Freddy Lives by: The Dutch Voice

Freddy lives

We call him ‘Dr. Banks’, or ‘Dr. B’, for an obvious reason. No, I’m not talking about Freddy The Beard, but about Rolf van As. He talks Freddy, probably sleeps with the book ‘Banking with the Beard’, exhales his theories at every breathe he takes, and the side step bank is his favorite. There’s no way around it. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing a game of pool, having dinner, taking a smoke, or if you’re just relaxing. It’s bank pool all the way when Rolf is around.  

If he comes in on his days off and has his backpack with him, you know what time it is. He brought the book. His bible. Almost every weekend he comes to me saying: “I’ve learned a new shot, here, look…” and he would show what he had read about. Only after practicing the shot a few times. He’s a proper student of the game, disciplined, analytic, and well organized. Oh, and he eats really fast. Part of that is probably because he’s in the army, or because he got taught some discipline when he was a semi-top short track speed skater back in the day. He has a tendency to repeat himself, but how can you not after reading it all more than once. Sharing knowledge is his trade and I’m grateful to him for that. That’s how players get educated and it saved me a lot of reading. I had my own live audio version. I’ll keep the DVD’s as a backup. Just in case Rolf is not around. Freddy became part of his game, my game. Of Hague 5. Freddy lives.

Pepijn de Wit is a blogger and one-pocket star at pool-head.com