Kicking systems like that don't exist. Rails all play differently, balls skid and go long on new cloth and the more worn the cloth is the shorter the rails play to a point. Hitting anything but straight center alters the path of the kick in any one of a million different ways and it is critical to often play kicks with spin.
A kicking system is to kicks what a jump cue is to jump shots. It allows a person who is relatively inexperienced to perform the shot. Sorry but I have seen Tom Rossman teach C player how to kick three railers and hit the object ball EVERY TIME in less than five minutes. Of course there are a lot of variables that an experienced player learns to take into account which is why they are called an experienced player.
The reality is the best bank pool players, the best 1-pocket players, the best kickers in the game of pool do not use systems. They do not sit there and count out diamonds and do higher math with a protracter and a measuring tape out to figure out how to hit the ball. They hit a ridiculous amount of kicks, both single and multi-rail and they build a inherant knowledge of how the cueball comes off the rails, and they adjust to the various conditions, cloth, dead rails or overly lively rails accordingly.
Can I ask you how many top players you are around and of those how many you have interviewed to know what they do or don't use? I will give you three that I know personally who use systems to kick and bank, Jimmy Reid and David Matlock, and Kelly Fisher. The reality is that top players use everything they can to win. If a system works then they would be foolish to ignore it.
There is NONE of that kind of learning curve with the jump cue. Those cues took a hugely rich and developed part of the game that takes as much practice as any part of the game to excel at and made it irrelevant 90% of the time.
So you are talking about all the nuance in kicking and banking and then you want to say that a jump cue ALL BY ITSELF automatically gives the user knowledge of which angle to use, what stroke to use, what spin to use and so on.... when performing a jump shot. So when Shawn Putnam makes a three foot jump shot into a six inch window and draws the rock out for position then HE did not do anything skillful it was all the cue?
It is the hacks who cannot play shape or have not put in the time, or have the skill to successfully kick that love having "that" wide range of skill and knowledge required to kick largely mitigated by their ability to jump out of 90% of the safeties or self made hooks they face. The jump shot does not require nearly the time and practice to master, it is a crutch for people to lean on and a equalizer between the good, and not so good players of the world. And that is the last thing this game needs atm.
Really, then why do so many good players own jump cues? Are they all hacks?
An equalizer? Really? If you truly think that then you can pick your top player - any name you want and I will let you play them even and they do not get to use a jump cue and you do.
You know as well as I do that any "good" player will JUMP at the chance to play any "not so good" player for ANY AMOUNT of money if the ONLY handicap is that that the lesser player gets a jump cue and the better player does not.
And actually IF your assertion were true which it is not, but if it were then ANYTHING that makes lesser players feel like champions and gets more of them playing IS GOOD FOR THE GAME. Can you say Chris Moneymaker, who made every internet wannabe feel like they too could be a poker world champion.
Not sure about where you live but shaft jumps were outlawed quite quickly in most events I played in. Jump cues were invented to cover the (40 inch or more) rule trying to make jumping as easy as technologically possible for players. That was not the intent of the rule, the rule should just change to (you must shoot with the same cue you shoot with after the break, start to finish).
The 40" rule has been in place for 15 years. It's established. The jump cues of today are normal tools for playing the game under the current rules. Jump cues were around long before the specification was established.
Will you people that DON'T KNOW why a rule was enacted and DON'T KNOW the history or facts stop spouting off as if you do? Please. Or preface your comments with "I think" or "It's my opinion" or even "I don't know".
Of course the jump cue is there to make the act of jumping a ball as technologically easy as possible. Is it supposed to made harder?
What do you think a chalked leather cue tip does for the game of pool? Would you prefer if we still used maces to move the cueball around?
Not everyone, I am the younger generation and I bloody hate jump shots. They are a gimmick and I honestly feel they are doing more harm then good to the game by far. When is the last time you saw a person play a masse shot in a pro event?
Well just a few days ago actually when I watched the Niels Feijen vs. Santos ( I think it was Santos) final at the DCC. Pros play masse' shots all the time, they play whatever shot they feel is highest percentage. Don't you do that when you play? I play for the dough and not for show.
People used to like seeing those, good luck seeing one very often with jump cues allowed. And masse shots take heaps more skill then a jump cue made jump shot, which is the reason people use jump cues constantly over the masse to begin with, the same with the kicks. People don't even think "kick" anymore, it is an automatic run for the jumper.
Let me see, you say that you are from the "younger generation" and yet you make statements about what people "used to do" and think. If you want to see all the showy masse' shots then go check out Artistic Billiards
where they make massive masse' shots. Of course they also use special cues called Masse" cues for a lot of them.
Ray Martin, author of the 99 Critical Shots in Pool, a former World Champion said in his book that that you almost NEVER see a professional player using a "full masse" shot in competition. He compared to it to lunacy. The half masse' however is used quite often. So again I think that your descriptions of what reality is are mixed up with what you would like things to be.
Please don't make generalities that you cannot support. Pool players "think" of whatever shot is highest percentage for themselves based on their own skill and experience level. Better players weigh the kick vs. the jump. Lesser players might automatically go for the jump when the kick is the better shot and vice versa. Unless you have active stats based on verifiable observation please don't make such general statements as if it were fact.
As for "heaps more skill", you do realize that all shots are performed by a person hitting a ball right? The skill comes from each person not the cue and not the shot itself. You also know that different cues have different properties right? So one cue is easier to masse' with than another one. And I am talking about regular length cues.
The amount of misinformation and speculation surrounding this topic is astounding. Absolutely astounding.
I mean literally the whole jump "cue" thing comes down to a hard tip. That's 90% of the why it works. Other than that it's a regular cue in every way.
I fail to see why you think a draw shot is any different than a jump shot. They are two BASIC shots. A draw shot CANNOT be achieved without an abrasive tip (the gimmick device) AND knowledge of WHERE to hit the ball and the SKILL to deliver the stroke.
A jump shot cannot be made without the hard tip (the gimmick device) AND knowledge of WHERE to hit the ball and the SKILL to deliver the stroke.
If it can then prove it. Show me a cue that performs shots all by itself. There isn't one. The modern pool cue IS the most technologically advanced instrument we can come up with for accurately moving the cueball around the pool table and allowing us to manipulate it to the extreme of human talent and skill. The modern jump cue adds to that by allowing the HUMAN user every possible jump shot that said user can possibly execute according to their personal skill level.
NO BEGINNER IS GOING TO BE ABLE MAKE BUT A FRACTION OF THE JUMP SHOTS THAT SHAWN PUTNAM CAN MAKE. No beginner is going to be able to make but a fraction of the pool shots that Johnny Archer can make.
Got it?