When asked ‘What’s changed?’ following twenty years in Snooker’s World Championship wilderness, Stuart Bingham’s response was simple. “Working with my coach Stephen Feeney and using his SightRight techniques has worked for me,” said the newly crowned Crucible King.
Bingham’s story may seem like a fairy-tale – he had only made it past the second round at the World Championship once before in a twenty-year professional career – but the reality is that hard work pays off.
Now world number two, having rocketed eight places up the rankings after a thrilling 18-15 final win against Shaun Murphy on Monday, the 38-year-old Basildon ace has worked tirelessly to achieve his dream.
With him for the last five-years, and credited by Bingham in helping him transform his career, has been Stephen Feeney, a specialist coach and inventor of SightRight – a revolutionary coaching system, which takes the guess work out of aiming and ensures the development of ‘on-line’ pre-shot routines, technical alignment and accurate cueing. Feeney is the world’s number one sighting and alignment expert.
Bingham plays with a patented SightRight sighting and alignment aid integrated in his cue. For Snooker players daring to dream and willing to work at that dream, Feeney has teamed up with BCE Riley to launch a range of SightRight cues and a Snooker coaching app to help maximise performance.
The SightRight cue and app combined helps a player of any ability level develop a consistent pre-shot routine using a simple two line alignment system. It eliminates any eye-dominance issues, focusing on each player’s individual eye-dominance thus taking the guess work out of this crucial aspect of the game. It also helps to create a consistently aligned technique and accurate cue action. Ultimately, SightRight improves accuracy across a player’s whole game – it enables them to play better Snooker.
The new World Champion has been practicing these techniques for the last five years with Feeney as his full time coach and the result has been nothing short of incredible.
“Five years ago I started working with Steve and since then it has all happened for me,” said Bingham.
“SightRight has made me into a winner. I have to admit that I was a journeyman for 15 years as a professional but for the last five I’ve gone from strength to strength.”
There is no greater success in any sport than becoming World Champion and Bingham has written himself into Snooker folklore with his steely spirit, unflappable composure and breath-taking skill, culminating in his finest hour.
He did it the hard way too, beating the likes of Graeme Dott, Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump on the way to the final.
He may have been seen by the bookmakers and some pundits as an outsider but Bingham actually won more titles than any other player in the season so his success comes as no surprise to those who work with him and follow his progress closely.
Stuart Bingham – nice guy, hard worker, notorious practiser, snooker fan, former journeyman professional and now Team SightRight’s first World Snooker Champion.