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Practice what I Preach
- By gregcantrall
- Main Forum
- 844 Replies
10 second laps is part of my morning fitness.
Hard to Find the Center of the Cue Ball
- By ShootingArts
- Main Forum
- 159 Replies
When shooting right handed my process is more analytical and measuring. When shooting left handed I am more along the "just feel the shot" mindset. The right is linear and left is creative and flowing. I do however try to leave whitey on an angle that facilitates strikes on the center axis with either hand. Variation from center strikes brings more variables to the equation. I prefer simple calculations.
Regarding "Feel", a favorite memory comes to mind. In the final game of the league, My first year of league play I was facing a decision on the final 8 ball. I was considering either a cut to the corner vs a cut to the side. I was not sure if either or both cuts had a scratch in the outcome. I called my captain to the table for input. He was unable to approve of one cut over the other, so I asked him, "how about the bank" as it was almost straight. His reply was, "Well , Can You Feel it?" My reply was, "One way to find out."That was followed by, the call of "cross corner". Followed by Pow Splat and we became the league champions for the season.
Bank shots are very sensitive to speed and spin so I first measure and align then I try to Feel the shot.
Despite the saying never bank when you can cut there are times when the bank is better. In my fairly early days playing I used to battle regularlly with a stoner. He was maybe six-six, 98 pounds soaking wet, and not a nerve in his body. To this day I have never encountered someone that cut balls better. He could slice a ball at about 88 degrees the length of a nine foot table out in the open, not running a rail. I would hook up with him in hours long battles with both of us only cutting balls and it could go either way. When I wanted to win, I would take the bank shots I liked better than cuts. He stood no chance when I added banks because he couldn't bank. We would draw crowds putting on cutting exhibitions though.
To my way of thinking, cuts you measure, banks you feel. There were times when my cutting was off, I was banking as good as ever. I remember one day I was banging points unintentionally and feeling frustrated. I had an almost straight in shot but called it four rails to the same pocket. The ball went in like it had eyes!
Hu
Hu
Practice what I Preach
- By gregcantrall
- Main Forum
- 844 Replies
Guess I had better get back on my soapbox. 
Practice this morning starts with.....
One handed
Phenolic tip
No chalk
Strike the cueball to make it do something. Creating a personal challenge.
Willie Hoppe only got one ball for a month.......TINK ABOUT IT.
MY PERSONAL morning Challenge is the 16 shots of The Chase. Okay I get a secondball.. Ready set go.
Practice this morning starts with.....
One handed
Phenolic tip
No chalk
Strike the cueball to make it do something. Creating a personal challenge.
Willie Hoppe only got one ball for a month.......TINK ABOUT IT.
MY PERSONAL morning Challenge is the 16 shots of The Chase. Okay I get a secondball..
Ready set go.The history of predator low defection.. interesting video
- By Paul_#_
- Main Forum
- 24 Replies
A nine-minute video with too much fluff and too little substance. Predator has remarkable engineering but the only interesting thing here is Predator's explanation for the popularity of the pre-cat-logo 314 shaft.
Why no mention that the 314 shaft was cored out? They show ten slices of wood from the 314 as a cure for inconsistency but not that it was cored out and this helped lower deflection. This could have answered the video title question, “How Predator changed billiards forever”.
The video explains why pre-Cat-logo 314 shafts are still popular: they were made of old-growth maple and they produced a thud when hit. Say what? Is that good? From the transcript:
Again, no mention on how the sticks made low deflection. There are two patents put on screen without comment.
__
Here is most of the transcript from the video:
Hey guys, Paulo here from Spoton Billiards. If you've played pool seriously for any amount of time, there's one word you've definitely heard: Deflection.
For over a hundred years, players accepted it as part of the game. You wanted spin. You aimed away from the pocket and hoped your compensation was right.
Then in the mid '90s, everything changed. A new Q company stopped treating cues like artwork and started engineering them as performance instruments. That company is Predator. And the shaft that changed everything was called the 314.
Today we're going all the way back from the original pre-Cat 314 to how the Predator evolved into Z, Vantage, Revo, and Centro, and why this technology still matters.
But before we dive in, Spot On Billiards Predator Giveaway you're going to want to stick around until the very end of this video. We are giving away two massive prizes from Predator, including a full carbon fiber Revo setup and a limited edition 30th anniversary case. I'll give you the full details on how to enter at the end, so stay tuned. You don't want to miss this one.
The Problem and How Predator Discovered It
Before Predator, Pool was a game of feel and compensation. When you hit the Q ball off center to apply English, the Q ball doesn't go where you aim. It squirts, deflects away from your target. Every Q did it differently. Every shot rotated differently. humidity, grain, speed, all changed the outcome. So, players weren't just mastering their stroke, they were learning to guess their equipment's error.
