How do u define a Hit on the cue?????????

Monto P2

Asia Billiards
Silver Member
Sorry for a noob questions but i think many would be interested to know.

What is a stiff hit????
what are the different kinds hits??????
How can one acertain a hit on a cue??????
 
Hit is subjective; for definitions..... there are tons.
What I mean when I say a cue hits good or bad is whether the cue feels solid. If I can feel any rattles, clicks etc it means something is loose or not fitted properly in the cue.
As far as firm etc. Firm hit usually means a stiff tapered shaft. Whippy, means a long taper (less material the shaft itself is whippy).
Your best bet is to hit with alot of different cues and find what feels good to you. You may like a stiff taper like a Schon or Bluegrass or Southwest etc, or you might like a longer taper like a Meucci or McDermott etc.
But all that really matters is that the cue is solid, with nothing loose or broken. You will be able to feel it, and eventually you will have to have it fixed.
Chuck
 
Monto P2 said:
Sorry for a noob questions but i think many would be interested to know.

What is a stiff hit????
what are the different kinds hits??????
How can one acertain a hit on a cue??????

I suspect that to describe all of the above can only be done with a comparison. A good cue will transmit a vibration that you like, some like it stiff, but only you can say what you like, and if you do not know what you like, no one can help you!!!!!
 
If I recall correctly Mike Lambros has some of his thoughts on his site about how a cue should feel. I believe he states that if you line up a shot straight into the corner pocket with approx 3 feet between the balls the hit should feel the same if the cueball is struck with a soft shot as well as if you hit the shot with a very hard shot. A well constructed cue should feel the same on either shot. I'd reccomend you go to his website it may be of some help.
http://lambroscues.com/education.htm
 
I could not say. Just when a cue feels good in my hands and the cue ball does what I expect it to.
 
quedup said:
If I recall correctly Mike Lambros has some of his thoughts on his site about how a cue should feel. I believe he states that if you line up a shot straight into the corner pocket with approx 3 feet between the balls the hit should feel the same if the cueball is struck with a soft shot as well as if you hit the shot with a very hard shot. A well constructed cue should feel the same on either shot. I'd reccomend you go to his website it may be of some help.
http://lambroscues.com/education.htm
I cannot disagree more.
The cue should tell you if you hit the ball too hard, too soft, wrong stroke or off-center hit.
 
Monto P2 said:
Sorry for a noob questions but i think many would be interested to know.

What is a stiff hit????
what are the different kinds hits??????
How can one acertain a hit on a cue??????
Here are some oversimplified answers:


What is a stiff hit????
This means the cue bows or gives very little when striking the cue ball.
This is usually caused by the cue having more wood in the middle of the shaft and more wood in the butt can also help achieve a stiffer hit!

What are the different kinds hits??????
Soft, Medium, Hard, High Action, Stiff, Whippy, Pingy, Mushy and Bad!

How can one acertain a hit on a cue??????
Hitting the cueball soft, hitting it hard, using follow, draw and side English will give you a feel for what kind of action the cue produces and you can make a judgement on how it feels to you. So hard or soft in your mind may be different than it would be in mine. Then pocket balls with a firm stroke to see how accurate your aim is with it. If you miss a good bit this is not that big of a deal, as if the cue feels right to you, then you will adjust the aim as you get used to it. I have shot with hard feeling stainless joints with Ivory ferrules and hard tip and that is my mental reference for a very hard hit. I have played with cues that have a lot of soft plastic in them that give a soft hit. These often also give more cue ball action so they would be in the softer high action hit range. Then I gauge from those two extremes and decide what I like. For stiff hitting, a old very fat house cue is about as stiff as it gets so that is my reference for very stiff and and the 12mm long pro taper shafts give me a real whippy shaft. So I want something in between. Then there is the bad hit. This means you just plain don't like it for whatever reason. And bad to you may be great to the next player. One of the most important things to look for is how the balance feels in your hand. Forget all this 19 inches from the end stuff and stroke it and just see how it feels. Little items can shift that balance point back or forward and not all 19 inches from the end will feel the same in your hand. So that is not how to judge the balance. It is if the cue feels natural and comfortable when you swing the cue with a normal bridge and stance. That tells you if the cue has a possibility of being right for you. If it fails that test it will have to play incredibly well for you to ever adjust to it.
I hope some of this will help you find the right cue for yourself.
 
quedup said:
If I recall correctly Mike Lambros has some of his thoughts on his site about how a cue should feel. I believe he states that if you line up a shot straight into the corner pocket with approx 3 feet between the balls the hit should feel the same if the cueball is struck with a soft shot as well as if you hit the shot with a very hard shot. A well constructed cue should feel the same on either shot. I'd reccomend you go to his website it may be of some help.
http://lambroscues.com/education.htm

While this may be true in his opinion, I don't think this is what the OP is looking for. In the Lambros example, it just means that the cue plays consistently whether you shoot hard or soft.

It does NOT answer the question of how stiff (or soft, or whatever) the cue hits.
 
for me stiff is more playability than hit.i do see people who say stiff hit and i assume they mean hard hit for my terminology.

to me cues hit too soft,soft,med,hard and too hard.

the hit is preety easy to ascertain especially if you have 10-20 there to compare to each other.it is the way it feels when you hit the cue ball.

stiff is a prat of playability for me,the cue can play stiff,weak,flimsy,etc,but to me they do not coorelate to hit.
 
IMHO it can not be defined, like how HIGH is Up, or How Hot in this Mexican Food, people have different opinions, and no one is right or wrong IMHO.
wave.gif
 
Back
Top