This is long and is going to seem farfetched or even come across as BS, but I don't care, I just gotta share...
When I built my room I had to remove a pole and install a steel beam. The builder said not to go beyond 14', but I put in a 15' beam and the house is still standing. However, even this still leaves the rare shot from the jaws of the corner pocket into the opposite side when my cue hits a pole. I have a 48" club for those times, but I hate shooting with it, so if I'm only practicing, I usually move the CB a bit so the cue butt clears. Haven't ever called a foul on myself doing this.
Last night I was having a decent run (by my standards) and such a shot came up. I tried to jack up high enough for the butt to clear but missed the shot badly. I grabbed the stubby out of the corner, dressed the tip, chalked up and took a few shots. What a pig! Hits like a steel bar and is too short to take a proper stroke. But it got me thinking about Pat Fleming's short cue, and I thought maybe I might enjoy the room better if I could get used to a shorter cue. Pat himself once claimed "the short cue is stealing".
Now here's the fun part. For some reason unknown to me, I decided to take several shots with this inelegant club. At first I seemed to have a hard time stroking straight with it. I missed several easy cuts, but then somehow my stroke suddenly got real straight, and the balls started dropping. Over and over and over again. I just kept throwing balls out as I passed pockets, picking out medium to difficult cuts, long straight-ins, back cuts, combos, rail shots, even some banks. I was one-stroking almost every one right into the heart of the pocket, and getting decent control of my rock as well. I was as much in dead stroke as I've ever been in my life, and I have absolutely no idea why except for the short cue.
Some two hours later I looked at my phone and it was 1AM. I was afraid to put the cue down for fear this would never return, but my back was killing me (still is) and I limped up the stairs. I was so excited that I couldn't sleep, and almost caught an elbow to the face when I tried to wake my wife up to tell her about it.
Bottom line is I was shooting way, way beyond my skill level with the most unlikely weapon I could imagine using. Now I gotta have a real cue made that can hopefully bring a whole new dimension to my playing. All this time I was lamenting the fact that my room was too small for a 60" cue, when I should have been playing with a shorter cue instead.
Anybody here have any real experience with short cues? I'm thinking 54" like what Pat settled on, but no idea about the taper, balance, joint, etc. that would be appropriate. One thing I noticed is that it was hard to get real action on the ball with the stubby cue. I couldn't draw it more than a couple feet from even two diamonds apart, and I was real careful to hit the CB as low as I could. The tip just didn't seem to grab the ball right. Could be the extremely stiff conical taper, the weight (I checked - it is only 15oz), maybe the cue is just way too short to get through the ball properly, I dunno. All I do know is that it shoots REAL straight with the compact stroke I've gone back to lately. It almost seems custom made for that kind of stroke.
When I built my room I had to remove a pole and install a steel beam. The builder said not to go beyond 14', but I put in a 15' beam and the house is still standing. However, even this still leaves the rare shot from the jaws of the corner pocket into the opposite side when my cue hits a pole. I have a 48" club for those times, but I hate shooting with it, so if I'm only practicing, I usually move the CB a bit so the cue butt clears. Haven't ever called a foul on myself doing this.
Last night I was having a decent run (by my standards) and such a shot came up. I tried to jack up high enough for the butt to clear but missed the shot badly. I grabbed the stubby out of the corner, dressed the tip, chalked up and took a few shots. What a pig! Hits like a steel bar and is too short to take a proper stroke. But it got me thinking about Pat Fleming's short cue, and I thought maybe I might enjoy the room better if I could get used to a shorter cue. Pat himself once claimed "the short cue is stealing".
Now here's the fun part. For some reason unknown to me, I decided to take several shots with this inelegant club. At first I seemed to have a hard time stroking straight with it. I missed several easy cuts, but then somehow my stroke suddenly got real straight, and the balls started dropping. Over and over and over again. I just kept throwing balls out as I passed pockets, picking out medium to difficult cuts, long straight-ins, back cuts, combos, rail shots, even some banks. I was one-stroking almost every one right into the heart of the pocket, and getting decent control of my rock as well. I was as much in dead stroke as I've ever been in my life, and I have absolutely no idea why except for the short cue.
Some two hours later I looked at my phone and it was 1AM. I was afraid to put the cue down for fear this would never return, but my back was killing me (still is) and I limped up the stairs. I was so excited that I couldn't sleep, and almost caught an elbow to the face when I tried to wake my wife up to tell her about it.
Bottom line is I was shooting way, way beyond my skill level with the most unlikely weapon I could imagine using. Now I gotta have a real cue made that can hopefully bring a whole new dimension to my playing. All this time I was lamenting the fact that my room was too small for a 60" cue, when I should have been playing with a shorter cue instead.
Anybody here have any real experience with short cues? I'm thinking 54" like what Pat settled on, but no idea about the taper, balance, joint, etc. that would be appropriate. One thing I noticed is that it was hard to get real action on the ball with the stubby cue. I couldn't draw it more than a couple feet from even two diamonds apart, and I was real careful to hit the CB as low as I could. The tip just didn't seem to grab the ball right. Could be the extremely stiff conical taper, the weight (I checked - it is only 15oz), maybe the cue is just way too short to get through the ball properly, I dunno. All I do know is that it shoots REAL straight with the compact stroke I've gone back to lately. It almost seems custom made for that kind of stroke.