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Ssb - sticking up for the players
On the first day of any job you are shown what to do: where to go, who to speak to, what your duties are.
This is not the case for snooker players and never has been. As I’ve written before, a new professional is just expected to turn up with a cue and start playing.
And that is pretty much it. The WPBSA, despite being a ‘members’ association has a poor track record when it comes to inducting players into life as a professional.
The effect has been corrosive. Players accused now of being selfish and not seeing the bigger picture may look at things differently had they been properly schooled.
They have historically not had it explained to them what their professional duties actually are.
There’s been no media training, no financial advice, no steers on dealing with managers and obtaining personal sponsorship.
There was a programme a decade ago, the Young Players of Distinction, which addressed a lot of this, but only for a chosen few.
The rest have just had to get on with it and many have found it difficult.
Snooker players by and large are single minded: snooker is their passion and they need help in other areas.
It seems like a dream profession to many but away from the actual playing it can be boring, lonely and often overwhelming: all that time to think about what can go wrong.
Thankfully, the WPBSA chairman, Jason Ferguson, a former player himself, is addressing these issues.
As part of a wide ranging development programme, which includes a more concrete structure to link the professional game with the grass roots of the amateur ranks, new Centres of Excellence are being launched to provide facilities to nurse talent.
One such centre will be the excellent South West Snooker Academy in Gloucester, whose launch was earlier this week.
But Ferguson also recognises that new players should be looked after more by the very association of which they are members.
“The day I turned professional I was 21 and I was suddenly thrown into a professional sport,” Ferguson said.
“I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t know where to go. I didn’t even know who the tournament director was.
“I remember spending the first two weeks of my professional career wondering why I’d bothered and I never want a player to ever feel like that again.
“I think it’s crucial that when new players qualify for the tour they are shown the ropes. It’s vital that we are responsible as a governing body to our members, for the players.”
Nobody would disagree with that, but problems remain in this bright new era.
Several amateur players at the PTC in Sheffield have had their match times changed. Indeed the draw seems to have changed for some of them.
Some players on Twitter said that they believed they had today off and were playing tomorrow but that this has now been altered.
This is clearly the last thing they need. Playing snooker for a living brings sufficient pressure without organisational problems adding to it.
The raft of new playing opportunities are of course exciting but even this brings additional pressure: making sure the entries are in on time, booking hotels and flights, practising enough but not too much, pacing throughout a long season.
Some players have people to do all this for them but, ultimately, they are alone in the arena. Snooker is about as solitary a sport as there is.
Players take a lot of stick. That is the nature of being in the public eye, where your every action and decision is endlessly analysed and criticised. Sometimes that criticism is warranted.
But they are human like the rest of us and deserve better support than they have historically enjoyed.
They are, after all, the people who bring this great game alive.
More...
This is not the case for snooker players and never has been. As I’ve written before, a new professional is just expected to turn up with a cue and start playing.
And that is pretty much it. The WPBSA, despite being a ‘members’ association has a poor track record when it comes to inducting players into life as a professional.
The effect has been corrosive. Players accused now of being selfish and not seeing the bigger picture may look at things differently had they been properly schooled.
They have historically not had it explained to them what their professional duties actually are.
There’s been no media training, no financial advice, no steers on dealing with managers and obtaining personal sponsorship.
There was a programme a decade ago, the Young Players of Distinction, which addressed a lot of this, but only for a chosen few.
The rest have just had to get on with it and many have found it difficult.
Snooker players by and large are single minded: snooker is their passion and they need help in other areas.
It seems like a dream profession to many but away from the actual playing it can be boring, lonely and often overwhelming: all that time to think about what can go wrong.
Thankfully, the WPBSA chairman, Jason Ferguson, a former player himself, is addressing these issues.
As part of a wide ranging development programme, which includes a more concrete structure to link the professional game with the grass roots of the amateur ranks, new Centres of Excellence are being launched to provide facilities to nurse talent.
One such centre will be the excellent South West Snooker Academy in Gloucester, whose launch was earlier this week.
But Ferguson also recognises that new players should be looked after more by the very association of which they are members.
“The day I turned professional I was 21 and I was suddenly thrown into a professional sport,” Ferguson said.
“I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t know where to go. I didn’t even know who the tournament director was.
“I remember spending the first two weeks of my professional career wondering why I’d bothered and I never want a player to ever feel like that again.
“I think it’s crucial that when new players qualify for the tour they are shown the ropes. It’s vital that we are responsible as a governing body to our members, for the players.”
Nobody would disagree with that, but problems remain in this bright new era.
Several amateur players at the PTC in Sheffield have had their match times changed. Indeed the draw seems to have changed for some of them.
Some players on Twitter said that they believed they had today off and were playing tomorrow but that this has now been altered.
This is clearly the last thing they need. Playing snooker for a living brings sufficient pressure without organisational problems adding to it.
The raft of new playing opportunities are of course exciting but even this brings additional pressure: making sure the entries are in on time, booking hotels and flights, practising enough but not too much, pacing throughout a long season.
Some players have people to do all this for them but, ultimately, they are alone in the arena. Snooker is about as solitary a sport as there is.
Players take a lot of stick. That is the nature of being in the public eye, where your every action and decision is endlessly analysed and criticised. Sometimes that criticism is warranted.
But they are human like the rest of us and deserve better support than they have historically enjoyed.
They are, after all, the people who bring this great game alive.
More...