isaiah brookshireBilliards classes will now be offered to Cal Poly students through Mustang Lanes in the University Union this year.
The professor for PE 107, the billiards class, decided to introduce activity classes in fall 2005.
“Activity classes are an attempt to get more people in here and exposed to games,” said Sam Chew, a Cal Poly electrical engineering and physics senior who will be the billiards instructor.
Mustang Lanes offered three types of billiards classes this quarter: strategy, games and competition. Each class focuses on a different aspect of billiards.
“People haven’t heard of rotation, straight ball, one pocket,” Chew said. “We thought it’d be fun to teach them that stuff.”
Chew has been teaching billiards at Cal Poly for seven years. He began with one PE class and now teaches three PE classes and all the activity classes.
“I teach this stuff because I like to and I’m looking for people who want to play,” Chew said.
Currently, there are 10 students participating in the classes that are offered twice a week. It costs $32 for the eight-week course.
“The people who are doing it are really enjoying it,” Chew said. “It’s real relaxed.”
The activity classes are designed to be more informal like the Craft Center classes, whereas many as PE classes are modeled after the kinesiology classes.
“The activity classes were meant to be more of a fun thing,” Chew said. “It’s an opportunity to find information that someone is seeking.”
One of the main things that students wanted was guaranteed table time, games to play and people to play with.
The activity classes provide all of these things for what works out to be $2 an hour.
“We’re trying to expose people to some new billiard games,” Chew said. “And encourage the community to grow and offer whatever help they need.”
Billiards is weak on the West Coast and he wants to build it up as a sport, Chew said.
“It’s a passion of mine. I have aspirations to create a school on the West Coast,” Chew said.
Chew is hoping to stay around Cal Poly for at least one more year to continue to build up the billiards community in San Luis Obispo. Next quarter Mustang Lanes will offer billiards activity classes four nights a week.
“In the future we’re going to generalize it a little more,” Chew said. “I’m trying to encourage people to play the game however they want to.”