The greatest technology advancement for the players is the use of VIDEO and COMPUTERS. I just had my stroke analyzed by Scott Lee while in Vegas 2 weeks ago using moderately high speed cameras. Its amazing what can be seen with this equipment. Higher speeds would have shown more.
Also Old School Tech of intensive studying of the greatest players in their shot selection and execution. I had the opportunity to skim a hand written book of diagrams that showed every shot of every game Ceulemans took in the 1978? tournament in Vegas. Drawn at the tournament as it happened. Around 300 pages 6 shots per page including the missed shot.
Years ago during Ceulemans hay day the Japs sequestered their top players for months to study evey aspect of his game. This elevated the games of such players as Kamori and Kobayashi among others.
Technology in the equipment mainly is seen in the tables. NC and CNC machining allows tables within a brand to be more consistant from one table to another. They can now hold tolerances to 1/10,000 in length width and thickness as well as angles to below a second. This goes for the machining and grinding of the slates as well. Less player adjustment within a brand. Simonis, Granito, Aramith also use these technologies.
Consistant tables, balls, cloth and rubber is a tremendous help to the real weak link, which is the human being trying to play this game. Only the imortals can attempt to conquer it.
Regarding cues. Sure, the technology is there for the builders to use, but I don't see but a very few use NC and CNC machines for much more than cosmetics and or mass production. I believe the holy grail here is matching the cue to the player. A cue can be made exactly to the specs the player askes for. Thats not usually the problem. The problem is the players are moving targets. Not one design satisfies all players and most players tend to change their likes all the time. Only the top players know exactly what they want and even they sometimes evolve.
