In this video I look at some mistakes people make when picking out different shaft weights. Is it better to go with heavier or lighter shafts? Let’s find out.
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all right this video is all about shaft weight we’re going to be talking about some misconceptions that are out there and how do you figure out what is the right shaft weight for your [Music] game hi everyone welcome back to the channel hope you’re having a wonderful day so this is a question that I get all the time and it is all about golf shaft weight now specifically we’re going to be talking about iron shaft weight today but the shaft weight of your irons is going to translate through the entire bag and sort of dictate where everything else Falls so definitely getting your iron weights where they’re supposed to be getting something that fits you properly is very important so this video today has three parts the first two are going to be things that are misconceptions or ideas that I think are floating around out there that I don’t really agree with and I think are actually going to hurt your game when it comes to figuring out iron shaft weight the last one and definitely stay tuned for that because that’s going to be where I show you actually a few different ways to help you figure out what shaft weight is going to work for you oh yeah by the way if you enjoy what I’m doing here if you enjoy this content make sure you go down below and subscribe to the channel and hit that little bell icon so you’ll be alerted when I post new videos all right number one we’re going to to do a little little test a little experiment I’ve got three different golf shafts here in varying weights I’ve got something heavy I’ve got something kind of in the middle and I’ve got something light I’m going to hit some balls with each of these and we’re going to track my club head speed and see what happens okay first off I’ve got seven iron head with Dynamic gold 105 this is my middle middle ground middle weight iron shaft going to hit four or five balls with this and then we’re going to move into something lighter and into something heavier here all right next up we’ve got the lightweight 80 g shaft okay finally 130 G Dynamic gold all right now before we look at the numbers again we had 130 we had 105 we had 80 g shafts if I asked you which of those three shafts am I going to swing the fastest which one am I going to have the fastest Club head speed what would be your answer what would be your best guess okay moment of truth I’m guessing the majority of you probably guess that the lightest weight shaft is going to give me the fastest Club head speed let’s look at the numbers look at that it’s a dead heat we moved around 50 gram of weight between 130 and all the way down to 80 and we did not I did not see any change in my club head speed so that is misconception number one that is number one thing I don’t want you to do is assume that going to a lighter shaft is going to give you better speed better distance because at least as Club Ed speed goes and I’ve done this a lot with a lot of different golfers that club head speed number regardless of shaft weight does not really ever change okay number two and this is another misconception this is another thing I don’t want you to fall prey to which is I’ve looked all over the place I’ve looked at a lot of stuff on YouTube even from what should be very reputable sources and it seems like most everyone has the opinion that you should go with the lightest shaft weight that you can control the lightest shaft weight that you can handle and I’m just going to tell you right now I do not think that’s a good idea at all if I was going to tell somebody to error on either side of shaft weight I am always going to say go to the heavy side let me show you just a really simple illustration of what I’m talking about I’ve got two golf balls here one of them is just a little foam ball that weighs next to nothing the other one is a standard golf ball look what happens when I just hit this putt and it runs over this little Edge that I’ve built up here with this card the lighter weight ball is influenced to a greater degree by this little inconsistency now when we compare that to the standard golf ball look what happens here the ball rolls much truer much straighter over that little imperfection well guess what golf shafts your golf swing are kind of the same way if you have a very light shaft it’s easier for you to manipulate it to move it around and all the little inconsistencies that you have in your swing all the little you know Twitchy stuff that can come in sometimes is going to be more influential on that lighter shafted golf club that lighter weight Golf Club versus a heavier Golf Club any of those little Twitchy movements are not going to have as big an impact when you’re swinging a heavier shaft so as far as consistency goes I will always every day of the week pick a heavier shaft over a lighter shaft and from my fitting experience I will tell you that the majority of golfers benefit more from a shaft weight that’s on the heavy side versus a shaft that is too light last thing I want to cover is how can you figure out what shaft weight is best for your game obviously a fitting is going to be the best way to do this but depending on where you live depending on your resources depending on any number of things you may not be able to get to a fitting to someone like me in order to figure out what shaft weight is best that being said if you are interested in a fitting all my contact information is down below if you want to get in touch with me if you want to set something up however if you can’t if you don’t want to do that here’s a few different tips and a couple tricks that might help you out so first off let’s talk about what we would typically see if a golf shaft is too light or too heavy well first off too light if a golf shaft is too light what you will usually see is wider dispersion across the board left and right everything’s going to be a little bit more wild there is a general tendency also that you’re going to lose the ball with more of a draw with more of a hook versus a heavier shaft but that is not a guarantee that is not always the case but that does often show up again the big bigger show the bigger tell is that the overall dispersion both