Distances shorter than real life

[Mandragora]

I have already read all of the topics on this and I would just like some additional suggestions. I have had my Skytrak for about a month and I really am enjoying it. Ball path seems to be perfect in most cases. The issue is I am at least one club short on most of my irons. I hit my 7 iron 150 IRL and I have confirmed this at the driving range.

At home I am seeing a 135 distance. Also, Once below a 7 iron distances do not move up that much. I would hit a 6 Iron 160 IRL but on Skytrak I only get about 140.

Funny thing was to make sure I was not hitting the ball thin or fat and hitting the sweet spot I used my Face stickers. As soon as I added the sticker, I started getting correct numbers (I assume because my spin was cut in half.)

I don't know the exact type of mat I have. It is 14 yrs old and was purchased at Golfsmith. It is not as hard as a mat I would hit on at the range. So I see this as being one of the following:

1. For Optishot I had built a platform and I am still hitting on that platform. It is not bolted down or anything, so I guess there could be some energy loss though I do not believe the platform is moving.
2. The mat sits on top of a puzzle type exercise mat. So maybe I am losing energy there as well.
3. Is it possible that even though I am contacking the ball first, the ball is being driven down into the matt slowing the ball speed.

For a 7 Iron, I am seeing a ball speed of about 99 with backspin of 5300.

The other thing I noticed when using the impact tape stickers is that as soon as I applied it, my launch angle was immediately higher. I could see I was hitting the screen about 1 ft higher than when the tape was not applied.

I did try playing with elevation etc, but that did not have much of an effect till I got about 10000 ft at which point, I got some strange results.

I believe the Skytrak is reading accurately as I initially took it to the driving range to verify the numbers and it seems to be reading reasonably.


Things, I haven't tried yet:

1. Putting the mat directly on the tile. If I do this, it will slide so I will need to secure it somehow (without damaging the tile.

2. I was considering changing the platform to a deck made of 2 x 3s and plywood under the mat which would reduce the energy absorption from the current foam mats making my feet more stable and possibly l;limiting the energy absorption when the clubhead impacts the ball.

3. Replacing the mat.

Does anyone have any additional ideas?

Thanks.

[MainStGolf]

That's interesting about the mat not being bolted down. I am about a club short as well and I have a mat that is not bolted down. I do know that my may shifts as I have to move it 2-3 times a round. I play a CCE mat.

[Monovision]

I think a shifting mat can be significant if it shifts enough. If I hit driver on skytrak range, I have to recenter it every 4 or so shots. I'm comparing distance to the Quad used where I take a couple of lessons, so it's not the perfect comparison.

[Bnorman58]

I have a different mat but I put heavy duty velcro strips under it and never have a problem. It was vital for me because ProTee is camera based and if ball is not in the alignment square it would be off. My ball never moves fro the square unless my grandkids kick my camera :-).
Just a suggestion.

[colinjm18]

You say you hit your 7 iron 150 yards at the driving range, is that carry or total distance. Maybe your not getting as much roll on the sim or more than likely your hitting the mat before ball and losing distance.

[Mandragora]

That is carry. I played last week and measured 150 Yds with a 10 yd rollout across the green. (And I did not hit nearly as hard as I am on the mat.)

[colinjm18]

How do you confirm that your carrying the ball 150 yards at the driving range.

[jb15]

That's interesting about the mat not being bolted down. I am about a club short as well and I have a mat that is not bolted down. I do know that my may shifts as I have to move it 2-3 times a round. I play a CCE mat.

I play off of the CCE mat as well on Skytrak and am always 1 club short. Mandragora I experience the same phenomenon as well. My Skytrak seems to work perfectly; minus the 1 club length short. If someone has had success in identifying this please jump in!

[MainStGolf]

BOOMER SOONER JB15!!!

My CCE hitting strip is "in" my stance mat which sits on a piece of plywood that has a cutout for the CCE. So the hitting strip isn't "slipping" during the shot significantly, but maybe just enough to throw it off. Not sure. I plan on placing a piece of wood and scewing that piece to the floor so that it does not slide forward. It will be interesting to see if I can get closer once it stops shifting.

