Understanding Cue Shaft Flexibility

Bob Jewett said:
I've got $20 on the RAM shot.
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I don't know... the theme thus far has been about what keeps the tip in contact with the CB longer.

Unless of course we consider the effect the RAM shot has on momentary tip compression...

JV <-on the edge of his seat
 
billiards_watch said:
People just buy it and not care with carbon. The only thing they care is the tip mm size. With wood there are so many factors in choosing how you want it to fit your needs. Which translates over to how you play your game.

Most people don't know the difference between one carbon shaft to another.
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I haven't played with many CF shafts. Seems like a good bit of difference between brands. I wonder how consistent the hit is shaft to shaft if they are supposedly all the same from the same brand. Hopefully very similar.

I needed a shaft for my Meucci about thirty years ago. Went to a department store with a big sporting goods department. They had about forty hinged Dufferin cues on display. I went through them and selected the three shafts I liked best looking at them. Unscrewed the shafts and bounced them off the floor giving them the ping test. Floor people were in a little huddle fifty feet or so away watching this long haired bearded guy behaving strangely but nobody approached me! Bought the cue that had the shaft with the best ping. Screwed it on my cue and it worked great. It worked great on the Dufferin butt too. Forty bucks for a new shaft. No waiting, no pig in a poke.

After that I always wished that I could do the same shaft testing at a custom shop and select my favorite.

Hu
 
ShootingArts said:
I haven't played with many CF shafts. Seems like a good bit of difference between brands. I wonder how consistent the hit is shaft to shaft if they are supposedly all the same from the same brand. Hopefully very similar.
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That's a typical claim on the pamphlets that fall from the sky.
 
ShootingArts said:
I haven't played with many CF shafts. Seems like a good bit of difference between brands. I wonder how consistent the hit is shaft to shaft if they are supposedly all the same from the same brand. Hopefully very similar.

I needed a shaft for my Meucci about thirty years ago. Went to a department store with a big sporting goods department. They had about forty hinged Dufferin cues on display. I went through them and selected the three shafts I liked best looking at them. Unscrewed the shafts and bounced them off the floor giving them the ping test. Floor people were in a little huddle fifty feet or so away watching this long haired bearded guy behaving strangely but nobody approached me! Bought the cue that had the shaft with the best ping. Screwed it on my cue and it worked great. It worked great on the Dufferin butt too. Forty bucks for a new shaft. No waiting, no pig in a poke.

After that I always wished that I could do the same shaft testing at a custom shop and select my favorite.

Hu
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I wish I can do that now. LOL

PIcking Duff shafts is just as good as gold. Well the ones back in the day. Heck, they were pretty good till the early 2000's.
 
Bob Jewett said:
On the relation of shaft stiffness to spin...

Many years ago, I got a Schuler carom cue. Very stiff, conical taper. Boy, did it spin the ball. In hindsight I attribute that to the somewhat smaller tip than I was normally using at the time and that I was spinning carom balls. Very, very stiff.
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Most whippy shafts are also 11mm or 12mm
 
Patrick Johnson said:
Yes, if you mean revolutions per minute (RPMs) - but not revolutions per distance traveled (spin-to-speed ratio), which is what matters in pool.

When a ball hits a cushion with side spin, it changes direction based on its speed into (and rebounding from) the cushion compared to the speed of its surface rubbing across the cushion (from side spin) - that's its spin-to-speed ratio. Hitting farther from center increases spin relative to speed - hitting harder increases both without changing their ratio (so no change in rebound direction).

pj
chgo
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Shouldn't that be rotations per minute? Seconds would be a better scale.
 
seems that the best and the worst players have the least knowledge about what goes on in their strokes and the balls reactions.
 
The logic for pick a side is really easy. Every time we hit the ball it is never dead center. We either hit it a little left or a little right. The idea is to pick and side so at least you know where you are hitting.

