A Weighty Word On Using Pool Cues

What To Grab When You Want To Smash

You shouldn't be using pool cues to break--if you value them highly. Break cues are meant to offer speed, not mass, to the pool shooter for the open break. Consider options carefully before making your purchase.

Hitting Open Break Shots

In the "good old days", the pros reached for extra heavy cues, even monsters weighing 23 ounces or more, for an extra powerful break shot.

Today, most choose a lighter stick instead, a "19" or "20-ouncer". Force relies more heavily on object speed than mass or weight. Even a 15 oz. cue can fly hard enough to knock six balls in the pockets!

The pros often use their personal cue for the break, so they don't lose feel and reliability on this all-important shot. Then again, when your playing sponsor is a cue manufacturer, you can afford to bust as many sticks as you like.

You'll want to use a house cue instead, to save your personal cue from becoming mangled on a hard shot. A hard break can wear out a cue's tip prematurely or even shatter a shaft.

Changing break cues each time you visit a new spot is awkward so the pro doesn't mind taking chances as mentioned. They want the tour victory and have equipment contracts with cue manufacturers. If they shatter a $2,000 cue, their corporate sponsor sends them another free of charge!

Using pool favorites to break is simple, when you're not paying for them anymore. Select an inexpensive cue for the break, by all means.