How To “Listen” To Your Pool Cue
When striving to improve your pool game, it’s important to pay attention to subtle details.
One often-overlooked detail is the sound and feedback that a pool cue provides after making contact with the cue ball.
This decisive ‘moment of impact’ can tell a pool shooter quite a lot about their pool cue, but only if they know what to listen for.
What A Pool Cue Sounds Like
Generally speaking, a quality play pool cue should provide a quiet hit, and there should be minimal shaft vibration after hitting the cue ball.
A pool cue with a quiet hit is desirable to pool players, because it helps them to focus on other aspects of their game, such as stroke and English.
In contrast, cheap pool sticks may be louder, with more likelihood of a clicking sound, depending on the manufacturing tolerances of the shaft and the butt.
Distracting sounds and vibrations from lower-quality cues can interfere with a pool shooter’s concentration, making it harder to consistently perform from shot to shot.
How Pool Cue Shafts Vibrate
Sometimes pool cues will have noticeable shaft vibration after they hit the cue ball, which is an indicator of less-efficient energy transfer (from the player’s body into the cue ball).
A solution to this inefficient energy transfer comes in the form of a low deflection shaft which is designed to move out of the way of the cue ball immediately after impacting it.
Although low-deflection is generally a desirable quality in a shaft, there are a actually few pool shots can actually be a bit harder to hit with a low-deflection shaft, such as shots which are straight-in, and need High-Right English or High-Left English in order to deflect properly off the object ball.
What Cue Part Is Actually Making Sounds?
If your pool cue is making any sort of sound, that sound likely originates at the shaft, since that’s the part which makes first-contact with the cue ball.
Pool cues sounds can emanate from the butt end of the pool cue as well, since vibrations transmit through the entire length of the cue after it strikes a ball.
A High-Quality Pool Cue Can Help Improve Your Game
It’s a safe generalization to say that pool cue shaft quality matters more than the butt; since the shaft is the first point of contact with the cue ball, even marginal improvements to a cue shaft can yield large performance gains.
For example, when upgrading from a “starter pool cue” and getting something like a mid-range or high-end cue, pool shooters are likely to immediately notice the differences in how the two cues sound; the quieter sound of their new pool cue is a quick indication of its higher quality.
Predator’s P3 Cue Sounds Great
The Predator P3 pool cue uses 30-piece construction technology to create a perfectly-aligned wood-grain, resulting in increased cue-butt rigidity and efficiency of energy transfer.
The P3 pool cue also comes standard with a low-deflection Predator shaft, and it can optionally be upgraded to a high-performance Predator REVO carbon-fiber shaft.
Pool shooters who play with a Predator P3 will likely agree that the P3 is known for produce an exceptionally quiet hit which sounds almost like a tiny “thud” when it strikes the cue ball.
Playing with a cue like the Predator P3 can help to improve overall shot control and consistency; adjust the cue’s weight via the Uni-Loc Weight Bolt system, and quickly swap shafts thanks to the QR by Uni-Loc joint.
In summary, pay close attention to how your current cue sounds when hitting balls.
If clicking and vibration are present, a pool cue shaft upgrade provides tangible benefits, immediately after you install it.
For astonishingly quiet “thuds” and precise feedback, a high-performance pool cue such as the Predator P3 pool cue can transform your game.