I just bought a 16 oz and I'm loving it. I highly recommend everyone try out one of the super light cues you can often find at pool halls. Even if you're absolutely sure about your preferred cue weight, it's worth experimenting to get perspective on techniques and strategies that you can't usually employee with a heavier cue. The almost surgical precision of a lighter cue allows for maximum cue action with minimal power, making technical position play easier to incorporate into your game
question doc, so your cue is 20.5 oz but behaves like a lighter cue, does that mean even though its heavy at 20.5, you still get the cueball action that a light cue has compared to a heavy cue that doesnt have that much cue ball action? thanks
I absolutely love questions like this. Clearly, you are really thinking hard about the science behind this game. I was deciding on whether I should explain or not depending on whether it would be too confusing. I'll try to explain it clearly but the physics is complicated. I want to divide this thought process into two parts, the back of the cue and the front of the cue. On the back of the cue, if there is more weight, then my arm will directly feel that weight so my arm will tire faster. The opposite of that would be to have more weight shifted forward such as if I used a mid shaft cue extension like the balance right - now the extra weight is placed on my planted hand on the table, so my arm does not feel this weight. However, if we compare my 20.5 oz cue to another 20.5 oz cue that does not have an extension but instead has all the weight put in the back of the cue where the hand grips, my cue will feel much lighter because the extension on the back acts as a counter balance (sort of like a teeter totter - where the weight of my cue in the back is actually being lifted up due to the front of the cue's weight, thus my arm is holding less weight), thus my cue although 20.5 oz, feels more like a 19 oz cue when I hold it. However, like in physics class, all the weight must be accounted for, so where does the weight of my cue go? It is countered by the front of my cue (the cue tip) being slightly elevated off the table, so I have to be extra certain to follow through with the cue tip down. This stuff is super confusing as is the reason why balance point can be so complicated on such a long cue like mine, because the physics get interesting once the weight is added behind the gripping hand. To summarize, my cue feels lighter due to the weight behind my grip hand (the weight in the extension) acting as a counter weight to the weight in the front of the cue, so by weight felt by my arm, it feels lighter than another cue at standard length which weighs 20.5 oz. And if a 20.5 oz cue were to have all the weight in the middle of the cue or towards the tip, the cue would feel even lighter than that because now the added weight is directly felt by the hand on the table, thus basically, the further away the weight is from the gripping hand (the back hand), the lighter it will FEEL. That doesn't mean it will act like this. So let me explain this now.
Let me now talk about how the cue takes on the effects of a light or a heavy cue. When we talk about a light cue vs a heavy cue, we focus on three big things: lighter cue giving a more lively cue (higher range of spin) due to faster arm speed, a softer touch due to less weight, and lastly, less cue deflection. 1) For my cue specifically, it will act more lively than a regular cue that weighed 20.5 oz. The reasoning is similar to above, where my arm feels the weight of the cue being lighter than a regular cue since a regular length 20.5 oz cue will have the weight is specifically in the butt of the cue directly under the back arm. A way to think of this is throwing a javelin vs a shotput. If they were the same weight, you can imagine that your arm would be able to accelerate much faster throwing the javelin than the shot put. For a regular cue with the weight in the back directly under the arm, you are putting your hand on the weight and "throwing" that weight, just like you'd throw a shotput. For my cue, with the extension on the back (teeter totter effect I mentioned earlier), you are holding on a point that is counterbalancing the weight on the front and back of the cue, thus you are holding it like a javelin where there is weight in the back behind your hand (due to the cue extension) as well as in front of your hand. Thus, with a faster acceleration, you are able to get more spin for the same amount of force applied - since more acceleration means longer contact time of the cue on the cue ball which results in more spin being enacted on the cue ball from the cue.
Secondly, lets address point 2) softer touch. My cue actually gives a WORSE softer touch than another cue of standard length that weighs 20.5 oz. The reasoning is because as my arm feels less weight (see explanation above), that weight is actually transferred to other parts of the cue (notably the front of the cue slightly due to the teeter totter effect where the back of the cue causes the front of the cue to slightly absorb the weight from the extension on the back of my cue). This means that instead of my arm acceleratign and moving slower like a standard length 20.5 oz cue, my arm speed moves faster and thus I will have less control. Imagine taking a tooth pick vs log. Which can you have the slowest acceleration, thus which one gives you the most control of your acceleration? The log does! And slower acceleration capability transfers to slower velocity of the cue and thus a softer touch. NOW this is for a cue of the SAME weight! If you use a cue of lighter weight, then the weight of the cue plays a more important role in the soft touch than does this concept of arm acceleration. So keep that in mind as I am comparing my cue to a cue of the same weight but that does not have an extension in the back!
