Beat People with a Stick – The Book

$49.00

“This book contains a lot of what I've learned through 20 years of teaching pool to several thousand players. Much of this hard-won insight came through hands-on work solving the real problems of real players. Many of these topics can be found nowhere else.”  

SKU: bpwasb Category:

This book is designed for easy learning. These are the billiard instructional articles I wrote for national pool magazines over the course of 15 years.

Each lesson is just one page, and there are 129 lessons.

That’s just 28¢ per lesson.

The book is spiral bound, 8-1/2″ x 11″ 

– from the inventor of Elephant Practice Balls & the Stroke Groover

Tom Simpson, Master Instructor, National Billiard Academy

* Please note that my cover photo is intended to be humorous. I haven’t actually clubbed anyone lately.

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– Table of Contents –

Shut Up and Practice!
Let’s Get Jumping
Mechanical Players vs. Feel Players
There’s a New Game in Town
A Closer Look at Balls
Getting a Feel for the Table
Sink More Combinations
Draw for Show, Follow for Dough
A Fine Line
Getting a Little on the Side
Rail Bridges 
Runnin’ Down the Rails
100 Misses
Butt Aiming
Take a Stance
The Myth of Center Ball
Learning by Sitting Around
Take a Lap
Going Straight
Count Your Tips
Fuzzy Results
Target Practice
Woo Woo Techniques
In & Out of The Zone
The Need for Speed
Cause the Pause
Pay Attention!
Micro Bridging
A Change of Perspective
Get Down Tonight
Looking for Trouble
Slumping Along
Draw Like Crazy
Follow Through with Abandon
On the Spot
Precision
Fundamaniacs
Strokin’ vs. Pokin’
Cheating the Pocket
You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
Testosteroneous Shots
Doin’ the Backstroke 
See What You’re Looking At
Make the Money Ball
How Do I Miss Thee? Let’s Count the Ways
Sticking to the Truth
Things May Not Be As They Appear
Plane Truth
Jumping with the Dart Method
Jumping with the Pendulum Method
Poolvision
The Spear-it of the Game
Bridge Better
Dance Your Stance
Off on a Tangent
Get a Grip
Mo’ Betta
The Joy of Finishing
English Language
Extreme Bridges
Be a Tripod
Super Slowmo
Big Balls
Con Game
The Straight Truth
Blacking Out
Run a Rack
Life in Your Game
What Matters?
Shoot Yourself
Forcing the Corner
Break Smarter
Cloud Hands
Drop Anchor
Kinder, Gentler 9-Ball
Nail-Bending Focus
The Myth of Topspin
The Miff of Topspin (more)
Ball-In-Mind
Settle Down
Straight-In Banks
Opportunities for Greatness
Early Rollers
Hanger Management
Two Balls
Don’t Bend Over without a Plan
Longer Is Not Always Better
Curvaceous Shots
Non-Trivial Pursuits
Confidence Strokes
20/20 Position Hindsight
What You Think About
Becoming a Player
Spinning the Cueball
Professional Choking
Rolling Your Balls
Consider Your Routines
Own the Line
Stop It!
Poking at Poking
What’s Holding You Back?
Going Straight (Almost)
Learning Through Cosmosis
A Stunning Bank Idea
Swing the Hammer
Funny Business
Overlooked Fundamentals
Mastering the Stun Shot
Simple is Gooder
Squerving About
Seize the Center
Learning through Teaching
Feel Your Stick
Balls in the Air!
Gimme a Brake!
90% Physical, 90% Mental
How to Get Lucky
Got Balls?

This Game Can Drive You to Thinking
Pool Myth-Conceptions
Real It In
Better Missing
Do You Care Enough?
Elevate to the Moon
Gripping Experiences
Throw Out the Throw
Science to the Rescue!
A New Spin on Rotation
Soft is Hard

Reviews…

Professional Billiard Instructor & Author Matt Sherman loves the book.
April 2016 – About Sports

“If you’re going to beat people with a stick, you will certainly want to read this exciting lessons book. It comes with my highest possible recommendation”

Read the full review here.

Pool & Billiard Magazine Editor Tom Shaw reviews Beat People With a Stick!
November 2011 – Pool & Billiard Magazine

“Simpson, a long time Master Instructor and founder of the National Billiard Academy, has compiled ten years of instructional articles in a full page, spiral bound softcover book. There aren’t many diagrams, and only the cover is in color, but those things don’t matter; content is king, and there is lots of very useful teaching in these pages.

As might be expected, subject matter jumps around from page to page, but there’s a table of contents and the clever article titles tell you what they’re about.

It will be very hard not to mark up this book, using a high-lighter type pen, stars, lines with exclamation points on the end, and the like. One gem of advice or insight after another makes it impossible not to want to find and refer to them again.

And there are multiple articles on single topics; if one method of jumping doesn’t appeal to you, there’s another, and so on. On other topics Simpson makes it clear there is a right way – and maybe a bunch of other wrong ways.

Years and years of working with players of all levels who want to get better provides the basis for these pieces, so you know they’ll hit home with you. It’s almost a You Asked For It, You Got It, from someone who knows.”

Billiard University co-founder Dr. Randy Russell comments on Beat People With a Stick!

“Your writing has really had a positive effect on my game. I have a full bookshelf of pool books (probably at least 40) and I’ve read them all. And I also read all of the journal instructional articles. But if I had to pick just one author for a serious pool player to read, it would be you. In particular, “Beat People With a Stick” is the most useful, clear, articulate guide to elevating a serious pool player’s game that exists because your writing covers what matters every time a player leans over to shoot, and it gives practical, sound advice and the rationale behind it. I have re-read it several times.”

You know from experience how valuable a good pool tip can be. This book has HUNDREDS of good tips & useful insights.

You’ve probably read a few of my columns already. Now you can have the entire collection, neatly organized and spiral-bound for ease of use at the table.