By Elliott West
“Good luck with that practice”.
Barry Stark
Introduction
Barry Stark is definitely an unsung snooker hero. A senior coach at World Snooker and a regular at the Sheffield Academy, Barry works with amateurs and professionals and has gifted his knowledge to many a player across numerous continents as far away as the Far East. A master of his craft and one of the few brilliant coaches that exist in snooker, Stark is a gentleman of his craft, someone you would be willing to approach to deconstruct your game and turn weaknesses into strengths. A coach who works with the likes of Kyren Wilson, Stark may work in the background but he is definitely a guiding light for so many players.
Background
Barry first became fascinated by snooker at the age of 10/11 when his father bought him and his brother for Christmas a dilapidated 6ft by 3ft tabletop. Quite the handyman, his father renovated the table and cushions to a high standard. A lover of cricket and snooker, he taught his sons the basics of snooker. So you could say snooker was in Barry’s blood. As he grew up, Stark played cricket, football and table tennis but didn’t really touch a snooker cue properly for a lot of years, largely due to the birth of his daughters.
Barry clearly remembers the first time he played on a full-sized snooker table, describing the experience as like playing on a football field with cannonballs, a complete contrast to playing on that renovated table as a child. The marble-sized balls had grown into cannonballs and certainly took a while to get used to.
A Social Media Icon
Barry Stark set up his own YouTube snooker coaching channel and now has an impressive 200,000 subscribers. This all started when Phil, Barry’s YouTube cameraman, during a session when Stark was coaching Phil’s son suggested he wrote a book, impressed by his method of coaching. Barry replied that he had already started but it was a slow process as he was no typist and frankly bored him to death sitting there, not getting past the first chapter. Phil then said he should make a coaching DVD but Barry replied that he couldn’t because he didn’t have a cameraman.
Phil jumped at the chance, a man who was interested in photography and camera work. He suggested they did a piece on camera and he would put it on YouTube and see how it would be received. It was an instant success and really took off from there.
Barry’s Way
A coach whose primary areas are break building and development. When a snooker player plays, he or she takes shots they are comfortable with, often in awkward positions and probably not correct. Stark suggests ironing out these flaws to have half a dozen lessons with a reputable coach, a relatively easy task and coaches can easily be found on the World Snooker website, graded by the number of coaching exams they have passed. Snooker is not a game you can learn on your own. If you try to learn it on your own, you will ignore all the years of evolution and development that snooker has gone through. A good coach can pass that development onto the pupil.
The Stark Ethos
Barry like so many others believes that Ronnie O’Sullivan is the best snooker player in the history of the game but believes that just because he is the best doesn’t mean that he will be able to win every tournament. A player that he likens to Tiger Woods in golf. Ronnie is not infallible and can be beaten. Barry hopes that his pupil Kyren Wilson will defeat him, a player who has already edged out Ding Junhui 10-8 in his first World Championship match and will now face Stuart Bingham in the second round.
Barry’s other snooker hero is the late and great 15 times world champion, Joe Davis. A player who dominated snooker for 20 years in an era when snooker competed on a challenge basis. A fantastic billiards player, Joe brought and transferred his skills for that game into snooker. A lot of the shots that are seen on the snooker table today were devised by Joe Davis. His book, ‘How I Play Snooker’ became the bible for so many players including the six times world champion, Steve Davis.
Bridging the Gap
Stark believes the gap between the lower-ranked players and the top 16 players is closing, especially in the shorter format matches. This is especially true with the Chinese players who have set up home in Sheffield and practice relentlessly in the various snooker academies in the city centre. Players who sometimes work from 10 am to 10 pm. Barry believes that one key element in Chinese snooker success is that the players help each other, it is part of their culture and is sometimes lacking in other cultures. When they win, it is not only the Chinese fans that applaud them but also their colleagues who warmly encourage them and give them a pat on the back. Stark wants this patriotism in the English game.
All Change
Barry Stark is a veteran of snooker and has seen the balls and cloths change over the years. He has seen everything apart from the early days when the snooker balls were made of ivory. The balls are no longer heavy, lighter and the cloth finer. The game may be easier with the balls splitting like peas in a pod but it comes with new problems. A finer cloth means that a flaw in your cue action will quickly be found out with an unintentional side on a shot, causing you to miss the intended shot or pot. The sheen on the cloth will help you put a ball in a pocket providing it is played at the right pace. A complete opposite of years gone by when a thick cloth meant you had to thump the intended ball into the pocket.
Barry and Kyren
Barry Stark first met Kyren Wilson when he was 13/14 years old, Barry can’t exactly remember but in that time he has now reached the heady heights of number 5 in the world rankings and is a four-time event ranking winner. A player who has not only grown in success but stature too, now towering over his coach and someone who Stark is extremely proud of. Kyren once was reticent about playing a tournament in Thailand because he wanted to go on a family holiday to Spain for his father’s 50th birthday but Barry persuaded him to go and play because it would be the best present his father could receive. He took Stark’s advice and won his first title. A joyous occasion that his family watched via a tablet on a Spanish beach.
Kyren wasn’t always the model pupil. In fact, in a Summer camp that Stark was hosting when Wilson was a teenager, he was the only student out of 14/15 that constantly drilled Barry on his mistakes. A pupil that has always been inquisitive, dedicated and has a definite mental strength. A strength born out in his nickname ‘The Warrior’. A player who just gets on with the task at hand.
What makes a good coach?
Stark feels this is an interesting question. A good coach recognises a player’s faults and is able to correct those faults. Barry fits that profile like a glove and gets his students to first play an open table, taking a few shots and then just takes it from there. The key to a good snooker player is the stance, grip, how you splay your hand with the cue and the process of walking into the shot. If you are able to master these mechanics, then you are certainly a step closer to becoming a good or possibly a great snooker player. Most importantly, stay down on the shot after you have taken it.
This piece is based on a recent interview between Barry Stark and Alisha Singh.
