What to Look for in a Billiards Cue
The cue stick you choose to play with will have a huge impact on how consistently you play. Even if you’re relatively new, you’ll want to pick a cue and stick with it. Each cue, even cues from the same manufacturer, will play differently. This is, in a large part, due to the cue’s shaft. Different cue shafts will create different amounts of cue ball “squirt” and “swerve”.
Cue ball squirt and swerve are a huge factor in just about every shot your shoot, like it or not.
I was wondering how I was going to convey these two crucial concepts, when I found a fantastic video by Mike Page. Mike Page is a long-time billiard forum contributor and a BCA certified Instructor.Mike’s video does a fine job of illustrating the effects of squirt and swerve. It also does a good job of illustrating just how much they can affect the cue ball path.
NOTE: If these concepts are foreign to you, don’t worry, because it is possible to play great pool without understanding these characteristics of cue science.
Mike really put together some super info into that video. Here are a two things that are important to keep in mind when searching for the right pool cue.
Firstly, your cue stick shaft has the biggest impact on how much your cue ball will squirt. Some shafts, such as the predator shafts, are designed to produce very little squirt.Many other cues create more squirt. Therefore, it is very important to practice with the cue you will be playing with, especially the shaft.If you start playing with a different cue or shaft, you should practice a bunch of shots with side-spin and get used to how much it squirts so you can make any necessary adjustments. You can play great with just about any cue, but you’ll have to learn that cues characteristics. Some will take longer than others.
Secondly, elevating your cue when using side-spin will cause the cue to swerve. As you saw, the speed and amount of elevation both affect how much the cue ball will swerve. If you don’t stroke correctly, you can create swerve inadvertantly, so be mindful of that. That can be caused by inadvertantly lifting your cue in the back during your stroke causing your cue to be jacked-up slightly. Also, it is possible for your cue tip to “dip” down and to the right or left during your stroke. That can cause some cue ball swerve that can affect your accuracy, especially on longer shots and/or tighter pockets. You can see on the video just how drastic the effects can be. That is why it is so important to be aware of these issues.
Don’t ever doubt your mind’s ability to learn, its amazing. It can, unconsciously, calculate these affects and make the appropriate adjustments in your aim and stroke to allow you to play at a very high level.
Many players do it without really understanding how their doing it.
Though, it can take a very long time to “train” your brain and give it enough data through trial-and-error to become a consistent player.
As I said, one way to shorten this learning curve is to find a cue that plays consistently, then play and train with that cue.
I believe that the best cues to help in this area are low deflection cues like a predator cue. These cues provide two benefits. First, the radial design makes the cue play the same every time. Second, the low deflection helps improve accuracy and shortens the learning curve, especially for beginner to intermediate players.
One last tip…
When you decide on a cue to play with on a consistent basis, I recommend using a very structured stroke training to help you compensate for factors such as squirt and swerve.It really helps to identify what went wrong when things go bad. As they often do in this game.I hope you apply some of the ideas I’ve talked about and use them to help fine tune your game.
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