A what point does Regular become Stiff!

stiffness of shaft is one thing & depending upon the torque (or twist) of the shaft will actually have as much if not more ffect upon draw & fade charcteristics of any club but deciding where the kickpont should be is probably just as important, maybe moreso, especially when we decide to go regular shaft yet or swingspeed is in that borderline between regular & stiff.

There agin what is actually regular & stiff as far as graphite shafts are concerned from one manufacturer to another can vary greatly. The manufactureres will denigh this I'm sure, but its there. Hence why some regular shafts have that little extra stiffness that suite some of us that fall in the gap range of 85mph-95mph swingspeed.

I know from launch monitors that my swingspeed has when I've been playing & swinging effectively has reached 102mph, but in the off season will have slowed to as slow as 84mph . Most of this is down to technique & flexibility than all out strength.

A lot of shop bassed club fitters will er on the side of caution & will recommend regular shafts & high lofts in drivers, which is all well & good in offseason, when we all get a bit slow & cumbersome & can help get the ball up in the in the air with reasonable repeatable distance up to a point. But just as the howitzer thats aimed at the sky, get the angle up too high & the shell starts to drop closer instead of further away, or more to the point will not increase in distance. Thats the simplified explanation, without drawing curves on the screen.

Of course as we now delve even deeper we get into the ball itself, the dimples, the imparted spin on the ball from grooves in the club too, launch angles off a face of a driver dependent upon the swingspeed, which means a change in the launch angle. So this ideal window or letterbox of launch angel that some club fitters will tell you about when fitting a driver can be affected by shaft flex, shaft kickpoint, angle of face, ball dimples & most importantly swingspeed. Vary any one of these & we can enter the correct launch angel window, vary it too much or vary something else & bang, we're up out the other side & of the launch angle window & loosing distance, increasing backspin on the ball,all manner of things.

What I'm getting at is to come back to my point about some club fitters being cautious is that set us up so that we're already into the top of the launch anglewindow.increase the swingspeed & combine this with too much flex & or toque, or loft on the club & its a loss of distance & or accuracy instead of the increased distance most people will crave, when accuracy is probably more benificial. Hence why a few people will say that prefer a steel shaft in woods, due to the reduced touque in the shaft. Hence why I tend to now go for a slightly higher kickpoint as a compromise instead of going to the stif shaft option, though the temptation is great to do so. And explains why occasionally the risk of loosing a few yards with a stiffer shaft than stricktly speeking is good for us is not all together a bad thing, as the worst that can happen is we a 5 yards shorter in carry if the technique or swingspeed is down, but get it right & we will get past any of our regular shafted shots. But its each to their own & a decision not to be taken lightly & formost a regular shaft of one form or another is the best move.