Could i be a snooker coach?

[Bigmeek]

Couldn't agree more

Would that be defiantly lol (Sorry Leo just my attempt at humour)

[Leo]

Would that be defiantly lol (Sorry Leo just my attempt at humour)

Defiantly mate

[Bigmeek]

Defiantly mate

Ha ha nice one.

[sharkster63]

I think its all up to advertising to get them in the door, then comes the hard part, getting them to come back, I think if fees are similar to table fees at local club you might have a chance at getting some players to come over and return. Hope it works out for you, I second the advise to try it out before putting out allot of cash, these courses will not get you business like a world championship would. Good Luck and let us know how it goes

[dcrackers147]

A harsh comment. Nic always does a preliminary evaluation and test before he takes on a student and he has turned down candidates for Master Coach before and he also has teacher and Coach levels for those who are less knowledgeable. Originally the training was 9 days but then Nic cut out some of that NLP training and some of the how to run a coaching business training. It is an intensive 8 hours per day but a student has to have some basics and being a referee helps too.

By the way, the WPBSA coach training is less that 3 days and with no experience required, although it helps. Another comment, Frank Callan is regarded as one of the best snooker coaches who ever lived and yet in his book it says he only ever won his county championship and that was when he was quite young. I have no doubt he was a good player but wasn't international or top amateur standard but without a doubt he knew his stuff and from what I've read had a good ability to help both amateur and pro students (Mountjoy as an example).

Terry

Hi Terry I know little about the actual coaching courses available other than that they are available....I was simply quoting your previous post. It's good that Nic Barrow has turned people down who didn't make the grade and I feel this should always be the case with all available courses but I fear it is not. If Frank Callan won a county championship he was not a bad amateur standard well I don't know many people who have been County champ who arent good amateurs...Maybe you don't have to be a top player but you need to be able to make regular 100 breaks. What if a client just wants to learn how to make a 100 break. You need to take that person through the thought process as well as the key shots to show how it's done...I personally think any coach would struggle if they can't do it themselves?

[Terry Davidson]

It is definitely hit and miss with a student trying to choose a good coach. The same coach may not suit everyone and a lot of it depends on what the student is looking for. Although I have made a lot of tons they were mostly in my past but if I had a student come to me who has a high break of 40 and he says he wants me to get him up to the consistent 100-break mark I would recommend he purchase Nic Barrow's How To Make a Century Break and work with that for awhile and go through the steps and then come back and see me.

I agree that a decent coach should have all the basics down pat in order to teach them.

Terry

[itsnoteasy]

Hmm, if that were me I would have said ,give me an hour(free of charge) to look at your game and I will put forward a plan on how you can improve and what we can work on together, if you like it and are willing to commit the time and effort, then we can set up some structured lessons. What's the point in a coach if he can't take you from forty breaks to century breaks? Isn't that his job(as long as you commit to it) it's ten times harder working from a dvd than having a coach there actually watching ,as what happens if you can't do what's on the dvd and don't know why, that's when a coach earns his money.

[j6uk]

Hmm, if that were me I would have said ,give me an hour(free of charge) to look at your game and I will put forward a plan on how you can improve and what we can work on together, if you like it and are willing to commit the time and effort, then we can set up some structured lessons. What's the point in a coach if he can't take you from forty breaks to century breaks? Isn't that his job(as long as you commit to it) it's ten times harder working from a dvd than having a coach there actually watching ,as what happens if you can't do what's on the dvd and don't know why, that's when a coach earns his money.

tels just plugging nic and his bits, thats his job now

[itsnoteasy]

tels just plugging nic and his bits, thats his job now

I did find that a very strange post, from an experienced coach.

[j6uk]

I did find that a very strange post, from an experienced coach.

me too, but i don't think terrys is an experienced coach and hes never said he was, only in his effort here on tsf. nics got the experience and from what i can see tels working for him

[Byrom]

Coaching wars -

[Leo]

Hmm, if that were me I would have said ,give me an hour(free of charge) to look at your game and I will put forward a plan on how you can improve and what we can work on together, if you like it and are willing to commit the time and effort, then we can set up some structured lessons. What's the point in a coach if he can't take you from forty breaks to century breaks? Isn't that his job(as long as you commit to it) it's ten times harder working from a dvd than having a coach there actually watching ,as what happens if you can't do what's on the dvd and don't know why, that's when a coach earns his money.

You thought about coaching as your post is spot on what should be done IMO

[pottr]

Yes, I agree.

[Terry Davidson]

Hmm, if that were me I would have said ,give me an hour(free of charge) to look at your game and I will put forward a plan on how you can improve and what we can work on together, if you like it and are willing to commit the time and effort, then we can set up some structured lessons. What's the point in a coach if he can't take you from forty breaks to century breaks? Isn't that his job(as long as you commit to it) it's ten times harder working from a dvd than having a coach there actually watching ,as what happens if you can't do what's on the dvd and don't know why, that's when a coach earns his money.

Let me explain...I usually work with much older students, mostly retired guys, as there are no young players in Canada. All of my students I start out with a 2hr initial evaluation of where they are now and ask them where they want to be. I've never had a student who has asked to get to the 100-break standard and most of them are just trying to improve a bit so they can beat their mates or improve their tournament performance.

Note one of my students is Les Edwards who is definitely motivated however he is a little older and also he gets coaching from 2 other coaches, Cliff Thorburn and Floyd Zeigler and we have all told Les exactly the same things so despite what j6 says I'm giving the same advice as Cliff. Also, I don't work for Nic Barrow and receive no compensation when a student buys one of his coaching videos. When a player is a little older it's very difficult for him to improve and I wouldn't feel comfortable giving a long series of lessons at great expense to the student because there wouldn't be the same improvement as I would get from a younger and motivated student. I try and be up-front with my students and try and give them a realistic view of what they can expect from coaching. Having them try out Nic's HTMA videos is a much cheaper way for them to find out if they have what they need to improve. Then I can re-evaluate them afterwards and see where we can go from there.

If a player came to me and said 'my high break right now is 42 and I want to work with you so I'm running consistent centuries', I would have to explain to this student it would take a lot of work and a lot of his money to get to that standard. Another factor is how motivated is this student and what age is he, because after all the majority of the improvement will be the student's responsibility during solo practice where he can work on what I've recommended.

If the student is a teenager and is well motivated (and has the resources) I would recommend the first course of action would be to get him to a point where he is delivering the cue consistently straight, which is not an easy task. If the student is 40yrs old I would have to evaluate his technique and make recommendations for improvement based on what I see. The first step is always a sound technique and not everyone is motivated enough to try and get to that point and if the motivation isn't there then he is just wasting his money.

I have also had students who come in all gung-ho about improving and getting to a high standard and when I tell them what's involved and how much time, effort and money would be involved I hear things like 'I don't have the time to practice that much' and I have to tell them without practicing at least 20hrs per week there won't be a whole lot of improvement unless they have very high natural abilities. I'm probably costing myself income but I would rather tell a student the truth even if they decide it's not worth the effort.

Terry

[Terry Davidson]

tels just plugging nic and his bits, thats his job now

Sorry j6, even though my signature block says that I'm a Manager at thesnookergym being lazy I just haven't gotten around to changing that and was going to do it when my own website came on line. I don't work for Nic Barrow and I don't receive any compensation from thesnookergym but I think there are some great products available from there and it is a reasonable inexpensive way for a player to evaluate himself and see if he has what it takes to improve.

Terry