I have told my Wife when we get out of lockdown I'm going to play every day after work then all weekend. Yep, my spine has been tested.

He’s not just a mad scientist he’s also a samurai master too, absolutely blown away but the more you listen to him the more it because just common sense. Love it. 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

Very interesting. Hope to see the consequences of having the spine in the wrong orientation. Side-by-side comparison.

Well! This could go a long way in explaining why I always seem to have a favorite club in the bag and it’s never the same one from set to set! Definitely going to have my next iron set spined. Awesome video!

I know it’s an old video. But as a new golfer and a veteran fisherman. This info aligns. When making a new fishing rod spine is number1 priority. Obviously for casting baits and lures. Ive asked a few golfing buddies this exact question and they had no answer or a poor excuse. It’s a breath of fresh air knowing some fitters actually take spine into consideration. Cheers from California.

Great, one more thing to think about during my back-swing.

I just spine and flo the irons I make for myself. The last set I made was with project x lz 6.5’s. Having the shaft labels off center annoyed me, so I just stripped it off with acetone.

When I was last fitted I had my shafts "PURE'ed" , there are a bunch of videos on it. It is a proprietary (club fitter has to license) dynamic analysis process that is supposed to identify the most stable orientation of the shaft dynamically and allow the club maker to then align this axis with the club face. With this process you get a 2 page report on each shaft and how much the performance of the club was stabilized/improved by going through the process. As an example the shaft in my 9 iron was identified as having to be installed into the club head 148.8 degrees rotated from logo up position thereby stabilizing its dynamic oscillation by 95.35%. The dynamic vertical deviation with the logo up was 8.623" (21.9cm) after identifying the most stable orientation of the shaft, the deviation was reduced to .401" (1.01cm).

This is awesome! Would love to see the difference in the data between an ill-fitted spine and a correctly fitted spine

I’ve been chatting with Sinjin looking to stay with him for a couple of days next year for a full set fitting for my 50th. This video has me so excited about what I will learn see and feel when my set are made up for me when finished

Great video. I got that done to my irons when I built them. It's the most satisfying feeling hitting a club that has had that process done.

Wow, something I took for granted with fishing rods they are all spine tested at build. I thought with the amount of money in golf club manufacturing that the production line would have an automated spine test prior to labelling. Great vid, my next set of clubs are getting spine tested!

Hi James. Absolutely fantastic content. Near the start of the video you say it could be 45 minutes and it seems like there’s a Part 3 to come. Did I miss Part 3? Thanks

That's exactly how I fit my iron shafts all the shaft bands are everywhere. Fantastic video James

WOW ! This guy is a great friend to have. Outstanding video, James. I am a techno-club junkie and can’t get enough of this. The only problem now is that I’d like to have all my clubs spine corrected. Looking forward to the swing weight section.

Hi James, I'm a fan of all this technology, I've made my own spine finder and all my shafts are checked before I fit them in the heads, love the video and I'm looking forward to the next one

Nice one James.... the geek in me is drooling over the stat's and analysis and I can add another excuse to my game when I start spraying balls ... well worth the watch

Best video this week, all the things to keep in mind for fitting with my local pro post Covid19. Cheers James

This makes so much sense when you see the shaft under strain which is where it will be through the shot process. Good video and information. I need to make one of these machines !!

honestly, this is the simplest concept yet why is this not more widely known. mind blown. I'm blaming all my slice's on the spine of my clubs being miss aligned from here on out

I can tell you this is very true. I had my last set from some guys near me called precision golf, the do custom fit and every shaft is fitted by them. They call it SST pure. Clubs are delivered with no logo on shaft as each shaft is aligned differently. I will take any gain I can get, so worth it to me.

That’s my fellow South African 🇿🇦 right there. Nice video, super impressed.

Ed Robertson of Applied Golf Technology first introduced me to spin alignment. He fitted an Aldila One shaft to my then R300, must have been about 1998 ish. Made an incredible difference to my accuracy and ball flight off the tee, so thats over 20 years ago. Loved that shaft.

This is why I spine align all of the Shafts I install. This is not a new technology. We’ve been using pureing and spinning for years. The alignment of the spine to the face or back of the club has been an ongoing discussion. Either way the head and shaft are in alignment. The only exception that I’ve found is that it is hard to find spines on KBS Shafts.

