Smash Factor

Status
Not open for further replies.
B

BurnItUp

New member
Top professionals have a smash factor (ball speed / club head speed) of approximately 1.5.

Is it possible to increase your smash factor?
 
T

thefuture37

Banned
1.5 is defined as "perfect contact" with a driver. When they showed the trackman data from the skins game, none of the pros hit 1.5. This is probably because of them intentionally trying to hit above the sweetspot for the gear effect. They could increase their smash factor by hitting the sweetspot, but it would likely result in less carry.
 
J

Jim Kobylinski

Super Moderator
thefuture37 said:
1.5 is defined as "perfect contact" with a driver. When they showed the trackman data from the skins game, none of the pros hit 1.5. This is probably because of them intentionally trying to hit above the sweetspot for the gear effect. They could increase their smash factor by hitting the sweetspot, but it would likely result in less carry.
Click to expand...

To achieve a 1.50 smash factor essentially means you are 100% efficient and that your driver is "hot" enough to achieve it.

To achieve high smash factors you need:

1) sweetspot contact
2) A good driver with as close to the limit for .cor and ct as possible
3) A good swing to repeatable hit that spot

Now it's true that you hit above the sweet spot slightly to achieve better launch conditions, you're smash factor won't drop dramatically; possibly a few hundreths.
 
jeffy

jeffy

Banned
As I said in another thread, I'm sure there is more to it than just hitting the sweetspot. I've seen plenty of amateurs pure a driver and not get above a 1.4, myself included.
 
J

Jim Kobylinski

Super Moderator
jeffy said:
As I said in another thread, I'm sure there is more to it than just hitting the sweetspot. I've seen plenty of amateurs pure a driver and not get above a 1.4, myself included.
Click to expand...

I don't see why, i can look into it, but the only reason why someone couldn't get a smash factor in the 1.4X range is if you aren't hitting the sweet spot (it isn't as big as companies lead you to believe), you were testing using range balls, or your driver wasn't near the .cor limit.
 
T

thefuture37

Banned
It isn't difficult to get above 1.4 for even a hack amateur on some swings. If you "pure" one and cant get 1.4, then you need to reevaluate your definition of good contact.
 
B

BurnItUp

New member
Bubba Watson has a smash factor of 1.54 while Tiger's is 1.48.

I'm pretty sure Tiger hits the ball solidly enough, so why is his swing less efficient?

I think it depends on how much the club head slows down on impact.

Moe Norman's club head speed slowed from 99mph to 78mph on impact.
The less it slows down the more efficient the swing is.

I remember Johnny Miller saying that of all the golfers tested on tour he was the only one whose club head speed was faster after impact than it was at impact.

Is it possible to resist the slowing of the clubhead on impact?

If so, how?
 
Last edited:
M

mb6606

New
thefuture37 said:
1.5 is defined as "perfect contact" with a driver. When they showed the trackman data from the skins game, none of the pros hit 1.5. This is probably because of them intentionally trying to hit above the sweetspot for the gear effect. They could increase their smash factor by hitting the sweetspot, but it would likely result in less carry.
Click to expand...

A read an article a couple of years ago how club designers were getting extra distance by using thinner metals at the top of the face circumventing the COR restrictions. The USGA tests the middle of the face.
 
P

pieman

New
maybe mandrin can answer it, but i didnt' think it was physically possible to increase ss after contact. wouldn't initial ball contact slow the swing?
 
J

Jim Kobylinski

Super Moderator
BurnItUp said:
Bubba Watson has a smash factor of 1.54 while Tiger's is 1.48.
Click to expand...

Either his driver is "hot" or the machine was not calibrated correctly. It is physically impossible to achieve a greater than 1.50 smash factor with a .83 cor head and the current maximum CT measurement.
 
L

lasse

New
Jim Kobylinski said:
Either his driver is "hot" or the machine was not calibrated correctly. It is physically impossible to achieve a greater than 1.50 smash factor with a .83 cor head and the current maximum CT measurement.
Click to expand...

It's not physically impossible, however it is not very likely:

The absolute upper limit for smash factor is 1+COR, but this would require a very heavy club head (there exist no upper limit) compared to the ball weight (there exist no lower limit) and the impact should be a centre impact that puts no spin on the ball. For realistic club head weight of 215 g and a ball weight of 45.9 g for a low spin rate of 2000 rpm the upper limit for the smash factor will theoretically be (1+COR)*0.805, which for COR of 0.83 gives 1.474.

So when I say a “legal” driver and ball can not exceed 1.50 this is not 100% true, but for all the drivers and balls I know about it will practically be impossible to exceed 1.50 for smash factor.
Click to expand...
Quoted from here
 
M

mb6606

New
Jim Kobylinski said:
Either his driver is "hot" or the machine was not calibrated correctly. It is physically impossible to achieve a greater than 1.50 smash factor with a .83 cor head and the current maximum CT measurement.
Click to expand...

Read my post about club design and deep face drivers - Watson could be contacting the ball high on the face.
 
T

thefuture37

Banned
BurnItUp said:
Bubba Watson has a smash factor of 1.54 while Tiger's is 1.48.

I'm pretty sure Tiger hits the ball solidly enough, so why is his swing less efficient?
Click to expand...

Smash factor isn't a constant for any player. Even Tiger doesn't make the same quality contact with the same swing speed every swing. So your comments that his smash factor is 1.48 and watson's is 1.54 doesn't make sense. If you look at swing vision of those two, tiger's club moves relatively level through impact and he contacts the ball on the top half of the driver(intentionally missing the sweetspot). Watson has the club moving substantially up through impact and has contact more on the conventional sweetspot. As for having more than 1.5 smash factor, it is possible that he had a hot driver. Tom pernice though tiger had a hot driver in the past...turns out Tiger's driver was well below the legal cor and is just that GOOD
 
N

nwb

New
Faldo was on the golf channel the other day and he had a 1.5 smash factor - he was hitting down on it and at the end of the piece was trying to hit up on it.
 
M

miki111

New
How loft of the driver (or even better effective loft to angle of attack) is going to influence smash factor - I think that may be an answer?
I think amateur playing 12-13* with negative AoA is not going to see the same numbers like B.Watson.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top