Snooker Academy / Sheffield!!!!!

[lfostersbrother]

its all becoming about the money now, and i wish i knew who is charging such pathetic prices but whoever is filling their pocket, they will have to make it deeper now that Barry Hearn is in the driving seat, ratings will become better, more televised tournaments and therefore more facilities for practice.....

[kellie-text]

its all becoming about the money now, and i wish i knew who is charging such pathetic prices but whoever is filling their pocket, they will have to make it deeper now that Barry Hearn is in the driving seat, ratings will become better, more televised tournaments and therefore more facilities for practice.....

I agree, the only way is up with Barry in charge.

I was at the darts last night with 10,000 people in the crowd. Who'd have thought he could make darts so cool and popular, lets hope the good times are ahead with him in charge of snooker.

[lfostersbrother]

its definately gonna be good times with good old bazza in charge

and as to darts what he has done to that sport is amazing - i mean it was almost non existent but now its probably on tv more than snooker is. so hopefully in a few years it will take the same route, aka names on their waistcoats, music already initialised, and maybe a fox lady walking around the table with a card saying frame 2, then frame 3 just like boxing - lol!! only joking in that last part - (well the gentleman side of me anyway ...lol)

[snookerpoolman]

Hi

Just some extra information:

I live in Sheffield and was planning to go to the Snooker Academy for some coaching with some friends. They had quoted us £50 for a half day (4 hours, including 1 hour one-to-one coaching) or £90 for a full day (10 - 6 with 2 hours one-to-one).

Is there anyone on the forum who has had coaching at the Academy who could give a short review? At the moment I think we are going to go in April some time so I will report back to the forum on how it went.

Cheers,

Donny.

Interesting debate and some good points raised. I will offer my thoughts based on a number of visits.

Myself and my doubles partner visited the academy not long after it opened. We were met at the reception by Keith (his surname escapes me) who was friendly, gave us a set of Tournament Champion balls and took us to our table. The table was great, very quick, tight pockets, especially the middles but you'd expect that with WS template. We paid £40 at the end of the day, so £20 quid each for a top table, electronic scoreboard with remote control, match lighting & clean, comfortable surroundings. Now I know that if this was a regular thing, £20 a day would soon mount up and become un-affordable. As a 'treat' and somewhere different to play with great conditions, we both thought the price was OK.

As for the pro's using it, my impression is that Ding, who is based in Sheffield, is there all the time. Ebdon only uses it when he's in the UK prior to a tournament as he lives in Dubai. Not sure if any of the other pro's use it much at all. The venue is used for the last qualifier for Worlds (they set up tables downstairs on the basketball courts and tiered seating for spectators) where you can watch a choice of four matches at one time (is hard to concentrate on one match) and previously for the Masters - went as a guest of my mate 007 a couple of years ago.

Some local amateurs use it to practice. I can't imagine that Ding pays full whack for using it, as World Snooker do seem to look after him. Think Wenbo is there quite often too.

If the academy is closing, then that will be a shame. WS have invested a lot of money in it. Cant comment on the salaries of the staff. I have seen the coaching/practice packages they're advertising on e-bay. They do seem a little pricey, but most top coaches, I believe, charge around £25 - £30 per hour.
If you have a particular problem with a type of shot, then it's money well spent to iron this out if you're a keen player.

My club, NE Derbyshire Snooker Centre, Clay Cross, charges £4.20 per hour but also does a daytime promotion where you can play all day for £12, which between 2 of you is absolutley nothing when you consider therere 21 top tables with Strachan 6811 Cloth, cleaned every morning. Plus there's a full restaurant & bar, waitress service, order your food and eat in the snooker room. If anyone wants to come over, PM me and I'll try to sort you a guest membership to try out the club. (Annual membership is only £12.50!)

In terms of ownership, as I understand it, the building is run and owned by the English Institute of Sport, and recieves some local (council) funding and lottery money. World Snooker rent the space for the snooker academy, but they got the first year for nothing I'm told as part of the deal to keep the World Champs at The Crucible. Now it is costing a lot of money for World Snooker to rent the space (not sure exactly, but many thousands I believe).

Overall I'd say the Academy is a good place to visit for a days practice now and again. :snooker:

Details below of forthcoming World Champs qualifiers: -

http://www.eis-sheffield.co.uk/event...hip_qualifiers

[stephen povey]

Your club at Clay cross sounds great!! nearest club to me is in Thame Bucks, just 10 tables but no suspended ceiling so it never gets really warm in the snooker room! So the beds of the tables never get really warm as they should do and the balls feel cold to the touch, i will have to have a look at Clay cross one day it sounds billiant!!

Cheers Steve.

[snawaz]

its all becoming about the money now, and i wish i knew who is charging such pathetic prices but whoever is filling their pocket, they will have to make it deeper now that Barry Hearn is in the driving seat, ratings will become better, more televised tournaments and therefore more facilities for practice.....

