What is soft stepping?

[casperino101]

As the title says, what is soft stepping? What are the pros/cons of having this done?

[iacas]

Taking a 3-iron's shaft and putting it in a 4-iron and doing that throughout the set. You can soft-step twice and that'd be a 3-iron shaft in the 5-iron.

You still cut to the right length, but it leads to an "in-between" flex that's slightly softer. So if you have a Dynamic Gold shaft and the X100 is too stiff but the S300 is too light, you might soft-step an X100 once to get an "in between" flight.

Obviously at the edges of the club range there are limitations.

Hard stepping is the opposite direction, of course.

[ajschn06]

When you say put a 3 iron shaft in a 4 iron, you mean trimming the tip to a 3 iron length?

[kpaulhus]

They put an actual 3 iron shaft in, and cut it down to a 4 iron's length. That way its a bit less stiff than its supposed to be, but stiffer than the next option.

[ajschn06]

When I have bought iron shafts from Golfsmith, they have all been the same and you just trim the tip end different lengths for different clubs. Do companies use different shafts?

[motteler621]

When I have bought iron shafts from Golfsmith, they have all been the same and you just trim the tip end different lengths for different clubs. Do companies use different shafts?

I dont have a clear understanding of this as well. I think you have to buy the correct size shaft for each iron because if your cutting shafts that are all the same size your going to have all different flexes, right?? I mean thats kind of the logic behind softstepping and hardstepping.

[andef]

I dont have a clear understanding of this as well. I think you have to buy the correct size shaft for each iron because if your cutting shafts that are all the same size your going to have all different flexes, right?? I mean thats kind of the logic behind softstepping and hardstepping.

Seeing as you are placing the 3 iron shaft into your 4 iron, the process will be the same for your other clubs. The amount of the shaft you need to cut down will remain costant seeing as the shaft length decreases by a constant value as you progress through the set. If you are softstepping a 4-PW set, you'll need to buy shafts from 3-9 length. Cutting the same distance off the shaft on each club gives you a consistent flex.

[ajschn06]

I understand that, but I've always bought True Temper shafts from golfsmith for irons that I've made and I've always bought say 8 shafts. They all come the same size and I trim the tip different lengths depending on what kind of club they were going in. I'm just wondering where all this 3 or 4 iron shaft comes in? I know if I were to be project X shafts they would be for the individual irons, but I've never seen it for the classic TT shafts.

[LBlack14]

.370P shafts are tip trim to flex then butt trim to final length thus all the same lengths. .355T are butt trim only thus the different lengths.

When I have bought iron shafts from Golfsmith, they have all been the same and you just trim the tip end different lengths for different clubs. Do companies use different shafts?

Your Titleist irons are .355t, if you reshafted with paralell shafts you don't have the shaft seated in the head correctly. About the the 1st 5/8" is of a .355t shaft is taperd and the rest of the tip/paralell section is .370.

[ajschn06]

Interesting. Yes, I was speaking of past experiences where I have put together clubs myself. My Titleist irons, which I don't even have yet, are coming straight from Titleist.