Considering the golf swing requires “a swinging motion” it is important to consider balance as a beginning to the golf swing and just how easy it is to maintain balance throughout the swing. Moment of Inertia is the amount of force required to put an object in motion so creating a club with the proper weight for each golfer to put the club in motion while maintaining balance is important. The main focus needs to be on the swinging motion because balance is something we do not think about during the swing. Just as when we don’t think of balance when walking. We automatically adjust to going uphill when waking by leaning forward. If our golf clubs are the right weight and length we will automatically maintain our balance throughout the swinging motion when our body turns to make that swing. This will allow us to deliver the clubhead to the ball with maximum speed and accuracy. The right weight and balance point for your swing is important.
Weight works in many ways in a golf club. We hear many things about shaft weight. Shaft weight is important because the shaft is the second heaviest component in any golf club behind the head weight. The chart below shows relative iron head weights. Fairways are a bit lighter and Drivers in the 200 grams to 205 grams range for most heads.
Shafts weigh somewhere between 45 grams and 130 grams and grips are 35 grams to 65 grams at the extremes.
Flex or stiffness profiles are the second most important element in shaft fitting, not the first. The major contribution a shaft makes is the weight of the shaft. Consider an exaggeration to make a point about the 45 gram shaft versus the 130 shaft in your golf club. Imagine that if you had a piece of rebar in a club 37 inches long and a wooden dowel 37 inches long in a golf club how each might feel and how you might swing each of them. Your swing speed would not be the only change. Your swing path would change and your face angle at impact would also change. The rebar is so heavy you will likely drag it back over your back foot and swing is too inside out and the dowel is light you are likely to pick it up with your hands and go way outside in like chopping wood. Your shot shape would be a push slice with the rebar and a pull hook with the dowel or something close. If you could even hit a ball with either.
This is why my fitting form asks what your shot shape is. Knowing your shot shape allows for minor adjustments to head weight that will move the balance point on your golf clubs to allow for a more consistently straighter shots. Adding weight to the head will often delay closing the face at impact and help a hooker overcome his bad hook shots, and reducing head weight will likely wise assist in closing the face sooner and help a slicer overcome his bad slices. Or, moving the balance point closer to the head helps a hooker hit it straighter and moving the balance point closer to the grip helps a slicer. For those who played baseball you’ll see this in turning a baseball bat around and swinging it by the barrel versus swing it by the grip.