WBL/WPBSA Coaching Course – 10-11th May ’25
The latest WPBSA Coaching Course for Billiards Coaches was held at the Landywood Snooker Club, near Walsall in the UK, on 10th – 11th May 2025.
The course was officiated by multiple World Billiards Champion David Causier along with current English Champion Rob Hall and WBL Head of Coaching, Martin Goodwill. The course was well attended with 14 participants. World Billiards now have over 60 coaches.
During the weekend a wide range of topics were covered, including group discussions on the best methods for teaching half-ball play, informal group quizzes, debates on technical aspects of the game, presentations on coaching techniques, and Q&A sessions with Causier and Hall. The course also featured a technique and cue delivery overview from WPBSA Advanced coach Colin Matty, and participants were split into various groups to share experiences relating to playing and coaching billiards.
Participants attended from various parts of the UK, and included seasoned billiard players, and also existing snooker coaches who are pro-actively looking to introduce billiards to their sessions, in particular among junior players.
All coaches passed an online test in advance of attending the course, and the weekend concluded with practical examinations of coaching scenarios, overseen by examiners.
Colin Matty (Level 3 Snooker Coach) said: “A brilliantly informative, relaxed and fun course, which was excellently led and demonstrated by the experts at hand. As a relative newbie to billiards, I thought it was extremely well put together in terms of content and information, the course has without doubt fully prepared me to go forward with my billiard coaching career. 10/10”
Lee Smith, who is based at London’s RAC Club, said: “My recent two-day World Billiards course, hosted at the wonderful Landywood club near Birmingham, was a veritable who’s-who of billiard heavyweights including current world champion Dave Causier and former UK champion Rob Hall.
The man putting everything together was the amazingly experienced and very knowledgeable Martin Goodwill, author of many books on the subject of billiards.
Everyone who attended the course had to sit an entry exam before being allowed to take part. The exam was based on one of Martin’s books on billiards for beginners as well as a few questions on the rules of the game. And, with an 80% pass rate required, it was pretty challenging in itself.
Test passed and day one underway, the amount of knowledge absorbed sent me back to my hotel room with a throbbing head, but happy with the knowledge that I’d gained that day. It also set me in good stead for the following day where students became teachers and teachers became students in graded exercises.
The course was sponsored by my employer the Royal Automobile Club and will come in very handy as at the club’s billiard section is very healthy with tournaments and assessments for new members interested in learning the great game. So, I’m looking forward to passing on my newly gained knowledge.
To summarise, a big thumbs up for Martin and his cracking team. Long may they continue to spread the billiard word!”
Chris Achilles said: “Great weekend. Really good course, superbly presented by three billiards legends.”
For details of previous coaching courses held by World Billiards, see here.