teeny tiny shafts

whammo57

whammo57

Kim Walker
Silver Member
Let's stir the pot a little............

Just a shot in the dark here but why do players want to go to a small diameter shaft?

I have a friend that has a very small diameter tip. I can hold the cue at the joint and bend the tip of the cue back and forth about 6 inches with very little pressure. RIDICULOUS !!!

Standard tip diameter is around 13mm. I know that my 13mm tip deflects the cue ball when I play side spin. I know how much and I compensate for it because I practice with it and I know my equipment and how it performs.

It's like any sport where some kind of mechanical device is used. It may be golf, tennis, baseball, pool, etc

A player is not satisfied with his/her personal ability or performance.

SOOOOO why not go for the hyped up sales pitch on how this new material or size will guarantee you a better playing ability. Most of the LD shafts cost outrageous money. Why???? Because a sucker is born every minute and some smart business man is making a huge profit using what????? MAPLE, core drilling the shaft, wooden ferrules that break, filling the shaft with foam. Really??? Good marketing, fancy names, and a promise of proficiency suck you in to the swirling black hole of a dwindling bank account.

With almost all of these changes comes a need to change playing style or technique.

If the player does perform better, is it because of the new device or because of the new style or technique???

There is no guarantee that ability will improve.

Usually in the beginning, ability actually decreases and then it may improve with learning and experience. (the same improvement that might have happened with your original equipment if you practiced)

SOOOO my question is ...................

Why not just practice and learn to become more proficient with the tools that you already have?????? A cue that cost a hundred or a few hundred dollars that is well made, balanced, and has a good tip will be all that you need.

There is no magic pill that will make you shoot pool better.

Practice, practice, and experience.

Watch and play players that beat you.

YOU LEARN NOTHING FROM PLAYING SOMEONE THAT YOU CAN EASILY BEAT.

just my opinion


Kim
 
I hope this post wasn't directed at me, as I have a current 4+ page thread going over smaller diameter shafts as we speak.

The whole reason I'm looking at trying something different is because I'm 5'5" and I have very small hands.

It's purely a comfort thing that I hope would allow ME to play better. I don't have a ton of high aspirations that the cue will do anything magical. I just hope it will allow me to overcome a physical trait and be more creative with my bridge hand.

If it's not about me..........carry on.
 
whammo57 said:
Just a shot in the dark here but why do players want to go to a small diameter shaft?
It feels more comfortable to me on a regular basis.

I have a friend that has a very small diameter tip. I can hold the cue at the joint and bend the tip of the cue back and forth about 6 inches with very little pressure. RIDICULOUS !!!
I'm not big on highly flexible shafts.

A player is not satisfied with his/her personal ability or performance.
What's wrong with simply being more comfortable with something else's performance? It's a personal choice.

SOOOOO why not go for the hyped up sales pitch on how this new material or size will guarantee you a better playing ability. Most of the LD shafts cost outrageous money. Why???? Because a sucker is born every minute and some smart business man is making a huge profit using what????? MAPLE, core drilling the shaft, wooden ferrules that break, filling the shaft with foam. Really??? Good marketing, fancy names, and a promise of proficiency suck you in to the swirling black hole of a dwindling bank account.
What kind of cue do you have? If it's not a bar cue, this statement is just for stirring the pot and has been covered a million times.

With almost all of these changes comes a need to change playing style or technique.
As I said before, maybe the change in equipment suits the player. Who says I have to be as good as you and vice versa, with the same equipment?

If the player does perform better, is it because of the new device or because of the new style or technique???
It could be almost anything.

There is no guarantee that ability will improve.
There's no guarantee it won't.

Why not just practice and learn to become more proficient with the tools that you already have?????? A cue that cost a hundred or a few hundred dollars that is well made, balanced, and has a good tip will be all that you need.
Did you drop out in first grade? Do you still have the same car as when you got your permit/license?

There is no magic pill that will make you shoot pool better.
According to some of the gamblers, that's not exactly true, there are all kinds of pills.

YOU LEARN NOTHING FROM PLAYING SOMEONE THAT YOU CAN EASILY BEAT.
You only learn what you try to learn, no matter who you play. I've probably played half of my games by myself and I have no problem learning during that time. I've also learned plenty from people that didn't know what they're doing. One of the questions posed to Efren was answered with him saying pretty much the same thing about watching others play.
Click to expand...

