new tip before a tournament?

Jimbojim

Jimbojim

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Imagine this:

You have a BIG tournament in 3 days....your tip is worn out to the worst....its a little less higher than a penny and you feel that you really have to force the stroke to make something happen. Everybody says that its not good to change your tip before a tournament but you have the chance to change it the night before and hopefully get some practice that night and the morning before the tournament, what do you do?

clear my clouds of doubts with opinions and anecdotes.
 
That s the reason you *should* have 2-3 almost identical shafts :-) and having this problem 3 days before a tournament.....you did something wrong before :-)
 
Jimbojim said:
Imagine this:

You have a BIG tournament in 3 days....your tip is worn out to the worst....its a little less higher than a penny and you feel that you really have to force the stroke to make something happen. Everybody says that its not good to change your tip before a tournament but you have the chance to change it the night before and hopefully get some practice that night and the morning before the tournament, what do you do?

clear my clouds of doubts with opinions and anecdotes.
Click to expand...

Honestly, It's all in the head. Some people don't mind, some do. If your tip is worn to much or even worn to the point where it's to hard and your forcing your stroke, You answered your own question.
 
Personally, I think you would have been able to change it much earlier as tips won't get to such bad condition overnight.
And, unless you didn't play with it for long time, otherwise your stroke/play would have been accustomed to this 'bad' tip already.

to answer your question, Yes I would change it.
 
it was already bad 2 or 3 weeks ago....wouldn't have been a big deal since everything will be brand new...rails and cloth so I would not have to stroke so much but I played today on really good conditions and its really crap.

I guess the thing that bugs me the most is that the fear of miscue has crawled into my mind
 
Jimbojim said:
Imagine this:

You have a BIG tournament in 3 days....your tip is worn out to the worst....its a little less higher than a penny and you feel that you really have to force the stroke to make something happen. Everybody says that its not good to change your tip before a tournament but you have the chance to change it the night before and hopefully get some practice that night and the morning before the tournament, what do you do?

clear my clouds of doubts with opinions and anecdotes.
Click to expand...

what's a "BIG" tournament?? 64 players?? 128 players??... how many matches are you looking at... "IF" you win? how many balls are you REALISTICALLY going to strike?


I can practice with a tip like that daily for a month hitting hundreds of shots per day...

but I like hard tips harder the better... though any tip in that condition is likely to be hard...

{so why not just start with a hard tip in the first place?? as all tips end up that way anyway... and you can achieve consistency for a longer period of time...} sorry back to the point

my rule of thumb is change tips as rarely as possible... and buy tips that are near their final hardness to begin with... and always buy a new tip at the END of the year...

if it's your year end shindig... why in gods name would you want to change ANYTHING before the final tourney?

don't you have enough adjustments to make already??


so yea... I advocate keeping your tip as is.. till after :thumbup:
 
Here's an opinion. Change your tip. If it's wore out, it's wore out.
If you have other options such as a spare shaft, or a second cue, do that.
If your tip was anywhere near a dime's thickness you should have replaced it because at that point it was either; hard as a rock, could come apart, could cause a ferrule to split, or all of the above in one giant explosion.
 
It is all clear now.;)

I say keep it. When the edges are one with the side of the ferrule, well you are about to run out of gas.

A different tip will play differently. I tend to tap (foul) the CB more the first time or 2 I play with a new tip. For those reasons, I vote change it , no keep it for the tourney:eek:.
 
What kind of tip do you use? If you're using a single layer tip, then it's more of a crap shoot because there are so many bad tips in a box. But if you're using a layered tip like a Moori or Kamui, then change it. Part of that high price for a layered tip is how consistant they are from one to another. Yes a new one won't be as hard as one that is played down that far, but it shouldn't be a huge adjustment.

As a repairman, my busiest times are the week leading up to a tournament. When I work a tournament, the busiest time is the first day of the tournament. There are more people that get the work done right before a tournament than those that wait.

Buy a tip you trust, and you'll be fine.
 
Shrooms

Jimbojim said:
Imagine this:

You have a BIG tournament in 3 days....your tip is worn out to the worst....its a little less higher than a penny and you feel that you really have to force the stroke to make something happen. Everybody says that its not good to change your tip before a tournament but you have the chance to change it the night before and hopefully get some practice that night and the morning before the tournament, what do you do?

clear my clouds of doubts with opinions and anecdotes.
Click to expand...

I would change the tip if YOU are not comfortable with the tip. Personally I would cut the new tip height in half, unless it is a compressed Milk Dud or similar compressed tip.

If you "think" that you are forcing your stroke to make something happen, it is probably all in your head and it is just as well to remove that from your noggin'. Get a new tip...

On the other side of the coin, I have been beaten soundly by another player with a tip height the size of a dime. It looked like he had no tip with the curvature.

And the final note is, if you like using a SOFT tip, it is probably not a good idea to change a tip the night before a tournament. It will malform during the initial break in period and you will be thinking about that and looking at the 'shroom sideways that grows with each shot. It will be like a festering splinter under your fingernail, pulsing with aggravation and pain on each missed shot or so I'm told. :D

JoeyA
 
In my opinion, after a new tip gets installed, you need a couple of hours of practice to beat the surface into full playability. After that, its just getting used to the tip, and getting bad thoughts out of your head (mostly the later).
 
Change it.

Have it pressed first and then cut to like half its height.

10 mins on a practice table and you should be good to go.
 
Jimbojim said:
Imagine this:

....your tip is worn out to the worst....its a little less higher than a penny and you feel that you really have to force the stroke to make something happen. you have the chance to change it the night before and hopefully get some practice that night and the morning before the tournament, what do you do?
Click to expand...
This is easy to answer, Which would you rather play with? A worn out tip that's not working like it should or a new tip that you have a chance to hit a few racks with before the tournament.......Change the Tip!!!!!

James
 
Replace/tip, go to the pool hall, hit allot of shots with allot of speed to break the tip in/trim out the sides/do it again, you've got plenty of time to do this before play, ask the tip installer to pick out a tip that doesn't have allot of profile so there won't be as much distortion during breaking in a new tip. Your in a worse situation going to a tournament with only one shaft, what would happen if you were doing well, your tip came off during match play, then what cue would you use?
 
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