Morningstar on cue tips - secret to success?
- Thread starter Mr. Bond
- Start date
I think it is safe to assume the variance in the quality of equipment in 1915 was substantially greater than it is today.
Then not everything is evenly matched. The tip is different. The same thing could be said "if everything was evenly matched but one player banked better, that one will win". It's the same thing as the tip, a good tip will allow a bit better spin, less miscuing maybe, which will add a few shots in a set, same as better banking skills. Or any other single thing that one player has over the other. How about height? I'd say, myself being short, a player equal to me in skill on the table but is a few inches shorter has an advantage because he/she can reach more shots.
I'm not sure that I understand what you mean.
What does "today" have to do with the article?
Could you please elaborate.
The point is well made that the tip is critical. This hasn't changed at all. In fact it spawned and entire industry subsection with layered tips. Good installers who know how to pick good tips and install them expertly can charge more and are sought out.
Top players hate to have to change their tips before a match. BUT the idea that a player will be at a huge disadvantage and will lose is not true any more. It is very common that a good installer can get the new tip to be exactly as the player desires it to be so that there is practically no difference to the old one. This comes from a modern knowledge of best practices coupled with a wide range of good tip brands and hardness levels.
These days a player can take a cue with a new tip and try it out and if not what they want the installer can tweak it and the net result is that within an hour the player has a tip that he is 100% comfortable and confident with.
Top players hate to have to change their tips before a match. BUT the idea that a player will be at a huge disadvantage and will lose is not true any more. It is very common that a good installer can get the new tip to be exactly as the player desires it to be so that there is practically no difference to the old one. This comes from a modern knowledge of best practices coupled with a wide range of good tip brands and hardness levels.
These days a player can take a cue with a new tip and try it out and if not what they want the installer can tweak it and the net result is that within an hour the player has a tip that he is 100% comfortable and confident with.
Below is the OP. I took the question to mean in today's world of pool. My answer was meant to mean it was essentially irrelevant today as the ability to repeatably manufacture products to high tolerances is magnitudes better today than it was in 1915. If someone today isn't playing with good quality equipment, they have no one to blame but themselves. BTW, quality isn't defined as specifications or capability but rather, how a product performs to specification. I suspect in 1915, it may have been a formidable challenge to find a good pool cue with a quality tip. I could get in my car tomorrow, drive 1/2 hour and purchase a cue in a couple of minutes that has sufficient quality to allow me to compete on even ground with anybody from an equipment point of view.
They can be cut down further to make them harder, they can be taken off compacted and recut, the sides can be infused with a light layer of super glue instead of just burnished.
I think the math is easy on this one.
If the players are evenly matched...bet on the best tip.
Only the tip hits the cue-ball....
Raymond Ceulemans said "A good tip is more important than a good cue."
It was said in Britain that anyone who was having tip trouble could not win
the world championship.
Years ago I was playing in a tournament and a few players wanted to know
how I was holding the cue-ball for position when everyone else was going to
the rail....I let them hit with my cue...they could all do it too.
If you don't value greatly the importance of a good tip and a good cue....
...you haven't been under fire enough....imo
I think it is a good article. More should be written about pool, equipment, and players in daily newpapers. It would help pool be more popular.
I think the article should be looked at as a positive.
The Indian with the best arrows will win most of the time without getting lucky.
I think the article should be looked at as a positive.
The Indian with the best arrows will win most of the time without getting lucky.
Er, no.
Two players being TOTALLY identical in skill level is unlikely, but if it does, then the game will be decided by who gets luckier.
All modern pool games (i.e. not balkline) have some luck and a few happy rolls will outrun a slightly better tip every time.
Like the rest of the cue, a tip just needs to meet a certain minimum level of quality.
If it can do its job, then anything else is just personal preference and marketing.
Two players being TOTALLY identical in skill level is unlikely, but if it does, then the game will be decided by who gets luckier.
All modern pool games (i.e. not balkline) have some luck and a few happy rolls will outrun a slightly better tip every time.
Like the rest of the cue, a tip just needs to meet a certain minimum level of quality.
If it can do its job, then anything else is just personal preference and marketing.
SpongebobFreak
Banned
If the Indian has a crooked arrow or a inferior arrow head then he will fall to a better equipped opponent
but the question of technology then vs technology now, IMO, is essentially irrelevant as well.
the question is: all things being equal- can the right tip alone win you the game?
or -all things being equal - can a win be credited to the right cue alone?
or the right chalk alone, since it has a direct effect on the performance of a given tip?
I suspect that as far as real wood cues and real leathers are concerned, there would have been little to no difference in quality between then and now.
If the players skill levels are completely equal, then I would have to agree with pt. Bet on the better tip.
However, don't bet on the one with a tight pair of shoes. Take a pass on the guy whose wife is doing the wild thing with the mailman. And forget about the player whose has to take a piss.
Way to many variables. :smile:
However, don't bet on the one with a tight pair of shoes. Take a pass on the guy whose wife is doing the wild thing with the mailman. And forget about the player whose has to take a piss.
Way to many variables. :smile:
I think some of the responders should google 'hypothetical'....
...what part of 'all things equal but the tip' don't you understand?
Yeah but that premise is kind of ridiculous. ALL other things equal?
When will two players both have the EXACT same amount of luck?
There's no real world situation where the tip is the 'tipping point',
because no two players on earth will have the exact same lucky rolls, comfort level,
ability to handle pressure, momentum, familiarity with the equipment, and so on.
Any of those things play a bigger role than the tip.