Madness how much goes into it and how minute details can have such an impact. Probs not much for non golfers like me but I bet its a massive difference to the tour pros. Sinjin (hope I spelt that right) seems like a master at what he does and honestly I could listen to him talk about golf and clubs all day. For me you can't beat watching/listening to masters of their trade. Watching this I'm just awestruck. And buuzzzzzzzzzzin that there's more to come from this fitting. Hopefully won't have to wait as long this time haha

How about "residual bend" in a golf shaft that effects the results from "feel" based spine finders? If the golf shaft is not perfectly straight it will throw off the deflection measurments from the load cell. Hence, using differential deflection is a way isolated lack of "staightness" in a golf shaft. That is, deflect the shaft a large amount then deflect a small and find the difference in the two measurments. Do this around the whole shaft and find the largest difference between the large and small deflection to find the hard side of the shaft. Easier way: FLO the shaft and find which side is the hard side using a frequency meter.

Thanks for discussing this. This static spine finding is different than FLOing which is dynamic - twanging the shaft and seeing on which axis it oscillates in a straight line. This static testing finds the minute pre-existing bend of each shaft. FLO means Flat Line Oscillation. Often they will be on a similar axis to each other, but not always. The ones where they are not similar are unusual. When they are similar, putting the stiffest axis aligned with the club face and perpendicular to the target line at impact minimizes shaft droop and ensures the shaft will bend the easiest in line with the intended shot direction. Minimizing shaft droop makes hitting the center of the face consistently easier. The goal of FLOing is to find out which direction the shaft oscillates in a straight line and to align it that so it is in line with the target when the face is square at impact. That means the shaft will bend the most consistently in a direction that won't adversely affect shot direction at all. Since the stiffest axis is approximately 90 degrees from the softest flexing axis (therefore perpendicular to the target line at impact), it will also minimize shaft droop as mentioned above. If you use good quality shafts, the variation between supposedly matching shafts is usually less unless you get a particularly bad shaft that shouldn't have passed the quality control process (which occasionally happens). Some better quality shafts, especially graphite ones for "woods", are tested before the logo is applied so that the logo position can be consistent after this process. The steel shafts you show obviously were not done this way. It is rare for iron shafts to have labels consistent after this process unless they are shipped loose with the shafts and applied by the clubmaker after the club is assembled. Since spine finding and FLOing are pretty easy and quick to do it is probably worth doing, unlike what some people say, especially to prevent using that particularly bad shaft which you shouldn't use at all. Older shafts can sometimes have more variation. I do this process with my own clubs and those I build for others, but I don't take apart clubs that are already are shafted unless a customer has a club he is having problems with. My iron shaft labels, therefore, point in every direction. Wood shafts were tested before logos applied - all face the same direction.

I found that fascinating and it sounded completely logical, but for a tour player I can see that it may be of benefit, but for a mid/high handicapper I think it would be negligible at best.

About time James been waiting for ages for this...ill give you a 👍for it eventually being here haha

This guy is a golf genuis , it's quite impressive

Finally sat down to watch. Had to pause again. Saw the krombacher box on the table. What a beer that is BTW. my dad gave me a box one Christmas. Didn't last long 😉. Right I'mma watch till the end now.

James, have watched your video of gaining ball speed with Sinjin McNab and the Fitting video, I’ve been looking for this video since and thought I had missed it. Living over 10 years in Africa 6 of which were in South Africa, I love Sinjin’s analogies especially the Samurai Sword and it makes absolute sense. The demonstration on the shaft tensioner showed how much difference it made where the seam of the shaft was located in relation to the head. I’m really looking forward to the next video in this series. Fantastic stuff.

I have 1 set of irons SST pured and my new set is frequency matched. Havent really had a chance to play the new ones due to COVID. If I don't feel they work as well I shall be getting the new ones pured also! SST puring made a massive difference to my driver (Hazardus Smoke 6.0) and 3 wood (Accra SC75) shafts. My current Miura wedges are SST pured but will be replacing them with Orka once the lockdown is lifted and I can get a fitting in.

That explains why the ping clubs with dynamic gold shafts i just had delivered from golf bidder have the labels all over the place. I was going to straighten them up, think i’ll leave them as they are. 😄 cant wait for the rest of the video

That is really fascinating James. Makes a lot of sense. First up your irons could be 'twisting' as you hit the ball depending on there the crimp / strong point is - so some of them might naturally open and some might close. And the whole weight in the grip thing vs. the overall weigh.. wow. I think a proper golf fitting should accommodate all of that. THEN you get a set of clubs that are actually tailored to you AND properly tuned to perform consistently across all of the clubs.

Another brilliant vid from Germany, I could honestly listen to him all day. Cheers mate 👍🏼

Cant wait for the next instalment, very interesting (went a bit off piste with the samurai analogy though didn't he ;-)

Very good but you can get a really good idea where it is at by laying your club across your leg and pushing down on both end of the shaft then roll it It will flip and you can feel it!

