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Each shaft has its own “pivot point”
which is directly determined by the amount of cue ball deflection
or “squirt” it produces. The calculated pivot point
for each shaft is given in the chart as measured from the front
of the tip. If you bridge exactly at a shaft’s pivot point
and hold your bridge very steady, you can pivot the cue by moving
your back hand and no matter where you strike the cue ball it
will track off on the same line as if you struck dead center.
Pivot points are interesting and may be useful but the player
must also consider “swerve” and “throw”.
Swerve is the tendency of the cue ball to curve slightly in
the direction of the applied sidespin, like a mild form of masse.
Throw is caused by the friction between the cue ball and the
object ball and is much stronger than most realize – for
example, if you shoot a straight in shot firmly with left spin
and hit the back of the pocket, if a snapshot could be taken
at the moment the cue ball contacts the object ball you would
see that the balls are actually aligned significantly to the
left of the center of the pocket. There is a popular “pivot
point test” that uses this sort of straight shot to determine
pivot points but because the throw effect was not considered
people have been getting wildly inaccurate results. The pivot
points given in our chart are calculated directly from the actual
measured cue ball deflection produced by each shaft and are
correct.
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