Navigating Covid-19: A Snooker Master

The school’s current curriculum covers a wide range of levels of difficulty, from level 1 to 10. Learners aged between 4 and 10 are taught various skills and techniques in relation to the three core principles of snooker – bridge, grip and stance – alongside an associated knowledge of physics and mathematics as they move up to the higher levels.

The curriculum also aims at nurturing student's mental skills and traits, such as concentration, patience and resilience. Fu explained why these are important for a student to learn, saying: “If a player misses his first cue, his rival could end up clearing the snooker table in just one stroke. In those circumstances, the player has to keep quiet, and just watch and wait. This is a daunting challenge for any player, not to mention a child.”

The school does more than just run courses certified by the Hong Kong Billiard Sports Control Council. It represents a novel approach to snooker education in which a top-class player uses his in-depth knowledge and years of experience to provide a visualised road map to help guide novice learners. Coaches guide learners in accordance with the well-structured curriculum, and students are expected to achieve every learning goal with regard to both technical and soft skills within the integrated framework for assessment in each class. All of the data and information will then be shared to parents and students for their review and improvement plan.

Such an approach is revolutionary in the sense that it provides a strategic role for an outstanding athlete like Fu. He can formulate a comprehensive training plan that can be made available to every novice learner, rather than just teaching a single student. In this way, it makes high-quality sport education more accessible to the average household.

Child-Oriented Approach

MSK has more than a universal education curriculum. Alongside its mission to promote cue sport to children, the school has also adjusted its educational approach, sports equipment and auxiliary facilities in order to fit the needs of child learners.

The school endorses a game-based learning approach. A father of two, Fu acknowledges the importance of engaging children in the learning experience and outcome. He used his experience of teaching his two young daughters to provide him with inspiration for how games can be incorporated into each class to achieve different learning goals.

For example, one of the tricks that he used with his daughters – an altered version of flying chess (a classic Chinese board game that most Hong Kong parents are familiar with) – is now one of the most popular games in his school.

The snooker school has its sports equipment and auxiliary facilities tailor-made as most of the standard snooker equipment is not suitable for young children to use, owing to their physical constraints. As the old saying has it, a man is only as good as his tools. This perhaps explains why Fu had a difficult time when he first practised cue sports at the age of eight, on a nine-foot tournament table using a standard 1.5m cue. To make things easier for the child population, Fu has specifically designed his snooker school cues and tables to be just one-quarter of the standard size. He believes this customised equipment is a good fit for the physique of child learners, and hopes it will help them master skills and techniques which are transferrable when they switch to standard equipment at a later stage in their development.

Omnichannel Education

In its first five months of operation, MSK has earned the trust of hundreds of parents in Hong Kong who have enrolled their children in the school’s courses. In order to expand its coverage, the snooker school is planning to collaborate with schools, clubhouses and community centres across Hong Kong to offer outreach cue sports education and training services. Cheng believes this multifaceted approach will help the school to achieve its goal of boosting the popularity of cue sports among Hong Kong’s child population, without having to take the significant risks involved in rapid commercial expansion.

The Covid-19 pandemic has also encouraged MSK to explore an omnichannel approach. In December 2020, it launched an at-home snooker kit with foldable snooker tables and auxiliary equipment as well as a series of tutorial videos by Fu. Cheng pointed out that the at-home kit could be a great Christmas gift, because it is not only a cure for the boredom triggered by the Covid-19 lockdowns, but is also a good tool to enhance parent-child bonding.

MSK is now eyeing the broader Asian market, including Japan and the Greater Bay Area (GBA), and is looking to promote cue sports to the next generation across the world.

Sports Tech Under Development

MSK is exploring the application of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) in snooker education. Some of the initiatives have been supported by public funding such as the Cyberport Creative Micro Fund (CCMF). Discussing the school’s first publicly-funded sports tech project that runs for six months from October 2020, Cheung said: “As the first CCMF-funded project, we aim to develop a prototype of how AR technologies can be applied to snooker training, especially in terms of aiming techniques.”

Cheung added that the school is now planning to kick-start its second AI-related project, saying: "In the second phase, we aim to develop AI technologies that can be used to identify in an objective way when a player has the wrong posture and gesture. This will allow coaches to adjust training schedules accordingly to help learners overcome their weaknesses and reinforce their strengths."