I love some honesty from the MCM. This is serious advice. When buying clubs thousands of people are being ripped off.

I have been attempting to FLO shafts for a set of irons. I built my own design laser device and it works fine. I am a firm believer that this procedure is something NOT needed for shafting. All I got was a bunch of lines on the wall that added to confusion. Great video. I am installing logo at the 12 o’clock position and be done.

As a scientist who has taken a lot of physics in my life, I appreciated this video! Pretty good method and execution of your experiment! Good analysis and conclusions as well! I would say I found one flaw in your method though: you only tested half an oscillation, basically just how the shaft flexes in the backswing. In a full swing, a golf shaft goes through a full wavelength of motion, i.e., valley to peak to valley if we compare it to a sine wave. To test what a golf shaft does in a full swing, I believe you need to let the shaft flex back down to the bottom of our protractor projection: release from bottom - up to the top - then back down to the bottom. That would more accurately test what a shaft does from backswing flex to downswing flex. Thinking a bit more, when you pull down the shaft to start it’s motion, that is a forced/ controlled/guided flex. I don’t think it accurately represents what happens to a shaft in the backswing. You would also need to fix your release mechanism too eliminate that standard deviation you found. I'd love to see your high speed imagery from this kind of experiment.

First off, thank you for saying spining is useless. I work for a club fitter who does the club builds and people get really mad that we only do SST Pureing and not spining. It's a pain to explain that today's shafts are not measurable by spining and that it never really worked in the first place. So I will caveat your statement on if pureing is worth it or not. Since the device was created and made available to touring pro in full. There have been less than 10 winners on the PGA Tour by players who don't have pured shafts. There are also studies done with it that show that a pured shaft vs one that isn't created more clubhead speed, about 6-7 yards of carry distance, and roughly 2-3 yards closer dispersion. It has also shown to lengthen the life of the shaft for players with higher club head speeds. I believe the most comprehensive test on SST Pureing that I can recall was done by Plugged In Golf a few years ago and it's still worth checking out.

Amazing video AJ. The best review of this topic I've ever seen. Answers a LOT of questions. Now I can continue building clubs logo down without wondering..

Your teaching is very clear, straight-forward, and precise. Makes it easy for a beginning clubmaker (which I am not) to understand.

Thank you for doing this in a scientific manner and hopefully get rid of the myth once and for all. I am really enjoying your video’s and learning a lot. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Great job in making your case. I've paid for SST Purring in my last three fits but based on this I won't do that again!! Thanks.

I'm going through all your videos ( watching marathon) the grip station build is next then I'm heading to fit your own driver...AWESOME content...hope you keep teaching the science behind the club making process..im tired of paying for it

Thanks, AJ. I am now of the opinion that I will save the money spent on pureing and put it into maybe a better suited shaft for me or lessons to help me deliver the face squarely and consistently.

Now that I've watched it all, that is the most informative video I think I have ever seen relating to golf building on KZfaq.

Great video. I remember about 20 years ago when I first picked up the game a golf fitting location showed me that exact oscillating graph and why I needed my driver pure’d. Well $100 later I didn’t see any benefit but I always thought it was because I wasn’t good enough. Now I still see places asking if people want this done at $30 a pop. I just had my irons restarted and they asked if I wanted it done. Glad I said no as that would have added up quickly.

Thanks for this. Finally, a comprehensive and accurate and sensible description of these parameters. I agree with almost everything you said, but, i do think that excluding the wobble factor which likely does not affect a single swing, there is a softer and firmer side of the shaft and this will affect the CPM in a frequency analyzer. If you think that frequency is at all important, there is a difference.

To expand on your experiment, you should repeat the experiment multiple times with each shift orientation. If you find that any orientation is repeatable, it means that the spine truly is irrelevant. Because we as golfers will adjust to whatever slight deflection there is, as long as it is consistently happening. I think it would be very interesting to see if the non-aligned shafts return to the exact same spot on that initial deflection

Thank you for this in-depth detailed video which debunks many myths out there. Club Fitters continually upsell this and charge a fortune with no discernable benefit.

Great video and nice work! Debunked the myth of spining / flo/ pure!!!!

