Someone once told me that there is a point on every low deflection shaft where the deflection will be maximized. On his shaft there was a tiny red dot. He said that if he rotates his shaft so that the red dot points up toward the ceiling there will be a maximum amount of deflection. He then looked at my shaft which does not have a red dot, and looked at the direction that the grains in the wood were running and based on that he told me where the maximum deflection spot was. Is there any truth to any of this? I never heard anyone mention this concept before and I usually don't pay any attention to the shaft's rotation before I shoot.
Does the amount of deflection on a LD Shaft depend on which side is up?
- Thread starter ktrepal85
- Start date
Most LD shafts are radial spliced (like a pie) so in theory this should eliminate the variance in grain.
On a traditional shaft, I suppose with/against the grain would have to have a slight difference in flex. I think you are spliting hairs on its effect when hitting the cueball.
We did have an old man in our pool hall, long before LD shafts came out who had marked a spot on his shaft for this same reason.
The red dot should be up for least deflection, or at least for the most consistent hit.
Meucci put that dot there ( assuming you are talking about a Meucchi red dot shaft and not something else ) so you can easily align the grain of the wood on the shaft the same way for your shots.
There are some that care about that, and there is some reasoning behind orienting the shaft the same way, for a solid maple shaft that is. If you have the grain one way on the shot, it will flex differently that in you have it the other way. If there was any solid testing outside of just theory on this, I don't know.
Once you have the pie construction many LD shafts use, that does not matter as much if at all since the grain of the wood is mixed.
Meucci put that dot there ( assuming you are talking about a Meucchi red dot shaft and not something else ) so you can easily align the grain of the wood on the shaft the same way for your shots.
There are some that care about that, and there is some reasoning behind orienting the shaft the same way, for a solid maple shaft that is. If you have the grain one way on the shot, it will flex differently that in you have it the other way. If there was any solid testing outside of just theory on this, I don't know.
Once you have the pie construction many LD shafts use, that does not matter as much if at all since the grain of the wood is mixed.
If you put the butt on the rail and cue tip on the table... and then press down, some shafts will bend easier toward one side.
Years ago I knew some players that put a dot on their shaft (the side that bent down easier). The dot was up for draw shots
because the shaft was thought to play stiffer when the dot pointed up... This was a long time before LD shafts were around.
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Years ago I knew some players that put a dot on their shaft (the side that bent down easier). The dot was up for draw shots
because the shaft was thought to play stiffer when the dot pointed up... This was a long time before LD shafts were around.
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Since shaft flexibility seems to have little or nothing to do with squirt, it probably makes no difference - at least not enough to notice.
pj
chgo
pj
chgo
Name one pro player who has a dot on his shaft .
There was a comment I heard about players when they are shooting a critical shot that they would make sure to line up the shaft grain a certain way. I think Sigel did that, aside from bending his shaft on the table before breaking. I'm 100% sure I heard that from one of the commentators although if it was on an AccuStats tape and about who I could not say for sure.
If you guys come up with one more thing I have to think about...my head is going to explode!
Just add that to your pre-shot routine soon as you are sure you match your shaft taper to your pivot point for back hand english with the right softness tip while thinking about what kind of pocket cut, cloth, rails and shelf are on the table and adjust for throw while rotating the cue to the proper alignment for 20% draw power but make sure you stay down and don't drop the elbow.
The not-so funny part of this is that as some-what learned pool players, we have to take all of that into consideration when shooting, not counting adjusting aim for spin or bank angles based on humidity, temperature, rail age and cloth type/age to just make a regular non-fancy shot not even counting sorting out position to the 9-10-15 balls we have to make.
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Meucci has had dots on their shafts for this reason. There may be some truth to this, but I've never managed to detect any difference. If it is there, it is small. My current shaft is radially laminated, which is supposed to minimize this effect.
If you sacrifice a goat & use its blood to make the dot on your shaft at midnight on a full moon & point it upwards you'll never miss another ball, honest.
Do you have a DVD for sale that explains this further?
It's really frustrating when you instructors reveal just a little bit of your secret, but make us buy the DVD to find out what kind of goat, what direction should the goat be facing when sacrificed, etc.
Agreed.
I've actually done a careful experiment testing for this and saw no difference in squirt (CB deflection) with different cue orientations. For the detailed results, see Diagram 3 in "Squirt - Part VII: cue test machine results" (BD, February, 2008).
And to understand why endmass alone (and not stiffness) is what causes squirt (CB deflection), see:
what causes squirt?
endmass and stiffness
Both experiments and theory agree that stiffness differences with orientation should have no practical effect on the CB (although, the "hit" and "feel" might vary with orientation).
Regards,
Dave
Short answer: NO.
Slightly longer answer: Meucci did the red dot and black dot thing. The purpose of the dot is not to show where the shaft deflects the most or the least. The purpose is so that you can use the dot as a reference so that you get the *same amount* of deflection each time. That being said, the wood grains have an *extremely* small impact on deflection. The mass of the last 5 or 6 inches of the shaft is what determines deflection...and this isn't likely to be very different no matter which way you orient the shaft. The idea of "radial consistency" is probably more useful with regard to the feel of the hit than anything else. I really don't think it has much impact on deflection. The idea that the "flex" of the shaft is a main determining factor in deflection is very outdated info.
KMRUNOUT
Nice guess
Noone so far has tested deflection based on the orientation of the spine of a maple shaft which is supposedly what the red dot denoted... I doubt that the players of old who knew how to mark the spine didn't have a reason even if noone understands why... The world isn't flat and pool isn't played in a vacuum.... Ohh and PJ is still a parrot........