Why is Club Head Speed used to Fit Glof Clubs?

[Pa Jayhawk]

I think you will also find Swing Speed to appear more prevalent on getting the correct club on forums such as this one. The reason being, without seeing a persons swing, ball flight, and tendancies, it is one of the few parts of the fitting process that you can explain with real accuracy and can obtain with relative ease. So if a person does not wish to get fitted for say a driver, and would rather rely on the comments on a forum, Swing speed will usually be the main characteristic that will come into question, unless of course the person can provide launch angles, setup, video footage, etc. which is usually not to common. Most of the people that could accurately provide the information will likely already know the answer to the question they wish to ask.

 

[Lloyd Hackman]

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At impact, when the ball "sticks" to the clubface, the shaft bends backward and pushes the clubhead forward, giving a little push. While impact time is extremely short, I do believe this is what's happening IMO. It's like a trampoline effect, on both the clubface and the shaft... lol

Loop

I would not include your proposed affect because it does not happen. If Dave say's it does in one of his articles I would appreciate the quote or which article it appears in. If you will look at pictures taken of the club nearing impact and the head is forward of the shaft this is the combined affect which I describe but following impact and the ball has left the club the head is normally behind the shaft indicating the head and shaft have retreated from the ball and there is no push affect as you indicate.

 

[Eracer]

By using club release timing we do not have to try figure out the influence of al of these other swing parameters on the end result and we do not have to worry about having them analyzed backward like the transition factor has been.

I paid $$ for a True Temper swing analysis. You know - the one where they use a 5-iron with load call attached to various points on the shaft, and then map out your swing profile, including max loading and release points.

The end result was that the system recommended senior shafts in my irons, and regular shafts in my woods.

I play currently play DGS300s in my irons and hit them a good distance with a consistent ball flight. They feel great. I tried to play some A-flex irons once and sprayed them all over the place (mostly big hooks). And a regular shaft in my driver was definitely wrong. I play a stiff shaft and drive the ball 240-270. My swing speed is 95-100mph.

My point here is that, while swing loading analysis is a valuable tool, it sometimes returns results that just don't make any sense. BTW - I had the test done twice, over a one month period. The second time it told me I needed regular shafts in irons, and A-flex in woods. Different swing that day? Wheaties for breakfast?

Or, more likely, the bloody 5-iron had a calibration error. Both times.

I think hitting with a launch monitor, observed by a compentent pro clubfitter, is the only way to go.

But what do I know, really?

 

[Lloyd Hackman]

Eracer

The problem with the True Temper shaft lab is that, even though it gets loading VS time, it only uses peak load to determine the shaft stiffness recommendation. Shaft Lab disregards the timing factor that I recommend using. So their results could be entirely different then my recommendations. I do not consider peak loading at all but only, when does it happen with respect to ball impact and not how high the peak is. The magnitude of the peak load has no affect on the club frequency of stiffness only the time it takes to get back to straight and square.

 

[Eracer]

Excellent. I tell you, I am so frustrated by the inability of the golf industry to set testable parameters for shaft specifications. Shafts should be sold with a disclosure label. Frequency, weight, deformity, flex point, etc. should all be a measurement that can be relied on to give accurate information about the shaft, regardless of who the manufacturer is, or what the shaft is made of. I have a stiff shaft in my driver, and it plays much less stiff than an Accuflex Icon shaft a tried once. And it plays stiffer than an NV-65 that I played another time. Or do the shafts just have a stiffer "feel"? The point is that I have no idea. What is stiff? What is regular flex? What does mid-kick mean? Or tip-firm?

This whole thing makes buying a club much more difficult than it has to be. I bought my driver, with the shaft that is in it, because I was able to demo five different drivers, and immediately felt very comfortable with this one. On the other hand, I've bought clubs off the rack, based on what I THOUGHT my shaft requirements were, but without having had a chance to demo it, and been very disappointed with the club (or should I say - shaft). Once I re-shafted the club it performed great.

It's way too much a crap shoot for us mere mortals. People like you can provide a very valuable service, but only if the data you provide about a golfer's shaft requirements can allow the golfer to shop for a shaft with the confidence of knowing that the shaft they choose will be the right one.

 

[Lloyd Hackman]

If you can determine what frequency the club is that you like, stick to that frequency and you will be all right. There are no standards in the industry for stiffness ranges and each stiffness range, where ever they my fall, is about 15 CPM wide. If you are not within 4 CPM of what you hit best you will start having problems, so finding the proper shaft in a 15 CPM range is a crapshoot. Fitting by Club release timing and getting the exact club frequency that matches your swing is the answer. Then with the properly fitted club the tip stiff high kick point shaft is the only shaft to consider.