And with a low squirt shaft (which can also be maple) you can shoot almost straight at the object ball 1/2 tip off center and get exactly the same result.
I say just put a touch of inside to the outside, keep a similar orientation of the tip to CB as you would with TOI and hit it on the outside. I don't know if this is the correct answer but it would be interesting to see what such a shot does.
Does "keep a similar orientation of the tip to CB" mean hit the CB on the mirror image spot on the other side of center ball?
Here's an explanation. When I was a competitive pistol shooter in the Navy, I learned that aiming at 'center bull', center of the bullseye, was a hindrance as opposed to 6 o'clock bull. Reason... With center bull the gunsight can wander around the big open black space of the bullseye without the shooter being acutely aware he's not actually aiming at center target. But 6 o'clock bull cures that.. More precise aim point. Transpose all of this to pool with the black bull now becoming the large white area of the cueball, you can see that the cuetip can wander around whereas you think the tip is dead center.
Yeah, so I guess it's a touch of outside at that point.
It can do it but do you really like the feel of the shaft whipping like a wet noodle? I sure don't. The punch of a solid shaft just feels good. In a game that's almost all mental, anything that feels good or sounds good and keeps you from seeing doom at the table is a benefit. I mean, on a hit would you rather hear the sharp sound of a well hit shot or wonder if your cue just splintered from all the chatter in a LD shaft? It's like striking a xylophone vs. smacking a sapling against the sidewalk. In the end it's probably all personal preference, but I personally like the solid feel and sound much more than the whippy feel and sound.
I hear a guy who can't play with deflection. I can explain it to you but I can't understand it for you.
I use an ultra-low squirt cue that has a very stiff hit (small tip, conical taper). I used Predators for years, and don't remember them feeling particularly whippy. My first cue was a Meucci - that was whippy and high squirt. I don't think whippiness and squirt are closely related.
Yep. Shaft end mass is the key. That's one of the benefits of carbon-fiber, stiff/light and the ability to have standard diameter shafts. With wood you either have to hollow-out the end or go small and conical like yours. CF is like baking a cake, you can pretty much do anything you want.
When you start using the appropriate angle of your cue, it automatically positions your tip to use the edge. You are correct, this gives a smaller tip target and it makes the cue ball travel on a piercing trajectory. At the moment of contact the cue ball leaves the surface of the table and isn't effected by the friction of the cloth. This allows you to control the deflection and use it to your advantage, you don't want to eliminate deflection (squirt) you want to make it your trusted friend that helps improve you game!CJ, just that little nugget about using the sides of the tip and how a knuckle hitting really hit home with me. I've been shooting on the table for the last 2 hours and wow. As I said before, if I get in dead stroke, I think I'm doing this automagically. The point was, I wasn't trying to do TOI as I probably need to watch your videos to really get it, but I was trying to use the edge of the tip on ALL shots just to try it. Just trying to play around you know. I think I'm starting to understand how those pesky 9 ball players get so much action on the ball. Since getting back into playing, I've struggled with actually getting my dang CB to actually stop dead. Hitting center ball with the top of my tip stops it dead. It gives a clear target and a smaller contact area. If we pretend the tip and the CB are both metal/glass spheres, there should be a pinpoint contact area. This is forcing the pinpoint where you can easily judge where it is, instead of hidden in a 12.5mm diameter where you might be off in up, down, left, right or combinations of them, not to mention it might be flatter.
I've always thought a cue should be held super lightly, but I did notice I was naturally holding it tighter, not a death grip or anything, but basically at the point of contact. Like you said, like a hammer when you pop the nail, or like an axe when you contact the log. You're muscles are loose but at that moment of contact they contract just a bit.
I've honestly never really trusted the dead level cue idea because I know when I'm in stroke, it's never level and never hitting the center of my tip. As soon as I started thinking I might be getting a little wild, I try to go back to "basics" with a dead level stroke. This usually results in me going out of stroke and sucking until I forget this "cornerstone" knowledge and let my stroke out a little more. I just knew I must be wrong because all the instructors say dead level stroke. I should have trusted what worked for me on the table.Using the edge of the tip just makes sense.
I did both - 10mm and hollow. About a 20" pivot point, nice stiff hit and good tip/ball visibility.
I'm sure I'll try it out some day.
This is a great point, I appreciate you pointing that out!
Geometry says with a 4 1/2” corner pocket it takes ~25 cut angles to make a spot shot from anywhere. With the OB farther from the pocket it takes more cut angles (50+ for some distances).
Of course technically you are absolutely correct. It is pretty simple to show that. A simple example is a spot shot into a near corner pocket. There is only +- 2 degrees of slop, so to cover the whole 90 degrees of possible cuts on each side, you would need 90/4 = 22 different fullnesses. If you play a ball off the spot to a far corner pocket, the pocket is only about 2 degrees wide, so you would need about 45 different fullnesses on each side.
I am not the person to contradict anyone, especially a pro player. However, I hate the notion that you only need to train yourself to play 8 cut angles and adjust with spin induced throw. You're cutting your development off at the knees imo... If anything there are the ~22 cut angles multiplied by the various amounts of spin you can place on the CB.
No, the game is more simple than most people think, I only Align to Center/Center or Center/Edge. There are only 4 angles I need to create off either of these alignments and it's even simpler than that because one of the angles is 0 (straight in) off the Center/Center alignment and one of them is as thin as you can cut the object ball off the Center/Edge alignment.
CJ,
Could be - but "8 total angles ... because the pocket is twice as big as the balls" sounds like 8 specific cut angles.
That may work for you but of course it requires a great deal of "interpolation" between the few standard angle you use. It may work psychologically, but it has nothing to do with geometry. Here is a technical description of the coverage of shots for fractional aim if no fiddling/interpolation/adjustment is used:
