first I believe I am a fairly accomplised player a-b level. but there are times when I feel I put a good accurate stroke on the cue ball and it just does not react the way I expected it to. usually jumping to the right or left on contact. My question is does cues have a spline that should be held in a certain postion ( top or bottom ) that gives a depenable hit.
cue position
- Thread starter Richm
- Start date
Excellent question, Rich. It'll be interesting to see what people come up with. I have my own theories about this, but I'll reserve comment until some others have had a chance to weigh in.
Roger
Roger
Isn't this the reason that Meucci put that black dot on their shaft?
I understand that the black dot was supposed to always be at the top to give more consistancy when shooting.
I have also had players tell me that they have done also marked their shaft so it was always orientated in the same way.
I understand that the black dot was supposed to always be at the top to give more consistancy when shooting.
I have also had players tell me that they have done also marked their shaft so it was always orientated in the same way.
Well, for whatever it's worth, here goes:
A few years ago, Bob Meucci told me that he believes every shaft has a spline running down its length. The dictionary defines the word spline as "a long, flat, pliable strip, as of wood or metal." Now if you imagine this "long, flat strip" running down the center of the shaft, you should then be able to imagine that it would be "pliable" in one direction, but rigid at a 90-degree angle to that. Hence, when striking a cue ball with a firm stroke plus adding some English to the shot, you will get more shaft deflection when the spline is orientated vertically, and less shaft deflection when the shaft is orientated horizontally; and more shaft deflection causes LESS cue ball deflection (squirt), while less shaft deflection causes MORE cue ball deflection. Mr. Meucci even developed a device he used for measuring shaft deflection so he could locate the spline in each shaft and mark it with the now famous Red Dot.
Since that time, there have been numerous low deflection shafts (called "LD" shafts, and meaning Low CUE BALL Deflection) introduced to the marketplace, and they are designed so that they do not have a spline, and they offer maximum shaft flex regardless of the shaft orientation.
So my feeling is this: yes, there is a possibility that you may be experiencing more cue ball squirt on some shots than you are on others; and that could possibly be the cause of the problem you are experiencing. But I build a lot of cues and I work with a lot of students, and I'm not totally convinced that the "spline" theory is as big a factor as some people believe it to be.
Maybe Dr. Dave has done some tests that could help us out on this?
Roger
One thing that I have thought of doing to test this, is make a few marks on the collar of my shaft of say 4 or 6 positions. Try the same shot over and over again at each of the positions and see if I can tell the difference. The marks do not need to be permanent, they can even be a simple sliver of a sticker.
This topic, like many others have so many opinions and rumors, that even with solid factual data, sometimes it comes down to testing for yourself to see.
This topic, like many others have so many opinions and rumors, that even with solid factual data, sometimes it comes down to testing for yourself to see.
Thanks for the responses and yes I believe there is something to this. I have put a spot on my cue and make sure it is on top, the effect is very minor on soft shots but as you stroke harder the stick has a different feel and deflects less in my opinon. It may be in my head but by doing it consistantly I have one less excuse and my confidece is growing.
You can test this for yourself. I have a Predator 314z and always shoot with the logo up. Here is how I found out.
Place an object ball on the foot rail one diamond towards center from the pocket. Place a ball on either side of the object ball with 1/8” – ¼” space between the outside ball and the object ball. Remove the object ball (the one centered on the diamond).
Place the cue ball on the same diamond at the other end of the table one diamond behind the head string.
Shoot using center ball and try to hit the diamond between the balls. You could mark the diamond with a piece of chalk. After a few tries you will know that you can place the cue ball between the two balls with out touching either ball some very high percentage of the time. This is your benchmark and tells you the percentage of times that you should hit the diamond without hitting either ball.
Mark your cue stick with a dot in front of where your back hand holds the stick and hold that dot up.
Shoot with center ball and one tip of right hand English with medium (stroke) speed. If you hit the ball on the left the cue ball squirted left. You can tell how much deflection (and squirt) you get by the angle the left hand ball departs from the rail. Shoot four or more shots to get a reasonable estimate of how much the cue stick deflects in this orientation.
Rotate the cue stick 90 degrees and repeat until you have tested all four sides of the cue stick.
You could repeat using left hand English to determine if the amount of deflection is the same or different in the different positions. I found it to be the same.
When I ran this test I found about 25% more deflection in one orientation than in the other. For my cue stick the logo has to be up or down for the least deflection.
Not everyone agrees with me and others have found different results so you need to conduct your own tests.
Place an object ball on the foot rail one diamond towards center from the pocket. Place a ball on either side of the object ball with 1/8” – ¼” space between the outside ball and the object ball. Remove the object ball (the one centered on the diamond).
Place the cue ball on the same diamond at the other end of the table one diamond behind the head string.
Shoot using center ball and try to hit the diamond between the balls. You could mark the diamond with a piece of chalk. After a few tries you will know that you can place the cue ball between the two balls with out touching either ball some very high percentage of the time. This is your benchmark and tells you the percentage of times that you should hit the diamond without hitting either ball.
Mark your cue stick with a dot in front of where your back hand holds the stick and hold that dot up.
Shoot with center ball and one tip of right hand English with medium (stroke) speed. If you hit the ball on the left the cue ball squirted left. You can tell how much deflection (and squirt) you get by the angle the left hand ball departs from the rail. Shoot four or more shots to get a reasonable estimate of how much the cue stick deflects in this orientation.
Rotate the cue stick 90 degrees and repeat until you have tested all four sides of the cue stick.
You could repeat using left hand English to determine if the amount of deflection is the same or different in the different positions. I found it to be the same.
When I ran this test I found about 25% more deflection in one orientation than in the other. For my cue stick the logo has to be up or down for the least deflection.
Not everyone agrees with me and others have found different results so you need to conduct your own tests.
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