Yep, this concept has been around for a long time (I even built one of the early ball bearing spine finders back in the day). Even though scientific studies have been proposed, I know of none that have been done independently that support the use of FLO. I've always found it kind of funny anyway since the shaft during a downswing rotates relative to the direction of travel quite a bit and is only in the "FLO" direction just at impact(if it's square to the path that is). Plus, nowadays the adjustable hosels basically rotate the shaft in the head when adjusted totally negating any stable plane if it were actually a thing. I enjoyed your laser demonstration. Keep up the good work!

Love your channel mate, very good content that's helping me do my own work. My mate trusted me to regrip all of his clubs after see mine.

thank you AJ your way of looking at the topic is based on good sense of some one who knows what he is talking about I fore sure apreciate that way of thinking in any profession

Great explanation of the techniques used to find the best position to install a golf shaft. Your single oscillation device is pretty dang cool. In the beginning of the video when you were pushing down on the shafts with the laser pointing to a plain white background I thought that the addition of two vertical dark lines would enhance the ability to see shaft movement. Even with the circular protractor in place I still think that would aid with the visualization you are trying to achieve. So far I've installed shafts in exactly three clubs to date. I've 7 pure'd shafts I'll be installing soon. What I've learned about installing shafts is from your videos so I'm grateful you've taken the time to do these and help out others who are new to club building. The amount of knowledge I have this topic is just barely above someone who has never installed a shaft. IMHO, finding a shaft orientation where the movement of the shaft is restricted as close as possible to a plane of movement is of benefit. Is it to me at my skill level? Nope. For a pro that hits club X exactly 100 yds or club Y 150 yds every time there is most likely a tangible benefit. Heck I learned about putting glass beads in epoxy to aid with centering my shafts in the hosel on your channel. Could there really be all that much difference in impact, flight and accuracy if I didn't use those glass beads? Probably not for the average golfer but it's these kinds of subjects that are fun to learn about and discuss! Thanks for the great videos!

This guy knows his stuff. Great video.

yours is a correct analysis if the shaft was not also subjected to torsion during the swing, personally I believe that the hard part (spine) should be oriented around the 11 o'clock position so as to counteract the vertical flexion as much as possible during the downswing but at the same time time to bring the end pin of the shaft (tip) back to 12 o'clock at the moment of impact having a shaft loaded in 2 directions... obviously the greater the stresses and the more I move the pin slightly anti-clockwise (towards 10 o'clock) ... I "align" my shaft like this... I'm curious to know your opinion and congratulations for the videos of high technical value

You know, I have a Cobra 7 wood in my bag; I was excited to start using it because I just couldn't hit my long irons consistently anymore. It came with a regular flex, too much flex, so I changed to a stiff; I gave up on it because it was fading more than I would have liked. My friend borrowed it while visiting me. He snapped it, I decided to have a friend of mine fix it. He does it on the side for extra money. When I watched him fix it, he put the Hzrdus smoke shaft that I bought on it. He flowed it the exact way you did; he then explained why he does it. I found the results to be incredible. He has since changed my 3 wood, & driver. I think it made a huge difference.

Excellent video you have have cleared all by doubts regarding shaft alignment and myths. Very well covered in a layman's language.

Excellent video. I am highly critical of videos but you hit it out of the park with this one my friend. Thank you

In the fishing world, we call it splining. A fishing rod is made the same way a driver shaft is made. Splining is really important for fishing rods because of where the rod loads or bends. They are much more flexible than a driver shaft. It is really important for a fishing rod but I can see how in golf, it’s a wash.

Go to spine aligning a fishing rod for installing the eyes for the fishing line . Eye opener

Thank u AJ. Very enlightening. I have wasted too much money on this. The car tyres analogy brilliant!

I was told that when a graphite shaft is made it is, heated and folded around a mold, it meets and is sealed. That sealed joint is the spine. I have seen the shaft aligned several different ways. But, one way I see is the easiest is to have a vice, put the shaft in it, put the club head on (without epoxy) and to pull the head to the right, let go and see if the head goes back and forth in a straight line. Keep adjusting until you get it there and that's where you epoxy the head. It amazes me that club manufacturers like Ping, Taylormade and others sell their clubs without aligning their shafts. I believe in spine aligning the shaft as I have experienced an unaligned shafted driver and the same shaft realigned. The difference was amazing.

