Doc Griffin: Shaft Myths (Part 4)

Lag is a natural occurrence of the swing. We don't intentionally create excess lag by allowing our wrists to break, but there is lag created by the forces in the transition which should be released through impact.

T, I totally agree,"laughter is the best medicine." Watching me putt yesterday would make you absolutely split a gut. ;0)
Just about the time I think I have something figured out it all goes haywire. The thing that saves me is the ability to just laugh and move on to the next shot. I played with a guy once that talked out loud through every shot he hit. He berated himself after every shot. The third guy in the group and I just looked at each other and shook our heads. It no longer became funny when he tried to tell us what WE were doing wrong. We did have some laughs at his expense after the round. We decided a muzzle might improve his game...lol.

Nice observations SGW. Key too is that their shift is led by the lower body and the ability to drop into the slot. This alone seperates them from the rest of us mortals. On the rare ocassions that the stars align and I get most of thos things to happen at the right time is nearly always an accident. When it's pure there is nothing better.

Robert:

I'm still puzzled a bit over the low/mid/high bend points on shafts. I was hoping for a bit more specific details from Doc. If you have a better understanding of it, please further explain one's need for a mid or high bend point. I realise that most folks have trouble getting the ball up and that is often the justification for low bend point and soft tips, but what of all the other possibilities. I am quite sure swing speed, lag, release, etc all play parts, but I would like to know more specifically, what parts they play. How does one watch a player hit several balls, and then say, you will need a mid or high bend point with a soft or firm tip. If per chance you know.

EDIT; Is it perhaps purely launch angle desire.

 Well, I just called Golf Galaxy. No free testing, unless you buy a Driver (fitting test 29.99) or iron set (fitting test 49.99) if you buy the test is free, if not you pay.

Doc,    I want new clubs, but, of course you are miles away from me.   Our club/course does not have someone to fit me.   I use Adams clubs now and have had them five years.   My driver head is lose, have you ever seen that.   I take very good care of my clubs too.

all this, so, just asking, thank you so much for your thoughts.

Mairlyn

ps this is my fifth year golfing

Robert,

Thanks for the reply..  I guess I will always be trying to figure out this silly game.

CJ

CJ, great links from Terry. Just a quick thought why most of us amatures don't create the lag that better players and pros do, we don't understand how to or just don't start our downswings from the ground up. Here's a great video on proper sequence and JB Holms;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Bummer Terry. I guess they are run like seperate franchises. Dang that aint right. Gerrrr!!!!
Hopefully they won't employ that policy here anytime soon.

It has nothing at all to do with desire of launch angle but it does have everything to do with achieving the correct launch angle.  So, you match up the kick point to the player to achieve the proper launch angle to maximize distance. Also, one does not watch a player hit several balls and determine what kick point they need. You have to have data from a launch monitor to properly determine the need then test it with the appropriate shaft.

 Amen to that. Dry heat, dry heat. So is a gas oven, but it still cooks the turkey.

 I've lived in Ohio, New Mexico, Hawaii, and the Philippines. Hawaii of course was the best for 3yrs of military duty, but the Philippines was nothing but constant heat. You could not stand still in combat boots on blacktop for more than a few seconds without burning the bottom of your feet. In the hottest parts of the day you had to constantly shuffle your feet. Regardless of what others say, I never got used to it over my 1yr there. I loved the food, people and culture, but the heat was overwhelming at times.  

Thanks, Doc, for the latest installment in the series. I'm enjoying the series as a whole and eagerly await each installment. My clubs are still going great,still love them as well, and I've gotten to play more golf since I came off the mother of all outages back in the middle of April. I haven't played a round yet this week, I'm teaching a couple of OSHA classes, which may be a good thing considering the heat wave we're having. When I think about being on the course the last couple of days,I just have this image of the wicked witch in Oz, "I'm melting...melting...melting.".

Heat? Hah!! We are going to be between 106-109 the rest of this week here in sunny Lost Wages, oh I mean Las Vegas, he he he:)

 Yesterday in the Phoenix area we had temps up to 112 with 49% humidity. Still not as bad as Memphis where I have experienced 98 with 98%.

