Soft or firm mat for fast+steep swings

[Blaiser]

Wondering what kind of mat is best for people with fast swing speeds and a steep AoA.

Would a softer/spongy mat be best because it will soften the blow, or will that just grab the club more? I can see a firmer mat allowing the club to bounce thru the shot more.

My question is more about injury prevention than realism. But obviously would love a combination of both.

[Brettster]

Hi Blaiser

Excellent question... you will find that this is very subjective... I can tell you from experience, I am also someone with steep AOA and like to take large divots. The Fiberbuilt Grass series is going to be your best bet, at least it was for me. The cheapest test, you will find to test this out is to purchase a Fiberbuilt Flight Deck: https://tinyurl.com/FiberBuiltFlightDeckOval21x13 For around $70 USD, you can hit all kinds of irons off of that.

Eventually - you will progress to something like this:
https://rainorshinegolf.com/products...7-single-sided

Compare FiberBuilt to what you find in other mats (some will claim that TrueStrike is best, some will say that Soft Strike is best, others will say that the best way to do it is build your own) I have done this myself for several types, and hit off them, to find that I go back to the Fiberbuilt in the end, as that is the only one I can hit off for thousands of shots/week and not have pain.

I tell everyone asking this question, to try hitting on several different mats to get your 'real understanding' of how the mat is going to feel for your forearms, wrists, and hands. For example, I hit at local simulators (in bars, or local simulator setups) and I would notice a lot of forearm pain, for the next 3-5 days.

This pain would subside slowly, but it told me that this was not the kind of mat I should be hitting on - as over time you can do some serious damage to your tendons, that can take years to recover from. I know: scary, but a real possibility.

Now, all this being said, there are other things to consider... what type of LM are you using - as that may limit your choice of mat as well. I would recommend Overhead Camera based, for the best 'field of hitting area' in the impact area... That being said, when it comes time for me to set that up, I'm looking seriously at a few alternatives from Motivo Golf in their StrikeDown Dual-Turf, and Tri-Turf Golf hitting mats:

Dual Turf: https://tinyurl.com/Dual-Turf-StrikeDown-3x4

Tri-Turf: https://tinyurl.com/Tri-Turf-StrokeSaver-Mat

Which leads to another point to be made... will you want to be hitting off perfect 'fairway' every time, or like to have First-cut, and Rough to hit off as well... In this case, you're going to need to test out Motivo, and maybe think about something similar that offers multiple hitting surfaces within a very narrow 'area' - such as 12"-20" wide to 1.) allow you enough width to hit balls out of that area, and 2. stay within your hitting/impact area for your LM.

I hope you see - this is a very subjective question, and also one based on 'personal tolerance' and limits of the human body - which you can only test yourself (just please be careful, and limit yourself to 50-200 balls at first off of any surface - and then give it a few days to make sure no pain shows up...

Good luck!

For more info on my finished product - see my Golf Sim Shed Build posts here:
https://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum...548#post368548

and here:
https://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum...626#post368626

and also here (where I compare the FiberBuilt vs. Holy Grail vs. SIG Softy:

https://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum/golf-simulator-forum/simulator-builds/348365-golf-sim-shed-build-finally?p=386225#post386225

[ARL67]

^^^ great post.

I'm not fast SS but I can get steep. I went with the EZ-Tee Hybrid turf for my hitting mat, which is what my instructor friend has in his shop ( inlayed hitting strip ). I've hit a b'zillion balls at his facility without any forearm pain. I bought a 6' x 7' piece and mine lays directly on my concrete garage floor. I don't feel a need to put anything underneath it to help further absorb impact shock. For my other turf ( 15' x 10' ) I went with the NP45 product from Synthetic Turf ( I did black in colour ) and it is really good at limiting ball bounce off my a screen -> mine is also directly on concrete, no need for foam tiles underneath.

There are so many turf options out there, and price-points, so tough to chose from.