LD switch?

MCP

MCP

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I know this is a completely subjective topic/question
I have always played with a maple shaft. --- Cues Adams, Palmer, Dayton etc.
Today i received a Lucasi cue with a flex-point LD shaft.
And played a game of 14.1. Completely different feel, I know there are advantages
With a LD shaft and am willing to give it a go. I have been told
I need to stick with it and I will see the benefits,.
What is a reasonable amount of time?

Thanks
McP
 
Find the natural pivot point of the shaft (look it up on Dr Dave's site), mark it, learn to use it.
Doing this will remove a lot of trial and error.
Your adjustment time will be very short.
 
MCP said:
I know this is a completely subjective topic/question
I have always played with a maple shaft. --- Cues Adams, Palmer, Dayton etc.
Today i received a Lucasi cue with a flex-point LD shaft.
And played a game of 14.1. Completely different feel, I know there are advantages
With a LD shaft and am willing to give it a go. I have been told
I need to stick with it and I will see the benefits,.
What is a reasonable amount of time?

Thanks
McP
Click to expand...

What difference did you notice? Anything in particular you can describe?

When I first switched to a Predator, right away I noticed the lack of weight toward the tip. To me it felt like the tip was bouncing off the cue ball. I also realized right away that English shots aimed a lot more like center ball shots.

Overall, I would say a few weeks to adapt if you didn't change tip size. You know you've completely adapted when you no longer play spin shots up to your level with a high squirt shaft.
 
took me quite a while to get used to LD.

The compensation and front end english part
 
It can take a while to make the switch. Even from LD to LD the differences can be more than one would think. I can play with a wide range of shafts, but I certainly prefer a certain feel and hit and it would take a few weeks to fully get used to a new shaft. The more you play with different shaft, the easier you'll find it to switch.

Give this one a few weeks, work on spin shots and learn how and when to adjust. Make sure you like the feel as well, you will quickly get used to the more hollow feeling during the hit and when you go back to a pure maple shaft it will feel too stiff, funny how that happens. Lucasi is a decent shaft, if you stick with it you should like it. If not, you can always go back to something else. Ultimately you just need to be happy with the feel of what you have and then learn to adjust for it.
Scott
 
I'd been playing maybe 2 years or less when I made the switch.
I think it took me 2 months to stop missing certain shots.
(but I also was still a low level player so who knows)

My buddy seemed to adjust fast but I realized that's because he
simply avoided sidespin in a lot of situations where I'd always use some.
When forced to use e.g. heavy inside english, he would miss badly.
Both of us eventually got used to them.

It will be a hard adjustment if you've played with standard shafts for a long time.
Switching after 10 years would be tough. After 20?
I'd honestly recommend not even trying.

If you do switch, you need to commit to it.
So many players hang on to the old shaft and feel tempted to use it every time they miss a ball.
They'll put it back on after a week, go back to old familiar habits,
and say "WOW I'm playing so much better with my old shaft, why did I ever consider switching??"
Or worse, they'll switch back and forth every week and even convince themselves
they need shaft A for one game, and shaft B for another.

Don't be that guy! It's a huge waste of time and money if you aren't committed to it.
 
Ld.

Thanks for for all the helpful responses. Some very good stuff.
MCP
 
MCP said:
I know this is a completely subjective topic/question
I have always played with a maple shaft. --- Cues Adams, Palmer, Dayton etc.
Today i received a Lucasi cue with a flex-point LD shaft.
And played a game of 14.1. Completely different feel, I know there are advantages
With a LD shaft and am willing to give it a go. I have been told
I need to stick with it and I will see the benefits,.
What is a reasonable amount of time?

Thanks
McP
Click to expand...

Most likely, every time you've picked up a new cue you have had to adjust to it. It's not very often that we change cues and immediately are pocketing long shots with side spin just like the cue we just switched from.

That reason for that adjustment is that it has different cue ball deflection. It doesn't really matter if it's more or less, it's just that it's different. Switching to an LD type of cue shaft is really the same thing. Some are more LD than others and the differences are much more noticeable, but they are all basically the same thing.

When going to a lower squirt shaft, you just need to adjust your aim a little. Aim thinner on inside spin shots, and thicker on outside spin shots. It won't take long for your brain to adjust and you won't need to adjust any more.


Royce
 
RBC said:
Most likely, every time you've picked up a new cue you have had to adjust to it. It's not very often that we change cues and immediately are pocketing long shots with side spin just like the cue we just switched from.

That reason for that adjustment is that it has different cue ball deflection. It doesn't really matter if it's more or less, it's just that it's different. Switching to an LD type of cue shaft is really the same thing. Some are more LD than others and the differences are much more noticeable, but they are all basically the same thing.

When going to a lower squirt shaft, you just need to adjust your aim a little. Aim thinner on inside spin shots, and thicker on outside spin shots. It won't take long for your brain to adjust and you won't need to adjust any more.


Royce
Click to expand...

This is the best advice so far!!

The first 6 years or so, that I had been playing, I used a maple shaft (McDermott, Joss, Viking, and then customs). I didn't start using a Tiger Ultra X LD shaft until I tried one out and liked how it hit. I played with a Viking for years, so I tried it out on a Viking. It played pretty natural with faster speed, but took some getting used to on slower shots.

I ended up using my Scott Erwin cue with a Tiger shaft for a while and adjusted in a month or so. When my new cue is finished, I'll try out the maple shaft (mason micarta ferrule) and see if I like it. If not, I always have my Tiger shafts to go back to.
 
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