Profile

Name: Michael Neumann

Residence: Klagenfurt (Austria)

Born: 23rd of March, 1971

Bio 

“Enjoyment is committing yourself to others“

This characterizes the emotional state of a trainer. From my point of view it meant to me to neglect at the peak of my own pool-billiards carrier my own activities at the green table to trade it for a seat behind the arena, well away from the colorful balls that had been so important to me before.

The road to enjoying this change of roles in my life:

As being a schoolboy and later as a student at the university I spent almost more time at the green felt pursuing my inquisitiveness as to the ways of the balls than satisfying the knowledge which was required at the educational institutions. I had a short but, from my point of view, a successful pool career when, during one of my normal training sessions in our pool club, a cute six-year-old old blonde child entered the pool room. Sitting on a heightened chair right next to the table, being unusually calm and serene for that age, she observed every movement and then tried them herself on a table at the other end of the billiard hall, even though she was not really tall enough for a full size billiard table.

Jasmin Ouschan and Trainer Michael Neumann

This scenario repeated itself, wordlessly, until I could not help but give her a tiny hint how a few things would make her efforts on the baize easier. Very surprisingly she internalized the hints and was utilizing them the very next day and so it began that I gave her more suggestions. Because of her youthful dedication to improve my eyes often zoned out from my own table and training when this little girl was in the room. This did not really help me in my own training so we arranged to make an appointment to spend our common time in the pool hall on just one table.

Being fascinated by the captivation of this young lady soaking all instructions up like a sponge and implementing them quickly we met more often and after a while you really could call our partnership a form of team play.

Even though the weekends were more and more often reserved for training and preparing for the first national tournaments, I was able to finish my MBA university studies and started a job as a business consultant in a bank. After getting my certificate as a billiard trainer I was also nominated as the national coach of Austria and I felt compelled to make a decision due to lack of time and attitude whether to be a coach to others or to sink the balls as a player in my own right. It was certainly not an easy decision for me to store my cue forever in the case but it appears today that it was the right choice.

After the decision that my future achievement would be measured by the success of others my life outside the billiard world changed as well. My background in management and organizational development allowed me to share my experiences in these fields with students on several universities in my country.

Now, after working very intensively for more than 15 years with Jasmin Ouschan my fields of duty have broadened. Rather than being a single trainer I am currently responsible for the management of her career and for her coaching, as her training is now largely complete.

Meanwhile, Jasmin is a very successful professional sports athlete and we are travelling more than 200 days per year worldwide together to be a part of events and tournaments. Because of our integrated team play we will always seek solutions together to the new challenges faced by our sport or business.

There are many other reasons that I find training and coaching enjoyable…