Getting accustomed to a Predator 314-3

[14.1'er]

Picked up a Predator SP8MNW with a 314-3 shaft, and tested it out yesterday. I found it to be far different than any standard shaft I've ever used.

Straight in shots, with center ball are pocketed with ease. Cut shots or straight shots with side spin not so much. How long does it take to get accustomed to these shafts, and is it really worth it? I was somewhat disappointed.

 

[David in FL]

Picked up a Predator SP8MNW with a 314-3 shaft, and tested it out yesterday. I found it to be far different than any standard shaft I've ever used.

Straight in shots, with center ball are pocketed with ease. Cut shots or straight shots with side spin not so much. How long does it take to get accustomed to these shafts, and is it really worth it? I was somewhat disappointed.

The 314–3 is a low deflection shaft. Some people who have been playing for a long time with standard deflection shafts transition pretty quickly, some of us, not so much. When I bought my first one it was a month before I was comfortable with cut shots because I had been so used to adjusting automatically for deflection.

Ultimately I went back to standard deflection shafts and am glad that I did. They just feel more natural to me.

It’s worth mentioning that if you have any desire to move in the direction of carbon fiber shafts at any point in time, it’s probably better to get used to a low deflection shaft now, rather than later. Personally, I prefer wood, but that’s getting to be more and more in the minority these days…

 

[14.1'er]

I'm 61 and I've been playing for 45 years. I feel 100% as you do. Im not sure this LD thing is going to work for me. Pretty disappointed having spent so much money.

 

[VVP]

Picked up a Predator SP8MNW with a 314-3 shaft, and tested it out yesterday. I found it to be far different than any standard shaft I've ever used.

Straight in shots, with center ball are pocketed with ease. Cut shots or straight shots with side spin not so much. How long does it take to get accustomed to these shafts, and is it really worth it? I was somewhat disappointed.

Took me about a month. As David said it a good step towards a CF if you eventually want to go there. I would not go back to standard deflection when technology made it easy for me to play better.

 

[VVP]

I'm 61 and I've been playing for 45 years. I feel 100% as you do. Im not sure this LD thing is going to work for me. Pretty disappointed having spent so much money.

I saw one of the online instructors say that the longer you play with SD the longer it will take you to adjust to LD, which has merit. I started with a LD couple months into starting to play pool.

 

[PracticeChampion]

Different kinda but it took a solid month to get use to my carbon shaft.

 

[hang-the-9]

Picked up a Predator SP8MNW with a 314-3 shaft, and tested it out yesterday. I found it to be far different than any standard shaft I've ever used.

Straight in shots, with center ball are pocketed with ease. Cut shots or straight shots with side spin not so much. How long does it take to get accustomed to these shafts, and is it really worth it? I was somewhat disappointed.

How long is up to the player shooting. It's like asking how long does it take to paint a painting. I would say shorter than the time it took you to learn to play with your old shaft but more than the time you took so far LOL

I mean you must have known what an LD shaft does before you bought it, it's not surprising it plays different since the main selling point of those things is they deflect less so you need to compensate for deflection less when aiming. It takes a long time to change your aim where it's natural after trying something new. You can't just get down and shoot.

Swapping to LD from a normal shaft may not be worth it for you, it may not help at all to improve and you may never be able to adjust to play as good as you do now unless you really work on it to change your stoke and aim. Some players I know can't play with an LD shaft because their stroke they learned since they started playing has some flaw, and they aim with that flaw after much practice to hit where they want with a standard shaft. When using an LD shaft their stoke flaw is more apparent and causes more missing aside from the fact they adjust their aiming, there are two things they need to change, a straighter stroke without things like wrist twisting or swiping and also where they aim to hit the object ball.

 

[Grimper]

I just purchased a 314-3 myself. Today was my first day shooting with it. I think it may replace my Revo.

 

[Busboy]

I just purchased a 314-3 myself. Today was my first day shooting with it. I think it may replace my Revo.

