The PJ Nolan Champions Academy

Appointed Qatar National Cue Sport Coach - 2003

In 2003 the Qatar Federation approached me to return to Qatar to become the National Cue Sport Technical Expert.

 I accepted this role in June 2003 and in 2004 coached Qatar to achieve their first ever gold medal in the Gulf Snooker championships.

The Qatar Billiards & Snooker Federation training center was opened in April 2006. This center is in the capital of Qatar and has 10 superb Riley match snooker tables and 8 Brunswick pool tables and is where the Qatar snooker and pool national teams train every day under my training programs. 

Living in Qatar for five years I have still regularly coached and guided a number of Irish and International players by email.

My coaching style is simply to break each point down and getting the players to think, play positive and naturally and train on specific routines.

I believe this is the secret of my success to date and it has earned me the respect from my players to describe me as one of the top world coaches.

Working with the famous Coaches

During my coaching career, I have worked with some of the most famous snooker coaches in the world Terry Griffiths, Wayne Griffiths, Del Hill, Chris Henry and national coaches from Thailand, China, and Malaysia.

They all have their own individual coaching styles and the best advice I ever received from them, is to never stop working hard on your own coaching if you want to stay successful in this game.

The Champion  – David Morris

It was in 1999 when I first met an 11 year old school boy from Kilkenny called David Morris and from the that day he had the ambition to become a champion.

He practiced everything I gave him and we travelled to every underage tournament around Ireland. We worked on fine tuning his technique and game that eventually led him to win every underage Irish title and become the Irish champion three times in a row and qualify onto the main tour.

The Champion  – David Hogan

It was in 2000 when I started coaching 12 year old David Hogan from Borrisakane in Co Tipperary and if there ever was a boy who was hungry for success, it was David.

David Hogan has become one of the top players in Ireland and has won numerous under age Irish titles. In 2009 David won his biggest titles to date when he won the European Championship in Belgium and a wild card onto the WSA main tour for the 2009-2010 Season.

Coaching and training David was easy because he was willing to do everything and work very hard on all parts of his game. Now everyone can see the overall improvement and consistency of his game. 

David competed on the main tour in 2009 / 2010 season and really enjoyed it and gained a lot of experience of playing big matches.

The Champion  – Vincent Muldoon

In 2001 I started coaching 10 year old Vincent Muldoon from Galway. Straight away I saw a special talent that I thought could develop into a top player.

After the lesson, I rang David Morris and told him I had coached the next player who I believed would dominate the Irish scene.

Vincent was the first junior to beat David Morris in an under age event. Since then, Vincent has practiced all my routines and we have fine tuned his technique and his game has improved each season.

He has reached the final of the European Under 19 Championships in both 2006 and 2007. He won the highest break prize with a 137 break in reaching the semi final in the 2007 Under 21 World Championship in India. 

Vincent also won the RIBSA National Senior. Under 21, Under 19, Under 18 Championships in 2007. 

Vincent competed on the WSA main tour in 2008-2009 

It was during the build up for the world U-21 championships in India that Vincent tried to convince me to return to Ireland after staying with me in Qatar to prepare with my Qatar players for the 2007 World U-21 Championship.

In 2010 Vincent reached the semi finals of the IBSF World Under 21 Championships in Ireland and the Galway potter is focused on getting back on the main tour again soon