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Hi,

I'm confused about all the to do about shafts. I am kind of blessed because my swing speed falls almost dead center between reg. and stiff shaft swing speed, maybe leaning slightly towards the stiff end. So I can use either one efficiently.

I know there are a ton of variables (wind conditions, temp., fairway grass, etc.) but if all things are equal what name shaft should someone with a medium ball flight, 8.5-10 degree driver head with a swing speed for a stiff shaft choose from?

I mean there is accuflex, fujikara, stock, etc. Is fujikara really worth an extra $200? Does it add any distance and if so how much?

Thanks - Rob

SORRY TO RUIN YOUR DAY, BUT SWING SPEED RATING FOR SHAFTS IS A BUNCH OF NONSENSE. The only thing that really matters is not swing speed, but how you LOAD the shaft. For example, my swing speed is 105, which means a stiff or x stiff shaft is required. BUT, I don't load my shaft enough to need that stiff of a shaft, and the correct shaft for me is just at the lower end of the R flex. Some A flex shafts work better for me due to the way I load the shaft. If someone tells you you need a Stiff shaft because you swing your driver a certain speed, they don't know what's really going on. YES, there are "GUIDE LINES", for what shaft goes with what flex, but it's only a "guide", not really a good fit for all golfers. And this is not just for drivers, it's for irons as well. According to every catalog and expert I have talked to, I need an X stiff shaft in my irons because I hit 150 yards carry with my 9 iron. Turns out the correct flex for me isn't an X stiff, but a soft R flex. Just over an A flex in fact. GO FIGURE.

I consider swing speed to shaft flex as a guideline, like OnePutt's noting, not always is a swing speed going to mathc on to a correct flex. Also, different manufacturers may put R-flex in swing speeds of 80-95 whereas the next one may make it 85-95...so you should use them as reference and not gospel.

One putt is right to a point. Swing Speed is usually a good indicator of how you would load a shaft. For instance a Fuji 757 is hard to load. If you don't have a fast swing....in other words...if you a swinger instead of a hitter.....do not get a 757 because you will not be able to load it right. Loading a shaft is the ability to put enough force on it to allow the shaft to play to its specs...or what it was designed to do. If you load a shaft too much you can not control it. If you don't load it enough you will lose distance. I had a contol problem myself. I had a Fuji speeder 652 stiff and I hit it left a lot. My swing speed is 116mph and I needed a X-Flex control shaf.....hence a Diamana. So swing speed does relate to loading but every shaft maker range is different.

Yes I do think that if your fitted and a $300 shaft is the one that works best for you then it is worth the money. However having said that Accuflex has some very good shaft for less money. I just wish I had a chance to try the Accuflex Evo before I got my Diamana. I am going to try a Accuflex shaft soon.

I think the trick to figuring out how you load a shaft is figuring in your tempo. I'm 5'7'' and swing a driver in the neighborhood of 110-115 mph, but my tempo is very quick and I have steep swing, sending the ball up fast. Hence, I use X's in almost all my clubs. That may help you determine just what kind of shaft you need.

Also, try the "ShaftFit" program at www.tttourconcept.com - it lets you pick between variables like ball flight, tempo, preferred weighting, etc. Hope that helps.

One Putt - 105 with an near A flex?? That's crazy

I think I'm getting the hang of this now. So the slower the tempo the more flex in the shaft? Using tour player analogies, Tiger needs an x-stiff and Ernie needs an A. Makes sense to me. So to throw a wrench in things does a stiffer flex always require a shaft more resistant to torque? It appears from most of the aftermarket shaft specs that torque is consistent through the flex ranges.

As Oneputt says, "It's all in how you load the shaft".

Lets use Fred Couples and Nick Price as examples. At impact the clubhead is probably traveling at the same speed but Price will load the shaft with a more drastic and earlier loading. That is why he uses stiffer shafts then Fred.


brianf

But how do you define tempo ( slow medium fast ) ? My ss is 90 and I carry around 220-230 - can you tell from this data what my tempo might be?

In the book 'Tour Tempo' John Novosel presents some interesting data on swing timing and tempo. He measured the lapsed time from takeaway to impact for a significant number of top pros (from Ben Hogan, Sam Snead etc. to Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Michelle Wie - including a significant number of other top pros in the last 40-50 years) and then broke that time into time spent on backswing vs. downswing.

