Shortening a shaft

[jfrain2004]

Hi,
Just took delivery of a new shaft. I want to take 1" off it but which end should you cut from in order that the kickpoint is as high as possible as I always tend to launch the ball too high. 240 carry with no roll

[miller72]

I dont know anything about shafts because mine are i mix, but it seems like you would want to cut it off the op, the would probably make the kickpoint even higher. or take 1/2 inch off of both ends. Thats just my 2 cents

[TommyD69]

Is it a steel shaft or a graphite shaft?

Why do you want to take 1" off?

If you cut from the tip end, you will make the shaft much stiffer... (I would be very reluctant to cut the tip end of a graphite shaft). With the variety of specs on graphite shafts today, you should be able to find exactly what you want/need without having to alter the shaft as soon as you get it.

When you install the shaft into the head, you always trim from the butt end (to length).

The longer the shaft is the "softer" the shaft will be, and the heavier the swing weight will be...

Conversely, the shorter the shaft is the "Stiffer" the shaft will be, and the swing weight will be lighter.

Check out any Ralph Maltby's book (and maybe even a web site) about swing weight. Ralph has figured it all out in PAINFUL detail. He will tell you more than you EVER wanted to know.

Good luck!

[jfrain2004]

I cut 2.5" off my current driver shaft and my driving accuracy + distance improved dramatically. I'm hitting out of the sweet far more often. So I know from my own experience that a shorter shaft is easier to hit. However, I feel I may have over did it and now want to shorten this new shaft by less than I did before. One prob is my trajectory is too high, hence the new Red Shaft replacing the Gold one I have. As is common knowledge the average pro hits with a shaft length between 44 - 45" and the reasons for this must be because it's easier, straighter, longer,better. Otherwise they would be hitting with the max length allowable. And if the average is 44 - 45" then there must be some Pros playing shafts as short as 43". So why does Joe Saturday golfer think he's better than the pro's with his 46" standard length?
I'm always getting comments on how short my driver shaft appears, comments which usually cease after the first 3 fairways are split with 250 yrders. But I want to try and see what is the longest shaft I can play that will give me better results than I currently get. At the end of the day I may end up back with the same 43.5" shaft but at least I'll know it's my most suitable length.

[mrserv0n18]

I dont see why people even bother with 1/2" or even 1" cut, thats such a small increment on 44-45" just choke up a tad a inch is tiny. If I cut an inch off my butt end rather than choke up the one inch I high doubt it would make a difference.

[DaveLeeNC]

If all that you are doing to do is shorten the shaft without adding any weight, the club will play with a significantly lower SW (or MOI) than it currently is. If this is the plan then you would typically do mostly (or all) butt trim. But since you already hitting the ball too high, some tip trim would stiffen things up a bit and might give you a bit lower ball flight.

If you plan on holding the SW constant (by adding weight to the clubhead after shortening) then you will definitely want to do some or all) trim from the tip.

dave