Snookered Again

 

The home of snooker

 

Yesterday I watched the final of the Snooker World Championship, seeing Mark Selby beat Shaun Murphy 18 – 15, and as often happens when watching snooker I kept seeing comparisons with Wing Chun.

 

There were two elements in particular, the journey for the student and the watching and waiting for the teacher.

 

 First of all let me explain the Students Journey I referred to;

 

 Potting a red ball seems so basic, and, when break building of course, once you have potted the red, you then get to move onto a colour.

Sometimes you may aim for a high scoring ball in order to get as many points as possible in as shorter time as possible, even though this may be risky.

But when you DO manage to score from a colour after the red, you have to go back to the basics and once again pot a red.

Only when enough time has been spent potting the reds (all fifteen of them), can you then focus purely on the colours themselves.

 

 

Moving now onto the View of the teacher;

 

Every time I watched the start of a break, this was like viewing a new beginner course starting.

So many hopefuls with views of making it all the way, learning the entire system, becoming skilled in Chi Sau and then one day perhaps becoming a teacher themselves.

From the fifteen reds that begin their journey (the break), how many times will we actually see all balls potted and get down to just the colours remaining.

 

Not very often.

 

So many breaks will fall short and so many new breaks will begin.

 

BUT

 

Occasionally we DO get to see a break begin, with slowly but surely all the reds being potted into the pockets as planned, through practicing day after day, to get down to just the colours remaining and we get to watch them too drop one by one, until only the black ball remains.

 

When this ball is potted, we have our champion, our top student, or, our teacher.

 

So if you are one of those who truly wish to make it to be a teacher, don’t give up the first time to miss a shot.

 

Keep practicing, learn from your mistakes and learn from others, and eventually, one by one you will see your skills grow and you will get where you want to be.

 

And DO NOT rush.

 

‘The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long’