Jump sticks have changed the game

Strongly disagree. Yes, there is luck in both, but object ball speed is controllable on a kick, rarely so on a jump and that's why, on average, kick shots have a more random result.
A good jumper can not only control his speed, but within limits, can also follow, draw, swerve, and drag from a jump.

People who hate jumping and/or jump cues are generally not very good at using them... 😊
 
Think I'd go a step further. Allow a jump on the shot following any opponent snooker, including when their miss results in a snooker. I think allowing a jump on the first shot of any inning covers all appropriate contingencies.
yep... nailed it. (y)

Of course we'd then have to deal with what techincally would be considered a 'snooker'. I'd default to the 'free ball' rules in actual snooker, but I could see that not sitting well with the pool public. The rule basically says you need to be able to freely cut either side of the OB. The image below is techincally a snooker.
Snooker_Freeball.png

Keeping in mind the declaration of 'snookered' only means the shooter has the option of pulling out the jumper
 
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I remember a time when you had to jump with the stick you either broke or played with.
Now we have players pushing out to jump shots (the Matlock thread reminded me of this.)

If you had to jump with a full cue, I wonder if people would take time to learn kicks, push out differently, or still jump?
Of course. In fact that is what they did before jump cues and what they continue to do after jump cues. Before jump cues people would push to jump shots as well. You say learn to jump with a full cue but if you were the very best in the world at full cue jumping I promise you that I could put a full cue in your hands that make you look like you didn't know how to jump.

A modern jump cue is no different than chalk. You could just as easily say that chalk has changed the game. All a modern jump cue does is make the jump shot a consistent shot and widen the range of makeable jump shots just like chalk widened the range of makeable shots.
 
I cant say its for the better, even some very low level players can jump yet they cant complete a simple kick. Thats not my idea of improving the game. My favorite safe against lower level players is where there is about twice as much area to jump as there is to land, they see a blocking ball and go for the jumper right away without thinking about landing on the blocker or jumping over their object ball or even off the table.
then teach them to kick. Kicking systems can be learned in minutes.
 
i make more money because of jump cues. as i say no jumping when we play . and those with the jump cues usually kick very poorly and sell out cueball in hand..
they play because they want to play and think they have a good game anyway. plus i say i dont have a jump cue and then its like i am spotting you.

if i say lets play shoot out they say i dont play that. so i say i dont play jump cues. works both ways.
 
I remember a time when you had to jump with the stick you either broke or played with.
Now we have players pushing out to jump shots (the Matlock thread reminded me of this.)

If you had to jump with a full cue, I wonder if people would take time to learn kicks, push out differently, or still jump?
Back in the day, the cloth was more wool than nylon. Allowed for a full ball jump even with the oversized cue ball.
There was an occasion where we started a quarter fifth cent nine ball ring game. Myself a local and a new player. We inquired if the new guy wanted to make it a dollar game, to which he declined. So his first shot he was hooked and jumped a full ball at 12 inches with the big cue ball.(no jump cues back then) Made the shot and ran out. Then he was ready to play for a dollar after making a buck and a half. This led to a fun evening playing with Danny Medina’s cousin.
Jumping just requires practice. Good skills allow for knowing the exact trajectory of the cue ball. Including allowing for the slightest second or third bounces before contacting the object ball.
 
then teach them to kick. Kicking systems can be learned in minutes.
Lot of systems. May take a few minutes to be shown but not to learn it. I've never had a problem with jumping the ball, i just think the game is better without it or with limits like DCC or jumping only if someone hooks you like Stu's idea. I've shown sub-500 Fargo players how to jump a ball in 10minutes or less. Current jump cues are quite easy to use.
 