left and right is just going to be a little bit Wilder also probably your short to Long dispersion is also going to be a little Wilder now when it comes to a shaft being too heavy there’s a couple ways to figure this out one and again this is not always the case but it does seem to happen more often than not if a shaft is too heavy you’re more likely to leave it out to the right now that’s for a right-handed golfer so out to the fade side out to the push side for a right-handed golfer so if a shaft is too heavy it’s a little harder to get through it and you’re more likely to lose it out to the right now the other way to kind of tell if a shaft is too heavy is quite honestly just to listen to your body because if a shaft is too heavy by the time you swing it say 10 times in a row you’re going to start to notice that this feels like work this feels like a lot of work and I’m getting kind of tired and if you feel that way that is a pretty good indication that that shaft may be a little bit too heavy for your body type for your personal swing now finally let’s say you’ve got a set of golf clubs you’ve got a certain shaft weigh in there and you’re wondering I wonder what it would be like to have either a little bit heavier shaft in there or a little bit lighter shaft in there well obviously you could go and reshaft the whole set or you could reshaft one or two clubs to kind of try it out but I’ve got two little tricks here that you can do it home very simple very easy very cheap to sort of mimic what you would get from either a heavier or a lighter shaft so the first one is let’s say you’re interested in a heavier shaft so I’ve got a shaft here let’s say it’s about 115 grams and I’m thinking well what would it be like if this club was set up with 125 G shaft here’s what we’re going to do so I’m going to take just a long strip of lead tape this is between I don’t know 10 and 12 in we’re going to take the B backing off it right down the back of the shaft so we’re going to start about an inch I call it about an inch below the bottom end of the grip right here and we’re just going to stick it onto the shaft and run it straight down the length of the shaft just like that okay now we’ll go ahead and press it on there make sure it’s on there there good and snug so it doesn’t fall off sometimes depending on the shaft and depending on the tape it may take a little extra effort to get it on there you might need to wipe the shaft down with a little rubbing alcohol something like that to get the tape to stick but for a shortterm simple test like this I think that should get us where we need to go so now we’ve got lead tape about 10 extra Gams running down the back of the shaft now the great thing about this is this shaft is still going to perform essentially the same as it did before we put the lead tape on there just in a heavier version it’s still going to flex the same way because of where we put the tape on it running down the back starting about an inch below the grip the actual feel the actual swing weight is not going to change and if it does change it’s minimal so this is going to be a very good way to sort of replicate what a heavier shaft would actually give you and then at that point we can just go to the range you can get on your launch monitor whatever you want to do and just start hitting some balls with it all right so heavier easy right lead tape no problem trying to test out lighter that is definitely going to be a little little bit more difficult and I readily admit that this method this idea that I have is not perfect it is far far from it but short of actually going to a fitting or reshafting some or all of your clubs with a lighter shaft I feel like this is maybe the best option to at least get some sort of idea whether a lighter shaft might be right for you so all we’re going to do here and this may sound so ridiculously simple that it wouldn’t work but I think it has Merit if we normally grip the club like this and the bottom of the grip is right here with the bottom of my hand this is going to be our starting point for our test so we could just hit one like this and now if we’re trying to actually make this club feel lighter all I want you to do is just choke up on the grip just about a quarter of an inch we’re talking a very small amount all we’re doing here is just trying to lighten the overall feel of the club when we choke up about a quarter of an inch or so it’s going to make the swing weight a little bit lighter kind of the equivalent of actually dropping about 10 gram of weight in the shaft the quarter inch isn’t really enough where it’s going to influence your swing very much as far as the length goes but it will give you just a little bit lighter sensation when you’re swinging the club so again all I’m going to do is choke up just a tiny little bit quarter of an inch 38 of an inch somewhere right around there and just kind of feel what that gives me hopefully this gives you something to play around with gives you some ideas that if you feel like maybe there’s something different out there as far as shaft weight goes for me you can at least start to test it out you can at least have a better idea idea of what you want to look at before you actually go all in and reshaft your golf clubs or get new golf clubs with heavier or lighter shafts hey again if you enjoyed this video make sure you go down below like comment subscribe to the channel hit the Bell icon you’ll be alerted when I post new videos all my contact information if you’re looking for a fitting custom builds or repairs are down below and I will see you on the next video bye
43 Comments
Haha!! I’m the exact opposite. I had 130 X stuff in my irons and hooked the ball off the map. I switched to 55g senior flex graphite shafts and now I hit a baby fade and love them. I have a 115mph swing speed with driver for reference. Crazy
I’ve gone down the rabbit hole about swing weight during the last two weeks. Your videos have been an essential part of that. Keep up the excellent work.
As always… super valuable Golf fitting content.
Thank You!
I’m a tall golfer +1 inch on all my irons. Would you suggest going to a lighter shaft to balance out the extra weight if that +1?
Went from 90 to 120
Hit great but get heavy after 4x a week.
Thought adding weight at the balance point would be better to keep similar SW.