He found that just about ALL the pros he measured appeared to swing to the same tempo, i.e. the ratio of time spent on backswing vs. downswing (to impact) was 3-to-1.

The only difference was how long they took to complete the swing.

He then found that the tour pros generally fall into 1 of 3 categories in terms of overall swing time:

Fast swing tempo (approx. 0.93 seconds, 21/7 - #of picture frames backswing/downswing):
Nick Price
Jack Nicklaus
Gary Player
Ben Hogan
Colin Montgomerie
Annika Sörenstam

Medium swing tempo (approx. 1.06 seconds, 24/8 - #of picture frames backswing/downswing):
Sam Snead
Tom Watson
Greg Norman
Seve Ballesteros
Fred Couples
Tiger Woods (in 2002)
Vijay Singh
Ernie Els
John Daly
Sergio Garcia
Karen Davies

Slow swing tempo (approx. 1.20 seconds, 27/9 - #of picture frames backswing/downswing):
Tiger Woods (in 1997)
Ben Crenshaw
Al Geiberger
Jan Stephenson
Michelle Wie (August 2003 - has speeded up swing from 30/10 in spring '03).

Novosel listed several more pros in each category, this is just a sample.

Since reading the book I picked up a SwingSpeed Radar w/Tempo Timer and have timed my avg. swingspeed @ 104-108mph w/avg. swing time of 0.88-.92 seconds (hence the Ben Hogan avatar ). Unfortunately, the season was already over by the time I got this device, so finding out whether it does anything for my golf game will have to wait until next summer , but results at the heated driving range look promising

( http://innovagolf.com/goswspragunw.html - NOTE: I have no affiliation with this seller and have never ordered from them, just the first result I got in Google when looking for a link to show you the device )

Shouldn't there be some relationship between downswing tempo and swing speed though? One of the salesmen ( not sure his a pro ) told me we're pretty much born with swing speed ( Can't improve much by training ) and the speed of which we turn our shoulder decides swing speed. Given that the shoulder speed plus wrist cock will give you overall swing speed, I would have guessed that how fast your downswing tempo is has something to do with overall swing speed but your explanation doesn't seem to show that. What gives?

The answer has been given when your talking about changing Tempo and different characteristics of shafts but don't forget quality make up of the shafts as well.
You can get a Standard $5 stock OEM Shaft and put it on a 5" clamp with a 200 gram weight on the tip to test its Flex. You will see that the shaft isn't wound tightly with cheaper and heavier style of graphite. When you pull the shaft back and let go you will also find that due to the characteristics of the shaft it will not move correctly back and forth but will make circles instead.
Now image what this does for you when you are swinging a club head hoping to hit it straight down the middle. to sum it up it "can" cause you to have too much or too little spin, cause the face to be open at impact (to high of torque with cheap shafts), put side spin on the ball causing it hook or fade....etc

I have taken alot of shafts into our lab (profile) to find out which companies really spends the money to make a quality shaft and which ones use marketing to sell their shafts. So the answer to the question If it fits your swing then yes it is worth it but... some companies will charge you alot more for a shaft then another that is far superior in quality and technology. So make sure you do your homework before spending the cash.

That is a crock. By training you can swing faster and hit the ball longer. Tempo as mentioned is a realtionship between the back swing and down swing....the down swing being faster naturally. Before I was deployed my swing speed was 102 mph. When I was deployed I could not hit a golf ball for 18 months. When we were not on a mission I was in the gym...there was nothing else to do...... and put on 15lbs. When I came home I was hooking the ball bad. I when and had me swing tested and my swing speed was 116 mph. Nothing changed in my swing but I was stronger from my time in the gym. I got a x-flex shaft and I hit it straight again.....and a heck of an increase in distance. So just by working out and nothing else my distance went way up because my swing speed increased.

Correct - It's very simple - if you want to hit the ball longer, the club has to swing faster. If you desire the shaft to bend only back and forth, spend the money to get it PUred.

OK, I thought it was more of a flexibility but OK stronger it is. What kind of stength training do I need to increase SS ? Overall weights like Tiger? Any particular exercise to start with?