Lastly, lets address the less cue deflection component. The more weight towards the front of the cue means more deflection of the cue ball. Now when I say more weight towards the front of the cue, I am keeping the shaft length, material, and diameter the same, but simply just shifting weight from the back of the cue (such as in my cue with the extension) to weight more towards the front of the cue (such as with the balance rite or if you try placing a metal washer on the shaft of your cue). Imagine a metal ball attached to a rope which has a metal handle on it for you to hold. We can have a heavy metal handle with a light metal ball or we can have a heavy metal ball but a light metal handle. In both cases, the two weigh the same! But which one is going to be better at knocking down a wall of your house if you choose to give your house a makeover? Answer: the heavy metal ball with the light metal handle (same analogy can be done with a sludge hammer). This is the same as the heavy front of the cue with a lighter back of the cue, where the front of the cue will give a heavier hit on the cue ball. Now how on Earth does this apply to cue deflection?! Well, if it gives a harder "thud" upon impact, this means that slight off center hit will shoot the cue ball in the opposite direction (watch my video on squirt and swerve to learn more). This thus causes more squirt of the cue ball and also more swerve, but for cue deflection, we focus on the increased squirt which equals more cue deflection. So with all that in mind, my cue has the weight shifted towards the back, so there is less deflection than another cue of the same weight which has more weight shifted toward the front of the cue!
Depending on the type of cue that you have, you may only need a hex wrench to remove the weight in the cue. However, based on how much weight is in the cue, there may be multiple small weights or just one giant weight in which case you will not be able to move down the weight by only half an ounce. But I do recommend trying a lighter cue at some point as it will benefit you in the long run
What tip m0st pros use with there cue,or fr0m ur opinin0n sir what tip is good is it use soft,medium or a hard tip fr0m your experience which is the g0od to use tnx sir
Many pros use many different types of tips. A commonly used high end tip that I know some pros use is Kamui. I am not too familiar with other tips that pros use as they are not usually talked about too much. I personally like the predator victory tips but I have never played with a kamui tip before. As far as tip hardness, it varies a lot from soft to hard. Most players that use Revo shaft will use a softer tip like a soft or a medium. I know that Shane uses a Kamui medium brown. I am sorry I cannot give more helpful info than this.
I just bought a 16 oz and I'm loving it. I highly recommend everyone try out one of the super light cues you can often find at pool halls. Even if you're absolutely sure about your preferred cue weight, it's worth experimenting to get perspective on techniques and strategies that you can't usually employee with a heavier cue. The almost surgical precision of a lighter cue allows for maximum cue action with minimal power, making technical position play easier to incorporate into your game
My game just got better lol
Seriously though this has been a long time dilemma for me. Thanks for explaining!
Great video, thanks for all the info!
question doc, so your cue is 20.5 oz but behaves like a lighter cue, does that mean even though its heavy at 20.5, you still get the cueball action that a light cue has compared to a heavy cue that doesnt have that much cue ball action? thanks
I absolutely love questions like this. Clearly, you are really thinking hard about the science behind this game. I was deciding on whether I should explain or not depending on whether it would be too confusing. I'll try to explain it clearly but the physics is complicated. I want to divide this thought process into two parts, the back of the cue and the front of the cue. On the back of the cue, if there is more weight, then my arm will directly feel that weight so my arm will tire faster. The opposite of that would be to have more weight shifted forward such as if I used a mid shaft cue extension like the balance right - now the extra weight is placed on my planted hand on the table, so my arm does not feel this weight. However, if we compare my 20.5 oz cue to another 20.5 oz cue that does not have an extension but instead has all the weight put in the back of the cue where the hand grips, my cue will feel much lighter because the extension on the back acts as a counter balance (sort of like a teeter totter - where the weight of my cue in the back is actually being lifted up due to the front of the cue's weight, thus my arm is holding less weight), thus my cue although 20.5 oz, feels more like a 19 oz cue when I hold it. However, like in physics class, all the weight must be accounted for, so where does the weight of my cue go? It is countered by the front of my cue (the cue tip) being slightly elevated off the table, so I have to be extra certain to follow through with the cue tip down. This stuff is super confusing as is the reason why balance point can be so complicated on such a long cue like mine, because the physics get interesting once the weight is added behind the gripping hand. To summarize, my cue feels lighter due to the weight behind my grip hand (the weight in the extension) acting as a counter weight to the weight in the front of the cue, so by weight felt by my arm, it feels lighter than another cue at standard length which weighs 20.5 oz. And if a 20.5 oz cue were to have all the weight in the middle of the cue or towards the tip, the cue would feel even lighter than that because now the added weight is directly felt by the hand on the table, thus basically, the further away the weight is from the gripping hand (the back hand), the lighter it will FEEL. That doesn't mean it will act like this. So let me explain this now.