You are a genius 👍 bringing simplicity to mere mortal golfers

Good video, however the shaft DOES flex back at forth throughout the swing: It flexes on the backswing, it flexes on the initial downswing, and it flexes in the opposite direction again before impact...(an all within a couple seconds FYI). Also, the golf shaft has an asymmetrical club head attached at the end of the shaft when you are actually playing golf, so your testing doesn't take into account the torque (which is very important). Ultimately, almost all clubmakers/fitters are missing the biggest issue: consistency throughout your golf bag. If you just randomly epoxy 13 clubheads to your shafts "without any plan"...all of the clubs will behave differently when they are loaded. If you build your clubs with your shafts all oriented in the SAME way, they will at least behave consistently throughout the set. Random shaft behavior due to poor club fitting (ignoring shaft alignment) is one of the most common causes of "golfer insanity". Even really good golfers who have poorly built clubs will wonder why they kept pulling their 7 iron and lost the club championship. It's due to inconsistent club building.

I trust spining more than Flo or purring because they use spining in both. Spining a shaft gives you a hard and soft point in the shaft, hard for control and soft for a better kick point for distance.

Excellent expanation and demonstration of your club test jig. Perfect analysis so laymen can understand. I love it, thank you. Old school club builder's heads are exploding. I love that too. Get ready for some pushback. I am very glad I discovered your channel. Greetings from Canada.

The mention about automotive tires is interesting. I worked at a BMW dealership and we used a tire balancer that allowed a ‘Road Force Match’ to be made where based the correlation of wheel rim runout and how much outward force the tire would make while rolling against a roller a spot on the tire and a spot on the wheel where noted to mark. After dismounting the tire and remounting to align these marks the outward force of the tire would consistently be less. This resulted in a smoother ride during the test drive. Sometimes it would be night and day difference of NVH but most of the time just marginal.

Wow. Fantastic video. Totally blown away. Great info

I have a view that spining steel in iron shafts has a knock on effect, by helping the droop be more consistent from club to club.

This is such a great video. Very helpful and just plain honest and smart!

This is great! 👍🏻 Answers a LOT of questions I’ve had for a long time. Thanks 🙏🏻 keep up the good work.

Makes loads of sense, sst is just a mental blanket.. but also, with adjusting drivers, u can end up changing out of the sst.

My co-worker got to spend a few hours on the TM Tour Van and asked the question. The technician looked around and said do you see a PUREing machine. The answer was no. This is a guy that builds clubs for PGA Tour players

Great Video! Got in to a Slight Disagreement recently with a Club Fitter about pureing a Driver Shaft. As the fitter gave the "sales pitch" I asked "What about when I turn the loft up or down from the perfect direction?" That's when the knee boots went to chest waders and I left without a Pured shaft. But did buy it there after the rest of the Fitting session.

Thank you very much for clarifying that myth. Great video!

have a set of project x lz blackout shafts and may buy those Tahomo 201 heads.. this video help me out in the sense of having to put together equipment to spine and flo … that was holding me back

Awesome explanations and easy to understand terms. Very well done!👍🏻

Very clear and insightful.

The "removing" vs "moving" inconsistency really stuck with me. I used to be a believer in SST PUREing, but not so sure that I am now.

Great video, thank you so much for this insight. I'm planning to go for a driver fitting later this season, and have been trying to determine what really matters vs. the marketing noise (which there is a lot of). I was recently going down the rabbit hole around whether it's worth the extra $$$ to go to a place like Club Champion that focuses on exotic shafts, as well as PUREing, Spinging, etc. to optimize performance. This video (and your others) have helped me immensely to focus on what's really important. Thank you! PS: My favorite part of this video was the shot of your Yoda mug.

Well done! Great info & explanations!

