Jerry Briesath didn’t pick up a cue until he was 19, in a Milwaukee hotel basement pool room owned by a hundred-ball runner named Willis Covington. When Covington had a stroke, he asked Jerry to take over his class at the YMCA: three Tuesday night lessons for $7.50. Now 89 and still teaching, he’s the man who helped launch the BCA instructor program, ran Cue-Nique Billiards in Madison for 28 years, and rebuilt Jeanette Lee’s mechanics during a two-year slump. We discuss why your aim isn’t what separates you from your opponent, his “two and stop” shooting routine, the forgotten Robert Byrne lesson behind the banks every amateur misses short, the four-in-a-row drill for shots you’re supposed to make, and the $70,000 in bets he once saw piled on a crooked light.
Book a lesson or get the DVD series he made with Mark Wilson at poolessons.com.
Special thanks to instructors Tim Lueck and Stephanie Oxley, Zach Oxley, Milwaukee APA and Shepherds on Schlinger for their support with Jerry's interview.