Pro Pool Workout

By Bob Henning

Maybe It's the Cue Stick

Most developing players go through a stage where they wonder if a new pool cue will help them play better. Essentially, they are hoping that an upgrade in equipment will produce an improvement in performance. The first time a player buys a ticket for this train of thought is usually after they have made their first expanded commitment to the game. They put a lot of practice time in and the envisioned improvement doesn't show up as expected. They get burnt out and, like a thirsty man in the desert, start looking for a magical solution.  Maybe it's the cue stick?

Well, it's easier to play good pool with a finely crafted cue, but for most players, this conversation is a waste of time-a mirage. If the cue you are using fits the basic parameters for modern cue sticks and comes from a respected cuemaker, then the easy solution of getting a new cue will probably not bear much fruit. 

I o­nce spent about two weeks running around Detroit trying to find the ideal weight screw for a beautiful custom cue I hoped would help my game. I bought it because it had lots of mother-of-pearl inlays, and the guy selling it told me it used to belong to Cornbread Red.  It was flashier than the simple cue I was playing with, and I hoped that looking better would somehow translate into playing better.

It always felt a little butt-heavy to me, at least compared to my earlier cues. After torturing myself with the thing for several months I finally put it aside for a Joss cue I won at a tournament. I took the winning as an omen and used that cue stick for the next ten years. I improved quite a bit but eventually reached a plateau where I felt I could no longer learn to execute at a higher level. I could still learn to play smarter, but my ability to execute was tapped out. That brought me back to the original question, but from a more experienced and educated point of view. Maybe it's the cue stick?

I'm tall, about 6' 1", with long arms and legs. I am constantly gripping the tail end of a standard 58" cue and have often wondered whether I would benefit from a longer o­ne.  I've talked with several tall players about making the shift.  Dave Bollman, who plays with a 62" cue, thought it was a logical conclusion. For him, longer arms simply require longer cue sticks. Mark Wilson, a great teaching professional, thought it would help my game and encouraged me to check it out. Shawn Putnam, who has dominated the Viking Cue 9-Ball Tour, told me, "I'm using a sixty-inch playing cue and a sixty-inch break cue. My game went up about a ball immediately after I switched to a longer cue."

I got a different report from Buddy Hall, a many-time champion and member of the BCA Hall of Fame. "I don't think there's anything to it," he said. "In fact, when
I was playing my best pool, I was o­nly using a fifty-seven-inch cue." 

In my personal observations of top players, I finally came to two related conclusions. o­ne, an average- sized or smaller player has an advantage. Some of the weight of the cue stick is behind his stroking hand, so it balances in a way that has the cue itself doing some of the work of staying o­n the stroking line.  Because of this, many short and average-sized players have loose and confident strokes. They trust the cue stick to stay o­n track and are not afraid of letting their stroke out. Think of Efren Reyes and Alex Pagulayan, who just won the World Pool Championship title in Taiwan.

Tall players, o­n the other hand, almost always have very controlled strokes. If they are using standard-sized cues and gripping them at the very end of the butt, they are pushing the cue stick from behind. They are relying entirely o­n their arm to keep the cue in line. The swinging weight or stabilizing action of the cue stick is not helping as much because it 30 is almost all forward of the fulcrum, i.e., the gripping hand.  They are much more likely to have a firm or full-handed grasp o­n the cue stick. Think of Buddy Hall and Jeremy Jones. 

So I decided to give it a shot. I asked Dennis Dieckman, a custom cue maker since 1973, to build a 60" cue to my specifications. Dennis, a controversial fellow in cue making circles, had a few ideas of his own, and so far I have played with three of four different cues from him. How has it turned out? Was it the cue stick? Check back next issue for a complete report. Good luck & good shootin'!