Great video. I am impressed by the apparatus you created to demonstrate the flex of the shaft in a single oscillation. I also like (and will use!) your description of moving the variance vs removing it related to the processes you reviewed. I did a related video recently comparing Pure and FLO. My conclusion was that Puring is not worth it. Your argument here will make me think twice about continuing to use FLO. - Dave

Another great informative video on this topic. I will definitely approach the idea of Spin and FLO differently. When I check the FLO I use the weighted laser for checking raw shafts but usually I use a laser pen light attached to the shaft matching the head then rotating the head with the shaft to find the best results. Using this method definitely takes longer:-) Sometimes when using the weighted laser I find it can effects the results. How do you feel about shaft droop? Strongest plane be aligned on top or bottom and or towards the target? Always more to discuss thanks AJ!

You'll see multiple additional small oscillations on super slow motion video through impact as the club moves through the turf and off centre hits, it will also flex at the start of the takeaway, watch the long drivers.

Great video Ajay.

Great video and great concept!

Admittedly, I've done this myself (never paid for the service). I no longer do it because I thought about it, and it makes no sense. What do club manufacturers offer in their drivers, fairway woods, and hybrids? That's right - adjustable shafts. Some of these adjustments can be up to +/- 2.5 degrees. That is a substantial shift, since material flex is exponential in nature. If it was crucial for performance, would recognize consistency errors when you increase/decrease loft on those clubs. The fact is you won't. Most of us "weekend warriors" are not going to experience any performance benefits because our swing mechanics are so inconsistent. I could agree that it could be beneficial for irons, but purely from a feel standpoint.

Great clarity.

Agree…shaft moves back……unloads….stops….reloads ….down….once…all the Floing to the end are worthless. Graphites have improved over the past 25 years….when my TM driver heads bounced on my work bench…..wobbling so much. Today, the final products are much improved in consistency…more so as $ goes up. Most steels have logos laser etched. Except KBS steels…and others. I always check butt raw cpm…and with it FLO. My go to…align shaft logos in a consistent position. For irons….you want straighter ball flight….make sure your lie *s match your club length. Mizuno lie * design is same for all iron heads…so is Titleist. Their standard is different. TM and Callaway have different lengths, different lie* for different heads shafts. What a manufacturing nightmare. So…I agree…first back and down cycle is all that matters.

I've spined my shafts for a while now, whether it makes a difference or not I prefer that it is done anyway... Even if it doesn't do anything, it makes me feel better....😊

ive learned sooo much from watching you channel. I would guess that all this stuff you talked about was probably more prevelant years ago than it is today with modern technology...

I would love to hear your take on club FITTING. ☝🏻 I’ve been fitted twice (once for a driver and once for irons). Neither worked for me. After playing an entire season with each, I donated them to my son. I have come to the conclusion that I can change my swing to fit the club; rather than fitting the club to my swing. Perhaps, like most of us, my swing is not consistent enough; or was not my normal swing on the day I got fitted; or I had a poor fitter who did not give me his best; or any of a number of other reasons. Your thoughts?

Great vid. huge thanks for this one.

Your information is very helpful, thanks for sharing 👍👍👍

Interesting point. Never thought about way swing is only one oscillation and testing/Floing is not

Thanks for the technical review. I totally agree if you want to spend the money no harm but not a big issue. Having said that then flex or frequency is the main issue that we should consider? How do confirm the correct flex of your driver graphite shafts at home?

Just what I needed to know Thank you

I buy all my clubs from Value Golf. They 'plane align' each of my shafts to the 9 o'clock position from the driver to lob wedge. 😺

Very good video just started watching have learned alot you take the the BS out and help us amateurs that love the game and love doing thing there self. Thank you

This topic always seems to come down to if you feel like it helps, do it. If you don’t care don’t do it. I’m not sure if I could notice it or not. I do it because I have a raw shaft and why not. Even though I do it I’m not convinced it does much for me.

I appreciate the thought and experiment parameters. But I have a question. Could you potentially construct a larger scale test where the shaft is flexed along a larger path? I am curious what a larger travel path would do to compound the drift off center. I am also curious if eliminating the release variable might have reduced the effectiveness of the test. The reason I say this, is that, to a degree, the slight variability of the angle of the load at the top of the swing, may activate the variability in the unloading of the shaft. For instance, 5 * 0 = 0 AND 100 * 0 = 0 However; when increasing the variability by 1 (-1 to 1), the results are -5 to 5 and -100 to 100 respectively. I am by no means discounting the test results, but I am certainly curious what the test would look like with longer swing path and variable releases aggregated and averaged. Thanks for the video. I hope you are able to take this test further.

