How to Increase Your Smash Factor in Golf: 5 Proven Techniques | WhyGolf

In this post, WhysGuy will cover:

• What is smash factor and why do people care about it.
• Why smash factor is generally only important to optimize when hitting driver.
• Practical tips to help you optimize your smash factor with your driver.

Smash factor is a term that is frequently used in today's game and therefore it's worth defining.

Here’s how Ping described smash factor in a blog post:

“Smash Factor is calculated by dividing the ball speed by clubhead speed. For example, if you swing a driver with a clubhead speed of 100 mph and generate a ball speed of 150 mph, the Smash Factor is 1.50. So, the higher the Smash Factor, the more ball speed you are getting for a given clubhead speed."

Put simply, smash factor in golf explains how fast your ball speed is in relation to your clubhead speed. With the driver, the higher the ratio - the better. With irons, it's not that simple.

Let's dive deeper.

With the driver, it makes logical sense to optimize your smash factor. More ball speed = shorter shots into the greens. Shorter shots = closer approaches, resulting in more birdies. Fairly straight-forward.

With irons, however, smash factor isn't nearly as important to optimize. Why?

While a high smash factor can aid in the production of longer shots, great iron play cannot exist without accuracy and precision. With the irons, it's more important to make sure your getting enough spin and launching the ball high enough so as to ensure that you can hold greens consistently. If you choose to optimize for smash factor with the irons (i.e., opt for irons that "spring" off the face), it's important to realize that your accuracy and precision may suffer as a result.

Therefore, the rest of this article will offer advice on how to increase your smash factor in golf with the driver.

When hitting drivers, your smash factor can fluctuate from 1.2 to 1.5 from one shot to the next. How?

Most of the variation can be explained by the quality of your contact with the golf ball (i.e., heel or center strike). Hitting the ball from the so-called "sweet spot" does, in fact, result in a sweet result: higher ball speed and more distance.

The first step to smashing the center of the clubface is to ensure that you have the ability to detect whether you are hitting it off the center of the face after each golf shot. You may find Golf Impact Tape to be helpful to gather an awareness of where on the clubface you are making contact with the golf ball. This awareness will, over time, guide you on your journey to consistent center-hits.

Many golfers tend to have their ball position too far back in their stance with the driver. This often results in a heel strike. Why?

Your ball position at setup impacts the point at which your clubhead makes contact with the golf ball.

Since your ball position is too far back, you will hit the ball sooner in your swing arc - which often can lead to a heel strike due to an open clubface at impact.

The fix? Make sure your ball position with driver is off your front foot.

If you want to learn about 4 signs that your ball position is incorrect, click here.

A key strategy to increasing your smash factor is to simply increase your clubhead speed. Doing so will allow you to tap into your driver's "spring" effect, resulting in more ball speed per unit of clubhead speed.

Many golfers inadvertently limit their clubhead speed by swaying instead of exhibiting proper rotation. When you sway, you lose out on a ton of lower body movement and make it nearly impossible to maximize clubhead speed.

To stop swaying and start rotating, the first thing you want to do is flare your feet slightly at address. This makes it easier to rotate around your body and load the weight on your backside so you can unwind on the downswing. Learn more about how to stop swaying here.

You can use the Pressure Plate to learn how to shift your pressure as opposed to weight in your golf swing. The Pressure Plate will teach you how to shift pressure into the ground as opposed to wasting it by sliding laterally in your golf swing, allowing you to increase your clubhead speed and smash factor.

Another way to optimize your smash factor in golf is to use a driver head and shaft combination that fits your unique golf swing. If you are looking to optimize your smash factor in golf and are using a stock driver off the rack, it may be time to get a custom fit driver. Doing so will allow you to optimize your smash factor and by extension - distance. Every professional golfer spends hours and hours finding the right shaft/head combination for their golf swing so why not approach your game with the same deliberation?

Generally speaking, a lighter shaft will increase your clubhead speed and you may also find that a shaft with a lower kick point may also add some clubhead speed to your game - ask your clubfitter about it.

If a shaft is too heavy, it’s impossible to swing fast enough to max out clubhead speed. Most golfers will benefit from a driver shaft that is about 60 grams while faster swingers can use 65 or 70 grams.

What is speed training?

Here’s what Jaacob Bowden, a PGA professional said in a Golf.com article about speed:

“You don’t necessarily have to get big muscles or grow in size. It’s more about strengthening and speeding up the muscles that you use from the top of the backswing down to impact, in the specific way that you’re using them in the golf swing.”

In other words, the key to speed training is to understand that it's about training your muscles to move quickly and explosively. While building muscle mass can help, there's more to it.

Beginner golfers can benefit greatly from using something like SuperSpeed Golf sticks or Rypstick to add more speed in 8–12 weeks. With only a few sessions per week you can see massive gains in distance and ball speed which makes golf a lot easier.

We also wrote an entire article on how to increase your swing speed: Click here to learn more ways to increase swing speed in golf.