Very timely. Thank you. Heading off in the next few weeks to work out what I want in some new clubs/shafts. Moving away from game improvement And very light shafts to more of a players distance combo set.
Tempo and transition will have a huge influence on what weight works best. The faster the transition the heavier weight usually suits the golfer, As always there are exceptions and no absolutes. Fitting is always key. Good video.
Good information! Aren’t we essentially just talking about swing weight? I’d love to see a video on flight characteristics (higher/lower) of a lighter vs heavier shaft, and how much iron shaft flex affects flight and direction, as well.
It would be nice to know what the swing weight was for each club iron as that can make the club feel heavier or lighter
I think it really depends on the golfer prefer feel and body limitations. I prefer a lightweight shaft, I came to that conclusion when I went to my local 2nd swing store, grab a bunch of different used set with various shaft configuration and headed to the trackman bay. The set up with the heavier shaft didn't correspond well for me and I only swung a 7 iron in the low 70mph. On the other hand, the best feeling used set I was able to hit without putting stress on my body was a set of Mizuno Hot metal 923 HL with Senior ESX recoil 460 in the high 70's club head speed. These shafts are roughly 60g according to the manufacturer website, but didn't want to spend $7-900 on this set, so I got myself a set of Maltby TS3 (6-P) built with fujikura vista pro 50i shaft. for less than $500 new. With this set, I can swing my 7 iron around 76-78 mph according to my lunch monitor.
What about flex, I was fitted into a light shaft but stiff flex to stop it ballooning. Excellent video
Thanks for posting this. I just picked up a set of clubs that have Oban Ct 125 shafts( I don’t know the flex) but I have found the heavier shaft for me helps with feeling where the club is for me.
I have hit Reg shafts my entire life. Was given a set of stiff shafts last week. Holy cow! My ball flight is now lower and my 8i hits, hops, stops. Previously it would come in much steeper, fly higher, hop and roll a few feet. Am changing balls for even more spin.
Can you do a video on driver shaft weight?
And for purposes of having more videos, a separate one for woods shaft weights, wedges, other videos on misconceptions between the flexes of shafts relationship to weight and swing speed (i.e. everyone with 90mph swing speed must use stiff flex and certain shaft weight), and how these factors can affect the ball flight. Maybe even a live club fitting – video for each (driver/woods, irons, wedges, putter)
Started with project x 6.5, then Modus 120x, ended up with the dynamic gold tour issue x100 shafts ins my ZX7s. Best setup of my career has been with the x100s, the heaviest shaft coincidentally.
I don’t think I would have ever been fitted into graphite shafts in a fitting because they feel so different than the 130s. I had to live with the graphite for a week or so to get the hang of the timing difference. I do think I had to smooth out my swing to be consistent with them. I’m happy with them now.
Good video. When adding lead tape to the shaft, I would find the balance point and then put the tape half above and half below. That would have the smallest impact on swing weight.
Having played DG S300/S400 growing up (way too heavy) discovered custom fitting in 2008 and have alway fallen into the 105g region and D3 swing weight for irons. Got fitted for Modus 120 soft stepped for some T20 wedges a few years ago and it was a stroke of genius from the fitter!
Thanks for this info. I've been wondering about shaft weight in my set. Based on what you've posted here I really shouldn't be worrying much about it. I get good ball flight. I had wondered if a lighter shaft would yield more club head speed. Doesn't seem that is likely to be the case. I have tried lighter shafts in a second hand golf shop and definitely had more two-way misses. At some point the shaft gets light enough that I turn the club over too easily. My take away is to play more golf and do less worrying about gear.
I like heavier shafts because they slow down my tempo and help my swing stay in sync because I can get quick.
80g graphite shafts in my irons work’s perfect for my slow swing speed. Anything heavier feels like I’m swinging a sledgehammer.
Hey AJ. Nice expose. I especially like your second point. I've not heard anyone else mention that particular effect before, but it makes a lot of sense.
I recently fitted myself for my new shafts and did the light vs heavy swing speed comparison. As a senior golfer, I've lost speed and was looking for a way to recover some of it. But I got the same result as you – virtually no chs difference. I tried a 95g and 106g (R and S) and 120g from the same family/model and compared them to my current 130g shafts and a 120g one from the same family/model. With the 95g shaft I just couldn't find the centre of the club face, so it was eliminated quickly. Both 120g shafts didn't feel any different to 130g ones so I eventually settled on the 106g shafts. That 22g made a big difference. With the new shafts, I got rid of my tendency to get my hands stuck behind me, and lost my right-side bias. My timing and strike improved, although dispersion is roughly the same, just more left. I also saw a big change in how tired I was feeling by the closing holes. With the lighter shaft, I now feel I am swinging the same on the 18th as I was on the 3rd. With the old shafts, the last few holes started to feel like an effort and the swing suffered. Once I settled on the 106g I tried stiff (106.5g) and regular flex (103g). I liked the feel of the R but preferred the weight of the S so settled on soft-stepping a set of the S flex. What I gained is a lower effort swing with improved direction and consistency, and 2 strokes off my handicap. I didn't gain any speed or distance but hey, we can't have everything. Can we?
