The Snooker Gym Coach Certification Programme
If snooker or pool are in your blood,
and you like helping others…
Turn your knowledge into a part or full time business transforming other players…
Our Curriculum Offers The Quickest Route To Mastery
In The 11 Areas Of Coaching
|
Level 1: |
Level 2: |
Level 3: |
|
| PLAYING SKILLS (107 modules in total) | |||
| Psychology | Not covered | Lightly covered | Heavily covered |
| Technique | Heavily covered | Heavily covered | Lightly covered |
| Cue Control | Heavily covered | Heavily covered | Lightly covered |
| Vision Centre / Alignment / Sighting / Aiming & Angles | Heavily covered | Lightly covered | Not covered |
| Positional Play | Heavily covered | Lightly covered | Not covered |
| Break Building | Lightly covered | Heavily covered | Not covered |
| Safety | Not covered | Heavily covered | Lightly covered |
| How To Practice | Lightly covered | Heavily covered | Not covered |
| COACHING SKILLS (22 modules in total) | |||
| Teaching & Presentation Skills | Lightly covered | Lightly covered | Heavily covered |
| Business Building | Lightly covered | Heavily covered | Heavily covered |
| Advanced Skills | Not covered | Lightly covered | Heavily covered |
Teaching & Presentation Skills include:
- Dealing with student resistance
- Awkward student situations
- Solving ‘impossible’ problems
- Conversational hypnotic patterns
- Rapport skills (when & how to follow / push)
- How to coach players better than you are
- What to do (and how to tell!) when a student disagrees with you
- Worry free group presentations
Business Building includes:
- What is marketing, how to do it, and WHY to do it
- Crafting offers for your services
- Earn up to 50% commission selling Snooker Gym digital products
- Pricing & packages theory
- Handicapping and ranking systems
- Running tournaments
- Designing and selling group trainings
- Continuity programmes
- Organising coaching tours locally / nationally / internationally
Advanced Skills include:
- Finding the WHY behind your coaching (using the method Nic used in 1989)
- Delivering the 'How To Make A 100 Break' Red to Black Certificate System
- Club poster pack options
- Working with pros / national teams / federations
- Negotiating contracts with pros / federations / business partners
- Should you even take on a business partner!
- Digital and physical product development
- Technology and IT in coaching
- The best video analysis tools
- Distance coaching platforms
- Lessons learned from helping Ding win 5 events in one season
- The Ronnie Module – what I learned working with this one off player in 2009/10 & 2023/24
If you are anything like me, you have experienced
'Frozen Coaching Moments' like these:
- The first time I coached anyone (my school friend Lawrence O’Toole in 1985 when I was 15!):
I had no clue what to say, or what to do – and although I was a much better player than him I just felt lost and as though I was making it up. - The first time I coached someone and I could not work out how he could get better.
This was in about 1992, and this player had a highest break of 63 but to me looked to have a better technique than Steve Davis! I could not work out how to solve his potting and cueing issues because I did not know where to look. It was only many years later than I worked out the process I should have gone through to make no errors slip through my awareness. - The first time I coached 100 break players.
In fact, this was also my first role as a national team coach – overseeing the UAE team in my full time contract living in Dubai from 1999-2006. Even though I had made a 147 many years earlier (and was a better player than anyone on the team at the time), I still felt extremely intimidated and as if I was a charlatan. - The first time I coached a world champion / world number one player.
Whilst back in the UK on holiday from my role as UAE head coach, I was invited to a ladies ranking tournament where I would be a coach on hand for the day for any players interested.
The world champion and ladies world number 1 at the time – Kelly Fisher – was one of those players… I was so nervous as I saw this as a huge feather in my cap and something I had always wanted to do. After watching her play for a few minutes and methodically came up with three points to work on. I was so scared of forgetting them that I had to secretly scribble them down on a scrap of paper when she wasn’t looking so that I could refer to them during the remainder of the one hour session!