I’m doing the same kinda lol I just bought revo came from the vantage think I’m going back to vantage

 

[Grimper]

I’m doing the same kinda lol I just bought revo came from the vantage think I’m going back to vantage

Heh. I just bought a Vantage, too! I think the tip's a little too small for me. I thought I'd like it better, but the 314 just feels better to me.

 

[David in FL]

How long is up to the player shooting. It's like asking how long does it take to paint a painting. I would say shorter than the time it took you to learn to play with your old shaft but more than the time you took so far LOL

I mean you must have known what an LD shaft does before you bought it, it's not surprising it plays different since the main selling point of those things is they deflect less so you need to compensate for deflection less when aiming. It takes a long time to change your aim where it's natural after trying something new. You can't just get down and shoot.

Swapping to LD from a normal shaft may not be worth it for you, it may not help at all to improve and you may never be able to adjust to play as good as you do now unless you really work on it to change your stoke and aim. Some players I know can't play with an LD shaft because their stroke they learned since they started playing has some flaw, and they aim with that flaw after much practice to hit where they want with a standard shaft. When using an LD shaft their stoke flaw is more apparent and causes more missing aside from the fact they adjust their aiming, there are two things they need to change, a straighter stroke without things like wrist twisting or swiping and also where they aim to hit the object ball.

Stroke flaw?

Sorry, but not at all.

I’ve been playing with a standard deflection shaft for 50 years. I would argue that my stroke isn’t flawed, but rather that I compensate for the deflection out of experience, without consciously thinking about it. That particular muscle memory is something that needs to be overcome when changing to a shaft that by design, plays differently.

Somebody who has played with a low deflection shaft their entire life and tries to transition to a standard deflection shaft is it going to have the same issues…

 

[td873]

Picked up a Predator SP8MNW with a 314-3 shaft, and tested it out yesterday. I found it to be far different than any standard shaft I've ever used.

Straight in shots, with center ball are pocketed with ease. Cut shots or straight shots with side spin not so much. How long does it take to get accustomed to these shafts, and is it really worth it? I was somewhat disappointed.

After almost 30 years of normal shafts I converted to LD shaft during the pandemic. Same as you - Predator 314-3. I was going to make some sort of documentary, but I got lazy. But, the short answer is it takes a diligent regimen of practice to convert to the LD shaft. I practiced 2 hours daily for a week just on conversion. No games. Just drills trying to reprogram my mind/arm. The second week, I did 1 hour of drills and 1 hour of play. The next week 30 minutes of drills. By the second month I was just doing drills every other day. Overall, it was about 100 hours of dedicated practice to converting to get to about 95% of where I was before switching. The last 15% came over the next few months.

You read that right. I did get a boost by switching. Maybe 10%. Maybe a little more. That primarily amounts to 2 things.
1) a larger sweet spot where mishitting the cue ball slightly does not impact the shot.
2) inside english is used as much (perhaps more) than outside. I can consistently shoot longer shots with inside english that I w/could not shoot before.

I could shoot just fine before I switched, but I am pleased with my decision to convert [650+].

Lastly: about a decade ago, I got a LD shaft and tried it and swore I couldn't convert. But that was just a lazy and undisciplined "attempt." Anything worth doing should be done right.

-td

 

[14.1'er]

After almost 30 years of normal shafts I converted to LD shaft during the pandemic. Same as you - Predator 314-3. I was going to make some sort of documentary, but I got lazy. But, the short answer is it takes a diligent regimen of practice to convert to the LD shaft. I practiced 2 hours daily for a week just on conversion. No games. Just drills trying to reprogram my mind/arm. The second week, I did 1 hour of drills and 1 hour of play. The next week 30 minutes of drills. By the second month I was just doing drills every other day. Overall, it was about 100 hours of dedicated practice to converting to get to about 95% of where I was before switching. The last 15% came over the next few months.

