Sunday, 18 December 2022 / Published in Club News, Coaching

SBI Hold A Succesful Development Day

Snooker & Billiards Ireland (SBI) held another successful National Junior Snooker & Billiards Developmental Day on Saturday the 17th of December in the SBI HQ Academy of Excellence in Carlow.

The players today were from Wexford, Edenderry, Galway, Longford, Meath and Cork were shown how to have some fun and learn some of the skills of the game from our National Coach PJ Nolan from 11am to 4pm.

Tables

SBI used all 8 full size snooker tables for the more experienced player plus our mini star tables in the Academy was used to help introduce new younger people to the game.

During recent years SBI have held a number of Junior Developmental days to introduce and encourage more juniors to play our beautiful sports. Payers from all across Ireland have attended and some have went on to represent Ireland at junior level in recent years.

A Sport for Everyone

SBI would like to thank all the clubs who are currently holding junior coaching sessions to promote the game in their regions. This is the only way to help grow our game. SBI will be holding more free development days with our Irish National Coach PJ Nolan in 2023 to learn some more skills of the game.

European Play Off’s

On the day SBI also held 2 play-off events to finalise which players will represent Ireland at the 2023 European Championships in Malta. This was because players were tied on the same ranking in the under 18 and under 21 rankings for the final qualifying spots. This was excellent to watch and shown all the players in attendance what you can achieve with practice and hard work. James O Connell and Lewis Casserly qualified for the Under 21 while Ronan McGuirk qualified for the Under 18 Europeans.

SBI Coaches

All current SBI Qualified Coaches who are Garda vetted were invited to attend the day. The schedule of events was from 10.45am – 11am the players signed in and warmed up. The players then learned about the Stance, Grip, Cue Action, Cue Ball Control and Basic Potting Skills. The game of Billiards was also be introduced to the players.

Planned Schedule

The day began with the players playing some basic shots with PJ and the SBI coach Ger Murray gave some tips and advice to the players. The players will then shown how to control the cue ball and try some practice routines with Potting, Safety. A Re-spotted black and mini tournaments were held which was won by Liam Dunne from Edenderry and Joe Shannon from Longford in style. All players also received a medal plus PJ’s training drills to practice at home.

All Members

SBI would like to thank our members and all the clubs who encouraged their children/ friends/ members to attend this promotion day and help grow the game in Ireland.