What do shaft specs mean

Choosing the proper flex allows head to come back to square position, thereby transferring the maximum amount of energy to the ball at impact.

Shaft length will differ depending on the material and sometimes tip size. Many shaft manufacturers pre-trim the tips of their 0. After determining the desired final club length, a club-builder may first need to tip trim the shaft for parallel tip shafts only to achieve the right flex , and then butt trim based on the desired final club length. For each shaft, the manufacturer will provide specific trimming instructions to follow.

As with almost everything in golf, the devils in the details. We recommend working with a professional club-fitter who can help determine the right flex, weight, and length of shaft you need, in additional to narrowing down brand and shaft models that work well with your swing and club head. Looking for a golf shaft pre-assembled with an Adapter tip sleeve for your club? We can build this for you! Interested in learning about golf grips?

Put simply, the higher the rating, the more the shaft is prone to twisting. It is the torque that also determines how the shaft feels to every player, which means that the higher the rating, the softer the shaft will feel. A shaft with a 3-degree torque will feel much stiffer than a 5-degree torque, for example. Every shaft — whether it be graphite or steel — has a certain amount of torque.

Once the shaft is installed onto your golf club, you must determine the right length for you. But how important is shaft length, we hear you say? Well, the importance of length, according to research, is extreme.

For instance, ball impact that is 0. So, the key to choosing the right shaft is finding the correct length that provides a repeating, solid hit each time. In order to determine the length of your club, stand tall and get someone to measure from the crease where your wrist and hand meet to the floor.

Do this with both hands and take an average of the two measurements. The following lists what length of shafts you should consider for certain heights. Shaft makers vary the amount of stiffness because golfers have different types of swings—different swing speeds, different tempos—and different amounts of stiffness in a shaft better match up to those different swings.

The slower a golfer's swing, generally speaking, the more flex he or she requires in the shafts that are in their golf clubs. And the faster the swing, the more stiffness. Tempo also matters: A jerkier swing requires more stiffness, a smoother swing less stiffness, generally speaking.

Knowing your swing speed and carry distance can help you select the right shaft flex for your golf clubs. These are just general guidelines, however; the best way to choose shaft flex is to go through a club fitting.

Not every golfer can or is willing to do that, though. Again, these are generalities:. Nothing good. If your swing is mismatched to your golf shaft flex—if you are using an X flex shaft, for example, when you should be using an R flex shaft—you will have a harder time squaring the clubface at impact. The way your shots are flying can clue you into the possibility you might be using the wrong flex. Many golfers—and this is particularly true among men—play shafts that are stiffer than they require.

It only responds to this. A real-world example would be to compare the swings of two legendary golfers, Nick Price and Fred Couples. Price had a lighting quick tempo, and a much shorter swing versus the long, flowing swing of Couples.

They both had extremely fast swing speeds despite what it might look like to the casual observer. Choosing the right flex and profile of your driver shaft has more to do with the type of swing you have rather than the actual speed of your swing, which is a mistake many golfers make when they purchase clubs off the rack.

Choosing the wrong shaft will make it much harder to access the center of the face more consistently on the course, and the last thing we want you to do is to make golf harder on yourself! Getting the correct weight of your shaft is an important factor to consider as well. Shafts can range anywhere from 40 to grams. Typically the rule of thumb is that a golfer with a slower swing speed will benefit from using a lighter shaft, and you would add weight as swing speed increases.

As you might expect at this point, there are always exceptions. There are players on the PGA Tour using lighter driver shafts with swing speeds upwards of mph.

This is another area of getting fit for the right driver that will require a little bit of testing to see what feels most comfortable to the player, and the kinds of results it yields. One of the biggest misconceptions about shafts is that there are standards out there that manufacturers adhere to.