You read that right. I did get a boost by switching. Maybe 10%. Maybe a little more. That primarily amounts to 2 things.
1) a larger sweet spot where mishitting the cue ball slightly does not impact the shot.
2) inside english is used as much (perhaps more) than outside. I can consistently shoot longer shots with inside english that I w/could not shoot before.

I could shoot just fine before I switched, but I am pleased with my decision to convert [650+].

Lastly: about a decade ago, I got a LD shaft and tried it and swore I couldn't convert. But that was just a lazy and undisciplined "attempt." Anything worth doing should be done right.

td, excellent post, and just as I suspected. It's far more work than I'm willing to put in at my age. Plus I don't play nearly enough these days to bother. After all my years of playing my mind is programmed, and automatically adjusts for squirt, deflection and throw.

I decided to trade it off for something else with standard shafts. It's to bad because the cue is absolutely gorgeous to my eyes.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts.

 

[CESSNA10]

Picked up a Predator SP8MNW with a 314-3 shaft, and tested it out yesterday. I found it to be far different than any standard shaft I've ever used.

Straight in shots, with center ball are pocketed with ease. Cut shots or straight shots with side spin not so much. How long does it take to get accustomed to these shafts, and is it really worth it? I was somewhat disappointed.

Tried low deflection shafts, finally went back to the JOSS standard
shaft. They seem to work the best for me

 

[14.1'er]

Tried low deflection shafts, finally went back to the JOSS standard
shaft. They seem to work the best for me

Yep, on my way back to standard maple.

 

[hang-the-9]

Stroke flaw?

Sorry, but not at all.

I’ve been playing with a standard deflection shaft for 50 years. I would argue that my stroke isn’t flawed, but rather that I compensate for the deflection out of experience, without consciously thinking about it. That particular muscle memory is something that needs to be overcome when changing to a shaft that by design, plays differently.

Somebody who has played with a low deflection shaft their entire life and tries to transition to a standard deflection shaft is it going to have the same issues…

Not in all cases, but an LD shaft does exaggerate stroke flaws, unwanted english, hitting off to one side or the other, etc... With a standard shaft, you hit to the left all the time but think it's center, then you get used to the shaft deflection going to that side so you learn to compensate. Now you line up with and LD shaft and hit the same shot, you may be able to compensate for the deflection with spin, but your accidental strike to the left now goes straighter so you miss. Hope I explained that right. Say you have subconscious or automatic aiming 30% adjustment total you make off center with a standard shaft, but 10% of that adjustment is not due to the shaft but because you swipe across the cue, or put spin on it, or something. So you take away 20% of the deflection adjustment but you are still missing with an LD shaft for some reason. That is due to the other 10% you did not know to compensate for because that is simply part of your stroke. Maybe that is more clear what I mean. If you don't have an issue hitting dead center at will, then what I said won't apply, but many don't even know they are not hitting the cueball well without some last second adjustments. For example my stroke goes from left to right a bit. I am crappy with left spin, but right spin is great, however this means I get unwanted spin on my shots and miss due to that with throw on the object ball or cueball moving.

 

[Rusty in Montana]

I made the switch over a year ago to a predator 314-2 SP and really enjoyed it since it reminded me of the hit and feel of my old cue , I also have shot with a J Pechauer cue with a Rogue shaft and it's quite a bit different than what I'm used to .
As for how long it takes to get used to it I agree with a month's worth of time if your playing a couple times a week I try to get 2-3 practice sessions a week and 2 league nights to boot .

Normally after I get some table time in the learning curve is shortened greatly hopefully you'll get the same results or close to it .

 

[couldnthinkof01]

Is it worth it? Like the tomato guy said in his post about a new ld shaft, buying it to see for yourself is worth it. It's a new experience, changes it up.

How long to get used to? I would say give it a year.

Every shaft has some deflection.
A new shaft will not make you better.

I have tried them and have gone back to regular
13mm maple.

To each their own.