By Elliott West
“If you make snooker harder than it is, you have no chance”.
Alan Bell
Introduction
Alan Bell is a name that those who have followed snooker for a number of years would have heard of. He joins a number of coaches such as Frank Callan, Terry and Wayne Griffiths and most recently Michael Holt who have put down their cues to dedicate their lives to helping others improve their game. An unsung hero of snooker, Bell has dedicated over thirty years of his life to deconstructing a player’s game and polishing their weaknesses.
The Art of Bell’s Coaching
Of course, there is no textbook way of snooker and Alan rightly believes that you have to have eye/hand coordination to be able to play and the talent to play it consistently well. Bell should know because he has worked in the past with snooker greats such as Joe Johnson, Willie Thorne, Jimmy White and of course Alfie Burden. Alan believes that the only natural thing about a human being is the act of breathing and the rest is down to the individual. It is a learning process but you have to have that skill set to achieve your goals. Sometimes this is a solo act but more commonly others help this dream come true.
Working with Alfie Burden
This is where the role of the snooker coach plays out, excuse the pun. Every coach has a different method of coaching but with Alan, it is what his gut and brain tell him on the day of coaching. He paints a picture of the picture on an imaginary empty canvass as the player walks into the shot on the practice table and goes from there. An obvious example is Alfie Burden who had announced his retirement but then the pandemic lockdown hit and Alfie started missing his former passion for snooker. The rest is history. One phone call to Alan Bell and Burden was back on the practice table, working on his game and largely due to Bell and Burden’s determination, Alfie went on to take part in Q School in Sheffield and regained his tour card in 2021 as a result.
Hard work pays off and in Alfie’s case, it was about looking at his technique and mental attitude. Tweaks and tips ensued as Bell wove these into Burden’s practice pre-shot routine. Alfie won his card on merit and was one of the 14 players, 12 semi-finalist winners and 2 top cards, players who had played consistently well throughout the event that were lucky enough to join this group of professional snooker players. Only 14 out of 220 players made it. Burden won his first match and then lost his second 4-0 but worked with Bell on cancelling out the fractions that caused him to lose. The confidence was always there, even in the moment of defeat and that’s what encourages any player to strive to do better. In this case, it worked because he never lost that burning desire to win. A true mark of any good and great sportsperson.
Life with Jimmy White
Bell also worked with Jimmy White over a number of decades, hailing from the same neck of the woods as White. Bell was a good amateur and played in the snooker clubs in Tooting and Wandsworth, South London such as Zan’s where Tony Meo and Jimmy White played as juniors. Shady clubs where your parents Covid you from going to buy that didn’t deter Tony and Jimmy. Money games were prevalent and if you were a criminal you were quickly dealt with accordingly. Even the police thought twice about going into such establishments and there was even a case of a police Alsatian being thrown back up the cellar stairs of Zan’s with a broken neck when it went down to sniff out a bouncer who was hiding in the cellar.
Bell used to play doubles with Jimmy and went on to support him at four World Championships in Sheffield. Alan worked on White’s control and becoming more consistent in certain areas of his game. He would go on to accompany White playing across the world for the next nine years, a task that Bell freely admits wasn’t easy, as you were coaching a snooker genius. Alan was there as a reminder to Jimmy to click his mind into concentration mode when it was needed. Bell feels that coaching Jimmy was easy because it was easy. He didn’t win the World Championship largely due to events in his private life which will always remain private and rightly so. You have to respect a player’s privacy away from the snooker table. Jimmy just needed fine-tuning and won a number of tournaments away from the World Championship thanks to Bell’s input. After a brief parting, Alan would go on to work again with White in 2004 and went on to defeat Paul Hunter 9-7 in the final of the Players Championship in Glasgow.
Alex Higgins
Alan Bell knew the man dubbed ‘The Hurricane’ very well and describes the man from Belfast city as a snooker genius. A player who shouldn’t in theory have played well due to frenzied movement before each shot and not using his trigger finger to control the cue. However, in that split second of the cue impacting the cue ball, Higgins remained still and went on to create so many well-catalogued shots and winning breaks. Bell was even there for that breathtaking 69 break in his semi-final match against Jimmy White at the 1982 World Championship which Alex would go to win and subsequently raised his second World Championship trophy, ten years after his first against John Spencer in 1972. Higgins defeated Ray Reardon 18-15 in the final. A victory that was accompanied by emotional tears and kissing his baby daughter Lauren.
The Grassroots
Alan Bell believes that without a massive overhaul of the amateur game, snooker will never develop players for the future. The players who get through Q School are largely those who have dropped off the tour in recent years such as Barry Pinches, Craig Steadman and Peter Lines. Maybe a few dedicated Chinese players will break through but without massive investment and more competitions, the amateur game will continue to struggle instead of thriving. The days of Pontins’ amateur events have gone. These were wonderful snooker festivals where over 200 amateur players turned up and went on to produce many of the professional snooker players of yesteryear. When Bell was growing up there used to be an amateur event every weekend somewhere in the UK and players would enjoy getting on a train or in a car to get to them.
Yes, the likes of Higgins, O’Sullivan and Williams are still at the top of the game as they approach their fifties but all they have to do is maintain their game. Aside from Judd Trump, the field is thin and if they look over their shoulder for future amateur talent, they will be star gazing for many years unless things drastically change. World Snooker has started to make tweaks to the tour but frankly, they have only scratched the surface. Steve Feeney has also made proposals but they are yet to come to fruition. This could be a long and winding road for the amateur game but there is hope with players such as Leone Crowley, Stan Moody, Dylan Smith and Jamie Wilson. However, Aaron Hill from Cork did recently turn professional in 2020.
Afterthoughts
Alan Bell is one of a rare breed of coaches that lives and breathes snooker. Whether working with amateurs or professionals in pool or snooker, Bell has a magical touch and a unique stamp that seems to work well for a lot of players. He devises his coaching in the moment and tailors his coaching style to the individual in hand. Bell is patient and motivated to get that winning result. It may take time but imperfections can be transformed into perfections. Now in his sixties, Bell has a wealth of experience and once persuaded Joe Johnson, the 1986 world champion to revert back to his tried and tested one-piece cue after he briefly dabbled with a two-piece cue due to converting his cue and his game stuttered momentarily.
Alan is still going strong and recently time coaching pool and snooker players in Denmark and Norway. A man who is inspirational to many and keen to work with those who contact him via phone, messenger or email. His coaching skills are unique and produce results. A waiting game that produces victories and enthuses confidence with his practice methods. Bell is here to stay and remains in high demand. Alan is a flair coach who ripped up the scientific book when he started coaching. He can suss out a person’s character from the moment they walk through the door and goes from there. He has an art of unshackling inner talent, an amateur who was once 5th/6th best in London and 13th in the UK, only stopped from turning professional due to a slight shake in his back arm.