All these thresholds helped me reach a point in 2009 where I was coaching Ronnie O’Sullivan at the world championships for the first time… and felt he could not do or say anything which could destabilise me.
I had so much doubt when I started coaching...
The Snooker Gym Coach Certifications solve all these.
WORRIES ABOUT NOT KNOWING ENOUGH…
- What if a player asked me a question I did not know the answer to?
- What if I am not sure about various parts of the game?
- What if I make a mistake and the player gets worse?
AM I GOOD ENOUGH AS A PLAYER, OR CAN I DEMONSTRATE PROPERLY?
- What if the player knows more than me on something?
- What if I can’t demonstrate the shot I am explaining?
- What if the student can play better than me?
- What if they talk behind my back about me?
DEALING WITH THE LESSON ITSELF
- How do I structure a lesson?
- What do I say?
- What if I get stuck on something (and, worse, the player wants to stop the training)?
- How do I finish a session properly?
MONEY MATTERS!
- How much do I charge?
- How do I ask for another session?
- How do I create recurring income?
- What is the best method of payment?
Why I Left The WPBSA Coaching Team in 2011...
- I was in the WPBSA Coach Examiner Team with Steve Davis OBE from 2009-2011, but left to build what coaches really need to feel bullet proof with any player in any situation.
- This project has taken until now to complete, and our new Level 1 Coach curriculum is pitched to be at a similar level to WPBSA Level 3.
- This, though, is nowhere near the detail in the qualifications for the PGA (Professional Golf Association), whom I have visited on numerous occasions at their HQ in The Belfry to learn about coach education.
- The comparison table below also shows where I view my esteemed peers Chris Henry and Steve Feeney to have placed their technical content versus WPBSA.
| Level 3: Coach Examiner £2250-3000 |
|||
| Level 2: Master Coach £1000-1500 |
|||
| Level 1: Coach Online only – no travel £375-750 |
Level 3 (Advanced) £1295 |
Master Coach By Invitation Price on Application |
|
| Level 2 £650 |
Coach £1495 - £2995 £30+ per month license fee |
Coach £1100 |
|
| Level 1 £299 |
|||
|
The Snooker Gym |
WPBSA |
SightRight |
Chris Henry Sports |
| Main focus of awarding body | |||
| Working with frustrated amateurs who will pay, and converting all knowledge into online solutions |
World Governing Body | Working with main tour pros |
Working with main tour pros |
The Snooker Gym believes in freedom for coaches...
- There is no monthly license fee.
- We do not ask you to protect patents that have expired.
- You are not restricted to coaching in one club.
- You can coach using our content, or anyone else's content.
- We applaud our students who earn other certifications.
- We are happy if our Level 1 coaches work with pros and federations - you don't need our permission to do so.
- You are encouraged to record coaching sessions for the student's future reference, and can use that video anywhere you both see fit (eg social media).
What Makes Me Qualified To Train Coaches?
- Travelled to over 50 countries to coach cue sports, and have customers in over 100 countries.
- Organised a 10 stop 'Round The World Coaching Tour' with virtually every day packed.
- Worked to a world class level with juniors, club players, social media, product development, national federations, world federations, rookie professionals, and the greatest players of all time.
- Helped players win junior events, club tournaments, world amateur championships, Triple Crown professional titles, and helped Ding become world number one in 2013/14 when he won 5 ranking events.
- Certified over 150 coaches with official endorsement from:
▪️ The English Association for Snooker & Billiards (2010-2013)
▪️ The International Billiards & Snooker Federation (2004-2014).
▪️ The World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association (2009-2012).
The first group certification of the new Snooker Gym Coach Programme, in Singapore.
Working with the Thai national team at their HQ in Bangkok.
In Ronnie’s snooker room, where he tasked me to transform issues with the table, lighting, acoustics, and comforts & conveniences.
