My Perfect Shaft

Cornerman said:

I can play with any shaft, but normal-ish Squirt (cueball deflection) is better fo my way of playing and thinking. I have played with stick shafts for most of my playing career, but I own over twenty lower Squirt shafts.

For me, the perfect shaft for me is one that has an 11” Effective pivot point, maybe a 9” Natural Pivot Point. It has to feel not hollow, and have a taper that gets the cue through my hands. But I also noticed as I get older, I favor a lighter cue.

So my favorite setup, the one that fits my current physical state and stroke:

18oz Gilbert with Tiger Ultra X shaft. This is more like a medium squirt shaft, and might even be considered a normal squirt shaft. I forgot I had this shaft (thank you Chris Tate), and saw it listed on a shaft metics comparison thread while searching on AZ. The 9” Natural Pivot Point metric made me pull that shaft back out!

That’s me. YMMV.

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Fred, "effective pivot point" and "natural pivot point" - I guess I'm ignorant as to shaft terminology, but could you explain what these terms mean, for those of us that may not know? Thanks!

ChrisinNC said:

Fred, "effective pivot point" and "natural pivot point" - I guess I'm ignorant as to shaft terminology, but could you explain what these terms mean, for those of us that may not know? Thanks!

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Effective and natural, are referring to the place on the shaft where if you bridge there and use backhand english you will achieve the least cue ball deflection. At least that's how its been explained to me.

Check this informative Dr Dave article:

http://billiards.colostate.edu/threads/cue.html#pivot

Cornerman said:

snip snip snip...and saw it listed on a shaft metics comparison thread while searching on AZ. ...snip snip snip...

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Care to link that thread, I'd like to read it.

ChrisinNC said:

Fred, "effective pivot point" and "natural pivot point" - I guess I'm ignorant as to shaft terminology, but could you explain what these terms mean, for those of us that may not know? Thanks!

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Fred can't aim so needs robo aiming LOL

I tried that Tiger Ultra shaft at a SBE a few years ago, only took a few shots but those were pretty impressive with what they did with aim and spin. A junior player that was there with us ended up buying one for himself.

Cornerman said:

Hi, Chris. Some of these terms are my terms, but fairly understandable. Ive been using these terms for longer than most.

Natural Pivot Point: the pivot length that whatever english, the cueball is fired straight on what would have been the center ball line due to squirt compensation and squirt compensation ation alone, no object ball. These would be what Platinum Billiards reported when back when you were still posting. Others call it the Pure Pivot Point:

Effective Pivot Point: the Aim & Pivot Test pivot length. This is the pivot length that will drive a straight in shot in the pocket, leaving the cueball sitting and spinning in place. It is the combination of squirt and spin-induced throw under those conditions, no swerve. This is the most useful of the pivot point metrics for pivot aimers, and it’s always longer than the Natural Pivot Point.

Squerve: this is the combo of squirt and swerve, in case you see that newish term sometime.

Since I am and have been a pivot aimer for nearly 20 years, ultra low squirt cues dont dance well with my mechanics.

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Fred, I greatly appreciate your attempt to explain. I'm not even aware of what system, if any, I may use when I aim, and the process I use to adjust my aiming when applying various amounts of inside or outside english on a shot - I just do it naturally by feel from 50 years of playing experience, so all this terminology regarding pivot points is foreign to me.

I do know that it is absolutely critical for shotmaking accuracy to know exactly how much deflection your cue shaft deflects the CB off your intended aiming line with various amounts of english applied and at various speeds. This doesn't even start to account for compensating for CB swerve depending on how elevated your cue is through the shot, how much english is applied, and how fast you accelerate or decelerate through the ball - all factors that effect how much swerve will be imparted to the CB, swerving it off line.

Within the past 6 months I've switched from a Predator Vantage shaft I've been using since they came out about 5 years ago, to a Revo shaft I used for 3-4 months, then back to my Vantage shaft for a month, then to a Mezz WX700 shaft in the past few weeks.

Bottom line is I've got to make a final decision on the shaft and stick with it. I'm really wanting to try out a Mezz EX Pro shaft, but I'm having to wait to get one an inch extra long. Until then, I've got the perfect excuse for my shotmaking being so inconsistent!