I enquired last year and they wanted £40 for a half day session with an hours coaching. If you look on e-bay they now want £50 for half a day session. This is a 25% hike in price. When the rest of the world is in recession how can you justify a price increase!!!

The only justification would be a high demand for the sessions (which from my past experience with EIS is just not the case!!!), or someone is trying to put people off coming to the EIS, or its a rip-off Britain situation again!!!!!

C'mon Mr Hearn sort it out!!!

[snookerpoolman]

Your club at Clay cross sounds great!! nearest club to me is in Thame Bucks, just 10 tables but no suspended ceiling so it never gets really warm in the snooker room! So the beds of the tables never get really warm as they should do and the balls feel cold to the touch, i will have to have a look at Clay cross one day it sounds billiant!!

Cheers Steve.

Steve,

No Bull#@/t it's probably one of the best clubs in the UK, and therefore the world, I know that's a large claim but I've played all over the UK when working away and also in Europe and never found anywhere that comes near for quality and overall value for money. Did I mention the food? One of the best restaurants for miles around.

Shame your local club sounds a bit cold. I would have thought Thame would have a good place to play snooker. See if they'll invest in table heaters for under the slates, that would really help. Even if they only do it for a couple of tables at a time if the cost is prohibitive.

Clay Cross is snooker heaven and well worth a visit if you're up north at anytime in the future.

[JamesPort]

Keith Warren and Garry Baldry have been given 3 months notice to quit the World Snooker Academy, following a visit by Barry Hearn to the Academy last week.

[cally]

Hmmm.... seems like a good start to sorting it out...

[snookerpoolman]

Keith Warren and Garry Baldry have been given 3 months notice to quit the World Snooker Academy, following a visit by Barry Hearn to the Academy last week.

So who, if anybody, is going to run the Academy then? Or is it closing altogether? Seems a shame if so, given the huge investment already put in...

[snawaz]

Keith Warren and Garry Baldry have been given 3 months notice to quit the World Snooker Academy, following a visit by Barry Hearn to the Academy last week.

Best news i've heard. We need fresh blood in there. Someone with enthusiam, who cares about the development of snooker. We need good affordable support for our youngsters who will be the next generation of snooker players to carry the torch!
We need to have more flexibility. I understand coaching costs money but there should be options to suite more players. Not the current rigid choices like £40 for a 1 hour coaching session with 3 hours of practice or £80 for a 2 hour coaching session with 6 hours of practice.
We need to have regular functions there that would introduce new people into snooker and encourage others to take a greater interest in snooker. Maybe some regular kids activities held in the school holidays.
Ofcourse as an academy there needs to a be a more formal side to the coaching but I believe this needs to be done in such a way as to cater for all levels and ages of players as well as allowing people opportunities from all backgrounds. The current elitism structure as I see the academy needs to be abolished.

[madman]

Its a shame though. One good thing the old board did do, was this academy. But at these rates, it was never going to succeed. Lets hope Hearny has something in place to remedy this.

[andydrak]

Don't worry... there will be more academies in the world sooner than you think. Malta will have one after organising the European Team Championships. Romania has one of the finest academies in Europe - The National Snooker Centre ( 8 Wik tables + 1 mathroom with riley aristocrat table) The romanians are catching up quite fast.

Some pictures: pic1, pic2

[djyates]

Keith Warren and Garry Baldry have been given 3 months notice to quit the World Snooker Academy, following a visit by Barry Hearn to the Academy last week.

Where did you find this out? Do you have a link to a source?

I should have said in my opening post that the £50 / £90 = half-day / full-day quotes were for EACH of us to play, not per table. So for three of us to play snooker for four hours (and be coached for 1 hour each) they would receive £150.

As this is the first time I have considered coaching, I don't really have a frame of reference for prices (pun intended).

Donny.

[snookerpoolman]

Where did you find this out? Do you have a link to a source?

I should have said in my opening post that the £50 / £90 = half-day / full-day quotes were for EACH of us to play, not per table. So for three of us to play snooker for four hours (and be coached for 1 hour each) they would receive £150.

As this is the first time I have considered coaching, I don't really have a frame of reference for prices (pun intended).

Donny.

Coaching costs depends on the club and the coach. If they're WSA or EASB trained/approved then they can basically charge what they want. Expect to pay around £30 per hour. 007 does some personal coaching in between tournaments and his other commitments. If you're interested PM or email me and I'll put you in touch with him.

Depends what standard you're at at the moment. For a beginner, I'd say ask someone experienced from there club league team for initial basic guidance. e.g. stance grip, bridge, cue action etc. I'm not officially qualifed, but have done some coaching in the past. It really helps when you get problems with your game straightened out, so I would recommend it to anyone who wants to improve.