How important factor is shaft weight in golf clubs?
Swing weight is one of those factors that is sometimes overlooked when it comes to increasing distance. This is because other variables like choosing the right driver head and driver shaft are more primary factors for increasing distance. Swing weight is a secondary factor, but that doesn’t minimize its importance.
Should golf beginners play with a stiff shaft?
If the swing weight is wrong, the right shaft length, flex and of course the club head is of no use. The swing weight has a big influence on how you can move and accelerate a club during the swing. Among other things, it determines where the club head is at the moment of impact and how it can be controlled.
How to properly shift weight in a golf swing?
· golf club swing weights As he starts the downswing, he actually increases his. Unless someone sees an infraction being committed, there is no infraction to be punished. Time and hours of abrasion from the owner’s ungloved hands had worn the rough rubber “cord-line” grips to slickness.
What are the benefits of heavier golf shafts?
Change in Swing-weight points (SW) Cutting 1/2″ off grip end of shaft: 3 SW decrease: Adding 2 grams to clubhead: 1 SW increase: Adding 5 grams to grip end of shaft: 1 SW decrease: 3 layers of masking buildup tape under grip: 1 SW (ex: 90 g shaft=1 SW more than 80 g shaft) Flattening lie angle 4 degrees: 1 SW increase: Shaft weight difference of 9 grams: 1 SW decrease
What happens if your swing weight is too heavy?
Since swing weight is how heavy or light a club feels to a golfer, it can significantly impact the game. For golfers that are playing with a club that feels too heavy they may start rushing their golf swing and trying to attack the ball in order to get the club to perform.
Does swinging a weighted club increase swing speed?
Many of my students believe that swinging a weighted club is good for speed, but they are wrong. That builds golf muscles, which isn't a bad thing. Unfortunately, it only teaches you to swing slower.
How does shaft weight affect golf swing?
The heavier a shaft is, the more likely it is that your golf ball will fly low and with less spin. If it's lighter, the ball will tend to fly higher and spin more. As Briand explains, the weight of a shaft has less impact on swing speed than golfers think, but that lighter shafts could increase the rate of closure.
Can swing weight affect distance?
The swing weight (aka head weight feel) of each golfer's clubs have a key influence for on center-hit consistency and can also affect the swing path, release and angle of attack — all of which can have a significant effect on shot distance.
What do weighted golf clubs do?
Swinging a weighted golf club is supposed to loosen your muscles, increase flexibility, add swing speed, increase distance and also tone/build muscle.
Why are golf clubs weighted?
All in all, weights have made their way onto every golf club you could put in your golf bag. This is ultimately in order to increase the moment of inertia (MOI) of a golf club and reduce its ability to twist.
What is the best swing weight for a driver?
More than 80% of the time, he finds that golfers are creating the best results with a swing weight of D5 with Red Range shafts.
Is a 70 gram driver shaft too heavy?
A 70-gram driver shaft is considered to be pretty heavy but not the heaviest. It falls into the middle but is still on the heavier side when you consider you could go with 50 or 60 grams instead.
What happens if golf shaft is too heavy?
Nippon suggested that a player should be able to tell largely by feel. A shaft that's too heavy will cause a “labored golf swing.” A shaft that's too light will hurt your ability to make solid contact. When you find the right shaft weight, you'll experience a “high energy swing” with uniform contact.
What happens if swing weight is too light?
If the swingweight is too light, you will sense you're having a harder time controlling your tempo and the number of times you hit the ball on the heel or top it will increase. If the swingweight is too high, you will find yourself pushing the ball more, and the club will feel too heavy and more laborious to swing.
Does a heavier golf club hit the ball farther?
Irons and wedges: 110-140 grams Compared to lighter equipment, most of your average male golfers will find the center of the face more often and realize more purely struck shots. This will increase your average distance and minimize the difference between your great shots and your misses.
What is a good swing weight for irons?
The actual swing weight ranges roughly between C-0 and D-8. While C-0 is a swing weight that is recommended for senior women and ladies, D-8 is pretty much the maximum that is played on tour. This swing weight can usually only be achieved with heavy heads, heavy shafts and light grips.
How much does a swing weight affect ball speed?
5 of 6 testers lost ball speed when going from D0 to D9, an average loss of 2.2 MPH, however, two players posted their highest ball speeds at swing weights above D0 – one at D6 and one ad D9.
