Nic Barrow's The Snooker Gym ... "We Train Frustrated Amateurs, To Beat Their Highest Break"

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Nic Barrow's

Beat Your Highest Break Club

GO From Where You Are... To Where You Want To BE

 

Nic Barrow - Founder, The Snooker Gym

Your pain…

If you are anything like me, you first saw snooker on the TV… fell in love with the game very quickly… and started playing as much as you could…

Unfortunately, you quickly realised that you can’t play snooker as well as you wish and that confidence, consistency, and concentration were not so easy to come by!

This led straight to frustration… doubt… inability to self diagnose… confusion … anger… rage… endless searching on internet… thinking too much… not knowing where to start to improve… going round in circles… wasting time guessing what to practice… or just wanting to bite, snap, or crush your cue!

Whether you are a business owner or professional person who plays as a hobby, an aspiring amateur, absolute beginner, or returning to the game and getting the cue out of the loft after 15 years ‘doing the family and career thing’… I have noticed after working with thousands of clients that the experiences above always seem to be the same…

The problem with coaching…

When I was at that stage in my own game as a teenager in the 1980’s, a lot of coaching offered the following:

  • Prescriptive – that everyone should stand in the same way, have their head in the same position, and have the same grip position as everyone else.
  • Following ancient wisdoms (eg you must ‘brace your shoulders’, ‘have your bridge arm ram rod straight’) – the logic to which the coach could not explain.
  • Many sensible sounding opinions contradicted each other (eg you must have a ‘short bridge / long bridge’, ‘square stance / open stance’) – yet both arguments seemed convincing.
  • The insistence that I had to go back before I can go forwards (which is not always the case as we sometimes have side effect free improvement / 'habit upgrades')
  • I was in some instances a better player than the coach was
  • I felt they were using me as coaching practice to improve their skills – instead of already having those skills!

Would you like…

Instead of all this doubt and hopelessness, to experience the following:
  • Being able to self diagnose your issues once and for all
  • Knowing – instead of guessing - the way forwards in your game
  • Being certain of the choices you need to make (and knowing the choices you DO NOT need to make!) in your technique, cueing, and practice
  • Knowing you are not alone in your journey
  • Reduced frustration, anger, and helplessness
  • Having a workable improvement path in your game that removes the wasted hours and years testing things that you can never be sure are correct
  • ACTUALLY ENJOYING THE GAME FOR ONCE!

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You now have three options…

You can carry on clutching at straws and guessing on your own – which I had to do for ten years playing the game virtually full time to be able to conquer my frustration and inability to pull my self out of ruts and problems.

You can carry on sifting through conflicting opinions on YouTube, Facebook, Forums, and in the club - not knowing for sure if you are doing the right thing... but wondering if in eight months or eight years time you will find out you have been following the incorrect advice correctly... or the correct advice incorrectly!

You can find a solution to solving your problems in the game with the world’s largest collection of resources for helping you ‘GO From Where You Are… To Where You Want To BE’…

If your choice is to

'Being Where You Want To BE',

Here is how the

'Beat Your Highest Break Club' works:

*** Text in  GREEN BOX  below each step indicates benefits you will get from being a member ***

STEP 1:

  • After having signed up to get instant access, you will be guided through a self rating analysis of your game which will be your starting point.
  • You then learn what self diagnosis and self prescription are, and how to prioritise and sequence these steps
  • You can then use our 'Optimum Technique Finder' to confirm or correct all the defaults in your technique. This is something many players never even conceive of, let alone achieve… It means you will be able to play snooker with the peace of mind of knowing that your set up at the table is correct, and that you are not missing because of incorrect technique decisions but because it is a difficult game and you have not perfectly grooved your optimum setup yet.

To help you learn these points and move forwards we use flow charts, video archive clips, and video analysis clips of players with issues like yours.

Our goal is to help you with your mind set, habit upgrades, shot making knowledge, and practice methodology.

STEP 2:

You then learn about understanding the game itself and planning your improvement.

