Ultimately, the question is why we ever allowed jump cues in the first place.
The idea that one should play with a single cue remained unchallenged until the nine ball era, in which it became understood that the firm break could both compromise one's cue and could cause structural damage to its tip. So, it then became allowable, and in vogue, for nine ball players to carry a second cue.
Jumping, however, should have been disallowed from the start. In a chat I had with Allen Hopkins about 30 years ago, he opined that as the rules of pool disallow a scoop, adding that most jumps executed with a jump cue were, in his view, fouls under the rules. Jumping without scooping, Allen offered, was something only a handful could do with any consistency. Earl Strickland, Sammy Jones and Johnny Archer were the first among the few who were capable. If you can't beat 'em, join 'm, right? Some players realized that if they broke down their playing cue and used the shaft only, that jumping wasn't difficult at all, and this was one of many reasons that more than a few worked on developing a specialty short cue that would facilitate executing the jump shot, and the jump cue was born. It was a big moneymaker for cue designers, and for that reason, it's future was all but assured. So now, it was in vogue for the serious nine baller to carry three cues, a playing cue, a break cue and a jump cue.
No doubt, some reason to carry a fourth cue will arrive eventually. Some own what's called a masse cue, a specialty cue designed specifically for executing the masse shot, but the rules forbid carrying a fourth cue. The day may come when a caddy will be needed, just as in golf, to tote around one's cues from table to table.
As a sport, pool dogged it when it first allowed the jump cue, the use of which requires skill, but to me, the creative use of billiard knowledge is an area of great majesty in our game, and the jump cue has robbed us of some of that majesty.
The jump cue is here to stay, but those who prefer to run tourneys without them should be respected for their choice. The disallowance of the jump cue at the Derby City Classic is one reason it is such a fine event, and as exciting as any event held in the United States, completely destroying the myth proposed by some that pool is less exciting without the jump cue.
Live and let live.
