
The performance shaft industry sprang up about 10 years ago. Many of today's professional players use performance shafts. The idea was spurned by technology improvements and innovation in wood bonding and manufacturing processes. Wood has a natural grain to it and therefore the grain is not equal on all sides of the shaft. This can allow for a different reaction from the shaft at the point of contact with a cue ball.
Most of the performance shafts use a different construction method that takes many strips of wood and bonds them together. (See above)This provides radial consistency which means the cue will flex (or deflect) consistently regardless of which side of the tip makes contact with the cue ball.
Some of the performance shafts available today like the OB Cues OB-1 Cue Shaft shown above are designed so that the cue deflects on contact with the cue ball rather than the cue ball deflecting off line.
Other performance shafts today are the McDermott I-Shafts (Shown at right)which are specifically designed for 3 different performance goals. Those are power, control and touch.