What is swing weight?
In simple terms, swing weight is how heavy the club head feels when you swing it . More technically, it’s how much the club tips towards the club head when you balance the club on a fulcrum.
What is the difference between a D0 and D1 swing weight?
The difference between two swing weights, D0 and D1 for example, is approximately two grams of weight in the club head.
What is the correlation between swing weight and spin?
The correlation between swing weight and higher or lower launch and spin appears to be entirely personal . Three testers had their highest launch at D0, but the other three launched highest at D6 or D9. Similarly, four testers had their lowest spin at D9, but the other two produced the most spin at D9.
How far can you hit your irons?
As they worked through the range of swing weights, our testers saw their median distance change a minimum of 7 yards and a maximum of 39 yards!
Is swing weight a personal thing?
Just as with every other element that we’ve tested to date, swing weight is a personal thing that can’t be fit with simple rules of thumb.
Where is Matt from Plugged In Golf?
He's worked in nearly every job in the golf industry from club fitting to instruction to writing and speaking. Matt lives in the northwest suburbs of Chicago with his wife and two daughters.
How much does it take to adjust the weight of a golf swing?
Adjusting the weight of the shaft by 9 grams adjusts the swing weight by 1 point
Why is it important to have the proper swing weight?
It is important to have the proper swing weight for your swing and tempo. An incorrect swing weight can throw off your swing and lead to more off-center strikes and inconsistency. A swing weight that feels right keeps your swing on the correct path and tempo, yielding consistent, accurate results swing after swing.
What is swing weight?
Swing weight, simply put, is how heavy a golf club feels when you swing it. It is not a finite measurement and is not something measured in grams like the weight of a golf club’s shaft or grip. This measurement was invented in the 1920s to describe the dynamic feel of a golf club as the player swings it.
What does the swing weight scale indicate?
Once the counterweight balances the entire club, the swing weight scale indicates what the swing weight of that club is. Robert Adams of Adams Golf fame is credited with inventing this system of finding the proper balance in golf clubs.
What are the factors that determine swing weight?
The four factors that come into play when measuring swing weight are: Weight of the club head. Weight of the grip. Weight of the shaft. Length of the golf club.
What is the fulcrum point of a golf club?
The fulcrum point is where the golf club is evenly balanced on both ends and does not tilt to either side. Once balanced at the correct fulcrum, club makers move a sliding weight that measures the amount of weight required to balance out the part of the club that hangs over the scale. Once the counterweight balances the entire club, ...
How to tell the swing weight of a golfer?
Swing weights are expressed using a combination of letters and numbers that tell golfers the range of the swing weight and the exact reading within that range. The swing weight range is represented by the letter at the beginning of the measurement. There are six swing weight ranges from A to F. Each range has 10 specific values within it, from 0 to 9. The lightest possible swing weight is A0 while the heaviest possible swing weight is F9.
What is swing weight?
There’s a machine that essentially measures how heavy or light a club feels during the swing, and the measurement is called swing weight.
What happens if you swing heavy?
A light swing weight can prohibit the golfer from properly feeling where the head is during the swing and cause issues with squaring the face at impact, while a heavy swing weight can cause fatigue and negatively affect performance over time. ADVERTISEMENT.
How does the weight of a golf club work?
Here’s how it works: the swing weight of a golf club is measured on a 14-inch fulcrum that assesses the balance point of a club, which is displayed on an alphanumeric scale. The heavier a club “feels,” the more the club will tilt toward the club head side when balanced on that fulcrum.
Why is it important to use a heavier swing weight in wedges?
The heavier swing weight in the wedges and short irons can possibly help club and club face awareness for greater precision. It’s important to remember that swing weight and overall weight are mutually exclusive. A heavy club can have a light swing weight and vice versa. That’s because swing weight is merely addressing the balance point ...
Is progressive weight better than swing weight?
On one hand, some golfers/fitters prefer that each club in the set has the same swing weight to keep feel consistent. On the other hand, some say a progressive swing weight is better, with the longer clubs having a lighter swing weight and the scoring clubs having a heavier swing weight. The heavier swing weight in the wedges and short irons can possibly help club and club face awareness for greater precision.
Is swing weight too heavy?