For clarity, is the softest flex (the top of the shaft in the machine) installed in the club head facing the target? That is the way I do it, adjusted for FLO. That way the stiffer axis is vertical and that minimizes the shaft/head droop at impact. There are a few companies that test their shafts before putting on the graphics. Their labels are consistent in position, but those companies (and/or shaft models) are rare. Typically it is only the higher end graphite wood shafts.

Very nice James! I’ve heard so many discussions about shaft orientation and if it really matters but this is a great explanation!

Are you ever going to post part 3 of this series, as you made it sound like part 3 was the most important part, Thanks.

I agree with Steve S - comparative would be excellent 💪💪💪

In Canada….got fitted by TXG in Toronto November 2022 and they PURED my irons shafts. Hope my golf coach next spring will be ….pured ….also

Very much looking forward to the rest of this series. Very interesting, James!!

SST PURING does the same thing finding the shafts spine but also its optimum oscillation point.

What an outstanding video and I’m happy that my clubs are custom built for me and I know where they get built this is what my fitter would do

Where should the softest point of the shaft be in the clubhead? At 9 o‘clock?

Thank you. So interesting.I saw recent video of tour truck marking shaft on similar machine. Now it makes more sense.

I totally agree it's always been odd when I'm in the tour van their driver shafts from the manufacturer say tip 1" if I order the identical shaft from golf works or any other manufacturer the directions always say driver do not tip what terribly wrong information dynamic gold x100s when I match irons that came out of a tour trailer first step of a 5iron matches off the rack 7 iron buy dynamic gold so yeah everybody's doing it wrong

James this is superb, thanks so much. What immediately sprang to mind when watching it was whether the strength of the strong point in the shaft is consistent within a batch of ‘identical’ shafts, or is the potential of the shaft very much variable due to wide tolerances in manufacture? So many rabbit holes to dive down...

Yes! My anticipated video drops on my birthday 😀 great video James!

And how would you go about getting fitted for a club, then having the shaft tuned like this? Also, would the same thing be necessary with graphite?

Perhaps the club manufacturers should watch this video,. Every set I've had, including custom fitted sets (with upgraded shafts)have always had the labels oriented in the same position.

Yessss been waiting for part 2 of this. Can't wait to watch when I get home

Scott Gourley does all this and way more at SGGT near Edinburgh.

Interesting video James.. ive not long had my mizuno clubs fitted and I'm pretty sure all my kbs stickers are in the same position through every iron, so going off that video they wouldn't have checked for the spine on my clubs. Any idea where I could go to get them checked.. (apart from germany) or is it worth speaking to mizuno 🤷‍♂️

I had KBS CTapers fitted to my Mizuno JPX919 Forged, the fitters spine aligned my shafts and then stuck the stickers on because you can do that with KBS shafts. Accordingly, my labels at least face the right way :)

Love the video and very informative. I can see this being possible to do yourself with older irons, but with the different adapters on the heads of woods and newer irons could pose an issue for the DIYer.

Love your content in general James but this stuff is freakin gold.

Very interesting but I have a couple of questions. A) will this make a difference to a beginner/high handicapper? B) how much would this cost? I imagine this is prohibitively expensive.

Sinjin is AWESOME!!! Can't wait for the next video

Best couple of videos. Amazing. Golf geek heaven.

Wow this is new to me. Really appreciate such information ... looking forward to the rest of your build.

I build fishing poles this is one of the essential things to get the alignment correct to decrease torque. I would bet this is also even more the case with graphite shafts due to the increased forces involved.

Spine testing and flo testing not convinced it works TXG proved it does nothing in their test .Counter balancing I know it works .Tour lock pro system is fantastic Thanks again for your video

Very interesting, makes total sense. Would love to try it on my own clubs and see the difference

I wonder if there is anyway to do a DIY spine test if you don't have one of those load testing machines. Some kind of pressure just to at least do a crude twist test to see where the shaft wants to return even if not having the digital numbers. Might have to start working on a device if no one knows of a simple way to do it.

Where theres one video like this there are many others doing back to back test showing practically zero difference in actual shot results. Just watched a blind test yesterday about this.

Impressive how putting the shaft in correctly can increase the clubs performance. When you get custom fitted clubs would they go through this process as I considering it as I currently still use my standard package set?

Most old pros had these to balance clubs for better players. They would also frequency match them. Do a vid on frequency balancing. Wilson did this on the blades. Is this what 6you presented here?

