By Elliott West
Introduction
Wayne Griffiths has a talented pedigree. His father, Terry Griffiths is the holder of the snooker Triple Crown, having won the World Championship in 1979, defeating Dennis Taylor 24-16 as a qualifier and went on to win the Masters in 1980 and the UK Championship in 1982. Terry or the ‘Griff’ as he is fondly known, has passed on his snooker genes to his son. Terry, who went on to become a very successful snooker coach, recently passed the mantle on to his son, who has been working alongside him in his snooker coaching capacity so that he can take a more relaxed approach to retirement.
Career
Wayne Griffiths has been the Head Coach of Billiard Sports at the Hong Kong Sports Institute since 2010. Responsible for pool and snooker, Griffiths has been a WPBSA snooker coach for more than ten years and recently qualified as a SightRight instructor. Wayne has worked with a whole host of professional snooker players including Marco Fu, Andy Lee, and Ng On Yee, the multiple world women’s champion and around twenty other elite players.
Wayne can be very proud of his efforts, being in charge of a team of players and coaches that have secured International Federation world champions at senior and junior level in both snooker and pool. Griffiths cites his success on his great team that includes the former professional snooker player, David Roe, Alan Wong and the pool coach, Michele Nip. A winning combination and formula that has enabled many players to achieve their potential in the last decade. The institute is also visited several times a year by Lee Walker and Kelly Fisher.
Wayne said of his success:
“I joined HKSI as Head Coach just before the 2010 Asian Games.Billiard Sports joined HKSI in 2009 when the sport scored enough points to be considered for elite funding as a Tier A sport. This allowed an enhanced budget, a training grant for each player, travel expenses and a Head Coach. Unfortunately for them – that Head Coach turned out to be me!”
The Welshman has a very clear vision in the development of snooker, by getting the armchair fan via encouragement to take up the sport and to increase the popularity of snooker worldwide. An expansion that requires a great deal of thought and nurturing. If anyone can do, Wayne can and he is already proving it in leaps and bounds.
Wayne, along with his father Terry have also created Snooker Quotients, the first-ever global handicap system, where players can register and compare their snooker skills accurately with others from all over the world. The system allows users to gain access to proven training methods used by elite players to deliver world-class results alongside remote coaching and feedback from top coaches.
