Crossfield Shaft Test - X Stiff vs Ladies

[garyinderry]

That was Dan’s issue in the test, what he “felt” and believed what was happening was incorrect, and maybe, showed that sometimes what people “feel” is preconceived.

You can not over ride your subconscious. he also said he would not like to be standing on the first tee and have to give that ladies driver a rip. he could not trust that he wouldn't do something silly with his hands.



Has he repeated these tests with woods and hybrids? I think the data may be a little different if you have to get the ball launching off the deck rather than off the tee peg.

 

[Imurg]

I'm seeing a bit of a contradiction here.
On one hand he's saying absolutely go a get fitted but then he's saying that, up to a point, the shaft is largely irrelevant.
If you can get similar results from several shafts why not simply pick one that looks nice...🤔

 

[Deleted member 16999]

You can not over ride your subconscious. he also said he would not like to be standing on the first tee and have to give that ladies driver a rip. he could not trust that he wouldn't do something silly with his hands.



Has he repeated these tests with woods and hybrids? I think the data may be a little different if you have to get the ball launching off the deck rather than off the tee peg.

Agreed mate, but as Crossfield said, it’s the way its marketed, if there was no mention of flex or gender attached then the tester or person being fitted maybe more open minded.

 

[Orikoru]

I've always just made sure I get regular shafts and not stiff. I did have a hybrid with a 55 gram 'regular' shaft but it was way too light and my strike was all over the place with it. Replaced that with a hybrid that has a 70 gram shaft and it's been more consistent. I wouldn't even try a stiff shaft as my swing isn't particularly fast and I'm happy sticking with regular shafts since they are readily available.

My mate who plays off 18 used to have a ladies 3 wood that he teed off every hole with. He has a fairly quick swing, and he hit that thing further than I hit a driver. But he was susceptible to the odd massive slice.

 

[USER1999]

I think that if I like the feel, the weight, may be even the colour, I swing it with more confidence, and hit it better and more consistently.

On the other hand, something that feels wrong, will be wrong, because I have no confidence in it, and dont swing it well.

It is me, in each case. Confidence is King.

 

[Junior]

I always think this is where trackman can let you down. Fitting numbers are good to a point. The proper test would be out on the course and play a round with each.

 

[chrisd]

I'm seeing a bit of a contradiction here.
On one hand he's saying absolutely go a get fitted but then he's saying that, up to a point, the shaft is largely irrelevant.
If you can get similar results from several shafts why not simply pick one that looks nice...🤔

If I understood correctly, the fitting takes care of loft, lie etc. I don't think he said that the right shaft wasn't important but that it isn't AS important as many make out.

 

[cliveb]

So to summarise: Crossfield has discovered that golf professionals are able to adapt their swings to suit a variety of shaft types.
No s**t, Sherlock! Isn't that what makes them "professionals"?

Meanwhile, we mere mortals have enough trouble getting our swing to work with just one type of shaft.

When I catch my driver well, it feels good and is very pleasing to me - except that it always goes too high and I get very little roll-out. I notice with interest that the shaft in it says "Ball Flight: Mid-High". I wonder if changing it to a shaft that has the same flex and weight, but says "Ball Flight: Mid-Low" (if such a beast exists) might help?

 

[AmandaJR]

I had a play at AG the other day. Fancied hitting the G400 and G400 Max driver and they were quiet and the guy there (Kettering store) is always really helpful. Launch and spin too high to be ideal BUT it didn't matter what he did with the shaft flex that remained very consistent and constant. Tried Seniors (my usual) then regular and then stiff - no real change to launch, spin, carry and overall distance (sadly)!

 

[Hacker Khan]

So to summarise: Crossfield has discovered that golf professionals are able to adapt their swings to suit a variety of shaft types.
No s**t, Sherlock! Isn't that what makes them "professionals"?

Meanwhile, we mere mortals have enough trouble getting our swing to work with just one type of shaft.

When I catch my driver well, it feels good and is very pleasing to me - except that it always goes too high and I get very little roll-out. I notice with interest that the shaft in it says "Ball Flight: Mid-High". I wonder if changing it to a shaft that has the same flex and weight, but says "Ball Flight: Mid-Low" (if such a beast exists) might help?

