Mungtor said:
Great. Then people should learn to jump with a full sized cue and develop a different skill. That doesn't sound so hard. Or maybe they could learn what the rubber things on the side of the table are for and if they are especially intelligent they might figure out how those dots on the rails relate to the path of the ball.
The fact is that MOST people who go for a jump cue are hacks who have little idea of what they are doing in the first place. You're obviously an exception since you sell jump cues and have made it your crusade to provide them with some shred of legitimacy. You do well at it, but apparently a lot of people don't like them.
And didn't you once say that if you could push out against a non-called safe you would give up the jump cue? I seem to remember that one of your biggest "excuses" to go for the jump cue is when somebody locks you up through sheer luck. So, in effect, the jump cue is a bad answer to a bad rule. Fix the rule and you fix both problems.
The fact is that most people who play pool are worse than hacks who have no idea what they are doing in the first place.
I just want anyone to admit that all so-called regular cue do not have the same characterisitics and that jumping with a "full" cue is partly the skill of the player and partly the composition of the cue.
I will give Earl Strickland a "normal" cue that he cannot jump a twelve inch gap with no matter how hard he tries. I will hand him another one that he will be able to jump the same gap with ease. What part of Earl's skill was involved there? Nothing. His skill was hampered by the inferior cue and enhanced by the superior one.
Why don't you make all the players play with house cues with no chalk if you want to see who has the best skill?
Yes, I agree about the rules. Just ban the jump shot. Takes care of the need to invent cues that enhance the shot. But as it is, people will always try and make things better through innovation. Isn't the IPT itself an innovation over the way things were?
I am going to go out on a limb and guess that the IPT players are not hacks, who know full well what the "bumpers" are for. Furthermore they are players who have spent a lot of time perfecting their skills using all of the legal tools available to them. Because a few people have decided that they don't like that particular piece of otherwise legal equipment they are forcing these seasoned professionals to abandon what has been commonly accepted as part of the game.
This is my problem with BS rules. If the jump shot is legal then the jump cue ought to be legal as well. That's it.
And Michael Webb - since you tapped in on Deno's answer. Why do you build cues? Are your cues better in any way than a house cue, or a $20 K-mart cue. Will the best player in the world be able to play the game at the same level using your cue as they will using a ramin-wood, screw-on tipped cue from K-Mart. What incentive is there other than prettiness, for anyone to pay your prices for a pool cue if there is no difference in performance?
Why do you have a lathe or a CNC machine. A real artist would should be able to make a cue with a pocketknife. Don't you agree?