Very interesting. I'm now very interested in having mine checked.

more of this hes fascinating. we need more of this on youtube more technical stuff. love it james

I've heard of shaft puring in the past which I guess is essentially what this is. Basically making sure the shaft is set in the head to maximise its performance. I guess graphite shafts are different as the are made in a weave as opposed to a join with a seam in steel.

Now I know why my ball goes left and right!! LoL Great video James

Fascinating video. I suspect the same issue arises in graphite shafts but I think we need another mad scientist video to prove it. If I were a Tour player (in my dreams) I think that once I had settled on a shaft I would get the manufacturer to produce it either without any graphics or graphics that looked the same no matter how the shaft was fitted just to satisfy my OCD

SST Puring address this. Every iron in my bag, less putter, has been pured!

Good video, understand with spine aligned, all makes perfect sense. Also understand with grips and see Guerin Rife doing this with his EVNroll putters with gravity grip. This looks very similar to SST puring where shaft is loaded, butt end held in vice and tip end (no head) has weight attached and placed under load then released. This allows the tip end to oscillate, the result is usually a type of figure of eight pattern. The shaft is then revolved so that it only oscillates back to front, so to me different method similar result. You want to load and unload the shaft to it’s optimum performance. First clue us usually decals change, some will have blue circle sticker with P in it. I have had several sets SST pured locally, no need to go to Germany 👍. For average guy not sure how much difference BUT the difference is you know it isn’t the club, whereas you know the club may not be fitted 100% then something to blame! Would you play golf with cross out golf balls ? Seen the process of fitting many times, like a sweetie shop😄 Great video, keep them coming.

brilliant this! ive saved this video for future reference when having new irons!!!! 👍

Hi James ... Thanks for this video, much needed. Did you ever produce PART 3? If so, can you post/send the link. TIA

I had my irons spine aligned, does make a big difference

Ive had my irons custom built by Alex at Orka golf, and I know that they are built "perfect" for me 😊😊

Had my Mizuno Mp60 fitted with Shimada shafts which were spined and pured (i had money then). Not sure as a 10 Hcap I could notice any difference, but psychologically felt good.

Love this guy. Can't wait for the next installment.

been waiting for mad scientist awesome

Great instruction!! I am a club builder and shaftoid guy. Looking forward to the counterbalancing video.

James please please tell me there's a side by side comparison hitting a correct lined shaft and not on the simulator so we can see the difference 🤞

Everything he says is true. I have been building clubs from scratch for a while now. If I have to buy a set "off the rack", I will pull the shafts and orient them properly in the heads before they are ever hit. I watched the video where the guy assembled the clubs in the Mizuno tour truck and he just cut the shafts and slammed them in there any old way. I shook my head and cringed!

Hi James, looking forward to seeing the next video in this series

James where is part 3???💪💪💪👍👍👍

I've know about "spining" for some time, but didn't know the specifics. fascinating stuff.

Do graphite shafts have a spine too?

Love the amount of detail he goes into can't wait for part 2... the label thing wouldn't bother me at all however if this is always the case would it not make sense to get the shaft with no label then have the club builder apply the label, kind of like installing a grip label down or using a 360 grip?

This is club "building" not club "fitting" and I agree 100% with this. Club "fitting" on the other hand has not convinced me yet. Check KZfaq channels of "Mcgolf" and "Wishon golf" on this same subject.

Foam earplugs and a pool/bathtub no joke tested it myself same results the spine being heavier will always be facing the bottom.

Really interesting. Looking forward to the next video.

He's a proper golf nerd! But I do love listening to him. If only I could afford to go see him for full fitting and build 🙈 A give away perhaps James? 😂😂😂😂

Very Interesting James. But please explain, or did not hear it. Is the spine of the shaft suppose to be for a right handed player, looking down at the 12 oclock, 3 oclock 6 oclock or 9 oclock and if left handed would it be reversed.

When one shaft gets an 5800 and it dips to 5700 during the rotation - what are the units? Is there a bigger difference between expensive shafts and less expensive shafts? My biggest question is "so what?". Without a side by side comparison I can't figure out if this is an important feature or just another set of factoids that I can't do anything about. Sigh.

I wish shaft manufactures would pre-align their products. I think it's the least they could do after charging what they do for a steel pole. The money they spend on r&d and marketing, they could add that bit of marketing to their product stating that they are "optimally configured for consistency". When shafts cost as much or more than the rest of the club, we should all expect them to give it more than an automated machine applied sticker.

Love this video and sin Jin I have wondered where it went and I’m happy it’s out now