Where did my deflection go????

Big Perm

Big Perm

1pkt 14.1 8 Banks 9 10
Silver Member
Ok, so yet another old-schooler has fallen :grin-square:

I've gone the way of the OB.....spent the better part of Sunday trying to figure out this newly fangled, low-deflection technology, and lets just say it ain't easy.....for 20 years, my mind/eyes had always just automatically calculated stuff for normal deflection.....for the first time in my life, I found myself trying to figure out how to aim :smile:

Could hardly make a ball for the first few hours. I played 9-ball with a guy that's easily a ball better than I am anyway - I think I won maybe 5 games out of 30, LOL....then hooked up with a buddy for some 1pocket....after a while, I made a few shots....it's gonna take a lot of practice but I do like the feel, fit, and finish of the product.

Anyone else have some entertaining stories about going the low deflection route????
 
Perm, when Royce first delivered my OB1 almost 5 years ago, Its a tough adjustment. I couldnt make a ball with that shaft for a couple weeks. I was playing with a Glibert with a stiff shaft and old yellow micarta ferrule. So that thing hit like a ton of bricks, but i was use to it. There were a lot of short I didnt really attempt because it would throw the cueball so much. I would either bank it or just cut the ball in with center ball english and take the longer cut shot. I missed so many balls in the beginning with the OB1 because I just couldnt believe that the ball would go dead straight on an off center hit on the cue ball. I kept adjusting for the squirt and missing a straight in ball by a mile. Needless to say it was pretty embarrassing. Shortly after that I started to trust the shaft and I have played some of the best pool of my life. Im a spin pool player, I use left and right english to move my cueball around the table. That keeps me from having to hit a lot of balls real firm or hard to get it around the table. So from then on I have been a big fan of the low deflection shafts and I have chosen the OB shaft for the last 5 years.

Big Frank
 
My story isn't real interesting....

Tried out a predator shaft.

Didn't practice with it.

Found out I sucked.

Went back to old shaft.

If I wasn't so habitually lazy I'm sure I would have been able to adjust and maybe decided that changing over was the way to go.
 
fcee06 said:
Perm, when Royce first delivered my OB1 almost 5 years ago, Its a tough adjustment. I couldnt make a ball with that shaft for a couple weeks. I was playing with a Glibert with a stiff shaft and old yellow micarta ferrule. So that thing hit like a ton of bricks, but i was use to it. There were a lot of short I didnt really attempt because it would throw the cueball so much. I would either bank it or just cut the ball in with center ball english and take the longer cut shot. I missed so many balls in the beginning with the OB1 because I just couldnt believe that the ball would go dead straight on an off center hit on the cue ball. I kept adjusting for the squirt and missing a straight in ball by a mile. Needless to say it was pretty embarrassing. Shortly after that I started to trust the shaft and I have played some of the best pool of my life. Im a spin pool player, I use left and right english to move my cueball around the table. That keeps me from having to hit a lot of balls real firm or hard to get it around the table. So from then on I have been a big fan of the low deflection shafts and I have chosen the OB shaft for the last 5 years.

Big Frank
Click to expand...


Thanks for the story Frank, at least I know what is in front of me :grin-square:
 
I went over to the darkside about august of last year.

I decided I wanted to go back to the cue that I started out with, Mcdermott.

So I was looking at the Dubliner, and then ran into a good deal on the 2009 cue of the year. I thought it was a gorgeous cue. I bought it and it came with the I2 shaft. at first I just used BHE I marked off the pivot point after some tests, which was further back than I was used to, but I got fairly used to it rather quickly, then a friend pointed out to me that I was aiming wrong for that shaft. After some testing I figured out what LD shaft tech is for and what it really does. It makes any necessary adjustments much more minute and much simpler. It just makes it better.

I used to think that it really takes away from the game, but it doesn't. Without the right feel and more importantly KNOW how, LD shaft tech doesn't really make you a great player and the better player without LD tech is still going to be better than the mediocre player with it.

Jaden
 
Low-squirt shafts do require adjustment, and they aren't for everybody. For more info, see the list of potential disadvantages here:


Regards,
Dave
Big Perm said:
Ok, so yet another old-schooler has fallen :grin-square:

I've gone the way of the OB.....spent the better part of Sunday trying to figure out this newly fangled, low-deflection technology, and lets just say it ain't easy.....for 20 years, my mind/eyes had always just automatically calculated stuff for normal deflection.....for the first time in my life, I found myself trying to figure out how to aim :smile:

Could hardly make a ball for the first few hours. I played 9-ball with a guy that's easily a ball better than I am anyway - I think I won maybe 5 games out of 30, LOL....then hooked up with a buddy for some 1pocket....after a while, I made a few shots....it's gonna take a lot of practice but I do like the feel, fit, and finish of the product.

