Wikipedia traces the origin of billiards to the 15th century. The first billiard table can be traced to King Louis XI of France (1461-1483). Here is the unofficial, wildly speculative, and highly theoretical beginning of the game.

Dateline: 8 Million Years B.C. (before cues)..Two big cave men, fresh from the hunt, roast and eat a tyrannosaur leg, tossing the bones aside. Their pet wolf cleans up what’s left, leaving a gleaming 5 foot femur, thick on one end, and narrow on the other. The family twins, 8 years old, fought over the bone, until the stronger of the 2 yanked it away viciously. The end of the bone strikes a small round rock, which rolls into a rodent hole. The boys watch this in amazement. The first  Predator Pool Cue is accidentally invented,  and the game of pool is born.

Within a few weeks of playing their new game, the twins are heartbroken when the rock-striking end of the bone cracks. Their father, Fast Eddie, ponders the predicament, and gets to work on the cure. He breaks off the tip of a wooly mammoth tusk, and hollows it out to fit over the end of the fragile bone to strengthen it. The second component of the first pool cue, the ivory ferrule, was invented.

The boys’ mother,  meanwhile, grows tired of the constant racket from bone striking rock, and racks 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 pool-shooting 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 ‘Predator’ group comes into existence.

OK, OK….I might be guessing at the timeline. The first pool cue might have been a petrified tree limb instead of bone. Maybe the first tip wasn’t made of mammoth hide…just mammoth in size….but Mark Twain never let facts get in the way of a good story, and neither do I. 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 large weight reduction in the end of the shaft reduced cue ball deflection by such a significant and measurable amount that it greatly increased accuracy when applying side spin, or ‘english’, on the cue ball. Using ‘english’…striking the cue ball to the 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’ as it is also called, from it’s intended line. Hitting the cue ball to the right of center causes the cue ball to deflect to the left of its intended path, and vice versa. To hit the contact point on the object ball correctly requires compensating for this squirt effect, and can take many years to master using a traditional shaft. With cue ball deflection reduced by 50% or more, professionals began flocking to the new Predator Cues and shafts, since fewer missed shots meant more games won, and more money in the bank.

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 years to learn how to compensate for cue ball deflection using ‘english’ with a standard shaft. Since the invention of the high-tech, low-deflection shaft, the learning curve is greatly shortened, allowing beginner and intermediate players to become better players much quicker. While you can become a good player without using ‘english’, by acquiring a mastery of cue ball speed and knowledge of angles, to become a master of the game one must become proficient in using spin to position the cue ball precisely in certain 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 shafts also put more spin on the cue ball with much less effort. I  play with a Predator 5K3 with a Z² shaft, and have tested the 314² shaft quite extensively. I believe the 314² shaft is the better 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 and impressive list of professional pool players who use Predator cues and shafts can be found on Predatorcues.com web site. Over 50% of the top 40 male professionals, and 30,000 top players worl-wide, use Predator cues and/or shafts. Pro players are not compensated to play Predator, they use Predator Cues and Predator Shafts for another reason…their bank account depends on accuracy.