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Tell me about shafts - what’s your tips, tricks, or insights in shafts?

Nippon Shafts
jmix18

jmix18

I'm just happy to be here.
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The more I’m on THP, the more I’m learning everyday about all things golf. However the world of shafts just continues to boggle my mind. Steel and graphite. Stepped and Rifle. Tipped or not tipped. Butt stuff versus tip stiff. Weighting. Hand-rolled. Velocore and non-Velocore. Use this type of shaft when you want this or that….

Seriously, so much going on with shafts that it makes my head spin.

So what insights, tips to know what someone needs, etc… would you care to share with the world to help a fellow THPer out?
 
The shaft things I have learned are theses

1. No shaft is magic.
2. There is no standard for anything.
3. Profile matters only to a point.
4. Torque = feel.
5. Your swing will always override profile
6. Shafts are super fun and I love to try them and read about them.
 
My biggest tip I can give: don’t go down that rabbit hole. Failing that, learn what makes shafts do what they’re supposed to do. What creates a higher lunch? What adds more spin? What contributes to more of a loading feel? Then figure out what those shafts do with your swing. Does an active tip give you what you were expecting? How do different shafts change your launch and spin conditions like advertised? Some shafts will fit your swing better. Figure out what profile works for your swing and you can typically get close to a good match untested.
 
The shafts on my two Spalding fairway woods are made by a fishing rod company (Fenwick) which, like Spalding itself, is no longer into golf.

Further, if thy break, I can't replace them because they have weird .400" tips instead of the standard .335".

And although they're relics from the 20th Century, I love those two clubs. I've hit a lot of greens with both of them over the years.

Bottom line: my opinion on contemporary shafts probably isn't the most knowledgable one to seek.
 
I would say:

1) Find a knowledgable and trustworthy fitter that can worry about getting you into the right shaft and take their advice.

2) Use any time you would have spend worrying/researching/pondering/tinkering with shafts to practice short game and putting.
 
in a vacuum, shafts do very little. the real magic in a golf shaft is how it affects the way the golfer swings the club.

you need to learn whether you’re someone who relies on feel in the hands, the middle or the tip. you need to learn whether you’re someone who needs a little weight to help feel.
 
Getting fit is key. I have spent a bunch of money buying and trying different shafts but the woods in my bag that have been there the longest are the ones I have been fit for.
 
This shaft was my gamer for a couple of season’s until I went to a Titleist Experience and was fitted for the very first time. Found out I needed a lower launch and lower spinning shaft. Tend to use shafts like the Project X Evenflow T1000 or RDX Smoke .

8CC3ECDB-933C-4720-B658-C68B596018DA.jpeg1397D0C0-CD19-4F93-9AA4-35D2387598E2.jpeg4F090165-49C1-4D7A-861E-93532DCBB187.jpeg
 
templeton80 said:
6. Shafts are super fun and I love to try them and read about them.
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This! This is why I want to know more about them! I want to swap things I. And our and try different ones but don’t know where to start much of the time.
 
jmix18 said:
This! This is why I want to know more about them! I want to swap things I. And our and try different ones but don’t know where to start much of the time.
Click to expand...

That is the hard part. I would say start with shafts you have played and liked in the past. Look those up and figure out the specs and design purpose. Then look for shafts that have a similar design purpose.

For example. Let’s say you played and liked the old school aldila NV green shaft. Look it up. See what the profile was, what was the weight you played? Etc. then looking up current designs that have a similar profile but with updated and more modern designs.

I also and very much willing to try new things and see if they may work for me. Etc.. it’s an expensive game.
 
We didn't get deep into the weeds over shafts in the old days, so I never got into it that much as time went on.
It certainly seems to be a hot topic now, however.

R flex with the plainest graphics possible and I'm good. I'm more fussy about grips, truth be told.
If I were younger and got into the game in a different era, it would most likely be quite different.
 
templeton80 said:
That is the hard part. I would say start with shafts you have played and liked in the past. Look those up and figure out the specs and design purpose. Then look for shafts that have a similar design purpose.

For example. Let’s say you played and liked the old school aldila NV green shaft. Look it up. See what the profile was, what was the weight you played? Etc. then looking up current designs that have a similar profile but with updated and more modern designs.

I also and very much willing to try new things and see if they may work for me. Etc.. it’s an expensive game.
Click to expand...
And the other side of this - is that I just want to understand the why's and hows behind things. yes, I could just rely on a fitter, which I would if I went to get fit for a club - but I want to have an understanding as to x,y, or z... Call it the educator in me or the continuous search to understand.
 
McLovin said:
you need to learn whether you’re someone who needs a little weight to help feel.
Click to expand...
This would then seem to be the reason as I was put into 132g iron shafts yesterday the first thing I said was "I can feel the head and where it's at." :)
 
DaveGolfer15 said:
I would say:

1) Find a knowledgable and trustworthy fitter that can worry about getting you into the right shaft and take their advice.

2) Use any time you would have spend worrying/researching/pondering/tinkering with shafts to practice short game and putting.
Click to expand...
But the issue at hand here is that I want to learn about and understand them. Just relying on the fitter is fine, but I want to have an understanding in the reasons behind their decisions.
 
jmix18 said:
This! This is why I want to know more about them! I want to swap things I. And our and try different ones but don’t know where to start much of the time.
Click to expand...

