Sorry but this is just funny... I had my 8 yr old daughter successfully make a kick yesterday so I guess that means kick takes next to no skill as well. Did your son make the shot...?
Granted getting over a ball is extremely easy with a jump stick, but that's where the advantage ends. Jumping with aim, with purpose, and controlling the CB after potting the ball, (if that's the goal) is a whole new ball game. Jumping with a player, is a slash and hope proposition. Nothing entertaining or impressive in witnessing desperation.
Yes anyone can make a kick, but it's many times harder to jump with a full cue than to show someone how to make a kick, one is nearly impossible without a lot of practice, it's not hard to show where to hit the ball on a rail. Why don't you try to show your 8 year old how to jump with a full cue and see how long that takes. It's not a matter of kicks being easy, it's a matter or the jump cue making the jump too easy, your example actually shows exactly why, the jump cue makes jumping way too easy compared to the normal full cue jump. There is no special trick to make kicks easier outside of skill and knowledge. Jump cues to kicks would be a cue with a laser sight that you just turn on and it shows you where to hit and with what spin. But jump cues replace skill pretty much fully, kicking is all skill, which you showed your daughter. You can't teach your daughter to jump without a crutch cue, but you can teach her to kick with knowledge. That is why jump cues are crap they replace the skill of the jump with a full cue with the gimmick or a pogo stick.
At the amateur level even getting over the ball to make a good hit is a giant advantage. Ever hear the term that anything is better than ball in hand? The fact that pros can play position off jumps and make the ball is just icing on the cake, not the cake.
There is no situation in which jump cues are good for the game past excitement for people that don't know the game who think "good" players just bank and jump balls all the time.
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