Last weekend our SBI National Snooker Coach PJ Nolan travelled to Bruges in Belgium to attend a Level 1 Chris Henry Sports – Neuroscience based Snooker Coaching Course on the 15th & 16th of June.
Snooker Coaches from Belgium, France and Ireland attended this specific two-day Coaching Course in SnookerPalace in Bruges.
Top Professional Coach – Chris Henry
PJ was invited to attend this coaching course that was conducted by Chris Henry. Chris who is one of the world’s top professional coaches who has coached many world Snooker champions like Shaun Murphy, Mark Selby, Stephen Hendry plus Ali Carter, Ryan Day and many more. Chris also coaches Golf Professional players and even coached in the Ryder Cup.
Chris Henry is the only coach in snooker history to have worked with both players in the same world snooker final in the Crucible theatre in Sheffield when he coached Mark Selby and Shaun Murphy in the 2021 Final.
Two Main Skills
The coaches learned that high performance levels in snooker requires 2 main skills:
- Striking the cue ball where intended by habit
- Aiming the cue ball where intended by habit
This unique coaching course contained all the elements required to enable a coach to assist their students on the right track from day one. All coaches received a set of “The Balls”, and spotted cue ball to help them develop good fundamentals with all their students.
Course Content
Many areas in this course that were covered were cue ball physics, grip, bridge, correct cue position, technique mechanics, visuals, alignment, sighting and much more ensuring students develop effective habits from the start, or correct any existing ineffective habits.
The sessions held covered everything from:
- Why people play snooker
- Understanding Techniques
- What people want from their coach
- Role of a Coach
- How to plan a Lesson
- Practice Exercises
- Rules of the game
- Sports Psychology
All the Snooker Coaches had to demonstrate various shots and techniques throughout the course under the eagle eye of Chris. Following the course, a refresher session with Q&A was held.
The Examination
A practical examination was held on the table where the coaches had to explain and demonstrate certain shots before all coaches had to complete an online theoretical examination on a laptop
This examination was in several sections. The first section covered questions about roles of coaches and the next area had coaching videos with ‘’ The Balls ‘’ and the coaches had to answer what the player did wrong or what he did good.
All the coaches needed to obtain 75% to pass this coaching course and Snooker & Billiards Ireland were delighted to receive the news that PJ passed the examination and was presented with his Certificate from Chris Henry.
Chris Henry said, it’s a pleasure and an honour to have PJ on the course this weekend. We are all learning so much from your insights and experience. Let’s keep sharing the knowledge.
PJ thanked Chris Henry for hosting this course, and to the other coaches as it was a pleasure to meet old and new friends during this course.
PJ said it was fantastic to listen to Chris over the weekend. His experience and success is second to none and it was great to learn new skills which I am sure will help my own coaching. I am already looking forward to attending the level 2 course next year.
Finally, PJ thanked everyone at SnookerPalace in Bruges and Luk Simoens, Peter De Ryck and Edwin Depoorter for their complete support over the weekend which made it a memorable weekend of learning and developing.
