Balance point can affect how well you can hit the intended target. If you've ever seen a short player grabbing the cue too far towards the back end, you'll know what I'm talking about. You can also have a flawless stroke, yet without proper alignment of your body and eyes, you won't hit the intended target. So you're wrong regarding balance point importance, and your "stroke" and hitting the intended target.
Nope...balance point has no relationship with accuracy or stroke. You hold the cue where your forearm falls directly under your elbow, when the tip is touching the ball. Balance point has nothing to do with that.
A $30 cue will play like garbage. You can't get a decent shaft for $30. Try getting a decent shaft plus a tip for $30. Also, a cue can make a significant difference in a player's abilities. If I take someone who struggles with playing sidespin due to not compensating for cueball deflection, and pair them up with a Predator shaft, their performance will improve drastically. And it will make a huge difference in their game.
Also not true. You can buy a Players cue for $50 and it will have a perfectly playable shaft. An LD shaft (Predator or otherwise) will not automatically make someone a better player. In fact, it could make them play worse.
I can change cues without my game catastrophically falling apart. I don't play a lot of juice on the ball, so I can switch between my Lucasi (11.75mm tip), my Pechauer (13mm tip), and I'll probably shoot OK with the Segen I have arriving next week.
Me too. I "own" my stroke, so it doesn't matter, in particular, what cue I play with, I can still play.
Maybe I'd be an APA 7/9 if I was still playing with my Cuetec I learned to play with. Oh, wait. I'm still a 7/9. And I've switched cues over the years. Quite a few of them. And I didn't have to rebuild my game every time I changed cues. It took a few racks of pool to adjust. Most players spin the cueball way too much. Staying close to the vertical axis of the cueball really helps with consistency.