Predators founders didn't accept that. They asked a simple question. What if the Q didn't fight the player at all?
The Birth Of 314 Predator was founded in 1994 by Alan Mccardi and Steve Titus. Their breakthrough didn't come from tradition. It came from testing. They built a robotic stroking machine nicknamed Iron Willie. Same stroke, same speed, same contact point over and over again. That's when they discovered the real enemy, end mass. The heavier the fronted the shaft, the more it pushes the Q ball offline during an offc center hit.
So, Predator did something no one else was doing. They created the low deflection shaft that is now famous worldwide. But the real genius came next. The name 314 isn't marketing fluff. It comes from pi, the mathematics of a circle. Traditional shafts are made from one piece of maple that creates a natural spine, a stiff side, and a soft side. Rotate the queue, and the queue plays differently. Predator eliminated that by cutting maple into 10 equal wedges, each at 36°, and laminating them into a perfectly radially consistent cylinder. No spine, no preferred direction, same hit. 30 360° around the shaft. This is why the shaft feels the same no matter how you rotate it in your hand. This wasn't a craftsmanship. This was calculus applied to pool.
The Pre-Cat Era
Those early shafts made before the Predator Cat logo are now legendary. Many of those early blanks were produced in Canada with dense old growth maple that's difficult to source today. Players describe the hit as a thud. No hollow feedback, no excessive vibration, just solid energy transfer. That sound, that feel, that's the moment Predator quietly changed the sport forever.
Less Mass = Less Resistance
Here's a simple version. Predator removes the mass from the front of the shaft. Less mass means less resistance. So, when the Q ball is struck off center, the shaft moves out of the way. Instead of pushing the Q ball offline, that means less compensation, more natural aiming, and more confidence using spin. You don't fight physics. You let physics work for you. Now, Predator didn't stop at the 314. They refined it. The 314 was the all-around benchmark. forgiving, familiar, and precise.
Then the Z shaft, which is a thinner, lower deflection surgical precision shaft. Then you've got the Vantage, which offers a thicker, stiffer for power players who still want tech. Each one provides different performance benefits, but they all trace their DNA back to the 314.
Then came Revo & Centro - The Modern Predator Revo carbon fiber. Zero warping, ultra- low deflection, maximum consistency. Some loved it, some missed the soul of wood.
So Predator did something very Predator-like. They hybridized it. Centro wood feel in the hand, carbon strength at the front, foam damped feedback. It's modern performance without losing the emotion of the hit.
The Spot On Billiards Angle Here at SpotOn, we understand the value of performance engineering. We offer products that work better, not just look better. Our Predator shaft isn't about marketing. It's about removing variables to increase performance. And at Spoton Billiard, we're not just selling Predator, we're supporting it. That means proper key repairs and maintenance backed with factory level care to keep your equipment performing at the highest level. You wouldn't buy a Ferrari without a certified shop. You shouldn't settle for less with your pool equipment In Conclusion either.
So the 314 didn't just introduce low deflection. It introduced performance to a sport built on guesswork which is now being standardized by most manufacturers as well. From the pre-cat shaft to the Revo Carbon to the hybrid perfection of Centro, Predator didn't change pool by accident. They engineered it. And if you want to experience that difference, you know where to find us.
Why no mention that the 314 shaft was cored out? They show ten slices of wood from the 314 as a cure for inconsistency but not that it was cored out and this helped lower deflection. This could have answered the video title question, “How Predator changed billiards forever”.
The video explains why pre-Cat-logo 314 shafts are still popular: they were made of old-growth maple and they produced a thud when hit. Say what? Is that good? From the transcript:
Many of those early blanks were produced in Canada with dense old growth maple that's difficult to source today. Players describe the hit as a thud. No hollow feedback, no excessive vibration, just solid energy transfer. That sound, that feel, that's the moment Predator quietly changed the sport forever.
Again, no mention on how the sticks made low deflection. There are two patents put on screen without comment.
Here is most of the transcript from the video:
Hey guys, Paulo here from Spoton Billiards. If you've played pool seriously for any amount of time, there's one word you've definitely heard: Deflection.
For over a hundred years, players accepted it as part of the game. You wanted spin. You aimed away from the pocket and hoped your compensation was right.
Then in the mid '90s, everything changed. A new Q company stopped treating cues like artwork and started engineering them as performance instruments. That company is Predator. And the shaft that changed everything was called the 314.
Today we're going all the way back from the original pre-Cat 314 to how the Predator evolved into Z, Vantage, Revo, and Centro, and why this technology still matters.
But before we dive in, Spot On Billiards Predator Giveaway you're going to want to stick around until the very end of this video. We are giving away two massive prizes from Predator, including a full carbon fiber Revo setup and a limited edition 30th anniversary case. I'll give you the full details on how to enter at the end, so stay tuned. You don't want to miss this one.
