Doug Mountjoy had two main problems when he came to me for help.

Firstly, after playing for thirty-four years in his own way, he had to learn to play the way I wanted him to in the future. Secondly, he had to learn to be a winner again, by competing against and beating the best players in the world.

Doug's game was in a dreadful state when we got together in February 1988. He had been playing by sheer instinct - he was that sort of player - but finally the game caught up with him.

In the end he just couldn't understand what was going wrong and this only fuelled the doubts. It became a huge mental problem for him. No longer could he rely on natural ability, no longer was he knocking in the balls almost automatically like he used to. His consistency had gone haywire.

Doug has always had bottle and dedication. He always tried to put up a good show, even if his method was lacking at times. But when his own game reached such depths that he even contemplated quitting, a word with his close friend, Terry Griffiths, put in motion the chain of events which sent him heading towards me in Blackpool.

Doug had never read a book about snooker, never had a day's coaching in his life, and I knew as soon as he picked up his cue and practised with me that a lot of hard work had to be done if he was to become successful again. For instance, Doug's idea of putting side on the cue ball was to hit across it either to the left or the right. Cueing in a straight line just didn't enter his thoughts.

This is a very effective way of imparting side on the cue ball but what happens between the cue ball and the object ball is anybody's guess. More>>>>