What I posted under the does shaft thicknesss matter blah blah blah thread, got me to thinking about something......
When not hitting the CB dead on or when using english, the deflection of the shaft should be in the direction of the offset from dead center.
Now I think that we agree that with most shots the Cue is not traveling on a parallel plane to the playing surface because the rails prevent straight shots on anything but follow in most instances. but take for instance a slight follow shot. The deflection should be up right? It also shouldn't matter for swerve whether the shaft is parallel to the playing surface at contact but rather half way between contact of tip to CB and separation of tip from CB.
Deflection of the shaft should occur right after compression of the tip and before the CB leaves the tip, so a slight follow shot with a little downward angle should actually result in no swerve because the shaft should be nearly parallel to the playing surface at the point the ball recieves the energy transfer from the cue.
A draw shot would have just the opposite effect. The shaft deflection should be downward in the direction of offset from dead center, this would increase the degree of the shafts offset from parallel to the playing surface which would increase swerve, which is what we see on the table.
The greater the degree of offset from parallel the greater the amount of swerve. If you could get the the butt of the cue below the center of the CB the opposite should be true and it is.
I was just reminded while writing this of a trick shot where top spin is used while coming from below the CB (the CB is elevated) where top right spin induces a left to right masse once the ball touches the playing surface.
This is consistent with the idea I am seeing in my head.
We witness that swerve is less visible or not at all with top spin, while with draw, it happens quite readily and easily. So the answer to minimizing swerve when you don't want it is to keep the cue as close to parallel to the surface of the table as possible and on draw shots even more so and on follow shots a little bit less.
When not hitting the CB dead on or when using english, the deflection of the shaft should be in the direction of the offset from dead center.
Now I think that we agree that with most shots the Cue is not traveling on a parallel plane to the playing surface because the rails prevent straight shots on anything but follow in most instances. but take for instance a slight follow shot. The deflection should be up right? It also shouldn't matter for swerve whether the shaft is parallel to the playing surface at contact but rather half way between contact of tip to CB and separation of tip from CB.
Deflection of the shaft should occur right after compression of the tip and before the CB leaves the tip, so a slight follow shot with a little downward angle should actually result in no swerve because the shaft should be nearly parallel to the playing surface at the point the ball recieves the energy transfer from the cue.
A draw shot would have just the opposite effect. The shaft deflection should be downward in the direction of offset from dead center, this would increase the degree of the shafts offset from parallel to the playing surface which would increase swerve, which is what we see on the table.
The greater the degree of offset from parallel the greater the amount of swerve. If you could get the the butt of the cue below the center of the CB the opposite should be true and it is.
I was just reminded while writing this of a trick shot where top spin is used while coming from below the CB (the CB is elevated) where top right spin induces a left to right masse once the ball touches the playing surface.
This is consistent with the idea I am seeing in my head.
We witness that swerve is less visible or not at all with top spin, while with draw, it happens quite readily and easily. So the answer to minimizing swerve when you don't want it is to keep the cue as close to parallel to the surface of the table as possible and on draw shots even more so and on follow shots a little bit less.
