Inertia...another factor in determining the perfect weight of a break cue?

nipponbilliards said:
I have a question:

I have problem understanding why the bridge hand is being considered as the axis of rotation. I think the cue is not rotated about the bridge.
...
If the stick does not come out of the bridge, it rotates about the bridge. If you make drawings of the stick at different points in the stroke with a swerving stroke, the one common point is the bridge. If all the weight were at the bridge, it would be very easy to twist the stick. If all the weight were at the bumper, it would be much harder to twist the stick.
 
Bob Jewett said:
If the stick does not come out of the bridge, it rotates about the bridge. If you make drawings of the stick at different points in the stroke with a swerving stroke, the one common point is the bridge. If all the weight were at the bridge, it would be very easy to twist the stick. If all the weight were at the bumper, it would be much harder to twist the stick.

Thank you Bob.

Do you have any such drawings available?

Richard
 
Bob Jewett said:
Well, they're in the vertical dimension, but see Diagram 2 in http://www.sfbilliards.com/articles/2004-02.pdf

Just imagine that the swerve of the stick is sideways rather than a vertical teeter-totter.

Thank you for your answer.

My reasoning of using the shoulder is because the shoulder is a fixed point with a (more or less) constant radius, while the bridge length varies.

But I will spend some time to read your article first, I think I might have missed something in my reasoning.

Thank you.

Richard
 
Bob Jewett said:
If the stick does not come out of the bridge, it rotates about the bridge. If you make drawings of the stick at different points in the stroke with a swerving stroke, the one common point is the bridge. If all the weight were at the bridge, it would be very easy to twist the stick. If all the weight were at the bumper, it would be much harder to twist the stick.

Well, the other option, of course, is that the bridge moves. When I break, I lift my bridge hand off the table quite a bit. Generally, it moves up a bit and pretty far forward. This happens at about impact, and often the bridge comes apart after some movement. I think that the cue does not rotate about any axis in the body. I think that the axis of rotation changes throughout the stroke, certainly for different breaking styles. Also, most people have hands made out of flesh, not steel. I think on the break there is plenty of force to squish that flesh some, and that the proposed "axis point" of the bridge moves anyway. Certainly enough to make a significant change in the location of the tip on the cueball. There is WAY more "translational" movement (lateral) than rotational. On the break shot, that is. More specifically, on the power break, a la Johnny Archer, for example.

My experience has been that a rear weighted cue provides better cueball control on the break. I don't understand why.

My $0.02

KMRUNOUT
 
Back
Top