Anyone else have some entertaining stories about going the low deflection route????
Click to expand...
 
Big Perm said:
Ok, so yet another old-schooler has fallen :grin-square:

I've gone the way of the OB.....spent the better part of Sunday trying to figure out this newly fangled, low-deflection technology, and lets just say it ain't easy.....for 20 years, my mind/eyes had always just automatically calculated stuff for normal deflection.....for the first time in my life, I found myself trying to figure out how to aim :smile:

Could hardly make a ball for the first few hours. I played 9-ball with a guy that's easily a ball better than I am anyway - I think I won maybe 5 games out of 30, LOL....then hooked up with a buddy for some 1pocket....after a while, I made a few shots....it's gonna take a lot of practice but I do like the feel, fit, and finish of the product.

Anyone else have some entertaining stories about going the low deflection route????
Click to expand...
I own one OB1 and a few Predator shafts with ringwork that match my cues.

In the beginning I struggled with allowing for deflection when using english and a friend of mine suggested that I try a predator shaft. I was skeptical about the shafts and I played with one for a couple of weeks and I never got the hang of trusting the shaft and not allowing for deflection. I gave up and sold my predator shaft. About a year later my friend was talking to me about how well he played with predator shafts and how many pro players used them. I thought about it and I realized that I really didn't give the LD shaft a chance and I decided to buy another predator and give it 100% this time. Well needless to say this time I worked with the shaft until I got used to how it played and i've been using predator shafts for a few years now. I'm sold on LD shafts.

I found a used OB1 FS here on the Forum that already had the matching ringwork installed by the cue maker who built my cue and it was priced so right I had to buy it. I really wanted to try an OB1 so I could compare it to my predator shafts. The OB1 plays great, but so do my predators so I can't say one is better than the other. Since I do own predator 314 and 314-2 shafts I will say that I like the 314-2 a little better than the original 314.

James
 
New poster here... mostly just lurk but felt like dropping my 2 cents..
I learned on a Dufferin house cue... my first purchased cue was a Helmstetter.. then I bought a Lucasi with a 314 shaft and got used to it. I didn't really like the feel much compared to the others, but I shot well with it and eventually upgraded to a Predator 3K6 with Z shaft. I've had this for a few years now and have never really liked playing with it... Finally decided to go back to regular shafts and commissioned a local cuemaker to build me a proper cue again. Very excited to be leaving the world of low deflection.
 
I currently own a 314-2, OB1 and OB2 shafts. When I got the OB1 shaft I liked it more than the 314-2. It has a soft natural feeling hit that seems to absord the vibrations of hitting the cue ball. At least more than the 314-2.

About a year ago I bought a OB2 since I liked the OB1 so much. Now its hard for me to use anything but the OB2. By my estimates it seems to have such low deflection you don't really need to compensate on any shot (unless you really pound it with extreme right or left spin). It still has the same great feel as the OB1. The only downside I can think of is the diameter. It is 11.75. So its noticably smaller than some of the other performance shafts on the market. The up side is you can apply spin more easily. The down side is you can apply spin more easily. Depending on your skill level that could be a bad thing.
 
The other way

I have a similar story but the other way. I had been playing with OB1 shafts for about 4 years. I recently got a super fancy cue with standard shafts and decided to give those a try. I played my butt off but couldn't make a ball. My deflection was all over the place! Then a friend asked me to try one of the ferrule less LD shafts and it was instantly comfortable again! I could cut and make balls like I used to. I pulled out my old OB shafts and sure enough.. they played great. Fortunately, my new fancy cue is the the same joint so I can use my OB shafts with it except the ring work doesn't match. Going back to my OB shafts for good!
 
I switched to a 314-2, and later to an OB1, and then back to the 314-2, and now back to regular shafts :eek:. It was easier to adjust to the LD shafts than it was adjust back to the regular shafts. I played better at the time with the LD shafts, but I wasnt learning as much. Since going back to regular shafts, Ive learned way more about spin. With that being said, I would have no problem using the LD shafts again, because I think I have a better understanding of spin and throw.


Joe
 
Thanks for the stories and replies.....gonna stick with it and see how the LD works for me.....

Have no intention of saying one is better than the other, just found it entertaining how different something that seems to be such a small difference can have such an impact :wink:
 
If you play with a LD shaft, Switch to a regular shaft and see how you do. '
Ive recently switched back to Hd shaft and have gotten used to it again.
much harder game with regular shaft. theres way more to the game with out LD shaft
 
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