improved a lot and now out growing my cue?

[craigian]

Now I know this is going to sound silly but I truly feel that my cue is limiting my capabilities. The reason why is because I play a lot, I know I have a great cue action, I work hard on all aspects of my game. Now I understand missing easy pots, we all do it time to time. But missing easy pots even when it felt that I delivered the cue smoothly, straight and kept still doesn't make sense to me. Now i know I could easily upgrade my cue seeing as my current cue is a MYX cue $130 from ebay including postage. But it has taken me so long to convince my self that it is the cue that is letting me down. I actually believe these MYX cues (I think from china) are good cues and great value for money but for the better players a higher quality cue must be used to really get the best out of your skills and talent.

Now I would be very interested to know what the better and experienced players thought about this and also if there are others that have experienced the same or similar problem.

I will greatly appreciate your opinions, thanks

[ADR147]

more likely to be the tip than the cue.

[craigian]

I have tried blue diamond, elk, pro granite, kamui and talisman. I have now been using taliman for a long time now. Don't think its the tip. Could I not be putting it on right?

[hotpot]

If a cue dont feel right or the hit is not what you expect then you can miss sitters . You know when you like a cue it will be an instant like and will react like you expect it to .

[ADR147]

If a cue dont feel right or the hit is not what you expect then you can miss sitters . You know when you like a cue it will be an instant like and will react like you expect it to .

agreed more maybe the cue does not suit you. set the table up on a three pot to the middle bag and do it a 100 times does the cue react the same way every time.

[SebastianZ]

Now I know this is going to sound silly but I truly feel that my cue is limiting my capabilities. The reason why is because I play a lot, I know I have a great cue action, I work hard on all aspects of my game. Now I understand missing easy pots, we all do it time to time. But missing easy pots even when it felt that I delivered the cue smoothly, straight and kept still doesn't make sense to me. Now i know I could easily upgrade my cue seeing as my current cue is a MYX cue $130 from ebay including postage. But it has taken me so long to convince my self that it is the cue that is letting me down. I actually believe these MYX cues (I think from china) are good cues and great value for money but for the better players a higher quality cue must be used to really get the best out of your skills and talent.

Now I would be very interested to know what the better and experienced players thought about this and also if there are others that have experienced the same or similar problem.

I will greatly appreciate your opinions, thanks

I have never made a century in match play with my JP Ultimate (ash) but I made a 110 last month using a cheap club cue (maple, with thick butt and average tip).
thinking back on stephen hendry, he won multiple world titles using a bent cheap cue his father gave him many years ago, but he struggled to get to the finals after he used a new and better (supposedly) cue.


so the conclusion i have is that, there's no such thing as BETTER CUE, there's only SUITABLE cue for yourself.

if you do think your cue is limiting your ability then i recommand you to try different cues but with the belief that more expensive cue would not neccesarily upgrade your game.

good luck

[s1ivv3r]

Not being funny fella... but maybe your cue action isn't as great as you think it is??

[Watford]

I have never made a century in match play with my JP Ultimate (ash) but I made a 110 last month using a cheap club cue (maple, with thick butt and average tip).
thinking back on stephen hendry, he won multiple world titles using a bent cheap cue his father gave him many years ago, but he struggled to get to the finals after he used a new and better (supposedly) cue.


so the conclusion i have is that, there's no such thing as BETTER CUE, there's only SUITABLE cue for yourself.

if you do think your cue is limiting your ability then i recommand you to try different cues but with the belief that more expensive cue would not neccesarily upgrade your game.

good luck

Well this post is a mixed bag.
It's true buying an expensive cue doesn't mean you'll play better but a cue he is happy with will might help. At least it should get this out your head.
So I would have a look for a new cue. Is that harder in Oz? I mean are there places you can go and try a few out. Maybe look second hand?

I can't believe this old Hendry myth keeps coming back.
If a Powerglide connoisseur worth the equivalent of £200 now is a cheap cue then fine.

Ken Doherty bought a rack cue from a club I think, I bet that was a cheap cue :-)

[vmax4steve]

Now I understand missing easy pots, we all do it time to time. But missing easy pots even when it felt that I delivered the cue smoothly, straight and kept still doesn't make sense to me.

If it was the fault of the cue then surely you would be missing all the time. You can bet your life that the reason you miss those easy pots is that you take them for granted and therefore take your eye off the pot. You think you are delivering the cue smoothly and straight and keeping still but if you take your eye off the pot the hand will follow the eye and you will miss.

[eaoin11]

IMO players with poor actions can still judge a good cue from bad if they've played enough. I was a good potter but had a poor action for years until i finally sorted it out. But even before I sorted my action I appreciated and played better with a solid well balanced cue.