So much this and well articulated. I have seen people say that kicking is harder than jumping. I have disagreed in the past and I continue to disagree. I teach people how to jump. There are some people, mostly low level players, that can not jump with a jump cue to save their life. They don't have the stroke or fundamentals to achieve it. However, those same people can kick. What I am talking about is the physical aspects of it. Kicking is just your normal pool stroke, which anyone can do. However it takes a lot more to master kicking, especially multiple rails, then it does jumping. People say that there is luck in jumping. I would say there is equally luck in kicking. How many times have someone kicked to get a hit and then the object ball slops in? It happens. (that is what set up Efren's Z kick) Every sport evolves and ours is just evolving as well.
I think Efren's Z kick was after he played a safe but accidentally made a ball.
 
Very solid post for sure, but a factor you haven't addressed is the luck issue. In my opinion, jumping and kicking both require skill, and even though I feel strongly that kicking requires more, that's not the matter for immediate consideration.

The issue I'm taking note of is that good kickers, on average, have far more control than good jumpers of where the object ball will end up on the many shots played out of a snooker in which no attempt is made to pocket a ball. Object ball speed is something very few who jump can control with any precision, even at the most elite pro level based on my observation.

Hence, for the many jumps in which no attempt is made to make a ball, an extra luck factor is introduced in nine ball because so many of those shots are of the "make a good hit and pray for a good result" variety. For all but "A" players and above, this extra luck factor is enormous, but even for the best jumpers in the world, it's true. The jump cue has dumbed the game down AND added a luck factor better dispensed with.

All that said, my view on the jump cue hasn't changed in over a decade. I feel that use of the jump cue should be restricted to the very first shot of an inning. In other words, if opponent hooks you, then you can use the jump cue, but if you hook yourself you cannot. One should pay the full price for position poorly played.

Didn't Efren start the "controlled" kicking? Weren't players just hitting kicks at warp speed hoping to get lucky before him?
 
Didn't Efren start the "controlled" kicking? Weren't players just hitting kicks at warp speed hoping to get lucky before him?
Yes. He raised it to an art form. Kicking both offensively and defensively, sometimes at the same time. He made everyone else learn to kick. BTW, i've never seen the man jump a ball in almost 40yrs of watching him. He also plays safe so well that his opponents often can't even use their short cue.
 
i make more money because of jump cues. as i say no jumping when we play . and those with the jump cues usually kick very poorly and sell out cueball in hand..
they play because they want to play and think they have a good game anyway. plus i say i dont have a jump cue and then its like i am spotting you.

if i say lets play shoot out they say i dont play that. so i say i dont play jump cues. works both ways.
Do you tell people that you won’t play with them if they use a break cue too?
 
I think Efren's Z kick was after he played a safe but accidentally made a ball.
I have told this story on Efren before but this thread warrants it again. At one of the Reno Sands tournaments around 85-86, Efren played the most amazing safety I had ever seen. With lots of balls on the table there were 3 balls forming a 6” radius semi circle in front of the corner pocket. Efren played the cue ball off the object ball and around the table to find the gap between 2 balls it nudged the bottom ball to the rail and the cue ball stopped in the jaws. The bottom ball rebounded just enough to close the door behind it. Leaving no way to get out. But he shit a ball in doing it and had to shoot from the perfect safety he had laid. Efren elevated and popped the cue ball off the point and into the air to make contact with the object ball and a hook to boot.
The only time I have seen or heard of Efren shooting a jump. Kind of like Quigly Down Under. “Didn’t say he couldn’t just said he didn’t have much use for the jump.”
 
Isn't that what he said? Pretty clear that ER wasn't trying to make the previous shot. The following Z-kick was luck in the fact he made it. Great kick but he was just trying not to give up bih.

I read his post as saying that Efren made a ball on a kick before the Z shot.

He didn't kick on the shot before the Z shot.
 
Do you tell people that you won’t play with them if they use a break cue too?
Really no similarity at all here. The break cue first came into vogue because the break itself was causing too much damage to the cue tip. This had not been an issue in the straight pool era, a game in which the opening break was a safety shot, which is the same reason that snooker players don't require a break cue.

The jump cue came about because some equipment suppliers saw a way to make money selling jump cues. It did not, as some suggest, come into vogue as a response to the switch to Texas Express in about 1982. In fact, it wasn't until about 1998 that many pros carried jump sticks.

