Shafts: Do You Believe in Feel?

It has a Fujikura Atmos Black Tour Spec 6X shaft. Questioning whether it is the right one for me :oops:
Next time out I'll let you plug in my Smoke yellow.
 
That said, I think only a SMALL percentage of golfers actually do load golf shafts in their swings and notice it.

This. I think most of us might think we are, but we're not. At least not as effectively as we should/could if we were fit into the "perfect" shaft.
 
This should be another one of those threads where people get mad at me for starting, yet can't stay out of hahahaha

Do you believe that shafts have 'feel' to them?

- If yes, what does that mean to you? How important is it?
- If no, why? And, how can you select something without considering feel?

I'm late to the party!

Do shafts have "feel" to them - yes

What does that mean to me - it's an interpretation of what I'm sensing before, during and after the golf swing

How important is it - depends on the golfer. While I truly believe there are amateur golfers that have an amazing sense of feel, I think most of us are in some way guessing when we describe the feel. I say guessing because I think most amateurs can't correctly relay what they're feeling outside of "heavy or light". I've had golfers that could tell me a shaft felt "loose" but if I asked them to describe where it felt loose, they would struggle. There are definitely some out there who can describe it very well, but from what I've seen, more often than not, they struggle to go into detail about what they're feeling, it's all very general. If I have a player who starts getting detailed about what they're feeling and they're correctly describing the feel based on shaft profile etc, I have to make it important to me as a fitter to give them something they feel is correct. Every fitting I do I ask for as much feedback as possible after they have made a few swings. I have had only a handful of players who gave me detailed information about what they were feeling AND it was lining up with what they were given.

There are also feels given that a golfer may label as "bad" because it's not letting them make swing flaws or because they've been so used to something light/heavy and they really should be in something completely different.

Feel is real to the player, but it doesn't always tell the truth.
 
My issue is I like ALL the feels. I enjoy a heavy rebar-like shaft some days, especially when my game feels a bit off as I find it reassuring and it seems to give me a bit more accuracy.

Other days I like a lightweight swizzle-stick that I can get an extra 3-4 mph out of, even if I lose a bit of that ‘feel’ of where the club head is.
 
My issue is I like ALL the feels. I enjoy a heavy rebar-like shaft some days, especially when my game feels a bit off as I find it reassuring and it seems to give me a bit more accuracy.

Other days I like a lightweight swizzle-stick that I can get an extra 3-4 mph out of, even if I lose a bit of that ‘feel’ of where the club head is.

That would be a fun test. Take a couple of 7 or 8 irons and shaft one with heavy and stiff and the other with light weight and see which one feels and performs better.

One of the reasons often overlooked in the lack of standardizing of flex is how steep shafts differ as weight changes. Unlike composite, where weight and flex are independent, steel still has limits.
 
That would be a fun test. Take a couple of 7 or 8 irons and shaft one with heavy and stiff and the other with light weight and see which one feels and performs better.

One of the reasons often overlooked in the lack of standardizing of flex is how steep shafts differ as weight changes. Unlike composite, where weight and flex are independent, steel still has limits.

Absolutely - sounds like a good blind test. Would make good reading.

My ‘fav 3’ driver shafts currently in a head to head (Flex/weight/torque):

Tensei Blue 70 TX - 77g / 3.2
Rogue White 130 70 X - 76g / 3.1
Riptide 50 6.0 - 53g / 5.4

The riptide is the odd one out but when I’m in the groove it just feels so easy.

It would be interesting to see how this kinda thing plays out in mid or short irons.
 
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I think feel is player dependent. All the characteristic in the shaft contribute to the overall performance of the shaft, but for me if it feels like I can swing with effortless power I will go with that one. Versus one I feel I have to work too hard at to perform.
 
Absolutely - sounds like a good blind test. Would make good reading.

My ‘fav 3’ driver shafts currently in a head to head (Flex/weight/torque):

Tensei Blue 70 TX - 77g / 3.2
Rogue White 130 70 X - 76g / 3.1
Riptide 50 6.0 - 53g / 5.4

The riptide is the odd one out but when I’m in the groove it just feels so easy.

