Tip stiffness and Bend point relationship

[cdrob22]

I hope that some of you with more expertise in shaft fitting can help. I wanted to know the relation ship between kick points and tip stiffness and how they relate to spin and launch angle.

 

I guess that the higher the kick point the more the shaft will flex away form its original center point, delofting the club (if the flex is properly matched to the golfers swing speed) and resulting in a lower launch angle. True or False?

 

 

A shaft with a softer tip section will result in a higher spin rate on a ball and a firm tip imparts less spin. True or False?

 

 

If the two are true, than when comparing two shafts with similar bend point but different tip stiffness will result in two different trajectories due to spin rate. For example Dynamic Gold will launch lower than the new FST 125 that has a soft tip section and would give the ball more lift due to the increased spin rate.

 

 

Any help would be appreciated.

[Merlin_T]

http://www.learnaboutgolf.com/educational/technology.html

 

:good:

[thewitt]

There is no delofting of the club at impact.

 

The shaft will either be bent forward or neutral depending on the stiffness of the shaft and the mechanics of your swing.

 

Your swing starts to slow down between 3-o-clock and 4:30 and the clubhead catches up and passes by the shaft as it attempts to align it's CG with the CG of the shaft/club combination during the swing.

 

Watch the PGA Tour super-slow-mode at impact. The clubhead ALWAYS leads the shaft at impact.

 

This adds effective loft to the club at impact.

 

The only way you could get the clubhead to lag behind the shaft would be to use a shaft 3-4 times too soft and have a very late release.

 

No one can accelerate through the ball - the physics of the swing just don't allow it.

 

As for what happens with bendpoint, it's minor compared to overall shaft flex, but if a shaft has a low bendpoint, that means the tip is soft and as such it will allow the head to go farther past the shaft at impact, adding loft and spin.

 

A higher bendpoint shaft will bend forward less and result in less added loft and spin.

 

Since the shaft does not actually bend "at" the bendpoint - it bends over it's entire length - the bendpoint has less to do with how much the shaft allows the head to travel forward than does flex. Most "soft tip" shafts are also softer overall than their "soft butt" counterparts.

 

-t