Velocity vs. Sweet Spot
 

Would you rather have an increase in swing Velocity of say 5 mph OR hit the ball 5% closer to the Sweet Spot consistently? Which is more important in terms of scoring to high handicappers? Mid handicappers? and Low handicappers?

Sweet Spot contact no doubt. Missing the sweet spot will cause considerable distance loss. I think sweet spot contact should be the fore at any golfers mind.

Easy one, I would love to hit the ball that 5% closer to the sweetspot consistently. A by product of this is that you would be hitting if further anyways as you are hitting closer or on the sweetspot more often which breads confidence which means that you can hit the ball harder.....you get my meaning.
Alex

Here is something i posted on another site showing the differences of a longer versus shorter driver and the effects. What i have below is assuming that you will hit the shorter driver flush more often, hence the higher efficiency rating i used:

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Here is an easy way to figure it out...we'll take the guy in the person in this thread who says he swings @ 120 with a 45" and 115 with a 44"

lets assume a 1.45 smash factor

45" Driver = 120 swing speed x 1.45 = 174mph ball speed
44" Driver = 115 swing speed x 1.45 = 167mph ball speed

Difference of 7mph of ball speed

What is that 7mph of ball speed worth in carry distance?

120mph x 2.5 (max efficiency) = 300 yard carry
115mph x 2.5 (max efficiency) = 288 yard carry

So what is that worth per yard per mph of ball speed?

12 yards (difference in carry) / 7 (difference in ball speed) = roughly 1.71 yard per mph of ball speed you lose.

Here's the check:

7mph of ball speed x 1.71 ~ 11.97yards

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Hmm....so this poster for that one inch he lost he gave up about 12 yards of carry distance. However this is taking into account he is hitting the center of the face on both drivers.

So we have to change a variable....basically change the efficiency rating by decreasing it.

120mph x 2.3 = 276 yard carry
115mph x 2.5 (max efficiency) = 288 yard carry

hmmm....which is looking better now

also just for giggles 115mph x 2.3 = 265 yard carry

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So what the hell does all this mean?

Basically with your 45" driver you are going to be much further on flush hits but your AVERAGE driving distance should theoretically be LESS than the shorter driver because you should be able to hit it flush more often.

But conversely if you mishit the short driver you are much shorter than you would've been with the mishited 45" driver.

DECISIONS? DECISIONS?

Thanks. I kind of figured this intuitively, but this is great data. Not sure I understand the smash factor stuff, but basically chasing a few extra MPH may not be what you need.

smash factor is an efficiency rating for how well you converted your swing speed into ball speed.

1.50 is ideal...some monitors today are showing higher than that but i don't really believe it. If you can consistent get 1.46-1.47 on a vector you can't really do much better "all the time."

110 swing speed x 1.44 = 158.4mph of ball speed
107 swing speed x 1.48 = 158.4mph of ball speed

As you can see, you can swing faster with bad contact or swing slower with better contact.

Most people would improve their "smash factor" and overball ball speed by swinging @ 80% on focussing on sweet spot contact.

Thanks! Hit it closer to the center of gravity = you get better.