The Problem and How Predator Discovered It
Before Predator, Pool was a game of feel and compensation. When you hit the Q ball off center to apply English, the Q ball doesn't go where you aim. It squirts, deflects away from your target. Every Q did it differently. Every shot rotated differently. humidity, grain, speed, all changed the outcome. So, players weren't just mastering their stroke, they were learning to guess their equipment's error.
Predators founders didn't accept that. They asked a simple question. What if the Q didn't fight the player at all?
The Birth Of 314 Predator was founded in 1994 by Alan Mccardi and Steve Titus. Their breakthrough didn't come from tradition. It came from testing. They built a robotic stroking machine nicknamed Iron Willie. Same stroke, same speed, same contact point over and over again. That's when they discovered the real enemy, end mass. The heavier the fronted the shaft, the more it pushes the Q ball offline during an offc center hit.
So, Predator did something no one else was doing. They created the low deflection shaft that is now famous worldwide. But the real genius came next. The name 314 isn't marketing fluff. It comes from pi, the mathematics of a circle. Traditional shafts are made from one piece of maple that creates a natural spine, a stiff side, and a soft side. Rotate the queue, and the queue plays differently. Predator eliminated that by cutting maple into 10 equal wedges, each at 36°, and laminating them into a perfectly radially consistent cylinder. No spine, no preferred direction, same hit. 30 360° around the shaft. This is why the shaft feels the same no matter how you rotate it in your hand. This wasn't a craftsmanship. This was calculus applied to pool.
The Pre-Cat Era
Those early shafts made before the Predator Cat logo are now legendary. Many of those early blanks were produced in Canada with dense old growth maple that's difficult to source today. Players describe the hit as a thud. No hollow feedback, no excessive vibration, just solid energy transfer. That sound, that feel, that's the moment Predator quietly changed the sport forever.
Less Mass = Less Resistance
Here's a simple version. Predator removes the mass from the front of the shaft. Less mass means less resistance. So, when the Q ball is struck off center, the shaft moves out of the way. Instead of pushing the Q ball offline, that means less compensation, more natural aiming, and more confidence using spin. You don't fight physics. You let physics work for you. Now, Predator didn't stop at the 314. They refined it. The 314 was the all-around benchmark. forgiving, familiar, and precise.
Then the Z shaft, which is a thinner, lower deflection surgical precision shaft. Then you've got the Vantage, which offers a thicker, stiffer for power players who still want tech. Each one provides different performance benefits, but they all trace their DNA back to the 314.
Then came Revo & Centro - The Modern Predator Revo carbon fiber. Zero warping, ultra- low deflection, maximum consistency. Some loved it, some missed the soul of wood.
So Predator did something very Predator-like. They hybridized it. Centro wood feel in the hand, carbon strength at the front, foam damped feedback. It's modern performance without losing the emotion of the hit.
The Spot On Billiards Angle Here at SpotOn, we understand the value of performance engineering. We offer products that work better, not just look better. Our Predator shaft isn't about marketing. It's about removing variables to increase performance. And at Spoton Billiard, we're not just selling Predator, we're supporting it. That means proper key repairs and maintenance backed with factory level care to keep your equipment performing at the highest level. You wouldn't buy a Ferrari without a certified shop. You shouldn't settle for less with your pool equipment In Conclusion either.
So the 314 didn't just introduce low deflection. It introduced performance to a sport built on guesswork which is now being standardized by most manufacturers as well. From the pre-cat shaft to the Revo Carbon to the hybrid perfection of Centro, Predator didn't change pool by accident. They engineered it. And if you want to experience that difference, you know where to find us.
Hard to Find the Center of the Cue Ball
- By gregcantrall
- Main Forum
- 159 Replies
Back in the day. Brag alert.
It would take me 45 minutes to an hour to get The Feel of the table.The conditions of the whole environment as well. A stealthy hunt would apply.
So walking in cold to a money game made that warm up period a measuring time. Well calculations modifications need dialing in. Provided a natural stall, I could be stuck in the neighborhood of 10 barrels before getting my mind right. "Raise the bet?" Is my favorite decision after being down 10 games with 3 barrels left at 10 per game. and feeling good.
Another lesson in credit at the end of that contest. He disappeared with the rail marker showing him down in excess of a hundred.
Brag alert.It would take me 45 minutes to an hour to get The Feel of the table.The conditions of the whole environment as well.
A stealthy hunt would apply. So walking in cold to a money game made that warm up period a measuring time. Well calculations modifications need dialing in. Provided a natural stall, I could be stuck in the neighborhood of 10 barrels before getting my mind right. "Raise the bet?" Is my favorite decision after being down 10 games with 3 barrels left at 10 per game. and feeling good.
Another lesson in credit at the end of that contest. He disappeared with the rail marker showing him down in excess of a hundred.