I don't believe in it because I really don't aim. It's been like this since I was 16 but I guess it can help others.
 
billiards_watch said:
The logic for pick a side is really easy. Every time we hit the ball it is never dead center. We either hit it a little left or a little right. The idea is to pick and side so at least you know where you are hitting.

I don't believe in it because I really don't aim. It's been like this since I was 16 but I guess it can help others.
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The thing is the same amount of error has less effect if it is error from a center ball aim than an aim to one side. To test things add a half tip of right and left to a center hit let the cue ball come off a rail and back to another. Mark where the cue ball stops each shot. For a little better confirmation you might shoot each shot three or five times, more if you please.

Now move your basic point of aim one tip to the side. Shoot the same number of balls as the first test hitting half a tip right and left. This test will show a wider distance between the stopping points than when you were working from center ball.

Some people think there is something horrible about crossing over the centerline of the cue ball. In reality, it has less effect than the same error distance not crossing over the centerline.

Hu
 
ShootingArts said:
The thing is the same amount of error has less effect if it is error from a center ball aim than an aim to one side. To test things add a half tip of right and left to a center hit let the cue ball come off a rail and back to another. Mark where the cue ball stops each shot. For a little better confirmation you might shoot each shot three or five times, more if you please.

Now move your basic point of aim one tip to the side. Shoot the same number of balls as the first test hitting half a tip right and left. This test will show a wider distance between the stopping points than when you were working from center ball.

Some people think there is something horrible about crossing over the centerline of the cue ball. In reality, it has less effect than the same error distance not crossing over the centerline.

Hu
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But don't the amounts of squirt and spin increase/decrease linearly as the tip moves away from or toward center ball? If so, then wouldn't the error from 1/8" off center be the same as 1/8" more/less offset?

pj
chgo
 
MitchAlsup said:
RAM has meant Random Access Memory since at least the 1960's.
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Well, that would be in the real world, but for those of us who have been on AZB for a while, RAM -- as in the "RAM shot" -- was defined in 2012 by a member who is no longer with us. His guide to playing 8-ball is still available, though. See the thread:

P

Thread 'New Public 8 Ball Instructors'

Hello. This post is a message to all players who play amateur pool based on public rules. As professional instructors don't know much about this type of play, feel free to ask us everything you'd like to know about amateur 8 Ball. We've also written an online guide (we posted the link below). There you can find the public rules explained in detail, as well as everything a good player needs to know about technique, tactics, strategies and play styles.

http://issuu.com/poolkillers81/docs/a_beginner_s_guide_to_8_ball_pool

You can also contact us on this e-mail...
 
billiards_watch said:
The logic for pick a side is really easy. Every time we hit the ball it is never dead center. We either hit it a little left or a little right. The idea is to pick and side so at least you know where you are hitting.
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If you pick a side, say a little to the right, and you miss and hit center ball, then what? Picking a side doesn't help things. If you can accurately hit a little right every time, then you don't need to pick a side, instead you can pick center ball. It doesn't matter what your margin of error is when aiming at a spot on the cue ball, picking a side does nothing to help your pocketing accuracy. That is the same hogwash that CJ packages up as TOI--a system that he claims makes the pocket bigger. It's simply bullshit.
 
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7stud said:
If you pick a side, say a little to the right, and you miss and hit center ball, then what? Picking a side doesn't help things. If you can accurately hit a little right every time, then you don't need to pick a side, instead you can pick center ball. It doesn't matter what your margin of error is when aiming at a spot on the cue ball, picking a side does nothing to help your pocketing accuracy. The is the same hogwash that CJ packages up as TOI--a system that he claims makes the pocket bigger. It's simply bullshit.
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So far, (the years) nobody has mentioned that TOI is a CJ bias for CJ.
 
Coming late and only 1 page of 5 read. But Cole was my cue expert. His in a nutshell analysis was that a stiff shaft suited straight pool which requires mostly short Precise shape. 9 ball requires longer trips with the cueball and a shaft with flex suited the longer travel. Kind of like the evolution of poles used in pole vaulting. He classed Balabushca cues as straight pool cues. 🤷‍♂️
 
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