When we refer to a shaft as being whippy, we’re talking about the amount of flex in the shaft. Much like a golf club, pool cues come with different degrees of stiffness. Some cues like those made by Schon, tend to be pretty damn stiff while others like the Meucci we were looking at, tend to have quite a bit more flex to them. Personally, I’ve found that Meucci shafts have more flex than any other brand I’ve tried out.

The next question that comes up is whether or not whippy = bad or if stiff = good. This is a much more difficult question to answer, as it really is personal preference. For me, I like playing with a cue that has a nice, stiff feel to it. Not surprisingly, I feel the same way about my golf clubs. I hit with steel shaft irons and got rid of my graphite shaft irons because they were too “whippy” for me. I couldn’t control the ball with graphite as well as I could with stiff steel. It should be noted though that I’m an awful golfer and there are tons of great golfers who swear by graphite shafts.

The same can be said for pool. I play with a stiff shaft because I can’t control my shots with a more flexible shaft. Does that mean that stiff is good and whippy is bad? For me, the answer is yes, but for someone else the answer will be a resounding “hell no!”. The bottom line is that that shaft flex is all about personal preference. What might be “good” for one person is “bad” for another. Ultimately, you need to find the shaft style that works best for your game and go with that. This is why people who like Meucci cues absolutely will not play with anything else and people who don’t will play with anything but.