Snooker Tip Shapes – What do the pro’s use…

Well I’ve been changing snooker tips for over 34 years now and people are still trying to find that perfect shape and get the edge on the opposition. Is there a perfect shape? Well we could debate that all evening and after discussing this with many players, conversations can get quite heated when discussing what constitutes the perfect strike from the best surface and that’s even without discussing which chalk should be used.

I watched this years World Snooker Championships and decided to observe a few of the tips on show and tried also to see if I could see what makes of tips the players used and how they had shaped them. One thing I did see was that not only did Stuart Bingham change his tip for the world’s but it was a completely different shape; was this because the old one had worn out or because he wanted to totally change the look and feel of it? Did this affect him going out in the first round? Well let me know what he says if you have the gumption to ask him; I wouldn’t and he’s a lovely guy by all accounts.

So, what tips do people ask for?

Snooker Tip – Domed

Very common tip and has a nice large dome on the top of the tip, this is certainly the tip shape I get asked for the most.

Snooker Tip – Mushroom Flat

This is just a tip that is a size up from the ferrule diameter and fitted in the usual way.

Snooker Tip – Coned Mushroom

This is an over-sized tip with the sides sliced diagonally to meet the ferrule diameter (see Barry Hawkins tip below).

Snooker Tip – Flat

This also a very common tip where the edges are sanded off but the top surface is pretty much flat.

So…

Take a look at some of the professional players tips below which I collected just prior and during and after the 2016 World Snooker Championships, why do you use the shape you use and do you need a change?

