Major Accomplishments

• Winner: 2025 Jerry Briesath Award
• I have many students who have earned national and international titles across the globe.
• I am a PBIA Master Certified and ACS Level 4 Instructor.
• I am also a Senior Instructor at Billiards University, and in 2024 I was the runner up for the Jerry Briesath Instructor of the Year Award.
• My company Dragon Billiards Instruction is also one of 4 PBIA Accredited Instructor Training Academies in the world
• 2023 we won the community choice award for best billiard store.
• In 2024, we were nominated for 4 categories in the community choice awards, and we were finalists in 3 of them (best sporting goods store, best place to work, and person of the year).
• I also hold a seat on the PBIA Instructor Committee.

Bio

As a teenager I was hustled by a “pool coach” for $20…the best $20 I ever spent. I saved for weeks to give that guy my $20 for a lesson. He said “Rack Em”. I told him I didn’t know how. He grumbled and racked the 9 balls in a diamond shape himself. He then broke and ran the rack, and took my $20. I said “Hey, what about my lesson? “I just gave it to you”, he said, as he walked away laughing.

Although the initial sting was very upsetting, it fueled me to want to become a real billiards instructor so I could do my part to help those who wanted help, without the hustling I received. Yes, I wanted to be a billiards instructor before I even learned how to play the game. Fast forward to today, I am one of the highest ranked billiards instructors in the world and I continue to take lessons to improve my ability to teach others. I am a forever student of the game, and I’ve dedicated my life to billiards education with the hopes that no kid ever has to feel the way I felt the day I got hustled. I own/operate Dragon Billiards Instruction, one of the world’s only PBIA Accredited Training Academies, and each year we provide hundreds of hours of coaching plus equipment to kids of all ages through our free juniors clinics, continuing to fulfill the goals I made out of spite for that hustler so many years ago. By the way–when I got good enough, I did ask him for another “lesson”, and I did get my $20 back 🙂

Learning about the physics and geometry of billiards, how our bodies move around the cue with good mechanics (or move the cue around our body with bad mechanics) is when I realized I loved the game…teaching it to others and seeing their eyes light up when they understood my lessons became my passion. That’s really what hooked me. I like playing pool, but I LOVE teaching it. As one of the only full-time and most active billiards instructors on the planet, I truly have the best job and I couldn’t be more grateful to that hustler from long ago. To date, I’ve had the pleasure of working with over 7,000 students in over 62 countries and counting, with many national and international champions. If you’d like to learn more about how I might be able to help you in your billiards journey, please visit dragonbilliardsinstruction.com for contact info.