Let me now talk about how the cue takes on the effects of a light or a heavy cue. When we talk about a light cue vs a heavy cue, we focus on three big things: lighter cue giving a more lively cue (higher range of spin) due to faster arm speed, a softer touch due to less weight, and lastly, less cue deflection. 1) For my cue specifically, it will act more lively than a regular cue that weighed 20.5 oz. The reasoning is similar to above, where my arm feels the weight of the cue being lighter than a regular cue since a regular length 20.5 oz cue will have the weight is specifically in the butt of the cue directly under the back arm. A way to think of this is throwing a javelin vs a shotput. If they were the same weight, you can imagine that your arm would be able to accelerate much faster throwing the javelin than the shot put. For a regular cue with the weight in the back directly under the arm, you are putting your hand on the weight and "throwing" that weight, just like you'd throw a shotput. For my cue, with the extension on the back (teeter totter effect I mentioned earlier), you are holding on a point that is counterbalancing the weight on the front and back of the cue, thus you are holding it like a javelin where there is weight in the back behind your hand (due to the cue extension) as well as in front of your hand. Thus, with a faster acceleration, you are able to get more spin for the same amount of force applied - since more acceleration means longer contact time of the cue on the cue ball which results in more spin being enacted on the cue ball from the cue.
Secondly, lets address point 2) softer touch. My cue actually gives a WORSE softer touch than another cue of standard length that weighs 20.5 oz. The reasoning is because as my arm feels less weight (see explanation above), that weight is actually transferred to other parts of the cue (notably the front of the cue slightly due to the teeter totter effect where the back of the cue causes the front of the cue to slightly absorb the weight from the extension on the back of my cue). This means that instead of my arm acceleratign and moving slower like a standard length 20.5 oz cue, my arm speed moves faster and thus I will have less control. Imagine taking a tooth pick vs log. Which can you have the slowest acceleration, thus which one gives you the most control of your acceleration? The log does! And slower acceleration capability transfers to slower velocity of the cue and thus a softer touch. NOW this is for a cue of the SAME weight! If you use a cue of lighter weight, then the weight of the cue plays a more important role in the soft touch than does this concept of arm acceleration. So keep that in mind as I am comparing my cue to a cue of the same weight but that does not have an extension in the back!
Lastly, lets address the less cue deflection component. The more weight towards the front of the cue means more deflection of the cue ball. Now when I say more weight towards the front of the cue, I am keeping the shaft length, material, and diameter the same, but simply just shifting weight from the back of the cue (such as in my cue with the extension) to weight more towards the front of the cue (such as with the balance rite or if you try placing a metal washer on the shaft of your cue). Imagine a metal ball attached to a rope which has a metal handle on it for you to hold. We can have a heavy metal handle with a light metal ball or we can have a heavy metal ball but a light metal handle. In both cases, the two weigh the same! But which one is going to be better at knocking down a wall of your house if you choose to give your house a makeover? Answer: the heavy metal ball with the light metal handle (same analogy can be done with a sludge hammer). This is the same as the heavy front of the cue with a lighter back of the cue, where the front of the cue will give a heavier hit on the cue ball. Now how on Earth does this apply to cue deflection?! Well, if it gives a harder "thud" upon impact, this means that slight off center hit will shoot the cue ball in the opposite direction (watch my video on squirt and swerve to learn more). This thus causes more squirt of the cue ball and also more swerve, but for cue deflection, we focus on the increased squirt which equals more cue deflection. So with all that in mind, my cue has the weight shifted towards the back, so there is less deflection than another cue of the same weight which has more weight shifted toward the front of the cue!
I hope all that was helpful! lol
I got my first cue, 20 oz. now im debating if really wanna drive half an hour to lower it by an oz😫
Depending on the type of cue that you have, you may only need a hex wrench to remove the weight in the cue. However, based on how much weight is in the cue, there may be multiple small weights or just one giant weight in which case you will not be able to move down the weight by only half an ounce. But I do recommend trying a lighter cue at some point as it will benefit you in the long run
What tip m0st pros use with there cue,or fr0m ur opinin0n sir what tip is good is it use soft,medium or a hard tip fr0m your experience which is the g0od to use tnx sir
Many pros use many different types of tips. A commonly used high end tip that I know some pros use is Kamui. I am not too familiar with other tips that pros use as they are not usually talked about too much. I personally like the predator victory tips but I have never played with a kamui tip before. As far as tip hardness, it varies a lot from soft to hard. Most players that use Revo shaft will use a softer tip like a soft or a medium. I know that Shane uses a Kamui medium brown. I am sorry I cannot give more helpful info than this.
ben cayago mostly medium tip
Heavier - Less spin, Lighter - Less control/Power
r u really a doctor
I will be in two years. Still in med school at the moment