Finding the proper swing weight for your game is mostly preference-based, but according to Tim Briand, Senior Vice President of GOLF’s sister company True Spec Golf, issues can arise if swing weight is too light or too heavy. A light swing weight can prohibit the golfer from properly feeling where the head is during the swing ...
Why is swing weight important?
This is because other variables like choosing the right driver head and driver shaft are more primary factors for increasing distance. Swing weight is a secondary factor, but that doesn’t minimize its importance.
How many factors affect golf performance?
This is painstaking work, but there are also a finite number of factors in play. At the moment of impact, there are only four factors that influence performance. The first three factors are talked about frequently in golf instruction and club fitting. But the fourth factor may surprise you.
How to reduce swing weight to D5?
If your driver is heavier than D5, ask your club fitter to add a heavier grip or a counterweight to reduce swing weight to D5.
What is the mass of a club head?
The mass of the club head including the mass of the first 4 inches of shaft attached to the club head is the only mass that will affect the ball at impact. All other things being are equal, the heavier the mass of a clubhead plus the first 4 inches of shaft, the more ball speed (and thus more distance) will be created.
How to optimize distance in golf?
To optimize distance, golfers should aim to increase the weight of their driver head and the first four inches of shaft as much as possible without compromising the other three factors. And this is exactly Sinclair’s goal during a fitting; he wants to add the maximum amount of weight he can during his fittings.
What does increasing driving distance mean?
Increasing average driving distance by just a few yards over the course of a season can mean a sizeable increase in earnings so long as it doesn’t affect accuracy.
Is optimizing swing weight easy?
Most golfers are happy to hear that optimizing swing weight is fast and easy. In most cases, it’s as easy as adding a little lead tape or choosing a different golf grip. P.S.
How does swing weight affect performance?
The swing weight has a big influence on how you can move and accelerate a club during the swing . Among other things, it determines where the club head is at the moment of impact and how it can be controlled. As you can see, these are all important points that have a great influence on performance. But why is the swing weight not right ...
What is swing weight?
Swing weight is probably something that only a fraction of all golfers have ever heard of. Every player knows the difference between steel and graphite shaft. Or between stiff and regular. But if you ask a player what swing weight he has in his irons, you'll probably only get questioning looks. And yet, the swing weight is of elementary importance.
How many swing weight points does half an inch of shaft make?
And that is the last thing you want: a set of irons with varying length and swing weight. With the shaft, you can roughly say that half an inch makes up about 3 swing weight points.
How much weight does a golf shaft have?
The shaft weight itself has the least influence with about 9-10g per swing weight point. If you take the identical setup with a 110g shaft, you increase the swingweight by only one point with a 120g shaft. Always assuming the weight distribution in the shaft is identical - which it rarely is. In this respect, the shaft weight is not a reliable indicator, especially since one rarely knows the exact weight distribution.
What weight swing does Sergio Garcia use?
The wedges are extremely heavy, but the long irons are very light. Sergio Garcia plays with a swing weight of C-8, which is very light. On the other hand, he plays one of the heaviest shafts of all, the Modus 130, and adds some weight to the end of the shaft.
How much weight can you adjust a club head?
As a rule of thumb you can say that a change in the club head has the biggest influence on the swing weight with about 2g for a swing weight point. 2g is not much and can be adjusted quickly. So this adjustment is very efficient, but unfortunately mostly only possible in one direction. Unless you build with club heads like Miura's where you can remove weight.
Does exact golf come fully assembled?
Not all our brands are built from 0. For example, if you buy a Miura or Vega iron from us, we will assemble the components so that the swing weight fits. Clubs of the brands Honma or Mizuno, however, come to us fully assembled. In certain cases we have to make adjustments, e.g. adding weight if a shorter shaft length is preferred. We are (to our knowledge) the only dealer of these brands who offers this service at no extra charge. We don't call ourselves ExactGolf for nothing - we only want you to receive clubs that have the right swing weight.
Weight Adjustment Guidelines (Useful reference)
Here are some useful conversions that will help you when swing-weighting your clubs :
About the Author: Zach Gollwitzer
Hey!! I'm Zach, the founder of The DIY Golfer. I created this site in 2015 while playing D1 collegiate golf to help myself understand the game of golf better and improve as a player. Fast forward a few years, and it has become much more than a journal.
