Best Practices to Improve Your Smash Factor

In 2020, professional golfer Bryson DeChambeau led the PGA tour with 322.1 yards off the tee but ranked last in smash factor with 1.437. The smash factor is the ratio of ball speed divided by clubhead speed, or how efficiently a player swings their driver. This means that, despite his excellent performance, DeChambeau was one of the most inefficient players on the tour.Currently, the average for golfers on the PGA Tour is at 1.491. However, professional golfers aspire toward a smash factor of 1.50, which is considered highly efficient. Paying attention to your smash factor can help you identify which driver is better for improving driving distance.

If you want to improve your smash factor, here are some tips to help.

Develop a Training Plan

Your overall physical fitness will have a significant effect on your swing speed. When creating your training regimen, be sure to include exercises that focus on the following:

Strength

Strength training offers many benefits to golfers. It increases power, helpful for driving the ball further. Also, it corrects muscular imbalances, boosts endurance, and reduces risk of injury.

Exercises that incorporate a medicine ball, like push-ups, squats, and lunges, can do wonders for your strength, which in turn can improve your clubhead speed. You can also make use of gym equipment for a more targeted workout. Some examples of exercises you can do with machines and equipment are cable push-pulls, lat pulldowns, and barbell deadlifts.

To prevent injury and ensure that you’re practicing correct form on exercises, consider having someone—such as a fitness trainer or a friend knowledgeable in strength training—spot you.

Flexibility

For golfers, flexibility and range of motion are a must. They affect many aspects of your game, including how you can make your swing technique more efficient, as playing golf involves a lot of twists, turns, and bends

Simple stretching exercises can improve your flexibility and increase your range of motion. Choose the ones that focus on the hamstrings, gluteal muscles, calf muscles, hip flexors, and quads—in short, the main areas of muscle that typically tighten and restrict movement.

You may also want to include yoga in your regimen, as performing and maintaining poses boosts flexibility, movement, and even endurance.

Practice Your Swing Technique

When working on your technique, give importance to fully rotating your body from top to bottom. You can achieve this by clearing your hips on the downswing aggressively with the club “lagging” behind your body. Golfing legend Sergio Garcia does this move perfectly, resulting in him winning multiple championships throughout his career.

When rotating your swing, you can try taking your club as far out as possible, creating a wider rotation. This is where your flexibility training would come in handy. Remember that the wider your rotation is, the more speed you create when you hit the ball.

You should also keep your wrists hinged like a lever when gripping the club. Keeping them hinged until before impact will give you an optimal golf swing. It creates a last-minute burst of power before impact, saving your energy and increasing speed.

Train with Speed Equipment

Speed training tools are specifically made to help athletes measure the speed of their swings, the ball, and more, depending on the sport. Radar guns are perfect to measure the speed of your swing and golf ball after impact, allowing you to compare each swing you take.

You can compare each swing you make and see which technique and golf club effectively improve your smash factor. It allows you to efficiently track your progress with your training regimen.

Shop Online for Quality Radar Guns

Radar Sports, LLC offers some of the finest radar guns for sports in the world. Our store also carries display boards, golf radars, and driving cages.

Our goal is to give our customers the best speed measuring tools to help them with their training. Visit our online golf equipment store to learn about our products and how they can help you with your swing.

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