The spot along a shaft's length where it would balance on a knife edge, usually expressed as a distance or percentage measured from the tip. A counterbalanced shaft is built or weighted so that spot sits closer to the grip than a standard shaft's does — more of its mass lives up near your hands instead of down toward the head. That's the whole mechanism behind counterbalancing: pull the balance point toward the grip and the club's swingweight drops even though its total weight goes up, so a builder can add head mass, add length, or add a heavier grip without the club feeling heavier to swing. It's a different measurement from swingweight — swingweight is read off a fulcrum scale as a letter-number code, balance point is just where the shaft itself physically balances — but the two move together, and a fitter reads both when building a counterbalanced setup.

The spot along a shaft's length where it would balance on a knife edge, usually expressed as a distance or percentage measured from the tip. A counterbalanced shaft is built or weighted so that spot sits closer to the grip than a standard shaft's does — more of its mass lives up near your hands instead of down toward the head. That's the whole mechanism behind counterbalancing: pull the balance point toward the grip and the club's swingweight drops even though its total weight goes up, so a builder can add head mass, add length, or add a heavier grip without the club feeling heavier to swing. It's a different measurement from swingweight — swingweight is read off a fulcrum scale as a letter-number code, balance point is just where the shaft itself physically balances — but the two move together, and a fitter reads both when building a counterbalanced setup.