This month my 147 Academy travelled to Helsinki in Finland to hold a Snooker Developmental Training Camp on behalf of the Finland Billiards & Snooker Federation. Eighteen players were selected to avail of the Coaching and Training in the superb Cabin Street Snooker Club in Helsinki with five snooker tables in private members room.
Some of the players have represented Finland in the recent European EBSA and World IBSF Snooker Championships and the standard was very high throughout the camp from the two groups.
The Players
In Group 1 was Juha Lehto, Paavo Laihonen, Pertti Salo, Juha Erkinmikko, Risto Maattanen, Jukka Hamalainen, Sami Karttunen, Antti Silvo and Vinski Lindqvist.
In Group 2 was Tuure Lappalainen, Eelis Lappalainen, Janne Hakkinen, Jere Virtaranta, Juhana Hautala, Tero Nappari, Marko Micic, Tomi Leinonen and Tom Stormbom.
All the players practiced various routines against eachother to improve Technical, Mental and Scoring to improve their Concentration, Cue Ball Control, Break Building, Tactical and Safety games. Each player received a CD of their playing techniques plus a new training programs to study at home.
Challenge Winners
The overall winner of the Technical Challenge was Tuure Lappalainen with a stunning 86pts, second was Antti Silvo with 84pts and third was Sami Karttunen with 82pts.
The overall winner of the Mental Challenge was Juha Erkinmikko with a fantastic score of 139pts, second was Tero Nappari with 113pts and third was Tuure Lappalainen with 109pts.
The overall winner of the Scoring Challenge was Juha Erkinmikko with a superb score of 416pts, second was Eelis Lappalainen with 383pts and third was Jere Virtaranta with 353pts.
High Breaks
There was a number of high breaks on my academy routines during the camp with Janne Hakkinen 131 on the Star Break being the highest. Eelis Lappalainen had a 116 on the Walden Break and Sami Karttunen had the other century a 103 on the Maguire Break.
Training Plan
Each player was coached on improving their technique, shot selection and a new training structure was designed to motivate the players to train more. They practiced from 10am – 6pm each day and I worked on getting each player into the correct approach, address position and stance position using my alignment laser.
Thank You
I would like to thank Sami Karttunen for ensuring everything went perfect during my trip and all the players in making in a great success. It was a pleasure training them all as their commitment was superb and I really hope it helps to build up their confidence to train better to improve more.
Finally thank you to the Finnish Billiards & Snooker Federation and The Cabin Street Snooker Club for inviting me and I look forward to holding another Coaching Camp in 2019.
