There are really only two things in your control and one not in your control that would be why you don't make balls on the break. One is the rack itself, you can control that if racking or can talk to the other guy so he does not leave you a slug. Two is the speed and where you hit the break shot based on the rack and how the table is. The third one you can't control are those table conditions. Is it old cloth, new cloth, how the rails are with rebounding the balls, how tight the pockets are, are the facings correct so they don't spit balls out, is it level, etc... Those conditions plus how the rack is put together would determine how you need to break for the best chance to make a ball. It's no easier to aim the break properly than any other shot and has as many variables you need to think about.
Which is why I think the break cue itself, outside of a good tip, is low on the gear scale of importance. You are not shooting the shot with spin most of the time and the speed you get the cueball to is not nearly as important as being able to read the rack and table and adjust the break based on that. Unless you are in a break speed competition I think just about any player can break hard enough for any type of condition to sink a ball. I use a house cue probably 90% of the time, even when I have my break cue with me, even in "big" tournaments. For most players the issue with the break is not with the cue, and by "most" I probably mean 99 out of 100 hehe.
You should come by Ayer again, Alex has taken several breaking lessons from the top breakers in the country and can show you how to rack, how to read the rack, how to break based on that. When he went to USAPL/BCAPL nationals he finished top 8 in a field of over 70 due to his breaking, he broke and ran several games each set which enabled him to beat players even though he was spotting games to everyone he faced except maybe one person he played even with and also he was by far the youngest in the field, he just worked on the break more than the opponents.