AJ, I had a set of irons built by a master club builder 14 years ago. He’s no longer around, sadly. He FLO’d those irons and then we tested. The FLOing was for toe down effect and we used a golf ball that had been turned on a lathe and had a groove cut in it along with face tape. The ball was oriented in a 12 o’clock to 6 o’clock position to test strike consistency where you could clearly see the line in the ball imprint on the face tape. There was definitely a difference between FLO’d shafts and not, as far as consistency. That set of clubs was built in 2008 and I have purchased 8 sets of irons from top manufacturers since then ordering them with the exact same specifications and none of them are even close. It’s disappointing, I’m still playing with that 14 year old set of Adams Idea Pro Gold irons and can’t find anything to replace them. Not only was the strike pattern consistent as far as center contact but the groove axis was consistent also, no tilting like you would get with inconsistent toe down effect. It was never about “feel” for me, it was always about consistent center of the clubface strikes. I’m a believer!

Awesome video! Thanks for sharing

Very interesting video. My initial challenge would be that if you google an image of a loaded golf shaft at transition or impact, the forces showing and the bend on the shaft are a lot more than in the very short journey the shaft travelled in your test. Under that level of increased load and stress, a shaft could show a lot more of the inconsistency/wobble/circular motion?

Thank you for taking the time to explain this hotly debated topic. Can I ask you about another one? How much of a difference, if any, is there between budget shaft (FST) vs expensive shafts (Nippon/KBS)? Would an average golfer even notice a difference?

A couple of remarks: FLO is based on the physics of two coupled pendulums with a slightly different frequency (slighly different stiffness). The energy will go back and forth between the 2 oscilaters : flat line -> elipse clockwise -> circle - elipse - flat line at 90° - elipse counterclockwise ... Of course if one looks at only the 1st oscilation there will be no difference (there was no need to build a rig for that - just look at the 1st oscilation only of this pendulum kzfaq.info/get/bejne/j859nNir3ruVkZs.html), it takes a lot of oscilations for the enery to transfer from one oscilating plane to the other (the closer the 2 frequencies - stiffnesses, the longer it takes). Looking at only at one oscilation defeats the basic physics principle on wich this method is based. If one wants to look at how the shaft performs during "one oscilation" (bend and release), the best way is to bend the shaft (with a spine finder). Sure that due to some residual bend the axis fould with both methods can differ slighty. But keep in mind that this residual bend will be present as well when the shaft is assembled into a club, so there is no reason to dismiss this method because of that. Puring will find an optimum of the bend axises and stiffness axises of the shaft. At the top of the swing the shaft is bend in one axis and during the release the golfer applies a torque to rotate the shaft in another axis. A spine finder is most intuitive to mimic this : bend the shaft and turn it and it will click back into place (NBP). Some players want the club to click into place at impact when the clubhead needs to be square and feel the torque forcing the shaft into his NBP helping the release (aligning NBP), others want to feel it click into place at the top of the swing and feel the torque resistance increasing when releasing the club, being at its maximum at impact (aligning spine). Using the analogy of the video : it's like having 10 cars that you all drive in turn, witch all have one flat tire. One could choose to have the flat tire at random positions on the different cars or have it at the front right or rear left on all cars. Which set of cars will be more consistant and have the same feel when driving them in turn? Aligning shafts the same way on a set of irons surely helps the golfer to develop a more consistant swing.

Tube structure vibration engineering¡! Well presented. A bad shaft can't be refined. Period. Frequency matching old shaft to new shaft replacement is desirable. Actually with complex nature of head and shaft characteristics, getting a right match is like hitting the lottery.

hi, the best quality fly rods try to make the swing straighter and have the least side sway. It is something that is sought so that the line comes out as straight as possible. Isn't that an idea that can be applied to a driver's swing? Try to make it have the least oscillation up or down? Excellent video! Thank you

oftentimes for aftermarket shafts the vendor already marks them, but the "optimal position" is always somewhat not inline with the logo. so I have been installing shaft based on logo position🤣 since look is always the priority. Now that I know it has no effect whatsoever, I can continue installing shaft like this with confidence.

