facebook live interview with Stephen Hendry

[DeanH]

Coaching is a modern phenomenon, back in the day you were either good at something or you weren't. Higgins, Reardon and Spencer didn't have coaching, Joe Davis didn't, Walter Lindrum didn't either, his dad was a billiards champion who simply gave him table time to work it out for himself, started off with only giving him one ball to play with, then added a second and then the third.

It must irk to be as good as Hendry and turn to someone who can't do it anywhere near as good as he is and hear that he's doing it wrong

Maybe in prevalence but not unknown in years past, I have mentions of coaches and coaching going back to 1910
I am sure with the boom years in the 80s the coaches came along as well, following the money :biggrin:

[Ramon]

Oh, this is heating up......love it!

I certainly agree with most of what you said mate. I'm more comparing it to back in the 80's and before where coaching was rare.

Thing is, in sports, you could have 30 guys who have benefited from coaching and then a guy with amazing natural talent comes along and people point to that guy to say the others didn't need it to get to where they did.

I'm sure all the modern day players (post 80's) all seek a coach out at some point to develop.

Hendry clearly did on at least 3 occasions for certain reasons and won 7 world titles, would he have won as many? Probably, but we'll never know and there lies the debate.

I don't think Jimmy White ever had any coaching and when his Grandson asked how he did things he wasn't quite sure himself as he just does it!

I think there are two types of personalities in sport, ones that just do it and definitely don't want any 3rd party help as it's not them and others that at some point will seek help when they come up against an issue and they will always do that.

Ballesteros was probably the most amazing natural talent in golf and went for coaching to get his game to win in the states and the coaches destroyed what was natural but I'll guarantee that every top player now has coaching built onto their natural game to survive whether it be technique or mind coaching.

Do I think Alex would survive nowadays with all his natural talent? If he got dragged down by Davis he would spontaneously combustion with frustration with the technical (and natural) talent that is even at club level in this era.

Like the debate though!

Well, this is a good post . agree with most of your notes .


When it comes to players with high standard, i think it's more about mind coaching, than technique.
some of those players have 10,000 hours of practice and matches behind them.
Believe me, it's almost impossible to get rid of the bad habits after so many years.

Even when it comes to mind coaching.
Some people are naturally tof . they have a natural mental strength which gives them the ability to perform under pressure. (Hendry was one of those).

This natural mental strength, can't be learned nor can be developed by any coach. It's impossible.
When it comes to sensitive and decisive moments, the player falls back in his habit and feels the pressure .

I would say an coach is more Valuable to a newbie ( beginner ) than an experienced player.
In the sense of speeding the learening process, Not improving it.
Improvement depends completely on the player.

[Shockerz]

Well, this is a good post . agree with most of your notes .


When it comes to players with high standard, i think it's more about mind coaching, than technique.
some of those players have 10,000 hours of practice and matches behind them.
Believe me, it's almost impossible to get rid of the bad habits after so many years.

Even when it comes to mind coaching.
Some people are naturally tof . they have a natural mental strength which gives them the ability to perform under pressure. (Hendry was one of those).

This natural mental strength, can't be learned nor can be developed by any coach. It's impossible.
When it comes to sensitive and decisive moments, the player falls back in his habit and feels the pressure .

I would say an coach is more Valuable to a newbie ( beginner ) than an experienced player.
In the sense of speeding the learening process, Not improving it.
Improvement depends completely on the player.

Yep. I can agree with pretty much all of that.

I reckon that if you give a player the right start people will move quicker through the learning process; let them start with bad habits then only the true natural talents will reach the dizzy heights (on the whole).

They'll always be a player in any sport that defies the standard / routine way to play but how do you try and replicate natural talent and ability.

I would say most players, natural or not have a weakness which will occasionally find them out and cost them. They either accept it and move on to the next tournament or they are a searcher and try and find a solution.

Sometimes those solutions can cure one thing and introduce another problem and then you can get lost and not be able to find your way back.

I think you are right that coaching is more important to Newbies if you are still going to do your 10,000 hours.