The Gravity Cue - What goes up…
Must come down or so the theory goes!
However, the Gravity Cue is designed to make your highest break go up without ever coming back down.
Global-snooker.com caught up with the man behind the concept.
A bit of background...
In his early twenties, Neil Johnson was one of the most talented young players on Merseyside. A winner of numerous pro-am events and with over 2000 century breaks to his name, he turned professional in 1993 but after a couple of less than successful seasons ‘on tour’ he retired from tournament play.
“I had developed an interest in understanding the technicalities of the game and was doing a fair bit of coaching, which was the perfect alternative to playing. It meant that I was still very involved with the sport that I loved, and could pass on my knowledge and experience to younger players”.
“I sat the original coaching exam in 1990, under the watchful eye of the late Jack Karnehm. There was a minimum age limit back then of 25, but I was persistent and Jack allowed me to do it five years early.
“I began coaching locally, working with a range of players from beginners to good league players and Northwest regional champions.
“As a player I recognised that something was lacking in order for me to achieve at the highest level. Ability wise, I believe I had the game but it was that killer instinct that makes good players winners that I couldn’t find.
“I don’t think I was selfish enough, I get more enjoyment out of seeing others achieve than I did from achieving myself, which is why I find coaching so rewarding.
The Academy Years...
In 2005, Johnson along with his wife, Paula opened the Merseyside Snooker Academy, just a couple of furlongs from the Grand National course in Aintree.
They lovingly restored an old warehouse and created a state of the art snooker facility, aimed at discovering and developing local snooker talent both old and young.
When I visited the Academy shortly after it opened it doors, you could sense a feeling of belonging, a kind of family environment, where everyone looked out for each other and helped where they could.
The facilities included 12 full size snooker tables, individually sectioned in their own mini-arena. At the far end of the academy was the ‘training bay.
Here I found something so simple yet something I had not seen before or since.
The Johnson’s had taken two tables and cut the legs cut down by six inches to make it easier for youngsters to play (without standing on a box!). Simple yet genius!
The ‘training bar’, no not an area dedicated to wannabe drinkers, but a mechanical device that Neil had designed to assist the development of a ‘good’ cue-action, and the thing that would start the thought process behind the Gravity Cue.
Imagine a fixed aluminium bar, running perpendicular to a surface that represents the bed of a snooker table. On the bar is a moving section, that slides along the bar. Players were taught to adopt their stance around the fixed ‘cue’ and grip the moving ‘butt’, and practice their delivery, again simple but very effective.
In the four years that Neil and Paula ran the Academy, it produced English champions and over 40 Merseyside champions.
Star pupil for Neil was Danny McGann who started playing at the Academy and inside two years became North West champion.
“He is pure raw talent”. Neil told me. “People have talked about him the same way that I had heard them speak of Ronnie and Judd in earlier years, so I just hope that he is set for similar success”.
The Concept of Gravity...
So where did the idea of the Gravity Cue come from and how did it get from an idea onto the production line?
Neil explains, “It was the training bar that first drew my attention to it. With the ‘cue’ in a fixed position and the ‘butt’ effectively sliding back and fore, there was no risk of movement up or down or side-to-side, which causes problems in so many players game.
“So in May 2006, I set about thinking about what would restrict the possibility of such movement.
“Obviously with nothing in a fixed position it was impossible to remove movement altogether, but the position of the weight in the butt of the cue meant that we could start to see an improvement.
“The Gravity Cue works on a similar theory that stops boats capsizing, inertia that creates resistance to rotation and lateral movement.
“It was my brother that first suggested this similarity.
I went on to have fascinating discussions with John Stukky at Bournemouth Boating Services who helped with the initial designs, cracking the formula for most resistance.
“We enlisted the help and support of the engineering department at John Moore University in Liverpool, to produce a proto-type.
“Perradon, one of the longest established snooker brands were just ten minutes down the road and they were delighted when we showed them the design.
“In mid 2009, they became the first fully licensed manufacturer of the Gravity Cue. So it took three years to get from concept to production, which is not bad going really.
21st Century Snooker...
It doesn’t stop there though for Neil, whose snooker mind is only just getting warmed up. Out of the design talks for Gravity Cue, the idea of a production ‘Training Cue’ was born.
“I look at golf products that are on the market and there is something for just about everything. Clubs that are especially heavy or light or bendy, all designed to give the player that extra something.
“Snooker is similar in that the players are trying to repeat a series of movements with a piece of equipment that leads to a desired outcome.
Enter the 360 PureCue, with a full range of 21st Century Snooker products to follow.
The 360 PureCue, Neil tells me has been designed to illustrate clearly to the player any of the lateral or rotational movement that the Gravity Cue is designed to resist.
At first glance the cue looks fairly normal, except that where a ¾ but joint might feature, there is a two-inch long spring loaded joint.
Grip the cue and hold out in front of you as Terry Griffiths’ coaching video instructed, and the cue will remain solid.
Make a slight, albeit sudden movement and you can feel and see the joint ‘snap’ out of line.
“The 360 cue will remain solid throughout the shot and allow you to play virtually any shot, but only if your cue action is pure.
“Any slight deviation and the cue will collapse and will affect the outcome of the shot”.
He is not wrong, I played a couple of blues off the spot to stun into an imaginary pack of reds. At best the anticipated stun turned into extreme top-spin, and at worst I missed the cue ball altogether, almost doing myself a mischief in the process.
The 360 PureCue is a great party piece and has the potential to make the smuggest club champion look ridiculous. But in all seriousness, when you see Clayton Humphreys, 2009 Merseyside Junior Champion make a century break with the cue, you can see that it is more than just a gimmick.
Global-snooker.com will put the Gravity Cue and 360 PureCue into the hands of three players of varying abilities – amd let you know what they think, so watch this space...
To find out more about the Gravity Cue and other 21st Century Snooker products click their logo...
