First make a list of shafts. Start with Natural Maple.
13mm, 12.75ish and 12.50 ish
and now include tapers from 8 to 10 inch tapers to 14/15 in Pro Tapers.
now include Ferrule types of Plastic standard, low weight and Ivory.
When you have all those, include all types of Low Deflection Shafts that also
have differences and you have a bunch of different types of shafts.
The best playing(least squirt producing) natural shafts I have are 12.80mm long pro taper.
The best hitting are 13mm short pro taper.
After trying several LD shafts I settled on the Jacoby Hybrid that is no longer made
but plenty of them are around. Now Jacoby makes the Ultra and I hear good things
about them. You're going to be out $300 a piece for them.
So if you want a better hit or less squirt you're usually sacrificing something.
You can change the tip and change the hit some of a less squirting shaft.
There are some good things that happen when you learn to use Natural Maple
because you learn what you have to be able to do in order to play with high squirting
shafts which means you're really paying attention to it, learning to use bhe at
manageable distances. Then you realize than Inside English plays different that Outside English entirely.
I would play with whatever felt good to me with Regular Maple and start working with
Center Ball potting first. Then I'd work with Side Spin and if someone has a LD shaft
they want to sell at some point I'd buy it, pay the used price figuring that you might
have to dump it for half of what you bought it for. I'd try every shaft I could this way
if I was working with Side Spin otherwise I'd stick to Maple.
You have lots of choices to make.
If you want to learn to play Side Spin with the shaft you own, check out my book
series. I wrote an Aiming Book and from the perceptions in that book I wrote another
specially on Side Spin that will help you play with whatever you currently own.
I own all types of Cues with a variety of shafts. The way you learn to play with them
should be based on your knowledge of what they will do. Of course a little less squirt
is easier to learn to plan for but that can be deceptive. The reason I say that is if you
know what you're doing requires an allowance it forces you to learn something about
squirt to start with. I can play with shafts from 13mm short taper to LD.
Since I know the allowances by distance to the Object Ball I can manage with about
anything but my favorite is currently my Jacoby Hybrids.
An LD shaft is great in the hands of someone who knows how to use it. Its not all that
much better in the hands of a new player who doesn't want to have to make an
allowance for squirt. A small allowance for squirt should be better right? You still
have to make an allowance and many times not making the allowance results in a
missed shot. So if you're caught up not knowing what to do with an LD shaft because
the allowance amount is so small are you any better off?
Don't worry with all of this. Learn to play with what you own first. Then if you decide to
put 300 in a shaft maybe you will have test hit a friends LD shaft and you'll know what you want.
Just my two cents worth!
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