Recommended tip width for a rookie

[shredder]

I see 8, 9 and 10mm as the "regular" widths, but what's better?

I take it you'll have more control with smaller widths, but may also be easier to lose control lol.

What do you prefer?

[jrc750]

9.7 for me (snooker) i find perfect, certainly no smaller than 9.5 as i put unwanted side on the ball, and much bigger than 10 i struggle with

[Bigmeek]

Yep, 9.5 to 10 for rookies. I've always used 10mm tips and filed them down a bit after fitting so guess they would be 9.8 ish or smaller. So long as I get a nice shape I'm not bothered about the exact measurement.

[shredder]

What do the pros use? Any common size or does that vary greatly?

[jono*]

It seems pros use tips smaller than 9.5 is the general consensus. Then again.. They cue great..

[DeanH]

It seems pros use tips smaller than 9.5 is the general consensus. Then again.. They cue great..

not sure this is true, the ones I have listed (not that many I admit but) most tend to be 9.5

[DeanH]

for a beginner in snooker I would say 9.5-10mm would be best

[Terry Davidson]

Let's face it, there's not much difference between 9.0mm and 9.5mm or even 10mm as you're only talking about .5mm around the outside between 9mm and 10mm.

A more important approach is when re-tipping the cue, with something a little below 10mm, like 9.8 to 9.5mm leaves you a little wriggle room if you're fitting with a 10mm tip. Those with a 10mm ferrule would have to buy 11mm tips as it's tough to correctly fit a 10mm tip to a 10mm ferrule.

That being said, I agree with the above comments. A beginner will usually put some unintentional side with his delivery and a larger tip helps to overcome that but the opposite side of the coin is it is harder to control the cueball when in the balls and using screw. I use a 9.2mm to 9.4mm normally with my present MW playing cue being at 9.3mm (blackspin) which works fine for me.

There are other much more important considerations though, like shaft flex, type of tip (soft/hard), length, weight, butt diameter and balance point and you have to figure out what suits you best by trying cues with different characteristics until you find something that fits and then you take those specs and order a custom made cue, although a player can get used to any cue if he plays with it long enough.

Terry

[warren132]

What do the pros use? Any common size or does that vary greatly?

When i seen Tony Drago in his hay day early 90's his tip size was a staggering 7mm but he was an exception to the rule.

[shredder]

When i seen Tony Drago in his hay day early 90's his tip size was a staggering 7mm but he was an exception to the rule.

That's crazy. Talk about control, if you can manage it that is.

There are other much more important considerations though, like shaft flex, type of tip (soft/hard), length, weight, butt diameter and balance point and you have to figure out what suits you best by trying cues with different characteristics until you find something that fits and then you take those specs and order a custom made cue, although a player can get used to any cue if he plays with it long enough.

Which tip brands should I be looking at? I've seen Elkmaster mentioned here and there...

And, how often do you change the tip if you play a few hours a week?

[luke-h]

when i was playing years ago i had a 7 and a bit snooker cue that was untill the thing snapped so had it shortened, now i play with a 9.5

[warren132]

Tips like all snooker/billiards equipment have came a very long way in terms of choice some good and some bad. The players from yester year only played with 1 or 2 brands/makes of tips and the all played to very high standards like higgins davis hendry white to name just a few. Think you should try one of the cheaper tips and see how you get on with them first before you start to loose the plot trying all these different tips.. good luck !

[Benno]

9-10mm is fine, you're better off learning once than twice. I don't think getting position is that much harder with a smaller tip, just need to go about it slightly differently and more potting accuracy regardless.

I just went from a 10mm tip down to 8.5mm in 8 ball. Cue action certainly has required some alterations.

[Benno]

Depending on what tip you get, and the qulaity of that particular tip, a couple of times a week should see at least 6 months out of a tip. Depends how good it was and how hard, even tips in the same batch are generally different (more so blue diamond than elks).

[Byrom]

I currently use 9.6 for snooker and 8.5 for pool and can go up and down a mil or two at snooker depending on the cue really because all cues play different and beware of this slippery slope unless you know exactly what want and you are lucky enough to find a cue maker that knows what they are doing because altering even a little thing can totally change how the cue plays because of things like the whip and balance of the cue.

You can damage your ferrule quite easily playing with less than 9 mm at snooker. It is perhaps easier for a pro to use perhaps because they of course don't need to hit the ball as hard and as often as us mere mortals on our slow club tables.

I recommend 9.5 for a beginner as it is not too big or too small to adapt quickly too. Also because tips do come in mainly three exact sizes 9mm 9.5mm and 10mm - having one of these sizes makes tips easier to fit without having to shape them up and cut them down as much - 9.5 is not too big to play pool with either and if you don't like the cue anything around 9.5 is easier to sell because this spec size would be more popular. You can get it tapered down slightly to suit your game if you think you want to try something a little smaller too or you can try putting a bigger tip on to see if you prefer something bigger. Going bigger on a cue is more difficult and not really advisable because you loose some length and then of course the balance is different and although you can get it lengthened I would assume this a costly operation and risky as I have pointed out. Remember once you start messing beware because the cue will feel totally different. Sometimes just changing tip brand can make a massive difference to how a cue feels so be aware.

Lots of people mess around with cue spec with things like tip size weight of cue size of butt length as they progress and learn more about themselves until they get happy - and some players never are happy because of course each cue plays different for the reasons I have said and players often forget that.

I think rather than look to get a cue altered perhaps it can be an idea to find a great cue and just use it a lot because then you adapt your game to the cues limitations and begin to understand the capabilities of that cue and hopefully begin to become one with it.

Too many players search for something that don't exist - what they had previously perhaps - and they keep swapping and changing to find 'the one' - Important to note here that this advice goes against what I do myself by the way but I am just slightly daft and snooker obsessed.