The battle in the Snooker cue making industry at the moment is heating up. Steve Feeney of SightRight and Gary Filtness of the Blade cue are two people with similar ambitions, eager to make the next World Snooker Champion using their revolutionary cue technology and Coaching training.
In the red corner, you've got the SightRight cue technology, which already has a top profile in snooker and has already produced past winners - even a World Champion. But there is hunger in the SightRight quarters to create many more Champions on the tour.
This patented cue technology is designed to tell you whether you are cueing online and was the creator of Feeney, who also has created it for Darts and Golf.
Stuart Bingham won the 2015 World Championship with the aid of SightRight cue practice techniques - and the app that comes with it.
Martin Gould, Stuart Bingham, and Mark Williams all have practised, used and turned their attention to SightRight in their careers at one time. Two-time World Champion Williams, 42, has recently been giving it a whirl hoping to get back to winning ways as he has not won a World ranking event since 2011.
Anthony Hamilton and the Blade Cues head Coach Gary Filtness. @snookerbacker @078Colin @SarahMcmanus147 @SeanTheStorm147 @RobReed147 pic.twitter.com/zZ19cAynvt
— The Blade Cue (@TheBladeCue1) July 9, 2017
The Blade Cue
In the Blue corner, there is a new kid on the block - the Blade cue, designed by a top coach Gary Filtness and has been endorsed and promoted by snooker professionals and celebrities alike.
Even Jamie Borthwick, currently in the BBC top soap Eastenders has reviewed and played with the Blade Cue.
The battle
However, the battle for supremacy heats up as a small Twitter poll - conducted by the professional Matthew Selt this month, from Essex - discovers of those who voted, the Blade cue was voted as the "better invention." 51% voted for Blade, and 49% voted for Feeney's SightRight.
The Blade cue is designed to stop players from "twisting" on the shot and simply has lines down the cue that a coach can spot if a player is twisting and not striking on the right line.
However, SightRight under Feeney continues to grow, as coaches earn their SightRight certificate coaching days at various snooker clubs across the UK including the South West Snooker Academy in Gloucester.
Snooker Cue Action Training
Snooker technology continues to grow as coaches look for ways to enhance people's games starting from the beginner, through to the intermediate, and through to World Champion and pro.
In fact, other than those new technologies mentioned, there's also the likes of other coaching devices such as Nic Barrow's Cue Action Trainer, which simply gets your cue arm muscle memory going and understanding what is a straight cue action. If you want to understand angles on a snooker table better, then how about using Nic Barrow's Aim Frame?
Simply, it's a piece of card, with cut out holes which you fit into the object spots on the table and has the various angles drawn that you need to recognise when potting.
Just 15 minutes of Barrow's CAT muscle memory training a day can improve your cue action. And you don't need a snooker table for that. Both Blade and SightRight have been sanctioned by World Snooker. Blade has the pool player Chris Melling endorsing the cue. Melling, 38, known as the Magician, has become famous for this top pool clearance in the last week which has on this video received over 200,000 hits. Watch below.
One thing that doesn't change in snooker though, is practise.