Glygen Snooker Cue Chalk

Now I'm sure you've guessed that the chalk I'm using isn't your regular type of chalk that you might see used in the game of snooker or even pool. It's a little bit different and here's how it works and whether or not it's any good. Welcome back and if it's your first time watching one of our videos then it's fantastic to have you here. So what exactly is this chalk? Is it actually chalk and where did I get it from? Recently a company called Glygen asked me if I test one of their products before sending me four cubes of this. This is Glygen Great Shot Chalk which is marketed to players of snooker, pool and Chinese 8 ball. Every block comes in a nice box along with 12 ball marking spots but its main selling point is its ability to neutralise static build-up as you can see here with some old masters chalk. If you got any of this between the cue ball and the object ball when you played a shot it could cause bad contacts and kicks which could lead you to miss pots and run out of position. Recently TM created this chalk that reduces the amount of kicks you're likely to get to almost zero. Although it doesn't cause any kicks people were still critical about how the dust from this chalk seemed to get absolutely everywhere and if you've ever seen somebody remove the cloth of a table you'll have noticed all the chalk build-up underneath especially where the major shots are played and if the chalk gets on a cushion it can cause unusually large bounces. Watch the overlay of the ball on the left here hitting the chalk. This is where the anti-static properties of the Glygen chalk stop it from transferring so easily from the tip of your cue to the ball or in fact any other surface. It prevents the static build-up you'd usually get on the small dust particles when you're rubbing the tip of your cue against the chalk so when you go to play the shot the chalk dust particles are less likely to transfer between the tip of your cue and the cue ball. Now about the explosions. Unfortunately this stuff doesn't cause small explosions but to be fair you try making snooker chalk interesting. The real question is though can it actually improve your game? Though if you are in the process of creating exploding chalk please let me know. Though on second thoughts please don't send me any especially if you cooked it up in your shed. So I spent five days testing this chalk both when I was practicing and in a few small matches I had in between. Creating chalk that doesn't transfer onto the cue ball is good but there are far more things your chalk needs to do than that. To start off with it has to spread across your tip evenly every time because if the chalk doesn't cover all of your tip it will eventually cause miscues and I know that that's something that players like Sim from Settermon in the north of Norway really won't want. I also think it's vital though that you're able to apply chalk to the tip of your cue without even having to think about it because this can cause you to lose concentration on what's going on on the table. Of course none of this matters at all if the chalk itself doesn't provide enough grip. A minimum requirement of this chalk is I have to be able to play all my shots with it. No matter what it can do it still needs to live up to these expectations and so far it seemed like it was doing well. So after all that time is it actually any good? Well to start off with it looks really well designed and it definitely does what it says. I don't think you'll ever get a kick because of this chalk which is fantastic and it doesn't end up on the table on the cushions or anything. Also you don't seem to use that much of it meaning it's likely to last for quite a long time and it seems to provide pretty good grip but that's where we start to get into the negatives. To start off with even though I haven't had any kicks I have had one or two miscues and that really isn't good. Other problems are the squeaky noise when you chalk the cue is a little bit annoying and the price of it which is over £20. That's quite a lot. You see at that price chalk really needs to be perfect so because of the miscues at that stage I had to stop using it but when I came to do this review I noticed something. When the chalk is new it has a shiny outside layer on it and it doesn't quite spread across the tip as easily as you'd want but after I'd use it for a few days I'd got through to this powdery stuff underneath and that changed everything. So basically I've given up on this chalk and stopped using it but when I saw today that I'd got through that sticky top layer into this nice powdery stuff underneath I decided to give it another try. So watch what happens here. Chalk the cue once I put it there I'm not going to use it again here. Now watch this. Now I've had tips before that take a little bit of time to wear in but the idea of having to wear in your chalk seems a little bit ridiculous. It's definitely something that needs sorting out however it's not the worst problem in the world. Oh there we go. So that was 11, well I got a missed cue on my 11th shot after playing 10 incredibly deep screw shots. Upon further testing of this it seems to allow you to hit as close to the edge of the ball as any other chalk out there and possibly even produces a little bit more spin although this could just be my imagination. My honest opinion of this chalk is it seems to be the best chalk out there for avoiding kicks however I'd like it to be able to go on the tip of your cue just a tiny bit better even if that did mean a little bit more chalk transfer because you can't have chalk that causes miscues and nor can Shep in Birmingham in the United Kingdom. So if the problem comes back I will have to stop using this chalk. So ultimately I'm going to give this chalk another try and if you want to see how good it is yourself I'll link their website and where you can buy it down in the description. Also if this video is more than a couple of weeks old have a look at the top comment because I'll put in that whether or not I'm still using the chalk and if I'm not using it I'll put in my reasons for not using it and if I get any more miscues I'm likely to stop. However I did try this chalk earlier on the 10 pound cue I bought the other day and now that only had an old Elkmaster tip on it but the chalk seemed to hold that tip better than it did mine so I found I get a lot less miscues with that cue. It does seem to be better suited to a softer tip and maybe I'm overplaying these problems but when you've got chalk that costs over £20 you really need to be perfect in every area and I really hope they'll be able to make all these little tiny adjustments with any new blocks of chalk they actually bring out. The chalk did stay on the tip for quite a long time and even worked well after I got a miscue. I knew I'd find another use for this 10 pound cue and after Vadim from Minsk in Belarus you can find out how I was able to take the 10 pound cue and make it playable at least good enough for me to be able to get 100 breaks with it or find out more about putting side spin on the ball and remember don't just watch play and make the commitment to becoming a better player by subscribing to the channel and visit the website. See you later!