My understanding of this situation is that it's actually a few different things that fuel this 'non-unity' fire.

One is that companies cannot (will not?) agree on a testing procedure. They will not agree on clamp length, tip weight or even what CPM range will define a flex. Of course, every company thinks that their method is tops (otherwise why would they use it?)

Another is a newer concept called shaft profiling. For this, there is a defacto standard (and no, companies are NOT offering or doing profiling). The standard here is a 454g tip weight, 40mm long with a 10mm bore through. There are 7 beam lengths from 41" to 11" to measure at, and from this we can graph a shafts bending profile.

Now, this has produced some interesting information, namely that butt frequency is more or less moot the minute you're no longer comparing the same shaft.

In other words, it used to be said that butt frequency was kind of suspect depending on the clamp length and tip weight being used (and this is correct), but you'd still get guys stating that shafts played 'stiffer than flex' or 'weaker than flex', because they'd base the bending feel against something like a True Temper Dynamic Gold S300 and it's butt cycle. What shaft profiling has taught us is that, for the same butt cycle value, there are a wide variety of tip cycle values, and vice versa. Hence the introduction of the phrases 'tip soft', 'tip stiff', 'butt soft', 'butt stiff', 'mid firm' and so on.

Now we've learned that the reason that a Rifle 5.5 feels better than a TT DGS300, when they both butt cycle close, the Rifle has a softer butt and much softer tip. The softer butt helps feel and the softer tip increases launch.

So it would seem to me why this - shaft profiling - shows why there really cannot be a standard; and bend profiles vary so much from one shaft to another, that there could be no standard.

Yet another reason why a competent clubfitter is a great find!

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True Length Technology Fitter - www.truelengthtechnology.com
It's live! - www.ShipShapeClubs.com
PCS Class 'A' Clubfitter

A new highlight: Golfing the home course on Christmas Day.

I say it too often: If it's golf club shaped, you can play with it.

For the record, I'm a club doctor, not a swing doctor.