It would be interesting to see how this kinda thing plays out in mid or short irons.

That could be done relatively easily. Would definitely be eye opening to see who could identify the shafts in the test.
 
Absolutely - sounds like a good blind test. Would make good reading.

My ‘fav 3’ driver shafts currently in a head to head (Flex/weight/torque):

Tensei Blue 70 TX - 77g / 3.2
Rogue White 130 70 X - 76g / 3.1
Riptide 50 6.0 - 53g / 5.4

The riptide is the odd one out but when I’m in the groove it just feels so easy.

It would be interesting to see how this kinda thing plays out in mid or short irons.

Im going to shaft up some 7 irons soon and see what I come up with.
 
Feel is absolutely detectable and influential to performance IMO. I think it starts with weight and then flex and profile matters too. I’m more of a believer now than before after having made recent shaft changes.
 
I don't think most golfers pay attention to feel. If they did their swings wouldn't look like they do.
 
Feel is absolutely detectable and influential to performance IMO. I think it starts with weight and then flex and profile matters too. I’m more of a believer now than before after having made recent shaft changes.

I'd say it starts with weight, then torque. Profile and flex play a role, but they're so different between manufacturers, I don't know how they'd fit. That being said, it's hard to say that torque isn't different from manufacturer to manufacturer, too. Ugh... at least we know that weight is measured the same... I think.
 
I 100% believe in feel is player dependent and I have a hard time explaining why I like the feel of some shafts and not others. If torque = feel why does the the Accra tz6 65 shaft feel good with 2.4*? I do seem to like driver shaft’s over 3* of torque. As for iron shafts I love the feel of px 6.0 shafts And can’t explain why when so many people say they feel terrible. I seem to be able to adjust to shafts in the 120g range fairly easily where I really struggled with light weight steel shafts in the past. I have played both KBS tour 120 and KBS tour V for limited periods of time and the tour V’s felt horrible to me compared to the 120’s and I can’t figure out why.
 
I believe
 
That would be a fun test. Take a couple of 7 or 8 irons and shaft one with heavy and stiff and the other with light weight and see which one feels and performs better.

One of the reasons often overlooked in the lack of standardizing of flex is how steep shafts differ as weight changes. Unlike composite, where weight and flex are independent, steel still has limits.
I do this a lot. I have about five different shafted 7-irons in my tester bag lately. It's interesting how preference and feel changes, and doesn't, each time around.
 
I think shafts have feel. And I would think that the more shafts a person is able to swing gives them a wider frame of reference to determine feel from. Personally, I wouldn't know the feel if someone told me what it was but that doesn't mean it's not real.

I have a limited frame of reference on which to draw... golfing since the 90's and only swung my own clubs... mostly those were steel shafts and maybe 6 total graphite shafts. So I wouldn't know feel from a hole in the ground.:ROFLMAO:
 
I think shafts have feel. And I would think that the more shafts a person is able to swing gives them a wider frame of reference to determine feel from. Personally, I wouldn't know the feel if someone told me what it was but that doesn't mean it's not real.

I have a limited frame of reference on which to draw... golfing since the 90's and only swung my own clubs... mostly those were steel shafts and maybe 6 total graphite shafts. So I wouldn't know feel from a hole in the ground.:ROFLMAO:
I've swung a lot of other clubs, but never really paid attention to what the shafts were. Just got a generalized feel from them, which I probably couldn't even describe in anything more than vague terms if asked to. I fully admit that I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to shaft knowledge, it's just not something I've ever spent any time experimenting with.
 
I've swung a lot of other clubs, but never really paid attention to what the shafts were. Just got a generalized feel from them, which I probably couldn't even describe in anything more than vague terms if asked to. I fully admit that I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to shaft knowledge, it's just not something I've ever spent any time experimenting with.

From my experience, you're in the majority of amateur golfers, though a good number would never say it out loud.
 
I'm lucky if I can tell there's a club head at the end of the shaft
 
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