I feel pool is a better game without the jump cue. As we just saw at the World Snooker Championships, the fairly even balance between offense and defense is much of the game's fascination. Imagination and billiard knowledge are fundamental to beating an opponent to the shot in snooker. A step in the direction of more offense is a step backwards for pool relative to other cuesports, but I respect the fact that others feel differently.

The nine ball era, which began in about 1979, is split evenly into the roughly twenty years without many jump cues (1979-1999) and the twenty years in which most carried a jump cue (2000-2020). The suggestion of some that pool is more exciting to watch with jump shots doesn't necessarily hold up to scrutiny. Pro event purses today are no higher than they were in the first twenty years and viewership has barely grown at all.
 
Really no similarity at all here. The break cue first came into vogue because the break itself was causing too much damage to the cue tip. This had not been an issue in the straight pool era, a game in which the opening break was a safety shot, which is the same reason that snooker players don't require a break cue.

The jump cue came about because some equipment suppliers saw a way to make money selling jump cues. It did not, as some suggest, come into vogue as a response to the switch to Texas Express in about 1982. In fact, it wasn't until about 1998 that many pros carried jump sticks.

I feel pool is a better game without the jump cue. As we just saw at the World Snooker Championships, the fairly even balance between offense and defense is much of the game's fascination. Imagination and billiard knowledge are fundamental to beating an opponent to the shot in snooker. A step in the direction of more offense is a step backwards for pool relative to other cuesports, but I respect the fact that others feel differently.

The nine ball era, which began in about 1979, is split evenly into the roughly twenty years without many jump cues (1979-1999) and the twenty years in which most carried a jump cue (2000-2020). The suggestion of some that pool is more exciting to watch with jump shots doesn't necessarily hold up to scrutiny. Pro event purses today are no higher than they were in the first twenty years and viewership has barely grown at all.
It doesn’t really matter why they came about.

They both serve a unique purpose and make one part of the game easier than it would be without them. Just my .02 worth.

I have to admit that I’d chuckle if someone told me that they’d only play me if I didn’t use a jump cue though. 😊

Just my .02 worth.
 
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My idea of dying and going to pool hell?

Your opponent saunters around the table for 3 minutes deciding what to do.

Then reaches for his jump stick.

Congratulations pool is officially fucked.
 
It doesn’t really matter why they came about.

They both serve a unique purpose and make one part of the game easier than it would be without them. Just my .02 worth.

I have to admit that I’d chuckle if someone told me that they’d only play me if I didn’t use a jump cue though. 😊

Just my .02 worth.
I'm cool with your view, Dave, but let's set the record straight. The first break cues were not the super-stiff break cues you see today. They were quite similar to those with which the pros competed.

The way in which the break cue evolved over the years did, as you suggest, make breaking easier. A few cue manufacturers also developed a masse cue to make it easier to execute masse shots. Pool was starting to become like golf, with different cues for different situations. The powers , presumably the BCA, realized that things were getting a bit silly, and they developed the rule that a competitor can only carry three cues,

I've really only evaluated jump cues from the vantage point of a fan of pro pool but I absolutely understand where you're coming from, Dave.
 
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Lot of systems. May take a few minutes to be shown but not to learn it. I've never had a problem with jumping the ball, i just think the game is better without it or with limits like DCC or jumping only if someone hooks you like Stu's idea. I've shown sub-500 Fargo players how to jump a ball in 10minutes or less. Current jump cues are quite easy to use.
Just like jumping with a modern jump cue, minutes to learn the basic skill, years to master.

Why is a game better when you artificially reduce the options for a legal shot?
 
Just like jumping with a modern jump cue, minutes to learn the basic skill, years to master.

Why is a game better when you artificially reduce the options for a legal shot?
Not the shot, the tool. Like i've said more than once here, i like DCC's rule: jumping is fine, just use your playing cue. Best tournament in the game and they've done it this way from the beginning.
 
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