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Things are not adding up here....

Nippon Shafts
Hamfist

Hamfist

I promise not to murder Canadan.
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OK, here's a thought problem/mental exercise that's got me stymied.

I was just looking at a fitting chart for club lengths. It said a player of my stature (5'4"-ish) should have a club that's 1/2" short. OK, fine.

I then looked at a player who is 6'0", and the shaft length was standard.

Now, if 2 players have a height difference of 6", and let's say their arms are the same length relative to their body, and they take the same stance at address, how can the club length difference only be 1/2", when it seems there would be a 6" difference in where their hands would end up above the ground?
 
Hamfist said:
OK, here's a thought problem/mental exercise that's got me stymied.

I was just looking at a fitting chart for club lengths. It said a player of my stature (5'4"-ish) should have a club that's 1/2" short. OK, fine.

I then looked at a player who is 6'0", and the shaft length was standard.

Now, if 2 players have a height difference of 6", and let's say their arms are the same length relative to their body, and they take the same stance at address, how can the club length difference only be 1/2", when it seems there would be a 6" difference in where their hands would end up above the ground?
Click to expand...


This is why static fittings are worthless.
 
That's the norm for us shorties. My step-dad is 5' 5" and I am 5' 7" teetering 5' 8". We both got fit for our clubs and were shocked we were both fitted for standard length. Apparently us short people have adjusted our swing since our first set of clubs.

Static fittings are just used as a baseline to let the fitter know where to start anyways. Very rarely does that end up being what's the best for you.
 
fupresti said:
This is why static fittings are worthless.
Click to expand...

At least when just putting in height. The PING static fittings, which uses wrist to floor plus height was pretty much spot on to my dynamic fitting.
 
If your clubs were all 6" short you wouldn't be able to hit the ball very far. A better way to handle the height issue is through lie angle.
 
-CRW- said:
If your clubs were all 6" short you wouldn't be able to hit the ball very far. A better way to handle the height issue is through lie angle.
Click to expand...
Personal anecdote: I play -1/2" irons right now, and ball striking can sometimes be dicey for me. This last round, I decided to try an experiment again, which was to choke down on the club to the end of the grip, essentially shortening it another 2" or so. I was hitting the ball very well doing this, swing felt great, and it seemed that I was swinging the club a lot faster through impact. My already modest distances didn't seem to drop drastically, and the consistent striking made that really into a non-factor for me. Obviously, this was one round, but I'm going to try it again this weekend to see what happens.
 
By choking down on the clubs you are also changing their lie angle at impact. I had a tendency to choke down on my old Irons and never had a problem with it. Then the fitter had me grip it properly on a standard length and adjusted the lie to compensate. Sure enough same center face hit, clubhead speed increased and distance from each iron improved. I would look at having the lie brought down if choking up on the club makes impact better.
 
schuff said:
By choking down on the clubs you are also changing their lie angle at impact. I had a tendency to choke down on my old Irons and never had a problem with it. Then the fitter had me grip it properly on a standard length and adjusted the lie to compensate. Sure enough same center face hit, clubhead speed increased and distance from each iron improved. I would look at having the lie brought down if choking up on the club makes impact better.
Click to expand...
They are already set to 1 degree flat, if I recall correctly. (I bought them online, and think they were a custom order that got returned to the retailer from whom I bought them.)
 
I came to post what Schuff said - that by gripping down you are making the club play flatter at approximately 1/2 of a degree per every .25" you subtract from the grip end. If length were the issue you wouldn't be able to hit longer irons (unless you were playing a single length set).

BUT, gripping down also affects the swing weight of the club which can also effect how well you hit the ball (center contact, smash factor, even swing speed). You lose 1 swing weight point for approximately every 5 grams you subtract from the grip end. So it's possible by gripping down you are lowering swing weight by 1 point (not guaranteed though).
 
I'm 5'9 and play my irons .5 inch long. Never would have guessed that in a million years.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
-CRW- said:
I came to post what Schuff said - that by gripping down you are making the club play flatter at approximately 1/2 of a degree per every .25" you subtract from the grip end. If length were the issue you wouldn't be able to hit longer irons (unless you were playing a single length set).

BUT, gripping down also affects the swing weight of the club which can also effect how well you hit the ball (center contact, smash factor, even swing speed). You lose 1 swing weight point for approximately every 5 grams you subtract from the grip end. So it's possible by gripping down you are lowering swing weight by 1 point (not guaranteed though).
Click to expand...
Oh, the swing weight is noticably lighter. It makes the clubs feel "faster". Using the above formula, wouldn't my extreme grip-down make the clubs play at.........hmmm....like 5 degrees flat? Wowzers.
 
I've been sitting here pondering this, and I just don't understand how changing the length of the shaft changes the lie of the club.

I can see if you increased the angle of the shaft relative to the ground, that the toe would raise. What I'm not seeing is how the length of the shaft, no matter how short you made it, if it stayed in the same relative angle to the ground, would chang the lie.

As you may have guessed, I am not an engineer.
 
I'm 6'4 and play mine 1/2" long and 2* upright and they work wonderfully for me.

i wear a 37" sleeve on my dress shirts but that is about average for my height
 
Hamfist said:
I've been sitting here pondering this, and I just don't understand how changing the length of the shaft changes the lie of the club.
Click to expand...

It doesn't physically change the lie angle. When I used the phrase "play at" the proper term is "effective lie". That's assuming your setup stays the same.

The actual lie angle remains constant because it is the angle between the hosel and a flat surface when the club is soled on that flat surface.
 
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