Whether it's your cue action or not, I think you just need to identify what you don't like about the cue. If it's the weight, balance, length, how solid it is etc. The best way to do that is try as many other cues as you can, take note of weight, balance, hit etc and find what you like. It is better to try the more well known brands if you can because they will usually be better balanced for the given weight and length of the cue.

Vmax could be right too, that it's not your action but lack of focus on the object ball when striking. But I would still trust your instinct that you don't like the cue because if you're not happy with it, that's one of the ways players can be distracted and miss more pots.

[vmax4steve]

IMO players with poor actions can still judge a good cue from bad if they've played enough. I was a good potter but had a poor action for years until i finally sorted it out. But even before I sorted my action I appreciated and played better with a solid well balanced cue.

I believe that an absolute beginner will learn to play with any cue and therefore get used to its characteristics and that those characteristics will be the ones that he will be most happy with because his cue action and feel for the game will be bound to those characteristics. Getting a more expensive cue with different characteristics won't make a player better but maybe getting one with the same characteristics that has a feeling of class to it may help.
But if your only beef is missing easy balls then it's ridiculous to just blame your cue, or your tip for that matter.

[eaoin11]

I believe that an absolute beginner will learn to play with any cue and therefore get used to its characteristics and that those characteristics will be the ones that he will be most happy with because his cue action and feel for the game will be bound to those characteristics. Getting a more expensive cue with different characteristics won't make a player better but maybe getting one with the same characteristics that has a feeling of class to it may help.
But if your only beef is missing easy balls then it's ridiculous to just blame your cue, or your tip for that matter.

I'm not taking it for granted that missing easy balls is necessarily the only problem with the cue. It's likely that he may not know enough yet to pin point exactly what it is he doesn't like, hence the comments I've made above. But players do tend to miss more balls with cues they aren't comfortable with, that's obvious.

If he had started off with a suitable cue that he really liked, why would he start blaming the cue for missed pots? His instincts are more reliable than speculation on action etc from people who haven't seen him play.

[vmax4steve]

If he had started off with a suitable cue that he really liked, why would he start blaming the cue for missed pots? His instincts are more reliable than speculation on action etc from people who haven't seen him play.

Then again how would a complete beginner know that he is in fact using a bad cue ? His play is going to be poor to start with because he can't play the game as yet. I would cite Hendry as an example about using an alleged bad cue. Seven world titles and over seven hundred centuries with a cheap bent cue for thirty quid. Also ken Doherty has won a world title with a cue that is as bent as a dogs hind leg. Players will mould their cue action around the cue they learn to play with whether it's a good one or a bad one, and if it's a bad one it will be a good one for them and them only. Ronnie can change cues every season but I bet that the characteristics of all of them are almost the same as the one he learnt with give or take a 1/4 of in inch here or there in length or a few millimetres in butt diameter. Anything radical like three ounces heavier or three inches longer or having a bend in it would be as bad for him as a straight cue would be for Doherty.
Also it's as much about what's in your mind as what's in your hand. Alex Higgins won his first world title in 1972 with his beloved Burwat Champion, which then got broken and he spent the rest of his career changing cues to try to find one that suited him. yet there were many times that he played absolute blinding snooker with cues that he didn't hold on to, changing again everytime that he struck a bad patch.
If you can play really well with a cue and then start missing easy balls with it then it isn't the fault of the cue it's something else.

[eaoin11]

Then again how would a complete beginner know that he is in fact using a bad cue ? His play is going to be poor to start with because he can't play the game as yet. I would cite Hendry as an example about using an alleged bad cue. Seven world titles and over seven hundred centuries with a cheap bent cue for thirty quid. Also ken Doherty has won a world title with a cue that is as bent as a dogs hind leg. Players will mould their cue action around the cue they learn to play with whether it's a good one or a bad one, and if it's a bad one it will be a good one for them and them only. Ronnie can change cues every season but I bet that the characteristics of all of them are almost the same as the one he learnt with give or take a 1/4 of in inch here or there in length or a few millimetres in butt diameter. Anything radical like three ounces heavier or three inches longer or having a bend in it would be as bad for him as a straight cue would be for Doherty.
Also it's as much about what's in your mind as what's in your hand. Alex Higgins won his first world title in 1972 with his beloved Burwat Champion, which then got broken and he spent the rest of his career changing cues to try to find one that suited him. yet there were many times that he played absolute blinding snooker with cues that he didn't hold on to, changing again everytime that he struck a bad patch.
If you can play really well with a cue and then start missing easy balls with it then it isn't the fault of the cue it's something else.

I think we differ in that I think cues vary in terms of basic playability, while you seem to imply that any cue has the potential to be 'the one' throughout a players career if they just stick with it. I think the player will continue to like it if it suits him or start looking elsewhere if he doesn't, and those popular stories don't really suggest otherwise. The information you've given there doesn't suggest that there was anything bad or unusual about those player's cues when they were developing and the price of Hendry's cue is irrelevant (even ignoring depreciation).