I have to say that I HAVE gotten IRL numbers, but it basically takes a perfect strike. I simply can not find them consistently. That's even more frustrating. For example while I was playing JNPG, I hit a nice solid 8-iron into the island green which should have been about a 135 shot on JNPG. It landed at 119. Then the next 8-iron I hit I got on it a little more, but certainly didn't hit it as hard as I could and it flew 144 and I almost hit it "over" the green.

You can use the elevation in the SkyTrak range and get your numbers dialed in, but the problem is when you are playing the games whether it be JNPG or TGC. The one that I struggle with the most is the 3 wood. I can hit my 3 wood anywhere from 240-275 depending. I'm generally at 220-230 on the games. I can get it a little longer if I hit it off the tee, but still not nearly as far as I can IRL.

[inorkuo]

You can boost skytrak in tgc

[jb15]

MainSTGolf BOOMER SOONER indeed! I have to say I don't know if I am happy or sad to see others experience this. I guess I'm a bit relieved.

I am going to try and secure my mat to see if that makes any difference. Seeing MSG talk about the different shots reacting to different types of strikes is exactly what I'm experiencing. Hit it good expecting a distance then it being short . Other shots traveling a distance I more expect

[Mandragora]

I have had my sktrak for almost a year, and experience the same phenomenon. I too have a CCE hitting mat; a hitting strip to be exact. I do not anchor mine down, so it does tend to slide, particularly when I make a good swing. The skytrak sits off to the side, so the skytrak doesn't move, just the mat. I have often wondered if anchoring the mat would lead to more energy transfer to the ball. Initially I made a number of posts about my short distances, but there were no real answers, so I just learned that i have two sets of distances--skytrak distances, and real course distances. The lower the loft, the greater the distance differential, but it tends to be between 15 and 20 yards difference.

I was going to just keep two sets of numbers but I was really hoping to use the skytrak to get accurate real life distances. Alternatively I could go to the range and try and put the numbers together, but then I am using range balls which also throws it off. I have used it for my wedges to get numbers at 8:00, 9:00, 10:00 etc and that has helped me as I am hitting the greens where I want to.(still have issues withdistances out of the rough though) It would be nice to be able to get those numbers for the rest of my irons.

[MainStGolf]

Mandragora if you are just using the SkyTrack app just change the altitude settings until you are getting your IRL numbers. That way you can "practice" as use the SkyTrak features with confidence.

[Mandragora]

Mandragora if you are just using the SkyTrack app just change the altitude settings until you are getting your IRL numbers. That way you can "practice" as use the SkyTrak features with confidence.

I did try that. However, I got a couple of yards moving on my middle clubs moving the altitude up but I believe that was messing with my shorter club numbers. I also hit a 7 iron that wouldn't stop flying. I had to exit the session to get it to stop.

[MainStGolf]

Hmmmm . . . that's interesting. I never noticed that before.

[jut111]

Do you practice with your skytrak indoors? If so there is a quite common phenomenom where people don't swing as hard indoors as they do outdoors. It's a mental thing that takes time to get over. i've been swinging indoors for several years, and still can't make a proper driver swing indoors. Irons aren't a problem.

Your mat is not the culprit unless you hit everything quite fat, in which case you have bigger issues. Spin can be influenced by mats, face tape, balls, dirty clubs etc. Ball speed doesn't lie, and it's about the easiest thing to measure accurately. You aren't hitting anything 150 at 99 MPH ball speed sorry to say.

So either you aren't swinging as hard/making as good contact as you do IRL on the Skytrak, or you don't know your IRL yardages as well as you think you do. Both are quite common.

[ernie18]

what he said!^^

[Mandragora]

Do you practice with your skytrak indoors? If so there is a quite common phenomenom where people don't swing as hard indoors as they do outdoors. It's a mental thing that takes time to get over. i've been swinging indoors for several years, and still can't make a proper driver swing indoors. Irons aren't a problem.

Your mat is not the culprit unless you hit everything quite fat, in which case you have bigger issues. Spin can be influenced by mats, face tape, balls, dirty clubs etc. Ball speed doesn't lie, and it's about the easiest thing to measure accurately. You aren't hitting anything 150 at 99 MPH ball speed sorry to say.

