Getting the Shaft: Torque Should Match Swing Speed - Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Getting the Shaft: Torque Should Match Swing Speed - Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

When you're looking at choosing golf clubs, in particular when you're looking at choosing a driver, one of the factors that often people would talk about would be the loft on the club head and the flex of the shaft. Although those two things are very important to get the loft and the shaft flexed suitable to your swing speed and your ball fly to ball trajectory. One misunderstood area is often the shaft torque; how much the shaft actually twists.

Now, we'd like the shaft to twist a little bit but not too much, depending on how fast you swing it or effectively, how much force you put on that shaft. If you've got a very fast swing speed, you need a lower torque shaft, so the shaft doesn’t twist around too much. Otherwise, you'd get, you know, a shaft that was too high a torque for your swing speed would give you a big dispersion in shots. It would go too far off line, particularly when you weren't timing it particularly well.

But likewise if you've got a very slow swing speed then you need a higher torqued shaft. If you have a lower torque shaft, it will feel too solid and it won't get the ball up in the air and working and it won't go far enough either. So, depending on your swing speed, we need to look at the stiffness but also the torsional quota on your shaft. It needs to be a high torque shaft for a slower swing speed and a lower torque shaft for a faster swing speed.

Now if you look at the website at thomasgolf.com, they have a range of different shafts to suit their golf clubs. I would consider you looking at those and also checking out with a PGA professional, how fast your swing speed is, so you know which torque of shaft is going to be suitable for you.

2012-08-07

When you're looking at choosing golf clubs, in particular when you're looking at choosing a driver, one of the factors that often people would talk about would be the loft on the club head and the flex of the shaft. Although those two things are very important to get the loft and the shaft flexed suitable to your swing speed and your ball fly to ball trajectory. One misunderstood area is often the shaft torque; how much the shaft actually twists.

Now, we'd like the shaft to twist a little bit but not too much, depending on how fast you swing it or effectively, how much force you put on that shaft. If you've got a very fast swing speed, you need a lower torque shaft, so the shaft doesn’t twist around too much. Otherwise, you'd get, you know, a shaft that was too high a torque for your swing speed would give you a big dispersion in shots. It would go too far off line, particularly when you weren't timing it particularly well.

But likewise if you've got a very slow swing speed then you need a higher torqued shaft. If you have a lower torque shaft, it will feel too solid and it won't get the ball up in the air and working and it won't go far enough either. So, depending on your swing speed, we need to look at the stiffness but also the torsional quota on your shaft. It needs to be a high torque shaft for a slower swing speed and a lower torque shaft for a faster swing speed.

Now if you look at the website at thomasgolf.com, they have a range of different shafts to suit their golf clubs. I would consider you looking at those and also checking out with a PGA professional, how fast your swing speed is, so you know which torque of shaft is going to be suitable for you.