Can playing with a 11.75 shaft make you better?
- Thread starter xRASHx
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smiling_Hans
Well-known member
Cue makers will always sell you on the 13mm. It's industry standards.
It is archaic in my opinion. 13mm is great for pocketing balls but moving the ball around with precision is a guess game. 1mm difference is huge when you are trying to play precise english. The visibility is the biggest factor for me. I feel there is an obstruction of view with 13mm shafts.
I know what you mean. Lately I have found myself, if I remember, scrolling back from the last page a bit to see if its a current thread.
There has to be a few members out there laughing at my likes to their comments from 10 or 15 years ago where I didn't check the date first. That is if they are still alive to see it. Ha ha
I would like to know why, no matter which cue I buy, my game still resembles the smell of the cats ass?
Cheap, carbon, "professional", custom, production.... Not a single one makes me any better.
Cheap, carbon, "professional", custom, production.... Not a single one makes me any better.
"Normal cue"?
anything over $2,000............
Tip precision is EXTREMELY import in three-cushion, and most carom games.
Tip precision also important in pool, but the size of the pockets and large "safe" landing areas of the cue ball mask the importance. You can get away with a larger statistical deviation in tip precision on lesser tables, which becomes very apparent when you switch to a more difficult pool table.
A larger tip may give you the impression of less tip deviation, but it is just a visual illusion because the diameter to ball size ratio is larger.
I like smaller tip diameters only because it is more visually obvious.
But regardless of tip diameter, you still need to learn the same precision consistency for any equipment you use.
Tip precision also important in pool, but the size of the pockets and large "safe" landing areas of the cue ball mask the importance. You can get away with a larger statistical deviation in tip precision on lesser tables, which becomes very apparent when you switch to a more difficult pool table.
A larger tip may give you the impression of less tip deviation, but it is just a visual illusion because the diameter to ball size ratio is larger.
I like smaller tip diameters only because it is more visually obvious.
But regardless of tip diameter, you still need to learn the same precision consistency for any equipment you use.
DeeDeeCues
Well-known member
A larger tip can be shaped to a bigger radius and still reach the miscue limit. The contact point on the tip and the ball is, by definition, tangent. Thus, a bigger tip shaped with a bigger radius is inherently more accurate.
It is not just an impression, it is real. Draw it up in cad, you'll be surprised. This is actually why I use a parabolic shape on my tips, flatter in center and steeper further out.
Flakeandrun
Well-known member
Absolutely.
My playing cue is being fixed right now and I have gone back to using my Mezz Cp21 with expro (12.5mm) over the last couple of days while waiting- it used to be my playing cue (but usually I use this cue with a 12mm ILC Monster only for Chinese-8).
Fantastic build quality, and a cue I have had great success with in the past. But it feels like an alien object in my hands now. Tip size is the same as my usual player, sure... I feel It's simply a combination of differences that make it feel all wrong in my hands at present. The handle is thinner, the taper is different, the balance is different.
It's not like I am playing terrible with it, won a little bit of money yesterday, but certain shots that come up 'Feel' different and leave me a little lost, or asking questions of myself where I wouldn't usually.
All the nonsense about LD, tip size, tapers, weights and balance I don't actually think makes all that much difference (besides to the wallet of a gullible try hard). Familiarity and learning to use the equipment that 'Felt right' to you when you decided to purchase it in the first place is almost all there is to it.
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Flakeandrun
Well-known member
Flakeandrun
Well-known member
More 'advanced' in time spent playing without progress maybe... Basically those who've reached a plateau and need something expensive with a few tech words to talk about once or twice a year (the other end of the spectrum could also apply - newbies wanting a 'get rich quick scheme' wanting to sound proficient, who think tech mumbo jumbo means they're going to play better).
Good players play well with whatever 'feels' right to them. That 'feel' comes from all manner of subjective reasonings. Whether it's what you observed your favorite player using, what someone told you was premium, what you borrowed and played well with one time, something of an amendment of familiar equipment used in other cue sports, what you think looks good etc etc. The list is quite literally malleable, endless and entirely subjective.
Everything is different. Everything can work. There is no 'best' - there is only you, what works for you and what you think is right for the job.
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In that case a carbon shaft should have them playing better not worse because they were not compensating for squirt in the first place.
smiling_Hans
Well-known member
To put it in perspective or an example of carbon and LD shafts being advantageous to more advanced players.
Yes, you can tell the difference or I can.
A guy can tell the difference between driving a Honda and a Ferrari. Huge difference.
Now can you tell the difference between two Ferraris? This is where an experienced/advanced driver (race car driver) can tell the difference between .5 of a second to .25 of a second. To us we can't tell the difference.
To the inexperienced player can't tell the difference and using a carbon shafts won't help their game. To a more advanced player that miniscule difference is huge. I'm stuck somewhere in between. I quit playing competitively and only used house cues for the last 5 years because I leave my cues at home.
Anyways, I bought a Mezz and started pocketing balls with ease. Better than ever. Controlling the ball on long shots down the table is so easy now. Effortless. People say its me and my skill and that's flattering but its the cue.
I use to aim and compensate for deflection. No more. Which helps me pocket the ball at a high rate and get shape.
Yes, you can tell the difference or I can.
A guy can tell the difference between driving a Honda and a Ferrari. Huge difference.
Now can you tell the difference between two Ferraris? This is where an experienced/advanced driver (race car driver) can tell the difference between .5 of a second to .25 of a second. To us we can't tell the difference.
To the inexperienced player can't tell the difference and using a carbon shafts won't help their game. To a more advanced player that miniscule difference is huge. I'm stuck somewhere in between. I quit playing competitively and only used house cues for the last 5 years because I leave my cues at home.
Anyways, I bought a Mezz and started pocketing balls with ease. Better than ever. Controlling the ball on long shots down the table is so easy now. Effortless. People say its me and my skill and that's flattering but its the cue.
I use to aim and compensate for deflection. No more. Which helps me pocket the ball at a high rate and get shape.
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My advice on getting better...
Buy the best cue you can afford/justify and then play with it exclusively for A LONG TIME.
I see so many people change far too often and never really learn how to use the cue / understand how it works in their hand.
Buy the best cue you can afford/justify and then play with it exclusively for A LONG TIME.
I see so many people change far too often and never really learn how to use the cue / understand how it works in their hand.
Did Efren use a CF shaft? If SVB had to use wood again would he become a banger? Why aren't all the 400 Fargo rated league players using CF making a living at pool? Because it's what works for them.
Flakeandrun's post below is about one of the best I've seen on the subject, and to that I will add consistency is key. You learn to play a certain way, your body reacts to certain things (weight/balance/shaft diameter/squirt/etc) and if those things are met - nothing else really matters. It's all in the physics of a cue, and if you're used to playing with wood then pick up a CF shaft it may or may not work out and vice versa going from wood to CF. I completely agree that some players will play better with a CF shaft, but on the flip side, some will play better with a wood shaft. And I see a lot of pro's still using wood shafts.
76% of statistics are made up by the author!