Harder tips deflect less as well. I primarily play with hard tips because they are more accurate and transfer action more easily. With carbon fiber its more about end mass weight. Part of the reason the smo is only available in a 12.5 mm is because that is the optimum size with carbon fiber. The 11.8 do not weigh any less and more often deflection a touch more due tothe volume weight in the 4 inches from the tip that matter.
Just to add. Lower end mass = lower "deflection". The thing that confuses people I think, is the wording. Low deflection shaft. In truth the shaft deflects more, so the cueball can stay truer to the original shot line. When I learned this concept it was explained to me that there are two things involved, DEFLECTION and SQUIRT. The shaft will DEFLECT away from the cueball where as the cueball will SQUIRT away from the shaft. Does this make sense to anyone but me ? Am I crazy ? Lmk, haha. And I believe I may have been incorrect when I said it began with Predator. I believe 100% Bob Meucci was working on the concept far before Predator. But Predator marketed it better with their bullshit pie shaft. And I will do a video on that another day, lol.
other than during the break, the only deflection there is when precision shooting with a smaller shaft is the deflection in the shooters head. when using a cue with smaller shaft and tip, if someone is missing shots they feel the would normally make it's not from deflection, it's from bad aiming. it's a known fact that the smaller the tip the more accurate you have to be, smaller tips are less forgiving but also give you more control....
