Of all the parameters that TrackMan 4 measures, the Smash Factor may be the most telling about your swing. Smash Factor is ball speed mph divided by club speed mph, resulting in a number of 1.XX. In essence, it relates to the amount of energy transferred from the club head to the golf ball. A golfer would hope to achieve a smash factor near 1.50 on driver shots. That means for a 100 mph club speed the ball speed would be 150 mph. The higher the loft of the club, the lower the smash factor is expected to be. A pitching wedge for example, should have a smash factor near 1.25, with each ascending iron increasing this value. PGA Tour Players average 1.39 with a 6-iron and 1.49 with a driver.
Obviously the higher the Smash Factor, the better the transfer of energy, meaning maximum distance for a particular club speed. This “efficiency rating” can reveal deficiencies in your ball striking that video evidence can not. Obtaining the most efficient strike on the golf ball is a combination of angle of attack (up or down impact position) and center-faced contact on the club head. As your instructor makes adjustments to your grip, stance, ball position and swing plane, you will start to see dramatic differences in power without swinging harder.
For example, a golfer with a swing speed of 100 mph and a ball speed of 143 mph would have a smash factor of 1.43. Making the standard TrackMan assumptions for optimization, this ball speed translates to a carry distance of 233 yards. Taking the same 100 mph swing speed with an increase of ball speed to 148 mph would equate to a smash factor of 1.48. This calculates to an optimized carry distance of 245 yards. This golfer picked up a total of 12 yards in carry distance by increasing the efficiency of the strike, not by increasing club head speed.
Let’s look at this another way. If our example golfer wanted to increase his carry distance to 245 yards without improving the efficiency of the ball strike, how fast would the club head speed need to be? Calculating from a smash factor of 1.43, our golfer would need to increase the club head speed to 104 mph to achieve the same carry distance of 245 yards. Anyone that has spent time measuring their club head speed will tell you that such an increase in speed is difficult to achieve and even harder to maintain. Most likely, an attempt to swing outside the “comfort zone” speed for a golf will result in a less solid strike, a further decrease in smash factor, and even less distance that the controlled club head speed obtained.
With TrackMan 4, we can help you “unleash your potential” for distance. For more information on lessons with a Launch Golf Professional, call us at (904) 834-0574 or email [email protected]