Equipment pros and cons

S

scottjen26

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
For several years now I've been plagued with indecision with my equipment, specifically my shafts. Played with standard Schon shafts for years, then a long break. When I started playing again, I ended up with a Predator Z2. Liked it, but always thought I was missing something. Eventually, after a lot of back and forth, ended up with a 314-2. Then a Mezz WD-700, which I liked, but it broke and the replacement didn't play as well. Lately I've been messing with a OB-2.

Here's my issue - I can play great pool with any of these shafts, but I'm just not 100% happy with any of them. There are tradeoffs - one might be easier to adjust for spin but might not feel as solid. Another might feel better on normal shots but be harder to adjust for when spinning the ball. I find I tailor my game to fit the shaft somewhat, and whenever I have a bad night or two I'm tempted to switch, and ultimately I end up missing just a few shots here and there by not adjusting properly when needed. Perhaps I just need to alter my methods for adjusting for spin, although I think I do pretty well with either shaft, just in a different way.

Has anyone else gone through this, or have any advice? I'm not an equipment junkie - have had the same 2 cues for 20 years - I just feel like the perfect shaft might be out there but I don't have it. I may just need to settle on one - ultra low deflection 11.75 or regular low deflection in the 12.5 - 12.75 range - and deal with the pros/cons of whatever I pick and work harder to get better at dealing with and adjusting for the things I don't like.

I know this isn't an equipment forum, but I feel this is more of a mental or confidence issue. I would really like to decide and just sell the others and be done with it. Any advice is appreciated.

Scott
 
scottjen26 said:
For several years now I've been plagued with indecision with my equipment, specifically my shafts. Played with standard Schon shafts for years, then a long break. When I started playing again, I ended up with a Predator Z2. Liked it, but always thought I was missing something. Eventually, after a lot of back and forth, ended up with a 314-2. Then a Mezz WD-700, which I liked, but it broke and the replacement didn't play as well. Lately I've been messing with a OB-2.

Here's my issue - I can play great pool with any of these shafts, but I'm just not 100% happy with any of them. There are tradeoffs - one might be easier to adjust for spin but might not feel as solid. Another might feel better on normal shots but be harder to adjust for when spinning the ball. I find I tailor my game to fit the shaft somewhat, and whenever I have a bad night or two I'm tempted to switch, and ultimately I end up missing just a few shots here and there by not adjusting properly when needed. Perhaps I just need to alter my methods for adjusting for spin, although I think I do pretty well with either shaft, just in a different way.

Has anyone else gone through this, or have any advice? I'm not an equipment junkie - have had the same 2 cues for 20 years - I just feel like the perfect shaft might be out there but I don't have it. I may just need to settle on one - ultra low deflection 11.75 or regular low deflection in the 12.5 - 12.75 range - and deal with the pros/cons of whatever I pick and work harder to get better at dealing with and adjusting for the things I don't like.

I know this isn't an equipment forum, but I feel this is more of a mental or confidence issue. I would really like to decide and just sell the others and be done with it. Any advice is appreciated.

Scott
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It's not the cue, nor the shaft but the person that uses it. You know this.

Barring something breaking, When we miss a ball it's our fault not the equipments fault.
 
I went through the same thing as you did, Scott. There is a long list of shaft types that I experimented with, hoping to find the perfect fit. I learned a lot about myself during that process --- about what I like and don't like in a shaft. There's really no other way to find out what your likes and dislikes are if you don't try different shafts. Unfortunately, the process is time-consuming.

Make a list of your priorities as a player in the order of importance. My first priority is and always will be ball-pocketing. Next, because I prefer rotation games, my next priority is pocketing long shots with spin for multi-rail position.

I decided that a low deflection shaft works best for me. There will always be compromises. You can make some of that up by choosing your tip carefully.
 
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Thanks. It's not so much about missing (as Rufus said), just about tradeoffs - one may be easier to compensate for deflection, given my current methods, while another may feel more solid. One may feel better overall on precision shots, one may feel better on longer spin shots.

Fran, your advice makes sense. Nothing may be perfect, or what I'm expecting in a shaft, or maybe it's out there and I haven't tried it yet. Without spending more time and money looking and experimenting, and affecting my game in the mean time, prioritizing what's important seems like the way to go.

Scott
 
Scott I have walked the same road from schon shafts through a bunch and been all predator the last five years and credit my misses similar to yours as being a loss of focus on the shot or not being fully committed to it before getting down on the shot. I find that for me there is about a six second window where I have achieved the sufficient focus on the target for absolute accuracy and the time that focus begins to fade. I have to pull the trigger in that window or get up and start over.
 
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