VIRTUAL LESSONS, REAL RESULTS ROY PASTOR’S ONLINE CLASSES ARE HELPING YOUNG BILLIARD STARS FROM ACROSS THE COUNTRY IMPROVE THEIR GAME By Anthony Stoeckert For nearly 20 years, Roy Pastor has shared his passion for pool by teaching young players how to improve their game, and many of his students have advanced to compete in some of the most prestigious tournaments in the world. Now thanks to technology, Pastor and other dedicated instructors are able to share their insight and wisdom with students from across the country through the PBIA’s Break and Run Junior Instructor Program (the PBIA is owned and operated by the BCA).
munication techniques to teach students online. Roy’s advice always hits the point and guides Kyle through many difficult times. The encouragement from Roy propels Kyle to get better every day.”
“Roy’s online pool coaching program is a great fit,” says KanYi, whose son, Kyle, has been taking online lessons with Pastor since 2018. “Roy utilizes Facebook Private Group, live videos and recorded videos, YouTube, Dropbox, Google Meeting – all kinds of the latest com-
Then, about 21 years ago, Pastor started playing the game he loves again, and he also decided he wanted to teach.
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Pastor played pool as a kid and competed in tournaments when he was in college and during his first two years of law school at the University of Pennsylvania. After he got married, had kids and began his legal career in the early ’80s, he put pool on the back burner for 20 years.
“I didn’t have any formal instruction when I was growing up,” Pastor says. “I played in boys clubs and did the things
that are typical for our sport without any formal instruction.” Pastor began his junior program, the New England Junior Billiard Training Program, at his kids’ high school. Brunswick donated two nine-foot tables and he taught there for about a year – and he even used the tables to teach physics to honor classes. In 2002, he moved his program to the Billiards Café, an upscale pool hall in Ayer, Mass. He gave weekly instructions and ran a league, and that program is still running 19 years later. Although he was an effective teacher, some of his students were developing very quickly, and he realized he needed to do more.
