Smash Factor

[saevel25]

I did a driver fitting today, they used the Purelaunch monitor to measure my data. Taking the ball speed and the club head speed, i found out that i had a smash factor from 1.38 to 1.42, that was my average range.

Just curious how does someone get a smash factor above the mid 140's. I see a big power loss for me here. For me this could mean some awesome dives..

My average club head speed is around 115-117 mph.. If i increase my smash factor from 1.4 to 1.45, thats 5 mph more in ball speed. From trackman they say that 1 mph Club head speed = about 4 yards of distance.. If you multiply that by the smash factor, your looking at 1.5 mph ball speed = 6 yards of distance.. So increasing my ball speed by 5mph, would increase my distance by 13 yards. I was hitting the clubface pretty square in the center, so is it just how you load power into the golfball in the downswing, and just the overall golfswing that accounts for this?

[iacas]

Originally Posted by saevel25

I did a driver fitting today, they used the Purelaunch monitor to measure my data. Taking the ball speed and the club head speed, i found out that i had a smash factor from 1.38 to 1.42, that was my average range.

Just curious how does someone get a smash factor above the mid 140's. I see a big power loss for me here. For me this could mean some awesome dives..

My average club head speed is around 115-117 mph.. If i increase my smash factor from 1.4 to 1.45, thats 5 mph more in ball speed. From trackman they say that 1 mph Club head speed = about 4 yards of distance.. If you multiply that by the smash factor, your looking at 1.5 mph ball speed = 6 yards of distance.. So increasing my ball speed by 5mph, would increase my distance by 13 yards. I was hitting the clubface pretty square in the center, so is it just how you load power into the golfball in the downswing, and just the overall golfswing that accounts for this?

1 MPH clubhead speed is much closer to about 2.5 yards. If their method applied we'd be hitting 400 yard drives with 100 MPH clubhead speed. Ball speed is around 1.5-1.6 yards per ball speed. So increasing from 1.4 (ball speed 161) to 1.45 (ball speed 167) is closer to a 6 MPH increase and thus almost 10 yards (1.5 MPH ball speed is not six yards).

You get better smash factor by reducing your spin loft (difference between angle of attack and dynamic loft at impact) and by increasing centered-ness of contact. If you're hitting the ball in the center of the club, look to your spin loft.

Smash factor is simply a measure of clubhead speed to ball speed. The theoretical max is about 1.5. Achieving 1.45 consistently is pretty good.

100 MPH with ideal launch conditions is about 250 yards carry (ideal launch conditions including an ideal smash factor of 1.5). So again, about 2.5 yards per MPH. Not 4.

[saevel25]

that makes sense with it being 2.5 yards..

It might be hitting it in the center, but i still think its primarily spin loft then. I knew the ones i hit dead center were a smash factor about 1.44...

For the Ping i20, which i was getting the most consistant numbers with, Its a 9.5 degree driver, and my average between my two best shots were,

Smash Factor: 1.43, Launch Angle: 13 degrees, Spin rate: 2945 rpm...

Would the 3.5 degrees difference between the launch angle and driver loft help any. Would i necessarily need to go to a lower lofted driver or a higher lofted driver?

[iacas]

Originally Posted by saevel25

that makes sense with it being 2.5 yards..

It might be hitting it in the center, but i still think its primarily spin loft then. I knew the ones i hit dead center were a smash factor about 1.44...

For the Ping i20, which i was getting the most consistant numbers with, Its a 9.5 degree driver, and my average between my two best shots were,

Smash Factor: 1.43, Launch Angle: 13 degrees, Spin rate: 2945 rpm...

Would the 3.5 degrees difference between the launch angle and driver loft help any. Would i necessarily need to go to a lower lofted driver or a higher lofted driver?

Heading out the door but wanted to answer before I forgot: It's dynamic loft at impact. Spin loft is the difference between angle of attack and dynamic loft. It may or may not be (it's unlikely to be) the actual loft of your driver.

[saevel25]

Not sure if this is right, but Trackman says that 85% of launch angle is Dynamic Loft. So if i have 13 degrees, thats 11 degrees of Dynamic Loft... I did some calculations using the equation for Smash Factor.. Even if the COR of the ping i20 gets down to 0.810, my spin loft would be from 15 degrees to 17.5 degrees. So thats saying my angle of attack is -4 to -6.5 degrees. But what i don't get is, how is my spin rate is still in the optimal range with such a high spin loft, with my clubhead speed i thought i would see a very high spin rate.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by saevel25

Not sure if this is right, but Trackman says that 85% of launch angle is Dynamic Loft. So if i have 13 degrees, thats 11 degrees of Dynamic Loft... I did some calculations using the equation for Smash Factor.. Even if the COR of the ping i20 gets down to 0.810, my spin loft would be from 15 degrees to 17.5 degrees. So thats saying my angle of attack is -4 to -6.5 degrees. But what i don't get is, how is my spin rate is still in the optimal range with such a high spin loft, with my clubhead speed i thought i would see a very high spin rate.

It's not right, no. Your dynamic loft is simply the loft delivered at impact. If you flip you can deliver a lot more loft. If you have too much lag (handle leaning forward) you can deliver a lot less loft than what's stamped on the club.

[saevel25]

Ok, its just tricky to get the head around all the information when trying to determine the loft of the driver i should get, what shaft, and what numbers i need to get to.

[GregZ]

I have been searching for a the correct driver loft and shaft combination for my own swing and found this site http://www.rotaryswing.com/golf-instruction/golfequipment/golf-launch-monitor.php somewhat educational.

[saevel25]

i looked through some of the trackman newsletters, and found that they say the launch angle is about 85% dynamic launch and 15% angle of attack,

LA = 85%DL + 15%AA

Just estimating spin launch, assuming the golf ball weight, and the COR being 0.830, i calculated the spin launch from there. So basically i used

SL = DL - AA

I  basically just substituted above and found the dynamic launch and Attack angle for each tested shot.

I think the results make sense. The shots i hit the farthest were with the lowest negative attack angle or positive attack angle. This also produced the lower spin lofts as well, and the lower spin rates.

I remember the best shots i hit were after i hit a shot high on the clubface, because i went into my old habit of dropping my head back and down in the downswing. So that would bottom out before the tee, and to save the shot i had to unhinge my wrist earlier. I believe this would introduce a higher dynamic loft. The good shots were when i concentrated on keeping my right shoulder higher in the downswing, so i would fall back on it. But even with my positive Attack angle, i was still at a 15.3 spin loft. I think i am just not getting my wrist ahead of the club, and the shaft might have had something to do with that.

So question on shafts, Would a shaft that lowers the dynamic launch be one with a high kick point, and stiffer profile?