you can imagine, have been sold to instructors all over the country.

If you don't think you will use it, that is fine. Don't buy it.
But, don't bash it, because you don't want it.


Quote

"But, as some one else has said, most people on this board would not think twice about paying $1000 or more for a cue."

You believe that? How many players do think play with $1000. + cues? Maybe two that comes in the pool room where I go and they are good players who would have no interest in her book. The book is aimed at the average player looking to improve their game and they play with $100, to $300. cues and will never pay that much for the book.
Quote
More of these Workbooks than you can imagine, have been sold to instructors all over the country."

How many, maybe 10? I picture the teachers who bought it, photo copying sections for their students, not selling them the book, so there is even more market share lost. The high price is a mistake whether she wants to admit it or not.
 
macguy said:
"But, as some one else has said, most people on this board would not think twice about paying $1000 or more for a cue."

You believe that? How many players do think play with $1000. + cues? Maybe two that comes in the pool room where I go and they are good players who would have no interest in her book.

I happen to know quite a few players who use $1000.+ cue, on a daily basis, and think nothing of it. I happen to be one of them, myself.
Is that because we are all great players? Not hardly. We just appreciate quality cues and we are willing to save our hard earned dollars and buy them.
Do they make us better players? No, they don't do that either. Only practice will do that.
Just go to the cue gallery section of this forum and look at the pictures of cues, that people post every week. They are beautiful cues and I'm sure many of them are in the $1000.+ range. But then, I guess you prefer your Cuetec.

macguy said:
The book is aimed at the average player looking to improve their game and they play with $100, to $300. cues and will never pay that much for the book.

It is very obvious that you have never looked at the Workbook. There are many drills in that book that the average player would not be able to do, without help, regardless of the price of their cue.

macguy said:
More of these Workbooks than you can imagine, have been sold to instructors all over the country."

How many, maybe 10? I picture the teachers who bought it, photo copying sections for their students, not selling them the book, so there is even more market share lost. The high price is a mistake whether she wants to admit it or not.
I guarantee, she has sold more than 10 of these Workbooks.

My question to you is, why do you insist on bashing this Workbook, and Dr. D?
You obviously have not seen and read the content of the book. Your biggest gripe seems to be with the price. Have you ever looked into what it would cost to put together a Workbook of this magnatude? I think not.
You would rather sit at home and bitch about its price, without knowing what is in it.
When she developed it, in the loose leaf notebook style, do you believe she didn't know that some people will copy drills and pass them on? I think not.

If you don't want to buy the Workbook, DON'T.
I really don't care. I am not a salesman for the Billiards Workbook and it will not affect my income at all.
I just don't think you should bash it, when you have made it obvious that you don't know what you are writing about.

Like I stated before, George Fels gave it a favorable review. If a highly respected writer, in the pool community, said it is a good book, why would any one listen to some one who has not even looked inside the cover?
 
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