After a full day of “train-ing on first class of the Deutsche Bahn 🚂” to our national capital Berlin, I was ready for a first class training for a full day with one of the most charismatic people and I’m very lucky to call him my friend - Mister Ralph Eckert!
We first met around 1997 when his first technical book „Modern Pool“ was released and Ralph gave a display of his cue entertainment skills for the fifth anniversary of my club “1. Pool-Billard Club Fulda”.
I remember not long after we decided to travel together to a Euro Tour in Bilbao, the north of Spain in his white, post war Mercedes-Benz. His plan was to alternate driving the distance of 1500km and 15 hours, but what he failed to realize before my arrival in Mannheim was, that I was only 17 years old and had no driver license yet. Well, in hindsight - it was his honor to chauffeur a future World Champion across Europe, what ended in a friendship that has taken us from playing and winning the German and European Team Championships for Fulda together over me becoming a certified coach by Ralph to being trained, life coached and the occasional heartache repair with his kind words of wisdom.
“If there was the ultimate global cue sports hall of fame for outstanding life achievements across the board, dedication for billiards and contributions to the sport and life itself - Ralph should be the very very very first person to be inducted.”
One cannot comprehend what he has done for pool. He played for the German National Team, has won German Championships, European Championships, was Europe’s number one and collected a ton of tournament wins around Europe in his career. He published Modern Pool, Progressive Pool, The Playing Ability Test, a fictional book, a non fictional book, created all content for the Check Billiard App and has his new technical book “Structure” on the market right now. He has trained National Teams from Poland over Cyprus to Morocco, Singapore and Thailand amongst many others.
Ralph has appeared on numerous trick shot shows on live television, club anniversaries, parties and in a men’s fashion store in New York 😜 He’s a World Trick Shot Champion too.
He’s classy, he’s smart, he’s funny and for Oliver Ortmann’s straight pool hall of fame induction he delivered the best laudatio ever!
I could go on and on and could not give justice to this incredible human being. Book a training with him yourself. Not only will you get the best training and advice of your life, but you will also tap into his knowledge of history, politics and philosophy. You might get a Berlin tour on top of that and leave with a new friend.
After a breakfast in Berlin’s Schöneberg district we wandered the streets from the Potsdamer Platz, passed pieces of the wall, the Brandenburger Tor, along the Reichstag to our destination - Bata Bar & Billiards!
It is my second time to visit Germanys premiere pool room and again I was in awe of how comfortable, spacious and inviting this place is. I could live here! The owners Patrick Baumann and Michael Heydeck have done a marvelous job giving tribute to the GOAT of pool and living legend from the Philippines Efren Reyes by naming the place after our magician and even showing incredible artwork by the award winning photographer from Austria, Markus Hofstätter! There is even a „Hitman“ table 🤙🏼!
Over the next few hours Ralph introduced me to his new S.E.T. (Structure Evaluation Test) and lets say - it was humbling!
Similar to his Playing Ability Test it consists of different shots and drills and like the name hints, the whole package is extremely structured!
Just stay tuned for the launch…
Between the homework of National Coach Tom Damm and Ralf’s training regimen I have enough to work on that will keep me busy until the next Euro Tour in Klagenfurt, Austria.
BTW - Happy Reunification Day Germany 🤝🇩🇪 October 3rd!
Thorsten