So either you aren't swinging as hard/making as good contact as you do IRL on the Skytrak, or you don't know your IRL yardages as well as you think you do. Both are quite common.

A couple of years ago, I changed my swing so I only take a 3/4 back swing as I determined I got much more accuracy. Trying to get longer numbers I have hit the ball as hard as I can. What I have found is once I get lower then 8 iron, I am seeing the numbers only move up slowly. Wedges and 9, 8 are pretty good. I had read in other posts that the mat could be a problem and I believe the flight data the skytrack is giving.is reasonably accurate (since I checked it at the driving range).

At this point, I believe that the fact that my mat is on exercise mat squares and it is a thicker turf then I hit at the range (where mats are sitting on concrete is part of the issue. When hitting an iron, I am hitting down on the ball, not sweeping it off the mat and I am attempting to make contact with the mat after the ball.I believe that as the club face compresses the ball, the ball is slightly driven into the mat. Since the mat (with the pad underneath) can absorb a lot of energy the ball speed is reduced.

On my wedges I do not see this effect and in fact, sometimes the ball is flying farther. Because of the loft of the club, I do not believe the ball is driven into the mat as much. When hitting the ball IRL the ground does not compress and the ball is pinched.

I am going to try hitting off tees and see if the numbers come up, but this is not what I would normally do and the sweep swing will change the angle of attack and the launch angle.

One more thing. I find that I am getting a fairly accurate distance with my driver. Since the driver is the longest club, If i was slowing down my swing, I would expect to see the largest effect here. My distances pretty much match what I hit on the course which is a carry of about 200 with a roll-out of 20 - 40 yards depending on conditions.

[inorkuo]

if your mat is twisting during your down swing, you are definitely losing energy. i'm not so sure about the ball pinching into the ground idea. some argue that the ball deforms downward (gets pinched) into the ground due to the downward strike and this adds energy as is rebounds back to shape while rolling up the club face. others say that unless your dynamic loft is negative, there is no pinching and the ball travels upward from the start. i don't know how it works, but i don't see any difference when i hit an iron off of the ground vs off of a tee. it sucks to not be able to trust the numbers that you are getting from your launch monitor though. i would take it somewhere that has a trackman or flightscope to compare. others have posted where skytrak is very close to trackman but i don't think all sktyraks are created equal.

[FACE]

I am happy like some to hear most are having distance issues, and I know it isn't the mat on driver but could it be teeing it up on the red dot causes some loss or inaccurate reading on driver? Does everone place the tee on the dot?

[inorkuo]

if you're a big hitter, skytrak says to tee it up slightly behind the dot.

[FACE]

Good to know inorkuo I will play with some spots to see. How does the boost on TGC work and what affect should you expect?

[inorkuo]

you can boost driver, woods, irons, wedges and putter independently in the settings file. i believe the boost is based on percentage and adjusts carry accordingly.

[Mandragora]

if your mat is twisting during your down swing, you are definitely losing energy. i'm not so sure about the ball pinching into the ground idea. some argue that the ball deforms downward (gets pinched) into the ground due to the downward strike and this adds energy as is rebounds back to shape while rolling up the club face. others say that unless your dynamic loft is negative, there is no pinching and the ball travels upward from the start. i don't know how it works, but i don't see any difference when i hit an iron off of the ground vs off of a tee. it sucks to not be able to trust the numbers that you are getting from your launch monitor though. i would take it somewhere that has a trackman or flightscope to compare. others have posted where skytrak is very close to trackman but i don't think all sktyraks are created equal.

As I said. I think the numbers are correct because I took the skytrak to the range. I need to figure out what about my in house setup is the issue.

[inorkuo]

try teeing up your irons slightly and see if that makes a difference. someone else posted recently that they developed a bad habit of hitting slightly fat from hitting off a mat with the sim all winter. they ended up putting a piece of string down behind the ball to make sure they were hitting ball first. also it's possible you just don't swing as freely indoors, which a lot of people here can attest to.