Thanks for putting out such great content. I've learned a lot from you over the past years. Cheers.
I've often thought of filling my shafts with sand just to feel the difference of heavier swings.
I'm getting so much information from your channel. So, thanks for that. In the past 2 months I have replaced all my iron shafts. I took a chance and went from 90 gram steel, to 60-65 gram graphite. I cut the graphite .750 inches longer than standard for a more upright swing and to help with the swing weight. I went from approximately D2 to about C9 swing weight. I must have done something right. I went from a hook miss to a straighter shot or draw. I'm also getting more height and distance. At 71 years old, I love my old AP1 irons again!
Excellent video. Question – my friend (77 y/o) is convinced that switching from his regular flex PXG driver to a lighter senior flex will help his chronic slicing and add more distance. He has a good swing and used to be a single digit handicap. I'm telling him that if he solves his slice, his distance will increase.
My shafts are heavy. I like it that way. I’m a strong guy. I need to learn more about this.
After listening, I’m good.
Adding lead tape weight to the shaft to make it heavier will only affect the feel and not stiffness and flight characteristics of a heavier shaft. A heavier shaft will be a stiffer shaft and be harder to square the club face if the player doesn’t have enough swing speed. All in all I think a lighter more flexible shaft is better for amateurs. I once tried to swing a friends forged blade 4 iron with a dynamic gold s300 130 gram shaft. It was like swinging a telephone pole. Lost 30 yards of distance and everything went right. Then I swung a 80 gram stiff graphite shaft. I had effortless power and much better distance and dispersion
I paid $150 at house of sport and it was a disaster. He fit me to a 64g, shaft from the 85 go I was playing
Hey ELITE FIT GOLF , I just watched your video and I must say that it was really informative and well-made.
I was wondering if I could help you edit your videos and repurpose your long videos into highly engaging shorts? I can also make high CTR thumbnails for your channel
I recently as an experiment went with a 15 gram lighter shaft in my new irons. I have come to the two following observations. 1. I have to consciously swing smoother and try not to race my downswing because I can definitely tell the shaft is lighter. 2. As pointed out in the video, my slight swing faults become more apparent which has literally FORCED be to concentrate more and possibly improved my actual golf game.
That was worth watching.
Less than +/- 1 oz distributed over the length of a shaft just doesn't matter that much-
as evidenced by swing speed. I agree go heavier when in doubt. It's other characteristics of the shaft that cause issues…they just happen to correlate with weight in a lot of shafts. Swing each shaft with no clubhead and you can feel how trivial the difference is-from a weight perspective.What about flex, how do you figure that into this?
Great info. I have a driver shaft that is 8 grams heavier than the Venus shaft I have. Will the heavier shaft slow down my swing speed
Is there anything to be said for slightly lighter shafts in the longer irons. To help with higher launch on long irons. Ie lighter than the shirt irons.
Interesting video. I'd be interested in adding the nuances of graphite vs. steel iron shafts in this analysis. As we "boomers" age and like me, are afflicted by arthritic hands and elbows, graphite is a necessary or tempting transition to make. Since many OEMs are primarily offering light (60-70 grams, max) weighted graphite shafts, many of us need to customize through a fitting. And as another poster mentioned, swing tempo is a crucial ingredient in this as well.
For me personally, I went to lighter shafts to help when I have back problems (130 to 120 in irons and 68 to 58 in driver. The lighter shafts help me to be able to move the club decently when my back isn’t super healthy and also energy up when later in the round.
Excellent video. I had a golf lesson and it was suggested that I got lighter shafts. I went for a fitting and the shafts weight recommended was 105g. I ended up selling my clubs and buying a new set of irons, which I really enjoy. Having said that, I’ve got a set of Mizuno MP-59’s with Dynamic Gold S300 shafts, which I bought years ago and hardly used. I have started using these as my practice clubs and really get on well with them but agree I do feel I get tired quicker. Aside from the tiredness, is it wrong to practise with heavy shafted clubs and play with a lighter shaft?
Great video. Very interesting.
Best video I've seen on the subject
I definitely have fallen into that "I need lighter shafts" but went back to 125g and have become much more consisent.
I think the misconception is from shaft weight vs club weight, they probably mean(or should say) you should play the lightest club weight you can control.
HI AJ, I hope you can help me. I have a son, he is a good player +2. his Ping hybrid is spinning too much as he is getting stronger. I am looking at a Graphite Design shaft for him, but they are .370 diameter, Ping says it is a .355 diameter. Is there a good way to make this fit? Thanks for your help.