The 15th century, according to Wikipedia, is when pool was invented. King Louis XI (1461-1483) had the first known indoor billiard table. What follows, told to me by my great-grandfather Thor, is the unofficial, wildly speculative, and most likely theoretical origin of the game.
Dateline: 3 Million Years B.C. (before cues).. Two burly cavemen finish roasting a big dinosaur leg, and after gnawing most of the flesh off, toss the bones aside. Their pet wolf polishes offf the sinew and gristle that’s left, leaving a gleaming 5 foot femur, thick on one end, and narrow on the other. The two twin 8 year old boys fight over the bone, wrestling on the ground, and the stronger of the two grabs it away viscously. The end of the bone strikes a small round rock, which rolls into a rodent hole. The two boys look at each other in wonder. The first Predator Pool Cue is accidentally invented, and the game of pool is born.
After a few weeks of playing their new game, the twins are crushed when the rock-striking end of the bone cracks. Their father, Luther , ponders the predicament, and gets to work on the cure. After breaking off the tip of a wooly mammoth tusk, he hollows it out to fit over the end of the fragile bone, making it instantly stronger. The first ivory ferrule had now been invented.
The twins’ mother tired of the loud noise of bone striking rock, and lacking ear plugs, racked her brain for an answer. She notices a small, round scrap of mammoth hide as she is making winter parkas, and trims it up and glues it on the end of the bone. The first leather tip was invented.
The family clan moves with the seasons, hunting game for food. They meet other clans along their journeys, who are fascinated watching the boys play their new game. Soon requests for replica ‘bones’ enabled the family to trade their ’sticks for food and clothes. The first ‘Predator’ group forms.
OK,OK,OK……..I can’t prove the timeline is completely accurate…it might have been earlier (or later, I will concede). The first pool cue might have been a petrified tree limb instead of bone. The first tip might not of been mammoth hide, maybe it was wild boar hide….but don’t let facts get in the way of a good story, as Mark Twain once said. And the original “Predator Group?” The family tree disappeared (or was made into another cue), but there is an actual, living, active Predator Group, and they are largely responsible for the present day evolution of the high-technology pool cue.
In the early 1990’s Predator introduced their 314 shaft, made of 10 pie-shaped pieces of hard rock maple spliced together, with a small hollow space near the tip, and a shorter ferrule. The drastic weight reduction in the end of the shaft reduced cue ball deflection by such a significant amount that it greatly increased accuracy when applying side spin on the cue ball. Using ‘english’…striking the cue ball left or right of the vertical axis that runs through the center of the cue ball….is what causes the cue ball to deflect, or ’squirt’, from its intended path. Hitting the cue ball right of center causes the cue ball to deflect to the left, and vice versa. To hit the contact point on the object ball correctly requires compensating for this deflection, and takes years to master using a traditional shaft. Professional pool players loved the new shafts, since they missed far fewer shots when using ‘english’ on the cue ball.
The passing years have seen refinements in the shaft in the form of the second generation 314² shaft, and eventually the Z² shaft, which has an even shorter ferrule than the 314², and also a reduction in tip diameter from 12.75mm on the 314² to 11.75mm on the Z² shaft. By further reducing the weight at the end of the shaft , deflection was reduced even more. Independent testing show the Predator Z² shaft and the 314² shaft as the top two shafts in the world in least amount of deflection incurred when striking the cue ball left or right of the vertical axis, which means a player has much less deflection to compensate for when using ‘english’ on the cue ball, with a resulting increase in accuracy.
It can take many years to learn how to compensate for deflection using a standard shaft. Since the invention of the high-tech, low-deflection shaft, the learning curve is shortened, which allows beginner and intermediate players to become better players much quicker. Most good players have speed control and knowledge of angles, while all great players have mastered spin, or ‘english’, on the cue ball, to achieve proper position in many situations. You will limit your ability to play shape for your next shot in many situations if you cannot master spin, and mastering spin is much easier with a low-deflection shaft. Predator 314 and Z shafts also put more spin on the cue ball with less effort, which allows a softer stroke. My Predator 5K3 is beautiful, and plays like a dream with either the Z² or the 314² shaft. The 314² shaft from Predator is the best option for beginning and intermediate players. The 12.75mm tip is much more forgiving than the 11.75mm tip on the Z², which requires much more precise placement when striking the cue ball.
The long, impressive list of professional pool players who use Predator cues and shafts can be found on the Predatorcues.com web site. Over half of the top 40 pro men, 3 of the top 5 women pro players, and over 30,000 top-flight players world-wide use Predator cues and shafts. They are not paid to play Predator, they use Predator Cues and Predator Shafts for another reason…when money is on the line, they can’t afford to miss.