To help you do this, we offer the following:

  • Over 50 articles categorised to specific areas of the game.
  • 138 archive videos covering 24 sub-topics in the game. These are the most common issues raised in client 'Five Day Master Class' sessions... and would cost you over £2,000 in one to one learning time to cover with me.
  • The positional play curriculum – over 30 videos and 10 diagrams explaining the 12 Principles Of Positional Play as used by all pros.
  • Pro shot demonstrations and explanation videos created by myself to help you understand how the big shots are played on TV
  • We will break down the training content into our 10, 20, 30, 40, 60, 80, & 100 break levels of achievement – meaning you will always have exercises to work on based on your own level in the game.
  • For ease of reference, the content throughout the site is categorised into seven areas of the game: Technique, Cueing, Aiming/Sighting/Potting, Positional Play, Break Building, Safety, Psychology.

STEP 3:

You are then taken through the principles of HOW to practice, so that you get the most ‘Improvement Per Hour’ from your table time in your own individual situation.

Our 13 coaching, learning, and practice principles will get you fluent in these concepts…

STEP 4:

You then cover WHAT to practice in your game for your given situation.

  • For this stage, we have a collection of 95 beautifully designed practice routines with accompanying video spread across the different areas of the game.
  • Getting regular updates on practice plans, new content, and ideas on how to acquire the skills you want adds even more value to this collection of routines.
  • As time goes on, we will release  short term practice plans that will guide you toward specific improvements in specific parts of the game.

STEP 5:

You will then want to know how to APPLY what you are learning into frames and matches.

To help you learn this, we have video clips from our archive that we have organised to give you an edge over your competition in this area. These cover match preparation, match psychology, shot selection, and other tips on how to do better in frames.

STEP 6:

To put all this together for you and get you the individual attention that you need to get certain questions answered, we have some unique interactive services on offer that are unique in cue sports coaching.

⭐ Sharing Success
We have a growing collection of Success Case Study videos that we will continue to add for your ongoing inspiration and learning. If you reach your targets and have a story to tell, I am happy to consider interviewing you in a case study video of your own.

⭐ Nic’s Favourite Things
I have assembled a collection of over 25 of my favourite training tools, cue tips, other equipment, secret resources, and awesome books to give you an edge over your competition. It has taken me 30 years to come up with this list – and I hope you agree they will give you the shortcuts and benefits I got from them.

⭐ Private Support Group (without the downsides of Facebook... because it is in your own membership area)
Here you share your trials and tribulations, and are able to give and receive comments to myself and other members.

⭐ Monthly Live Video Conference With Myself
We have pioneered this service in cue sports coaching, and this intimate yet informal service allows us all to connect as a group. In these live video calls I will answer questions submitted beforehand, and respond to live questions. Recordings of these calls will go into your membership area with the topics covered listed for ease of reference.

STEP 7:

You can then let us know what you want to have in the Beat Your Highest Break Club.

The BYHB Club is very much a work in progress. We listen to all feedback, opinions, and ideas through various channels so that we can be responsive to your need to ‘GO From Where You Are… To Where You Want To BE’

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Why is a community or online club valuable?

Growing together requires more than just good content…

  • It is how to apply the content that counts...
  • It is getting support in habitualising the knowledge and lessons...
  • It is about knowing what the minimum necessary is, to get the maximum possible from your game...
  • It is about knowing from all the available knowledge, what nugget is best for you in your game right now – no more watching 741 YouTube videos every week with conflicting advice, wondering what to apply to yourself, in what sequence, and if that advice addresses only your symptom… or the actual causes of your symptom!
  • No matter what you are feeling the most frustration around, or what you want to get most out of your game right now… there is content for you in the Beat Your Highest Break Club.

What makes me qualified to offer you these solutions?