Its a sickness. And I love it.


 
My 3 cents worth of input :

I have assembled a lot of clubs for guys I know. The one thing I have found out was shafts are the engine of the club. Launch monitors are great but dont always reflect how a club or shaft will perform on the tee box or on the fairway, 75% of amateur golfers swing a shaft way to stiff and the reason for it is most golfers have an ego that won't allow them to use a regular shaft cuz in front of their golfing friends it seems to make them Wussies. So many times when I bring a selection of clubs and / or shafts for a guy to try , the first thing he wants to know is what flex is it, I reply something on the order of - what difference does it make, let see you hit it. I know several guys now are swinging senior shafts and they are't even seniors, Big strong hitters with regular shafts. Good thing for some of them have said - wow what a difference my elbow joints dont hurt anymore, That stiff flex shaft I used to hit now feels like a 2 x 4. so as in all Golfing my advice is if you want to be a good golfer - leave the ego at home.
On a driver play the most lofted head you can and then fine tune the launch profile you want with the shaft.
Also remember this: the main difference between a $150 shaft and a $350 priced shaft is $200. Go Tensei CK Blue if all else fails.:eek::eek::eek::eek:
 
Is it fun to tinker? Sure. But very rarely is it to the benefit of the tinkerer. Especially if he's not well versed. Get comfortable with what you have (or get fit, if you feel like what you have does not suit you) and stop worrying about it, would be my advice.

Don't fall for the idea that every new shaft is always better. A lot of it is personal preference. You see a ton of older shafts on tours and in bags of good amateurs. Think about the AD-DI which has to be 10 years old at this point or the DG profile, which has been around for roughly half a century.
 
Ball flight is king. Some shafts just don't fit certain players based off of swing speed and delivery but if the ball flight works.... if the result is good.... I don't care what the brand or label says.
 
I work as a club fitter for Taylormade and here's some basic rules of thumb that I use as a starting point. These won't work for everyone and sometimes the exact opposite is what works but most of the time I go through these couple steps to dial in shaft and head combo.

1) Flex will mostly be based on swing speed but taking into account launch and spin windows we're trying to hit. For example someone on the border between regular and stiff but we need to increase launch we'll go regular to start.

2) Shaft weight can shift strike point on the head. Heel strikes = shaft is too light, need to go heavier. Toe strikes = shaft is too heavy and need to go lighter.

3) Torque or the twisting stiffness of the shaft (essentially the rotation of the club head) plays a big role in the feel of the club and can affect ball flight slightly. Higher torque means easier rotation which means potentially more draw bias. Lower torque value will tend to have less head rotation so might leave it more open.

None of these are hard rules that will apply for everyone and will never change. Changing the club head model and the loft/face angle with the sleeve will make more of an adjustment than the shaft. Closing the face by adding loft, sliding a weight or having a heel biased driver will give more draw help than going with a higher torque shaft most of the time. Going from a 10.5 degree to 8 degree head will lower launch and spin more than a shaft change will do.

Again with our swings not being robot perfect some things will not work and may need to do the opposite but in general, these are the basic rules of thumb I start with.
 
If you hear anyone say negative stuff about graphite iron shafts, ask them when they last tried them. 😉
 
Appreciate all your responses. My purpose is really to learn more about shafts and their makeup - why they do what they do and the bits and pieces that cause a shaft to do what it does. Yes I could Google it, but what fun is that and how do I draw THPers knowledge if I GTS it?
 
jmix18 said:
Appreciate all your responses. My purpose is really to learn more about shafts and their makeup - why they do what they do and the bits and pieces that cause a shaft to do what it does. Yes I could Google it, but what fun is that and how do I draw THPers knowledge if I GTS it?
Click to expand...

This is why graphite shafts are so much more interesting than steel. Steel has one stiffness, and you can only vary shape and weight so much. Steel shafts basically vary wall thickness and step profile to acheive different flex points and overall weight/stiffness. Graphite comes in a variety of stiffnesses and strengths, and you can orient the fiber plies to achieve all kinds of crazy things that just flat are not possible with steel.

As far as fitting pointers, @templeton80 and @TheLetterSee have some awesome tips. I'm still trying to figure out the whole puzzle, but have been getting better and more confident with it. My pointers:
  • overall weight is important
  • try to test lots of things, even stuff you would not be interested in buying, to start to develop that "feel" for different setups
  • pay attention to how consistently you hit each one.... a good pairing will feel easy to sync up and hit nice shots... a bad one feels like... work.
  • don't expect miracles in spin or ball flight differences, its more about what shaft helps you sync your swing and find center contact. The good fit and better output in numbers comes from consistently hitting the ball square.
  • trust your instincts when something feels right or wrong. Then keep testing some more over time and build confidence.
  • try to identify which type of shaft profiles tend to work for you, and then test a candidate model or two from different brands and develop a feel for what you like.
Like a lot of things, "seat time" helps. I like trying different combinations (without buying) to build hands-on experience.
 
My biggest takeaways - get fit; when in doubt, get fit again.

once you are comfortable with a shaft; commit. Also, look up it’s EI profile and use that as a template for future testing
 
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