I’m an avid pool player and this has always bugged me. Are pool cue shafts supposed to have some flex in them? I have a few decent quality cues (< $200 range), one just wood, and one graphite wrapped, but both will flex fairly easily with a little pressure put on the middle of the shaft. Every once in a while I’ll get stuck playing with a one piece house cue and some of them which feel more ‘solid’ seem to play better to me. Definitely better for breaking at least.
I see things like Predator brand shafts and the like which seem intended to recude this effect, but really, couldn’t they build shafts out of a more solid wood with no flex at all? Or something more like a golf club shaft made of hollowed metal? (Yeah, I know they flex too.) Is it simply that the size/weight makes this impossible, or is there some benefit to having a slightly bendy cue that I’m missing?
If you have a long thin piece of wood, it’s going to flex. It’s a basic property of the material. (I’m not a pool player, but I am a wood worker and have turned enough things on the lathe to have a feeling for just how “whippy” a thin shaft can be.) There are certainly varieties of wood that would have less flex, but they might have other undesirable qualities such as increased weight. And increasing the diameter of the shaft would increase stiffness, but I’m not sure if there are rules governing pool cue dimensions.
I don’t understand the question. By flex, do you mean side-to-side waggling? In a pool cue? Wouldn’t that wreak havoc on your shot? Or do you mean compression, as in squooshability? If so, wouldn’t the recent discussion on tips come into play?
I had an all carbon fiber two piece stick that had a more noticeable flex in it than wood sticks. Currently I use a two piece stick where the back is composite, and the front is wood. It has no noticeable flex in the middle, but a little up by the tip. But I don’t hit the ball all that hard most of the time and wouldn’t notice any flex while playing. For breaks I just use one of the one piece wood house sticks. Even when putting english on the ball most of the force should be directed along the axis of the stick, so I can’t imagine any flexing to affect the shot, but I could see how it might be an uncomfortable feel and affect your stroke.
Yes, I mean side-to-side waggle for lack of a better term. For example if you put the butt of your stick on top of a cup and the tip of your stick on another cup, you can bow the entire thing by pressing on the middle without much effort. As to your quesiton of wouldn’t it wreak havoc on your shot, that’s kind of my whole point (for shots where you’re not hitting directly into the center of the cue ball with a perfect stroke).
I’m fairly certiain it’s not that I’m playing with cheap sticks or anything, I’ve watched pros on TV and when they follow through on a strong break, the bow in the stick is very pronounced.
And yes, the thread on rubber tips is what brought it to my mind, but it’s a fairly different question.
“…The billiard sharp who any one catches,
His doom’s extremely hard —
He’s made to dwell —
In a dungeon cell
On a spot that’s always barred.
And there he plays extravagant matches
In fitless finger-stalls
On a cloth untrue
With a twisted cue
And elliptical billiard balls!”
Gilbert & Sullivan, The Mikado, “A More Humane Mikado”