OB-1 shaft- 0 deflection?

[iusedtoberich]

Bob's explanation is right on. It all comes down to what is your comparison. I've been playing with 314's, Z's, I-3's, and Z-2's for almost 10 years now. And I KNOW they deflect the cueball. I often let people try them out, and they will tell me they have ZERO deflection. And many of these guys are shortstop speed.

I can make the comparison the opposite way as well:
I am so used to low deflection shafts, that when I play with a normal shaft, my perception is that I almost have to aim to miss the whole object ball. I know players with normal squirt shafts don't think the same way, and think I'm crazy for stating how I aim with their shafts. Well I think they are crazy when they tell me my low squirt shafts have ZERO deflection.

After tuning your game to a shaft, your eyes get used to it. When switching to something drastically different, your eyes will be giving you false impressons of aim.

Early in my learning process, I was using a cue with lots of squirt. At the time, I didn't know that such a phenomenom existed. I happened to leave my cue at home once, and had to use what must have been a low-squirt house stick. To me it felt like the cue ball was crossing over the line of aim by a lot, so that if I had known what to call it, I would have said that it was a negative-squirt stick.

The problem is that most people judge squirt by where they aim on spin shots, and that is nearly always by feel. I think a stick might feel like zero squirt if it is 1/2 or even 3/4 of the squirt you are used to.

 

[Darth]

A really good player told me awhile ago that the most deflection or 'squirt' is caused when the player punches the cue ball rather than excelerating through the entire stroke. The longer the tip stays on the cueball, the better the end result of the shot. Shape of the tip (nickel vs. dime) also has alot to do with deflection. Whether or not you stroke the shot with a level cue impacts the results as well. Magic bullets such as the OB-1 perform as stated if you have a solid mechanical foundation.