I began playing Snooker on a full-sized table in 1984 at the age of 14 and compiled my first competitive century break a year later. Over the next few seasons, I became a regular century-break maker and managed a 140-total clearance in a junior tournament, which was pretty rare in those days.

At the age of 20, I became the youngest qualified coach in the history of the sport after the WPBSA allowed me to take my National Coaching Certificate with Jack Karnham 5 years earlier than was ever previously permitted. This opportunity was mainly down to the late, great Merseyside Secretary Ted Robinson who’s determination to accept me onto the course would later help shape my career path.

At around the same time I was playing 6 to 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, and with this my results on the Pro-Am circuit started to improve quite dramatically. I began to win some of these tournaments and was making between 2 and 8 centuries a day in practice matches/matches. And by the time I’d reached my 23rd birthday, I had already surpassed the 2000 century breaks mark.

I suppose on paper I was becoming a potential prospect within the game but unlike now I wasn’t a very confident person back then. I also wasn’t sure whether I was cut out for a life on the pro circuit as my love of coaching was becoming ever more apparent, and the players that I was working with in my spare time were seeing some very positive results.

When I eventually decided to give the pro’s a go it coincided with someone offering me what turned out to be some very damaging advice on the technical side of my game. I was always a very free-flowing, quick and instinctive player who got through the ball with expression, but there I was being challenged to play shots whilst attempting to keep an old two-pence coin on the point of my elbow on both my backswing and delivery. The idea was that it was going to make me more compact and consistent under pressure.

I became very good at this challenge very quickly, but what I didn’t know was that I was storing up some major problems. Long story short, and as much as the person meant well, I ended up with (what I later knew to be) the yips when playing anything to the right-hand side of an object ball. A debilitating condition for which there’s generally often no way back from.

I think I knew deep down that something was seriously wrong, and as much as tried to dismiss it from my mind all the hard-earned confidence that had been built up throughout the amateur ranks was ebbing away. So by the time I was starting my pro qualifiers at Blackpool in 1993, I was already done, I just didn’t want to believe it.

I stuck it out for 2 years but the condition was getting worse and I was losing lots of matches that I would have been winning comfortably beforehand. The decision to quit playing competitively was an emotional one, but looking back now, and in the long run, my personality was far more suited to helping develop players than it was to continue with a career in the pro ranks.

From there on I began to teach on a more regular basis and I was really enjoying my new role, and over the next few years, I continued to work with an increasingly higher standard of players.

Encouraged by the progress being made, my wife Paula and I opened The Liverpool Academy of Snooker Excellence. Somewhere players of all standards could go and improve their game, and they did.

With no bar or fruit machines, It was a challenge just keeping this place open but it was also a fantastic time, and having the chance to work with such a variety of players of all ages, styles and abilities was proving to be a priceless learning curve for me. It also made me realise just how flexible my approach would need to become. And if I was going to help take the potential for guesswork away from the players I was working with I was going to need some assistance. This came in the form of some very specific training aids that I’d created to assist in improvement throughout the shot process.

Some of these developments began to win innovation awards for product design and this area of my work was becoming very demanding on my time. It eventually became impossible to run the academy full-time whilst coaching and developing these devices also and unfortunately, we had to make the difficult decision to close the academy.

From there on the iconic George Scott Snooker Club would become my new headquarters, and for the last 15 years there I’ve had the privilege of coaching many players ranging from beginners to top professionals who come from all around the world for lessons.

We’ve also created what’s known as the Scotties Junior Giants Development Programme which has already produced some fantastic achievements internationally.

I now also have my own private training studio which is a fantastic venue for both one-to-one lessons and online lessons. It’s also perfect for capturing footage for video analysis purposes, my YouTube etc. In fact, the conditions in the room are to such a high standard that they are perfect for training some of the world’s top professionals who come to me.

This sport has been my working life and my passion. And although it would prove almost impossible to do this journey justice I wish for this site to be a hub for not just what has gone, but perhaps more importantly what is to come.

I would just like to round off by saying that as much as it would have been interesting to see how far I could have progressed in the game I have absolutely no regrets. My passion for developing players remains as strong as ever, and I couldn’t have achieved a fraction of the things I have to date without the experiences I encountered when I was a player. In fact, more than any other single aspect, the cueing condition I developed back then has only served to assist me further in helping others.

I look forward for the potential of working with you many with of you in the future.

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