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Club Shaft Deflection Research

This research was part of a series of articles published in the journal Sports Engineering in 2009-2010.

The primary goal of the research was to model shaft deflection during the downswing and determine if shaft flexibility can be customized to the individual in order to improve performance. The conclusion was that shaft stiffness has a very small effect on clubhead speed, but does have a meaningful influence on dynamic loft which will change the spin rate and launch angle of the golf ball. Click Recent Publications for the articles.

Down-the-line view of the model’s optimized downswing corresponding to the results shown in the figure at the bottom of this page. Note the toe-up deflection at the start of the downswing, the lag deflection when the shaft reaches parallel, and the toe-down deflection at impact.
Side view of the model’s optimized downswing corresponding to the results shown in the figure at the bottom of this page. Note the toe-up deflection at the start of the downswing, the lead deflection at impact, and how quickly the forearm rotates through 90 degrees during the final moments of the downswing.
Time history graph of toe-up/toe-down and lead/lag deflections during the optimized downswing simulation. Club ‘A’ accurately depicts a driver with 8 cm of toe-up deflection. Club ‘B’ accurately depicts a driver with 5 cm of lead deflection