Flat tip

I like a flatter tip myself, I feel it lets me get more action on the cue ball
and fewer miscues when using a lot of english

Jake
 
Some of the Filipino players I have seen keep their tips flat. I tried it and miscue like crazy but they don't seem to too often. Just wondering if their is any theory about why they do this and what the benefits are.
 
Buzzard said:
Some of the Filipino players I have seen keep their tips flat. I tried it and miscue like crazy but they don't seem to too often. Just wondering if their is any theory about why they do this and what the benefits are.


I have no idea, Ive never heard that before, but those Filipino's are a different breed of pool players and are not from this planet lol
 
I've played with some bar house sticks which have an almost flat tip.

These miscue a lot. Also when I draw, the ball scoops (jumps) when hitting as low as I do with my dime shaped tip. I can get draw and not scoop the ball if I hit higher up.

So It seems to me I can shoot quite low on the cue ball and get good draw with a dime shaped tip. But if shooting this low with a flat tip, it will scoop the ball.

When you are shooting the cue ball off center with draw, follow, or english, it is the edge of the tip which is contacting the cue ball. Seems to me a flat tip would not have much surface area touching the cue ball when shooting off center. Thus I would not think it would "grab" the cue ball very well - tend to "slip off" instead.

Also Predator says there is less cue ball deflection with a dime shaped tip than a nickel.
 
Seems like I read somewhere (Playing off the Rail?) that Keither prefers a flatter tip.
 
Flat tip?

The only thing I have seen a flat tip good for is a break cue. Someone I know
told me to try a flatter tip on my break cue. I guess the lack of english getting transferred to the cueball is why it should be flat. I tried it on my break cue and now can control the cueball better when I break. I can get the rock to drop in the middle of the table more often than I could with a nickel radius on it.
 
Actually, like gregoryg mentioned, a flat tip for a breaking cue makes sense. Perhaps any time you are playing center on the ball a flatter tip may make center easier to hit, but completely flat seems a bit too extreme..
 
gregoryg said:
The only thing I have seen a flat tip good for is a break cue...

I have a quarter shaped Tiger "break/jump" tip (very very hard tip) on my break cue.

The thing with breaking is that it is a very fast shot. This tends to "squish" down a tip. So if you were to start out with nickel, I think it would end up being quarter shaped soon.

Also a nickel softer tip will act as a "shock absorber". The tip will squish in when hitting the cue ball. So you lose speed. I think the idea of using a quarter shaped tip and a very very hard tip is that it does not squish down very much and you get max speed on your break.

Here is a video of a tip "squishing in"...
http://www.engr.colostate.edu/~dga/pool/high_speed_videos/new/HSVA-79.htm

Hard tip (very little "squish")...
http://www.engr.colostate.edu/~dga/pool/high_speed_videos/new/HSVA-80.htm
 
gregoryg said:
The only thing I have seen a flat tip good for is a break cue. Someone I know
told me to try a flatter tip on my break cue. I guess the lack of english getting transferred to the cueball is why it should be flat. I tried it on my break cue and now can control the cueball better when I break. I can get the rock to drop in the middle of the table more often than I could with a nickel radius on it.

I also agree with this post. The tip on my break cue has the radius of a silver-dollar, maybe even a slight bit flatter.

Maniac
 
I go for about a quarter's radius on both my playing and breaking tips. Actually, thanks for mentioning it, I need to flatten out the new tip on my main shaft....

-s
 
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