Which I think is what he is saying, sort your swing out, do not worry too much over a different type of shaft.

 

[Crow]

Playing a different set of clubs every week, including hickory now and then, my own experience is that the shaft makes little difference.

Today's generally followed rule is that driver and longer clubs will tend to play a stiffer shaft than shorter irons but this hasn't always been the case.
I've got a set of MacGregors where the woods are a 3 (soft flex) and the irons are a 1 (stiff flex).

Going even further back to hickory it was pretty much always always the case that the shafts for the woods would be thinner (therefore with more flex) than the irons and short irons had some of the thickest (stiffest) shafts.

 

[VVega]

For a bit of a counter point:

https://youtu.be/oNEK-KA07H0

Also thought Crossfields last video was highlighting the problem with pre- conceived ideas as it showed that the lighter shaft performed better for Dan, which is different from his video with Buzza AKA shafts don’t matter

The last one was more to confirm that Dan is a better player, as the general rule (by Tom Wishon) is to use the lightest shaft that the player can control dispersion with.

 

[MadAdey]

never been a big Crossfield fan, but this was a great video, so credit where credits due. I think he is totally right with what he is saying, we can play with pretty much any shaft. MY last fitting was on my driver and I tried all different shafts in R, S and XS to get what was best for me.

I chose my shaft not because it necessarily out performed the other shafts, but it is what felt the nicest. I liked the weight and the way it felt when I hit the ball.

 

[DRW]

I think it is quite interesting, I know that I did hit a lot of shots with my wifes cobra mr whippy driver, and whilst it felt like mr whippy and I didn't like the feel, a lot of the time the dispersion(maybe due to more loft?) was no worse than the stiff shaft cobra driver I was playing at the time .

That said I had access to regular shafted drivers(cobra and an old TM), that the dispersion was truly mental with both, could miss both left and right and never knew what was coming even on good days.

Certainly feel that I have more control with a stiff shafted driver but going to test this shortly on a launch monitor with the various drivers/shafts I have.

 

[User101]

I absolutely love how Crossfield questions everything, seems people don't like others questioning the norm, found that very evident on here for example.

 

[hovis]

I've been saying for ages how people put too much false hope onto shafts. some people still wont except that a shaft only has a small effect on the shot. I've even seen stickers swapped on a iron fitting because he "hatted" dynamic gold shafts saying they are too spinney for him and give him hooks. he loved the kbs shaft that was actually a dg shaft. when he found out he changed his mind and still didn't want the dg shaft.

 

[casuk]

I absolutely love how Crossfield questions everything, seems people don't like others questioning the norm, found that very evident on here for example.

Same here I really enjoy his equipment videos he tests and tests an never tries to sell the products he is testing, after his taylormade argument he is still very fair on there equipment and I still see no bias towards his now sponsor titleist

 

[xreyuk]

It is a decent video, and it raises some questions surrounding shafts.

However one thing I don't like about Crossfield's video's is that he tailors them towards making his point. If there were some statistics that don't prove his point, he'll ignore them until he gets the stats to make his point.

 

[MadAdey]

I always get fitted and what I have found is that irons shafts have a much bigger influence than driver shafts. My driver has the shaft it has as it was what felt good and I liked. My irons have the shafts they do because it is what the launch monitor showed me.

I found a much bigger difference between shafts with my irons than with my driver.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

A great video that judges pre-conceptions. With there being no industry standard on what is an R, S etc flex then it's important where possible to try as many options. I am usually on the cusp of regular and stiff but usually the S feels wrong to me, so he makes a valid point about how important that unquantifable is. I tend to use launch monitor data as a starting point but I've made the errors the video flagged when buying new sticks.

I use to have a set of TM woods. They were suppose to be all stock shafts and all R flex. When I was getting fitted, we started with what I had and the fitter said the driver was actually stiff, the 3 wood was an R and the 5 wasn't standard R and was way too whippy for my swing. If we can't buy off the shelf with the guarantee of all the woods matching, then it makes the whole thing a potential minefield