InsidePOOL Magazine - April 2004

D.O.B.: 11-11-68
Height: 5'11"
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Distinguishing Characteristics: Brown mustache or goatee
Hometown: Hickory, NC
Last Known Whereabouts: Houston, TX
Known Aliases: Hillbilly, Shannon

Charlie Bryant needed a little boost when he first started playing pool at the age of five. Now he's helping other players.

"My daddy took old wooden Coke bottle crates and went inside of them and put plywood to make sure they'd stay good and sturdy, put two of them together and bracketed them together," Bryant recalled. "He put a platform on the bottom of that thing he built for me with the old-timey ringer washers. I kept three wheels locked at all times, and I'd pick it up and set it down and get up and shoot." Somewhere between that first tentative stroke and his recent Victory at the Houston Open, Bryant realized that there was something standing between him and the champions he looked up to. One day the great Buddy Hall stepped up to a pool table, said, "Kid, if you wanna get to where you wanna go, you gotta figure out what
I'm doing," took three consecutive shots, and walked away. Bryant watched closely, and from that base he slowly improved his game and eventually built a banking and kicking system of his own that he now teaches to his students, among them two
women on the pro tour. He hopes to open his own school within 3 years. At the same time as he helps other players reach their goals, he's trying to reach his own: to be a champion.

Bryant is like a Paul Bunyan of the pool world. The stories abound: His break was once clocked at an astonishing 33 mph. During a match with BuckY Bell in Virginia, he sank six balls on the break. (One time he actually sank seven but couldn't get out, he admits). And you might want to think twice before arm-wrestling the guy, as the last person who did it walked away with a broken arm.

Growing up in the hills of North Carolina, Bryant never realized how good he was.Even though there were some good players in town, he never left and had no basis for comparison. In some ways, he sees that time as a sort of pool Eden, when he just stepped up to the table and made shots without thinking about it too much.

"Once you learn what the game's about, then your shot-making ability leaves you, once you learn what percentages are. When you're young, you get up there and whack at everything and you don't even think about it. Now you start weighing your
percentages and thinking, should I?"

Bryant said that he has been shying away from the gambling aspect of the game because his motives are different. "I've never been that into the hustling part of the pool," he said. "I love to gamble, but I don't like to feel like I'm stealing somebody's money. The good Lord's given me a great talent and a great ability to come up with my systems, and the way that I'm gonna give back to the game from what he's given me is teaching people and maybe trying to elevate pool to the next level."