Radially-consistent shafts
Matt:
Before you make the switch to full-blown low-deflection shafts, you might want to consider an intermediary step first -- i.e. radially-consistent standard shafts.
Examples would be:
1. An excellent standard maple or ash shaft, made from properly stored and seasoned wood. Most good cuemakers / luthiers / repairmen can make you one of these, and once you try an excellently-made standard shaft, you'll wonder how in the world you got by without it.
2. The
Tiger X ULTRA high performance standard shafts. (Not the "ULTRA-X" which are Tiger's low-deflection product!). These are specifically made to be radially consistent, so no matter the orientation of the shaft, the hit (and the amount of deflection) is the same.
I personally love the hit of a non-LD shaft. To me, LD shafts (i.e. I've tried Predator's 314^2 and Z^2 products) hit like a wet noodle. Also, because my game has subconscious accounting for deflection built-in, I experienced a bit of shock when I was in my LD-fixation phase ("hey! my compensated aim meant to hit 'there' but it hit over 'here'!").
Since your game most likely has deflection-accounting built-in, you'll want to leverage that with a radially-consistent shaft. Making the jump to LD more than likely will give your game a shock, and you'll need time to adjust. Plus, you'll lose some of your Wall-abushka skills (i.e. being able to play off the wall).
You might want to read JoeyA's account of he and Alex Pagulayan both trying out Efren's cue when Efren was away from the table:
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=232442
It's definitely the Indian, and not the arrow!
-Sean