My brief history in snooker is:

1978
(age 8!)		 Started playing
  As a teenager, started categorising knowledge in the writing which was my first attempt at my long held dream of creating the ultimate resource for snooker knowledge.
1986
 Made first 100 break
1991
 Made first 147 break
1992
 Turned pro and competed on the pro tour for six years in the world’s top 200 players
1998 Decided that continuing my snooker playing career would slow down my dreams in teaching players about the game… so stopped playing immediately and launched Nic Barrow Snooker Schools in Oxford. Very shortly afterwards, I applied for the job as UAE National Team Coach based in Dubai, was accepted, and stayed 7 years.
2004 I took my Examiner Certifications in Hypnotherapy, Time Line Therapy, and Neuro Linguistic Programming – helping me know how to deal with all levels of players more effectively.
2005

The world amateur body (the IBSF) appointed me head coach trainer – and over the next ten years I used The Snooker Gym methods to certify over 150 coaches for them.
2009

I worked with Ronnie O’Sullivan… rekindling the relationship we had as players when we competed together in pro-am competitions many times as kids (I even won a match against him when he was 15!)

2010

I was in World Snooker’s WPBSA coaching team with Steve Davis OBE where I certified coaches with them for 5 years.

World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association Coaching Programme
2012

I was appointed by the English Association for Snooker & Billiards (EASB) to lead the technical part of their coach certification programme for 6 years.
2013/14

I worked with Ding Junhui during his five ranking tournament winning season – helping him rise from number 10 in the world to number 1 for the first time… in a period of six weeks.
2014

Won the APCTC Specialist Coach Of The Year Award - a prestigious trophy open to coaches of all disciplines (not only snooker) in the UK

photo nic-wining-award
2015 Made the world’s first head cam 100 break. Watch the video HERE
2016 We were the first YouTube snooker coaching channel with 10,000 subscribers
  • The Snooker Gym Ltd, founded in 2005, now has clients in over 100 countries – and I have visited 52 at the time of writing (June 2019).
  • Whilst I have worked with juniors, beginners, adults, amateurs, non English speakers, federations, national teams, top level / mid level / first year professionals, training coaches, and every other genre of coaching… my chosen favourite category is working with adult amateurs who play 2-10 hours a week – and this is the type of player the Beat Your Highest Break Club is designed for.
  • I have turned down many high paying and high profile roles as they didn’t feel a right fit for my purpose in life which is to help players just like you unlock the secrets of the game AND FINALLY ENJOY IT FOR ONCE!

Samples of some of what you will get in the...
'Beat Your Highest Break Club'

 
 
 
 
More clients case studies are featured in the membership area such as:
  • Mark White from the USA, who made his first total clearance – a 137.
  • Denis Soriano from France, who was delighted to make his first 40 break in a frame.
  • Simon Wong from Australia, who was excited to make his first colours clearance in a match.
  • Hussam Al Saffar from Denmark, who was amazed to win his first tournament in super-quick time.
  • Morteza Wejdani of Bahrain, who applied technique and training principles over a two year period to make his first 100 break in a frame.
  • Atle Sponberg of Norway, who stuggled to make a 30 break on the ‘line up’ routine, but within a year had made his first ‘line up’ century.
  • Umr Hayat from Norway, who had taken five years to reach 36 centuries, but after one session and one more year of playing had passed the 100 centuries milestone.

The principles and beliefs we live by:

  • Everything in technique, serves our goal of delivering the cue better. 
  • Every player has an optimised technique, that is unique to them.
  • Things should be as simple as possible, but no simpler.
  • We are mostly aware of our symptoms, not the causes of those symptoms.
  • All causes hide a positive intention, which can help us dissolve the cause and the symptom.
  • Learning is one thing, applying that knowledge is another.
  • No one can ever pot everything, as the game is too difficult.
  • You are never frustrated with your game, only with your broken wants or expectations.

Q&A / FAQ

We have opted for a 'Netflix style' model whereby for a low monthly cost, you get access to many channels of content.

Remember that you will get all the content mentioned above for as long as you are a member.
I will offer perspective, personal experience, and practices to help you get through the frustrations in your game – all of which I have gone through myself.
(NO MINIMUM lock in periods, cancel ANY TIME with a few clicks)

Options to join our Beat Your Highest Break Club

MONTHLY

£8.95

Per Month

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QUARTERLY

£22.95

Every Three Month

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YEARLY

£79.95

Per Year

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