by Andre Sanchez

Do you understand the importance of flex in your golf clubs?  When most people buy a set of golf clubs they go for the name, the look and sometimes the price. The rich buy the dearest for the status, and the poorer buy the cheapest for the price, with most of us in between.

When choosing, you normally find a few clubs in a golf store representative of the set; perhaps a half set and sometimes even a full set of fourteen, with options on how to fill up some of the slots in the fourteen, since a few, such as the putter and driver, are musts.  You will pick up an iron and feel the weight and check out the length, but how often do you check the flex?

Do you even know what the flex is?  All the more experienced golfers do, but even they don’t pay too much attention to it unless they are serious competition players.  In fact the flex is one of the most important properties of your club. More important than the look that is meaningless, and probably more important than the weight. The flex determines by how much the clubhead lags behind in your drive. You don’t actually notice it when you swing the club, but it determines your timing with the ball.

It’s not something you compensate for, since it is connected with the normal way you play your game.  However, if you are a reasonable player and hit the ball pretty straight with your normal clubs, and then play with a set with less flex, you will find yourself slicing the ball because the clubface will contact the ball quicker than normal, and not be properly closed at impact.  In the same way, if you play with a club with more flex, then you will hit the ball too late and likely send it out of bounds with vicious snap hook.

“Flex” refers to the flexibility or the amount by which your golf club shaft bends back due the force imparted on it by your swing.  There is a lot of energy in a golf swing, and two parts of the club where that is concentrated.  The first is your grip, where the energy of your swing is initially concentrated, and then sent down the shaft to the club head. The club head is the heaviest part of the club, and therefore imparts a lot of stress on the shaft due to simple physics. That stress causes the shaft to bend, and the amount by which it bends is called the”flex”.  Simple!

When you shaft flexes, it bends the club head backwards, and the more it bends the farther back the club head bends.  What happens then is that to you, the club head hits the ball as normal, since the flex is automatically part of your shot.  However, if this is greater or lesser than normal, then the club head takes a longer or shorter time to hit the ball after your hands and grip pass over it.  It need only be a very small difference to make a massive difference in your shot.

You will find a flex rating on golf clubs expressed in terms of letters thus:  X or XS (extra stiff), S (stiff), R (regular), A (seniors) and L (ladies). The seniors flex was originally used for amateurs, hence the “A”.  The XS is generally only of use to professionals, and even then they might not always use them. Which you choose will depend upon how you play the game, and the particular form of your swing.

For example, if your ball always seems to go off to the left when you hit it, the try a more flexible shaft on your golf club. In the same way, if your ball always seem to go off right, or you have tendency to keep hooking it, the go for a stiffer flex. A lot of people have a natural swing, and find it difficult to control or train, at least without a lot of professional help. And this help can be very expensive.

A good way to determine what flex you should use is to measure your drive.  The longer it is then generally the higher the flex rating you should use.  If you can hit more than 250 yards, then an S would be good for you, and likewise if you hit only 200 to 240 yards, go with an R.  Use an L under that, but you want to move rapidly out of that range if you are not a lady. Then you should play with the clubs, and when it is time to change, then check how you are playing and if you think you need to change your flex rating to overcome any tendency to slice, hook or simply hit off target.

The importance of flex in your golf clubs cannot be overstated since many people who do not understand the term could improve their game immeasurably if they were only playing with a golf club shaft with a flex more suited to their game.

The Importance of Flex in Your Golf Clubs was originally published at http://www.golfplayernow.com