Is 15.5oz too light for a playing cue? If so, why?

B

BFrench501

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
The thread title says it all really, I've had people telling me 15.5oz is too light but I don't get why it would be bad, as I thought it'd be easier to get through the ball etc.

Just curious to see peoples thoughts on this.

Cheers
BF
 
harder to get through the ball

BFrench501 said:
The thread title says it all really, I've had people telling me 15.5oz is too light but I don't get why it would be bad, as I thought it'd be easier to get through the ball etc.

Just curious to see peoples thoughts on this.

Cheers
BF
Click to expand...

The more your cue weighs the easier it goes "through" the cue ball. There is actually an ideal weight for your current skills and your current preferences. That weight is usually between eighteen and twenty ounces which is why most cues are in that weight range.

I have played for a reasonable amount of time with cues weighing from 12 to over 24 ounces and briefly tried a cue over two pounds. They all worked to some degree but the very heavy cues were like driving tacks with a sledge hammer, hard to control. The very light cues were the opposite, it was like driving a spike with a carpenter's trim hammer, I had to do almost all of the work. This cue was also harder to control than the cues in the 17-19 ounce range for me.

Just as food for thought, after struggling with the twelve ounce snooker cue for months shooting pool with it, it became absolutely magic. I have never had better control of exactly the path the cue ball took and where it stopped. Not knowing terms like squirt and swerve at the time I just knew that I had to learn how to aim all over again to pocket balls and touch was vastly enhanced.

I still like light cues but have to admit now that I rarely get to play I play better with a more typically weighted cue around 18-19 ounces.

Hu
 
That would surely be too light for me. I tried a lighter cue, and on full stroke shots, it seemed to get away from me a bit. The lighter the cue, the less momentum it has. Just my opinion tho.

Joe
 
Back in the day the room I hung out at had a 15oz house cue (they had a snooker table). When my stroke got out of whack with my personal cue, I would grab that one and everything would fall back in line. I have no idea why.
 
BFrench501 said:
The thread title says it all really, I've had people telling me 15.5oz is too light but I don't get why it would be bad, as I thought it'd be easier to get through the ball etc.

Just curious to see peoples thoughts on this.

Cheers
BF
Click to expand...

I would think this would be adequate on a smaller table (coin op) or I guess a snooker table, because of the weight of the snooker balls being lighter, I've always heard snooker cues were lighter/shorter, tho I have no knowledgeable opinion in this area.
I know that in the olden days with allot of 14.1 played the Balabushka cues were great for putting follow on the cue ball, in straight pool the forward/plowing movement of whitey was needed more often than rotation games.. With rotation games, there's allot more cue ball movement, so on a 9 foot table you will need more weight to get around with less arm movement. Never heard of a great player in 9 ball using a cue much lighter than an 18oz. Earl/SVB match may be a good example of Earls advantage with equipment (cue stick length) on a 10' pocket table. Tho Earls swing mechanics are the exception and very few if any, could handle this length of cue.
Hope this helps.
 
BFrench501 said:
The thread title says it all really, I've had people telling me 15.5oz is too light but I don't get why it would be bad, as I thought it'd be easier to get through the ball etc.

Just curious to see peoples thoughts on this.

Cheers
BF
Click to expand...

BFrench,
I definitely agree with Shooting Arts. I have also switched a lot of weight and found my control better with lighter cues but you will reach a point where stroke and drive on the ball becomes something you need more of and you can only achieve the drive on the ball that you need with a somewhat more normally weighted cue. in the 18 to 20oz range and you may find 18 a tad light for this.
For me this puts me on precipice of a sort, it seems I lose a tad of my feel but gain the drive from the mass of the cue that I need to get my ball to go longer distances.
It may be a personal choice, I found that after a time of driving the ball with a lighter cue that I was able to make the shift to a more normally weighted cue. I think this occurs when you obtain a solid repeatable touch with the lighter cue, its like finally you are ready to take another final step where your feel is more refined.
We do have better cloth today and the heavier weights arent needed as much as perhaps they were at another time.

336Robin :thumbup:
aimisthegameinpool@yahoo.com
 
i ordered my cue at 17ozs and added a 2nd gen z-shaft which brought it to 16.68. everyone thought it was too light till they poked a few around. im gonna go the same route and say 15.5 is a light one. maybe i'll have to try one then
 
336Robin said:
BFrench,
I definitely agree with Shooting Arts. I have also switched a lot of weight and found my control better with lighter cues but you will reach a point where stroke and drive on the ball becomes something you need more of and you can only achieve the drive on the ball that you need with a somewhat more normally weighted cue. in the 18 to 20oz range and you may find 18 a tad light for this.
For me this puts me on precipice of a sort, it seems I lose a tad of my feel but gain the drive from the mass of the cue that I need to get my ball to go longer distances.
It may be a personal choice, I found that after a time of driving the ball with a lighter cue that I was able to make the shift to a more normally weighted cue. I think this occurs when you obtain a solid repeatable touch with the lighter cue, its like finally you are ready to take another final step where your feel is more refined. We do have better cloth today and the heavier weights arent needed as much as perhaps they were at another time.

336Robin :thumbup:
aimisthegameinpool@yahoo.com
Click to expand...


Could be you have a very valuable point here. My touch did improve with all sticks after shooting awhile with the 12 ounce one. Maybe somebody should market a superlight stick primarily as a training tool. One thing I noted in my experiments, heavy or light a stick still had to balance reasonably well.

Hu
 
I play with a cue I made for myself at 15 1/2 ounces and I really like a light cue without a wrap so get it and play with it, my uncle who just passed at 89 years young was the best player around here 50 years ago and he always played with a 13 oz house cue.--Leonard
 
I play with a thin butt smooth wrap 16.70 oz cue with a ob-1 shaft and nothing else feels good to me. I'm lucky I came up with my perfect for me setup.
 
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