 I think I'll still journey up, about 45min drive, and see if per chance they have a separate Mizuno stall, which he failed to mention. I already have a semi-local PPGS fitter 2hrs away. He has my stat's on file too, which just clicked in my gray matter. Plus, I have a driver, hybrids, and irons with fitted SKF shafts in them. Unfortunately no info specs are printed on them, but John has told me they are all senior flexes. Not sure about tip strength or bend points though. I have also put a couple of my old Cobra Hump Shaft irons back in my bag which have senior flex. 

PMG

The problem for me discussing these subjects is that other than knowing how a club feels when I hit it (and that's all subjective), I generally have no idea what the OEM shaft's technical specs are other than the questionable flex that's marked on the shaft. I did build a set of 6-PW irons last summer using Rifle flighted senior flex steel iron shafts and I do seem to get a lot less dispersion on my shots than I did with my old Daiwa graphite R flex irons.

For you fledgling club builders, there's a wealth of information on the old Dynacraft site that's now the www.hirecogolf.com site. Their technical guru is Jeff Summitt who's still in Newark Ohio. If you go there, go to he bottom of their home page and in the fine print at the bottom, click on tech articles, When that page opens, click on the tab labeled Technical and scroll down to "Download for Free the New 2010 Shaft Fitting Addendum". They do a technical comparison of all new shafts each year.and publish their findings. They also have a 2011 addendum somewhere on the site as well as a summary of previous ones. They have a rating system that matches the shafts to swing speed and tempo. Short of having a launch monitor and unlimited supply of shafts to try, It's pretty good fitting info.  I can spend hours reading their tech articles.

It's free. Of course it is one slanted toward sales for Mizuno as they test you with Mizuno heads. Not a bad thing as they were and are still high on my some day list:) Really great clubs. My personal favorite is the JPX800 pro. Sweet. Of course there are several others. They may even make head recomendations for you too. Now back to reality...........
Sence you and I (for now) are not in the market $$$$ for the moment, no worries as they don't really care.Of course they hope you buy but then so does the guy at the Porch dealership. You likely will really enjoy the experience and who knows. But in any case it is free and very cool. Bring a note pad and or have them right down your swing characteristics and the shaft recommendations. I would suggest you call first and ask if they do that service. They should have the cart,stall and computer set up for it. f not, perhaps google search the service and find out where it is done close to you.
I will again post a couple of example of such a test here.

 http://www.mizunousa.com/golf/...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Could you imagine owning that fricking cart of clubheads and shafts? OMG

You'll notice if you pause it at around 1:46 you'll see Lukes numbers and the shaft recommendations. Very cool stuff.
 
NOTE: This in no way replaces a PPGA qualified fitting but is a good poor man's shaft fitting and certainly educational even if we are not able to buy or have clubs made through a PPGS fitter yet. 

I am planning a mobile fitting to Canada next year.  In the meantime, let me see if I have this correct.  The one shop that says your clubs are too heavy suggested that you add weight to the grip end?  I have to say that this doesn't make a lot of sense to me.  If you need longer clubs then a higher swing weight is the by product.  If you can handle the longer club, the swing weight is a non issue.

I have always thought San Diego would be the place for my preferred climate. It is however too expensive for my pay grade.  I would love an avg day temp of 68*, nights at 58* and all rain must fall between 1 and 4am. My travel and living experiences were a gift of the USAF for 6yrs. Often wish I would have stayed in for 20 or 30. To an old man it was a good life, to a young man it was confinement and too much control, how little did I know then.

As to twisted humor, some say I've twisted it so much, it's now completely broken. I love it when someone tells me I'm not right, and I can say, that's what they tell me, would you like to see my papers. If we loose the ability to laugh at ourselves  and others in daily life situations, life just becomes a mundane existence.

PMG, and Laugh at yourself More, We really do some stupid things from time to time. Yes, we ALL DO!  So Laugh! You may also Eat, Love, Pray, but don't forget the laughter.

Robert,

This guy has some elements of the vertical swing.  Cool video,.thanks.

CJ