Measureman,
Thanks for the reply, and I completely understand.
I do, however, believe that it's not quite as cut and dry as you might think it is. I'm certainly not saying that you are wrong, or that you should play with LD. You should play with what you like. But, I've had many many people who said the same thing that, after a little discussion, gave it another shot and never regretted it.
You see, even though you play with regular squirt cue shafts, you still adjust for squirt. Not only do you adjust for it, you have to change that adjustment anytime you change equipment because very few regular cue shafts squirt the same as each other.
I think the goal of most players is to reach the point where they don't consciously think about cue ball squirt. They want to reach a point where it's automatically compensated for by their subconscious. I was that way with my regular squirt shafts long ago, and I'm that way now with my low squirt shafts.
I find that a lot of people, when they try an LD (really low squirt) shaft, they feel that they need to do something different to "compensate" because it's an LD shaft. Obviously, if you pick up a low squirt shaft, you'll miss shots with side spin because they squirt differently. Actually, if you picked up a regular shaft that had much more squirt than what you currently play with, you'd have the same thing. You would miss shots with side spin because it squirts the cue ball a different amount than what your subconscious is automatically compensating for.
Whenever a person changes equipment, they usually have an adjustment period. During this time they are getting used to a new cue. Actually, the biggest thing they are "adjusting" to is the change in squirt. It may be more, or it may be less, but the point is that it's different. During this time, the person usually doesn't worry about it, or do anything special. They just keep aiming a little more full or a little thinner depending on how they are missing the shot. Over a short time, their subconscious gradually homes in on the amount of squirt for the new equipment and they are back to normal.
Adjusting to a low squirt shaft is really the same thing. I don't recommend doing anything special or complicated, just play with it. You'll adjust automatically before you know it.
Years ago, before I started building our LD cue shafts, I used to make a few shafts for local players. They were all solid maple shafts, but the players really liked them. Most of those who bought them would tell me later that they felt that they made spinning the cue ball easier. Not because it put more spin on the ball, but because it was easier to still make the shot with side spin. Those shafts, although not really low squirt, were just lower in squirt than what they were used to. Yes, they had to adjust to them, but once they did, they started to see the benefit of what lower squirt really does. And that is it improves a margin of error.
With a low squirt shaft, when you miss a little, the error is compounded less than with a higher squirt shaft. That's pretty much it. If you don't ever miss, then it certainly won't help you. Last I checked, I still do, so I'll take any advantage I can have. Other than that, there really isn't much difference. Of course, there are preferences like feel and sound, but those can be had on either side of the fence.
So, as I said, please don't take this as I'm saying that you are wrong, or even that I disagree with you. But I don't believe that there is anyone who absolutely cannot adjust to whatever cue they are playing with, including what we call Low Deflection.
For what it's worth, I'd be interested to know how many out there would be interested in our cues if we did offer a regular squirt shaft option. It certainly wouldn't be a difficult thing to add to the line up.
Royce Bunnell
www.obcues.com