I play with people that I can 'easily' beat. Maybe I should stop improving then.. :p
 
here MY opinions on the subject...
i grew up shooting with smaller shafts (that sounded wrong)
my dad always shot 11.5mm shafts on his mcdermotts. i always shot with his cues and honestly did not know that it was a "small shaft".
i bought a meucci with a 12.75 and it felt so big. it also had a red dot shaft and i could not get accustomed to it. was it because it was so flexible and had so much finesse? possibly. was it because the tip was 1mm bigger? possibly. both? definitely.

i think that the smaller shaft can possibly lead to a little more control. falls back to the "aim small miss small" saying. if you know where you need to hit the ball, you can pinpoint and dial in to a smaller surface to hit if that makes sense.
however, if you arent up to par with your mechanics, i feel that it could do more harm than good. like shooting with a shaft that is softer, it will add more unwanted spin to the ball making longer shots or shot placement difficult.

everything has its pros and cons. everyone has what works for them. growin up shooting small shafts, it feels like i dont have quite as much control when i go to larger shafts, but sometimes if i dont think about what im doing, i miss those long shots because the ball will curve due to unwanted spin. almost lost in the second round of a tournament because of this last night actually.

i believe a ultimate in between would be a 12mm for me but thats just personal!
 
fathomblue said:
I hope this post wasn't directed at me, as I have a current 4+ page thread going over smaller diameter shafts as we speak.

The whole reason I'm looking at trying something different is because I'm 5'5" and I have very small hands.

It's purely a comfort thing that I hope would allow ME to play better. I don't have a ton of high aspirations that the cue will do anything magical. I just hope it will allow me to overcome a physical trait and be more creative with my bridge hand.

If it's not about me..........carry on.
Click to expand...

I guess I have to say .... present company excepted...........

Kim
 
For myself, I started out with a used cue that had the shafts turned down considerably so when I had my first 'full' shaft experience, I felt as if I couldn't see the CB as well, and the thicker shaft felt bulky and awkward. I then bought a Wes Hunter cue, and turned down the shafts myself to a comfortable fit. At the time, I had no idea what the hell I was doing. I was just trying to make the shaft comfortable. I ended up really lucky, because whatever I did to them, the shafts retained their spine and stiffness, yet became extremely low deflection. So I had shafts that were thin and comfortable to me that played very well deflection wise, without becoming whippy.
I play with full size shafts now, and have taught myself to become comfortable with the size. I realize that with my last cue, I was only lucky when I turned them down, and suspect that I wouldn't be able to repeat what I did with my old shafts. So, although I play comfortably with the full size shafts now, I don't have the low deflection that I had before. I wish I still had the shafts from my old Wes Hunter so that I could duplicate whatever I did to them with my current player.

dave
 
whammo57 said:
Let's stir the pot a little............




SOOOOO why not go for the hyped up sales pitch on how this new material or size will guarantee you a better playing ability. Most of the LD shafts cost outrageous money. Why???? Because a sucker is born every minute and some smart business man is making a huge profit using what????? MAPLE, core drilling the shaft, wooden ferrules that break, filling the shaft with foam. Really??? Good marketing, fancy names, and a promise of proficiency suck you in to the swirling black hole of a dwindling bank account.

With almost all of these changes comes a need to change playing style or technique.

If the player does perform better, is it because of the new device or because of the new style or technique???

There is no guarantee that ability will improve.

Usually in the beginning, ability actually decreases and then it may improve with learning and experience. (the same improvement that might have happened with your original equipment if you practiced)

SOOOO my question is ...................

Why not just practice and learn to become more proficient with the tools that you already have?????? A cue that cost a hundred or a few hundred dollars that is well made, balanced, and has a good tip will be all that you need.

There is no magic pill that will make you shoot pool better.

Practice, practice, and experience.

Watch and play players that beat you.

YOU LEARN NOTHING FROM PLAYING SOMEONE THAT YOU CAN EASILY BEAT.

just my opinion


Kim
Click to expand...

There are people who play USA 8ball and 9ball with snooker cues (6 to 9.5 mm tips, 3/4 length shafts) and have no trouble at all.
It seems that with a ball against a rail or when 2 are very close together,there is an advantage with the 6 mm tip as it will get closer to center.

Neil
 
I bought a shaft from Lee Peppers that he made on accident that's 11mm. I bought it on a whim because it was super duper cheap for a custom shaft, and I ended up liking it. It's not whippy at all, and I love the taper on it. I can't really put into words why I like the diameter.. but I just do. It IS inherently low deflection, but I have no problems switching back to the standard 12.75 and 12mm shafts I have. I've learned to compensate for the deflection the old fashioned way. Practice.

I'm one of the better players in the pool room at my school and other people constantly ask me what I think of these low deflection shafts. I just tell them the same thing every time. It doesn't matter what you shoot with. Every cue you pick up is going to have a learning curve, and you're going to have to learn how to use the cue at hand. If you don't put in the practice, nor pay attention to your form/mechanics, you're still going to suck. Plus they hit like poop, and nothing will ever replace a solid one-piece [maple] shaft.
 
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