Shaft Flex and D-Plane

[Richie3Jack]

I'm kind of curious if I have the right line of thinking here.

If a shaft is too stiff, my guess is that the golfer will not be able to square up the face and will have an open clubface and that will cause shots to be missed out to the right.

If a shaft is too flexible, the golfer will likely see the clubface closed at impact and that's why they will lose shots left and hit snap hooks.

So it's not really a path issue with shaft flex, but a clubface issue.

Am I thinking this out correctly?






3JACK

 

[curtisj76]

does this help?

Proper Shaft Flex

 

[Richie3Jack]

Thanks, but I'm more interested in what Brian and the crew have to say because their knowledge on D-Plane is usually far more superior than clubfitters.




3JACK

 

[curtisj76]

No problem, I had a hunch you were wanting something else.

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

I'm kind of curious if I have the right line of thinking here.

If a shaft is too stiff, my guess is that the golfer will not be able to square up the face and will have an open clubface and that will cause shots to be missed out to the right.

If a shaft is too flexible, the golfer will likely see the clubface closed at impact and that's why they will lose shots left and hit snap hooks.

So it's not really a path issue with shaft flex, but a clubface issue.

Am I thinking this out correctly?

3JACK

sometimes; i would say as a generality "possibly." I have fit myself so many times and done a number of fittings on launch monitors at a friends shop it really depends on the golfer and also honestly the design of the shaft. I have seen people with too soft a shaft (me) who lag the thing so hard the face never closes (at least back in the day probably can't do that now LOL). It was to the point where i even SLOWED DOWN to allow the face to catch up and close.

I switched to a stiffer shaft and all of a sudden the swing speed increased on the monitor and the rights weren't an issue anymore. I haven't done any fitting in the last couple years and haven't kept up with shaft tech but it really is a depends question. I've even seen people start un-consciously changing their swing around to fit the shaft instead of getting a shaft fit them and then that throws any generalities out of the window too.

So after all that, i guess my final answer is that it depends.

 

[westy]

Sheep

I think people can totally react to whatever you give them.
The more talented, the more they can react and also manipulate whatever they feel.
Consistency of weight and feel between tools is key IMHOP
Which is a difficult thing to do now in some ways more so than maybe it used to be.

 

[footwedge]

sometimes; i would say as a generality "possibly." I have fit myself so many times and done a number of fittings on launch monitors at a friends shop it really depends on the golfer and also honestly the design of the shaft. I have seen people with too soft a shaft (me) who lag the thing so hard the face never closes (at least back in the day probably can't do that now LOL). It was to the point where i even SLOWED DOWN to allow the face to catch up and close.

I switched to a stiffer shaft and all of a sudden the swing speed increased on the monitor and the rights weren't an issue anymore. I haven't done any fitting in the last couple years and haven't kept up with shaft tech but it really is a depends question. I've even seen people start un-consciously changing their swing around to fit the shaft instead of getting a shaft fit them and then that throws any generalities out of the window too.

So after all that, i guess my final answer is that it depends.

Depends on the golfer, fast swinger with a hard transition might not like a soft shaft as timing the face to square up, like Jim said, can make that golfer alter his swing and vice versa for a stiff shaft and a smooth easy transition swinger. Lead and Lag.
Plus there's always the exception so getting fit by a knowledgeable fitter is the way to go

 

[Brian Manzella]

You'd be surprised...

There is golfer that both myself and Michael Finney teaches that produced an interesting result with a shaft change.

He is a competitive player with a big swing speed, and had a Driver RESULTANT PATH of 5 degrees with his stock TaylorMade X flex.

Despite my best efforts, the path wouldn't move much.

We got a "white board" X in his hands and his path moved to 1° inside-out!

There is no hard and fast rule for stiffer goes right and whippy goes left either.

 

[Richie3Jack]

I practice with a 2-iron quite often on the range. It's a Hogan Apex PC. I also have the Apex PC 3-PW set as well. Hit the 3-PW great. Those clubs have S300's in the. The 2-iron has an Apex 4 shaft, which is really ultra stiff. I can actually hit it well, but I have to be very sharp with my swing to do so. I have no problems hitting the 3-PW. But when I'm not dead on with the 2-iron, slice and push city. So I was just curious as to what was happening from a D-Plane perspective.

I wish I could've shown the ball mark I made with my 1963 Hogan IPT's the other day. It was noticeably towards the heel, yet it was hit DEAD FLUSH and done with a draw. So much for the theory Hogan hit 'heel cuts', those irons had such a long hosel that the sweetspot moves over towards the heel.





3JACK