Excellent info

Food for thought. Never thought of these processes as a means to make a poor quality shaft into a better quality shaft. Instead, I consider them as a means optimize consistency from one club to the next throughout, for exmple, an iron set. Personally, I find sensibility and rationale to them but in the end, if there truly is no benefit to said processes, then there is absolutely no down side to it anyway. Can't hurt anything and nothing to lose.

Thanks for doing this video. I have seen some very scientific tests but this helps to explain the real experience. Now I understand why the OEM’s don’t do these setups because it isn’t necessary. Especially Japan because they are so precise at times. I will not pay for these ideas.

Great video!

Wish I could have seen this video before I bought new shafts last night and paid $23 a shaft to have them pured. I've been duped!!

thanks for this info saves me even more wasted time 👍

Have my shafts all individually 'pured' or have all the logos on my shafts face in the same direction? No question about it, give me a uniform looking set of clubs anytime!

Great video! What about shaft droop? The thing that bothers me is: The shaft will bend / droop more on a full swing and so it will change its dynamic lie compared to a half swing. Also the club face is deeper which makes it harder to hit the sweet spot.

Hey AJ, I've been a follower since a few month and just recently built a whole set. It's a work of art, thanks to all the skills and techniques you have shared on your channel. Keep up the great work! THIS video almost busted all my expectations, doubts and myths about spining and floing. BUT would the results of the floing test be any different if there would be a clubhead (with a certain weight distribution to it) attached and not testing the vertical but the horizontal oscillation? If not, I would never think about spining and floing again. Hope you are having a wonderful day, cheers from Hamburg, Germany

Thanks AJ 👍🏻

Pay for it, no. But I do it myself. As for your tire analogy, backing off of the flat tire seems reasonable. A flat tire would be a broken shaft. A better situation with a tire would be an unbalanced vs balanced tire. And that particular scenario doesn’t fit, huh? Since I’m on the fence, I do it myself for free (I do it for my friends for a couple of bucks because it does take time) and keep riding the fence.

Interesting video. How about doing one about MOI-matching?

All great points. But for fixed hosel clubs, if this is something someone believes in so be it. But what about the adjustable clubs where the shaft gets spun around for different lofts and lies. The point of finding the up position at that point makes no difference at all correct?

Great test!

All depends on yre golf swing where u will spine the shaft

Read recently that a shaft was 98% symmetrical ( think it was a Diamana, but not sure). Don’t know of course, if that level of quality is universal, but I doubt that I could any abnormality in that shaft. But if a shaft was only 50% symmetrical, picking a number out of the air, I might want some alignment work done. On the other hand, when Tom Wishon was at Golfsmith, they sponsored Scott Verplank for a year. They assembled several sets of irons for him, but he wasn’t happy with any of them, until they Pured the shafts. Across a set, does it assure consistency or overcome some manufacturing quality defect? Dunno

Brilliant...love it

I think this video has sold me on doing FLO when building a club. My question is where can I find shaft vice like the one you are using in this video? I've searched most of the club building supply shops with no luck. Thanks in advance for your assistance.

This seems counter-intuitive when most driver/hybrid clubs have a adjustable sleeve 😳 Which make me agree with your findings.

Another thing to do is send one shaft around to sst pure licensees and see if they get the same analysis. If they come up with different alignments then useless

I saw an ad in golfworks, that a pure shaft will result in up to7 yard gain (marketing poo).

Thank you

I heard lots about the need to pure a shaft then came adjustable drivers and then they said you don’t need it. Funny!

Great video! Thank You. I actually did an experiment last summer with an iron shaft that went through puring. I did it in a Cobra AMP Pitching Wedge. In a steel regular flex shaft. I had my control pitching wedge and then in the head of a second Cobra AMP PW head I purchased the same shaft as my control PW and had it pured. Then installed. When I go to the range or to the course and hit both PW irons, I get the same dispersion and the same results. So I agree with you and your more definitive testing. Not worth the cost. Thanks again for this awareness!