Choosing Your First Snooker Cue

How To Choose A Snooker Cue?

When you come to the point of your snooker career that you want to buy your own snooker cue there are some things to consider. You don't want to spend all your money on a cue that you grow out of after a few months of intensive playing. Like in any other sports in snooker there are equipment which can be easily used and equipment that can produce amazing results. The ones that are easy to use are usually the ones that don't let you manipulate the spins as much or are no quite that accurate. Anyway they produce quite solid hits constantly even when the skill level is low. Then there are the ones that are the so called professional cues. These are hard to hit but they allow for better spin control and balance. If you choose a cue that does not correspond to your skill level you need to buy a new one either because it is too difficult to play, or it is as moldable as it could be.

When you are buying your own cue it may seem at first that it is not all that necessary. Since you can always have the cue from where you go play. But as you realise soon it is quite mandatory if you are serious about your game. As I said before there are different classes of cues, and the ones at the snookerhalls are not that great but they are usually chosen for the lower class players. This is because these cues are actually little bit less pricy and it is more comfortable for the owner to let anyone play with these kind of cues.

Choosing The Correct Snooker Cue

Choosing the peradon snooker cue is actually very important. You are propably used to play with the ones that your local snooker hall has but when you choose to buy your own there is always a little excitement involved and you should not rush the decision. When you are listening to the salesmen they usually have somewhat sense of what they are selling you but they really don't know your game. So the first thing you should do is to study your game and learn what kind of a player you are.

Buying your own cue is possibly the most important choice you have to make when you are trying to play a serious game. With those beginner cues that the snookerhalls have there is not just that much of room to grow as a player. Even though for some people those cues are all they will ever need even if they play a lot more than others – they just dont evolve like the more talented ones. The most advantage that you get out from buying your own cue is that from that moment on you will be playing with the same cue all the time. This gets you accustomed for that particular powerglide snooker cue and you start to master that particular cue. When you master it your game starts to improve and you start feeling the balls at the tips of your fingers! Up to this moment you have been playing with a different stick every time. That is the reason why you propably have had those off-days when the game is just not working. On the other days you seem to rule the table – this is what it will feel like when you buy your own snooker pool cue, every day! - but the next day you feel like you just started playing.

It might not sound like a good investment to put over a 100$. But trust me it is. If you plan on playing for more than a few years which everyon usually does. No one who is planning on buying their own best snooker cue, plan to play just this year and stop playing the next. If you choose to invest only 20$ for your new riley snooker cue then that is what you will get. A twenty dollar stick that is as good as anything that you can pick up from the forest. I don't mean to insult any of the manufactures that make these sticks, but as I started playing I bought a few of those cheap sticks and they just dont hold their form with a power player like me and definitely don't give enough control over the game.

There might be a few decent twenty buck ronnie o sullivansnooker cues out there but I surely have not found any of them. If you have, then feel free to drop a comment! I personally have been playing for several years and do play at a level that most of the readers only dream of achieving. I don't like to sound like I am bragging but that is the way it just is. There are always a lot of beginners who think that they can go everywhere with their game, but when they have an experienced player agaist them they seem to fall of the table.

If you somehow found yourself in to this page looking for poolcues then you are reading for nothing and might as well stop right now because I am a snooker player and I really don't even know the rules over poolcues. These games are different and you should make no mistake about it.

Choosing The Correct Lenght For Your Snooker Cue

Here are some basic tips on choosing the correct cue for your body type. Most of the guys playing snooker that I know usually choose their cue lenght to be about 5” below their own shoulder level. Maybe even 6 inches. My own personal cue is a bit longer than this one but this is just for me because of my limbs tend to be a bit shorter than usual. With a slightly longer cue I can reach those long shots a bit easyer. I am also a bit on the short side so I have trouble reaching over the table without causing disapproval in the other players. So my own stick is actually just 3-4” below my shoulder height but this is just perfect for me. For some players this is way too long and you can feel like you lose the control on the tip of the stephen hendry snooker cue. It becomes shaky and you tend to hit some unperfect shots. The contact just does not feel right. As for minimum lenght for the snooker cue there is a 910mm limit. That is millimeters and for the metrically challenged that is roughly three feet. This is very short and could not propably even reach the belly button of most of the players, but there has to be some kind of rule on the minimum length and this is it. For the poolcues I don't know.

Choosing The Correct Weight For Your Snooker Cue Tips

There is absolutely no mandatory weight for the snooker cues but as on the lenght there are different kind of preferences that players seem to develop. You might notice at some point that your cue seems too light and therefore does not feel like you completely control the shots. It might start to feel a bit shaky and wobbly. These are also the first things that you notice when you start loosing your game, so you should really consult some of the better players first to have a look if your shots are just getting worse or that its your snooker cue that just is not the perfect weight. You can help your game at this point by getting a heavyer cue but this is like trying to cure a disease by treating the symptoms. You will eventually sooner or later drop down to the same hole that you were in before you decided to go with the heavier stick. So keep in mind that you should not try to save your game by buying a new cue.

There are also times when your cue might start to feel too heavy. I emphasize that all what I am writing is from 20 years of personal experience and that someone might have other kind of preferences but this is just from what I have seen during my career. When your cue is too heavy you might notice that you tend to hit the ball too hard. Or even too slow. This happens because you cant feel the impact like you should. Like I said before you should feel the balls on your fingertips with the correct snooker cue!

The most usual cue weight that I have come in contact with is about 430-500g. That is the weight that they will usually recommend you when you are going to buy one. This will usually feel good at the stores since this is the weight that they have at the snookerhalls. That is the weight that you are used to playing with and that is why it feels natural in your hands. You should really concider the fact that if you are buying a snooker cue of your own you should not go with feel. Since you are always accustomed with the one that you are playing with right now, you should instead go with the specs.

My own cue that I am playing at the moment weighs a bit over the traditional 430-500g. Mine is 570g but I have seen players that have over 600g cues and for me this is too much, but for them... Well let's say that they were no beginners that is for sure! This is just because despite the fact that I am a power player by heart I do have a really soft touch. When you have soft hands like mine you can easily control the speed at which you hit the ball and follow throught feeling the contact with the ball completely. If your hands are hard and rough there is absolutely no way that you can do this with any snooker cue. But if you are in the middle you should propably go with a cue that is slightly lighter, since it can help you feel the balls at your fingertips! Finding your cue is as hard as finding a cue tip that fits you. Usually after changing your snooker cue tip you tend to be playing bad for a few weeks as it takes that time for the tip to settle in. Always look for a leather tip and never go with the plastic ones. They are a complete waste of your money.

In my opinion you can even shop for your snooker cue online, since you should grow in to the cue and not just buy your cue by the way it feels in your hands. As your first cue you will always notice a few years afterwards that this might not be the perfect cue for you. This is natural because you grow out of it, and you start to develop your own preferences. When years go by you can basically start telling what kind of snooker cue you like because you have years and years of experience from different cues. But as a beginner just make a few notes on how your game plays and use the two previous tips that I gave for choosing the correct lenght and weight and get your own snooker cue so you can get accustomed to it and improve your game!