Shaft weight / flex change signals

[Morry]

14 year old daughter playing accra 80 i shafts in her apex irons

flight is still good, but starting to see more bend come into the picture

this is coinciding with swing speed rising slowly in background

 

driver has gone high 70's mph when she got the iron shafts to around 85mph now

put a fubuki 60 regular flex shaft in her driver recently and it is working extremely well

when is it time to swap out the iron shafts?

 

any views / wisdom would be greatly appreciated

[Stuart_G]

Unfortunately there are no clear "tells", everyone can be a bit different. Only way to be sure is to try different options, look at the numbers with the different options and see how she responds to the change in feel (either weight or flex) - both her impressions of that feel and looking to see how the swing might change.

 

But unless she starts ballooning the ball, or there becomes some problems with what she is feeling, flex isn't really something to worry about too much. Weight, however, can be very important. With juniors it's usually much better to err on the side of too light then too heavy as the later has the potential to cause problems with technique before the strength has been fully developed - especially in the back swing and for the longer clubs (look for the club head getting behind the swing plane early in the back swing). And a good fit for weight (especially for the longer clubs - driver, fairway and hybrids) will also be very dependent on the playing length. The more they are cut down from the (too long) stock lengths, the more shaft weight someone can handle.

 

but starting to see more bend come into the picture

 

I hope you're not speaking literally? The amount of bend you might see in a shaft from photos/videos is usually an effect of the way the images are captured and not an accurate representation of the actual bend in the shaft.

 

driver has gone high 70's mph when she got the iron shafts to around 85mph now

 

You mean the driver swing speed is slower then the iron swing speed? Or maybe you have those backwards?

[Morry]

Apologies for confusion

 

Bend - I meant bigger fades and draws than a few months ago - obviously I realize they are more likely swing related, but I am wondering how much

 

and

 

her driver swing speed was around 78 when we put the 80i's into the irons

her driver swing speed is around 85 now

 

just mentioned that for reference

 

thanks

[Stuart_G]

Thanks.

 

Flex generally doesn't play a large part in the shot shape - particularly in the context of a player starting out with a certain flex getting better with those shafts - but it's not impossible that it might. You never know until you try other options. Now changing from a flex that one is used to playing to one that is stiffer or softer than one is used is more likely to result in some changes to the swing but only for folks that are sensitive to that type of feel coming from the shaft.

 

Shaft weight is more likely to have an influence (although it's an indirect one) since it can effect rhythm, tempo, and release timing. Heavier can sometimes help 'smooth' those things out if the player is a bit inconsistent with those aspects of their swing. But it can also impact other things in a negative way - like grip tension or swing plane or slow down swing speed. Good news is that it's very easy to test out how the player would do with heavier shafts and all you need is some lead tape. Play around on the range by adding about 5 gm at a time a little bit below the grip - that will simulate having a heavier shaft. You can also play around with swing weight a bit as well.