If you are looking to earn some extra cash, while doing something you enjoy in your spare time, then you might consider becoming a qualified pool coach.

Most high profile sports have coaching structures in place.  Tennis, Golf, Football all have organised coaching throughout the country.  Up until quite recently there was no organised coaching for pool on a national scale in the UK.

To launch a national coaching structure, you have to be sure that the coaches are of sufficient quality.  Players who require coaching need to be sure that they are getting value for their money, so the coaches need to have a deep understanding of the game, and the ability to pass the right information on to their clients.

So to make sure that all pool coaches have the right knowledge, you need to start with a textbook.  As a pool coaching association, it wouldn’t work if all the coaches were teaching different things!  While there are many different ways to play the game, all the coaches need to be coming from the same direction – and there are some tried and tested techniques that work for all players.  This is the vital information that every pool coach should know.

The Pool Textbook

As I was setting up the coaching organisation, I was determined that I would train coaches to be effective.  So I designed a syllabus that would enable coaches to pass on the right information in a structured way, this would give coaching clients the very best understanding of the sport so that they could fix their game in the future.

So people that come on the 8 Ball Academy courses get a thorough understanding of 8 Ball Pool, and the Lesson Plans that will help them to pass on that information in the most effective way.

You might think that the best coaches would be the best players, that is true in some cases.  However there are many top players who are naturally gifted.  They obviously do all the right things, but they couldn’t tell you what they are or how they do it.   So the ideal 8 Ball Coach is someone who has played pool to a reasonable standard (maybe County Level)  but also possesses communication skills, and is willing to learn themselves.

While it is unlikely that any of our coaches will earn a full time living from pool coaching, there is sufficient demand to get paid adequately for their work – like a part time job.  We get many enquiries from all over the UK via 8ballAcademy.com, and at the moment don’t have national coverage so are unable to offer many of these enquiries coaching services.

An 8 Ball Academy coach in action

So how do you get qualified?   The first step is to book a place on a forthcoming 8 Ball Academy course.  You can find details of course dates and locations at 8ballAcademy.com.  Once you have booked a place on a course, we give you membership details so that you can study the pre-course material online.  We recommend that you register for a course at least 6 weeks in advance so that you have sufficient time to absorb all the information before coming to the course.  The course itself is not about how to play pool, it’s about how to coach pool players, and so it’s important that delegates have a full understanding of the principles involved before the course.  That’s why you need to study in advance.

The course lasts two days and covers all aspects of setting up business as a coach.  We cover marketing, presentation, finding a venue, as well as the all important lesson plans.

At the end of the course is an examination.  The pass mark is quite high, we want our coaches to deliver quality, it’s the 8 Ball Academy reputation on the line.  Those that pass the exam are then recognised by the English Pool Association and the Universities Pool Council as qualified coaches.  They also start getting leads from the 8ballAcademy website.

Those that fail are given one chance to re-sit the exam for a small additional fee.

Becoming a qualified coach is a great way to put something back into the game of pool, while being paid to do so. It costs less to take the course than play in high level tournaments for a year, and you only need to pass the exam once to become qualified.

My aim is to get enough coaches out there to offer a truly national service, and to raise the standard of grass-roots pool in the process.  Much of the knowledge that players learn when they start playing is given to them as free advice when they start playing pool in a pub – but much of it is wrong, because it is based on snooker!  With enough coaches – we can put that right.

For more details of 8 Ball Academy Coaches Courses – visit 8ballAcademy.com