As with any rod, reeled or non-reeled, it tough to describe how a rod feels or responses to someone. Reeled rods are often described as fast or slow. The numbers you see are a designation convention designed to try to describe the the "action" of a rod. Think of them as a ratio of stiff to flexible. The two numbers usually add up to 10, regardless of the number of rod pieces (don't ask me why). So a 7:3 rod tends to be more "tippy" than a 5:5 rod.