Ronnie gave me his old table light, and wrote some kind words on it for me: "The best coach in the world..."
I found a magic technique to help reduce the normally unbearable Crucible pressure in this situation by 80%. I will share this on the course…
It was a great compliment to be asked to make a guest appearance on Eurosport during the UK Champs…
Kamran Shahla applied the lessons we covered in the IBSF Master Coach Certification in Iran in 2010.
At an event one month after our training, his 17 year old student Hossein Vofei took the world record of youngest ever world amateur champion from Jimmy White MBE - by winning the final 10-9 on the final black!
For More Case Studies of Snooker Gym Coaches
CLICK HERE (link opens in a new page)…
The Snooker Gym’s Purpose
We Help Frustrated Amateurs,
To Beat Their Highest Break
Why Intense Frustration & Anger Led To These Courses:
- My intense love for the game as a kid, led to the intense frustration many players feel!
- Anger then arose because no one had bothered to decode the game into 'A magic portal that would help any player of any standard... to solve any problem at any time'.
- I realised if I was the angriest person in the world about this, then I should be the one to build it.
- This course is what I have devoted the last forty years of my life to building.
How you become a Snooker Gym Coach
 |
|
|
Level 1: |
Level 2: |
Level 3: |
|
| Application Criteria | Highest break of 40+ (exceptions considered) |
Highest break of 100+ (exceptions considered) Level 1 completed |
Regular 100+ breaks (exceptions considered) Level 2 completed |
| Fees | Pay fee in full | Pay fee in full | Pay fee in full |
| Online Assets | *Snooker Gym affiliate (earn up to 50% on our digital products) |
**Highlights of the ‘Coaching Mastery Archive’: 30 key topics |
**The full ‘Coaching Mastery Archive’: 150 key topics |
| Online Study | 14 hours | 12 hours | 10 hours, plus 4 books |
| Online Written Test | 1 hour | 2 hours | 2 hours |
| ***Film TSG Demos | 10 shots, and send to us |
16 shots, and send to us |
N/A |
| ****Contact time | Over distance | 3 days | 5 days |
| Certification | Receive signed & stamped certificate by post | Live certificate presentation | Live certificate presentation |
| The Exciting Stuff | Market your business and transform players! | Market your business and transform players! | Market your business and transform players & coaches! |
*Snooker Gym Affiliates
You can immediately earn up to 50% on sales of our monthly membership and digital courses – with our highest value offer being £2,000.
**Coaching Mastery Archive
Nic recorded over 800 live coaching session videos with students, across 150 key topics. They represent best practice for seeing how Nic dealt with difficult moments, struggling students, and complex problems.
***TSG Demos
Our proprietary technique, cueing, and shot demonstration skills that coaches need to pass… made with easy online instructions.
****Contact time comprises:
🔸 Theory
🔸 Application
🔸 Demonstration
🔸 Knowledge stress testing
🔸 Tech Tools
🔸 Q&A
Main Tour Pros
These courses are very knowledge and demonstration intensive. Passing these will take you out of automatic playing mode, which can temporarily reduce playing performance.
Let's talk first, to explore your goals for attending.
|
Level 1: |
Level 2: |
Level 3: |
|
| Venue & Dates |
Online only | Tue 9 – Fri 12 June 2026 London, UK |
To Be Confirmed |
| Price |
£750 |
£1,500 |
£3,000 |
| Bonuses |
|
|
HOW TO REGISTER:
Step 1: If Nic has not personally sent you the link to this page, you are not yet invited.
Please complete the Coach Profile below.
Step 2: Join our community where you will get access to your Coach Curriculum.
You can pay either £14.70/month or £147/year which immediately qualifies you for the discounts shown above.
https://www.thesnookergym.com/beat-your-highest-break-club
Step 3: After you have joined BYHB (or if you are already a member), please email Nic to specify whether you are booking for Level 1, or applying for Level 2 as well.
