Improving Your Game with Skytrack

[MizunoPhil]

Hello people,

I'm new here, having just purchased a Skytrack and set up a hitting net. For what it's worth I'm using a flat net 10'x10' and hitting off a Fiberbuilt mat that I've sunk into the lawn; so far it seems to be working very well (once I'd got over the mediocre distances I seemed to be hitting and accepted that it was my poor strikes, not the Skytrack).

I've signed up to the Game Improvement plan. I just wondered what approach other users have to improving their golf with the unit and this plan? Do you use the Player Skills Assessment and then the nearest the pin to work on weaker areas, or just play with all the options using the accurate feedback from Skytrack in the assumption that you'll get better over time from any regular practice?

Has anyone got a method they've worked with and seen handicap reducing results that reassure them they're on the right lines?

I'm hoping to learn from others' experiences.

[shimonko]

I believe things like doing the Skills Assessment will see you get better at doing the Skills Assessment, but if you want your real golf to non-trivially improve you have to simulate real golf as much as you can. For example, hitting driver then wedge, putter at 20', putter at 4', driver,... rather than SWx5, PWx5, 9x5, 8x5,... Repeating clubs and even progressing up clubs is like a practice shot on course which of course we don't have the luxury of. A big deal IMO, as evidenced by when we hit it well on the range only to be let down on course 30 minutes later.

So I believe playing actual rounds on a golf simulation will better prepare you for the course where clubs are mixed up a lot and you have to pitch, chip and putt. You'll get into good habits, even a pre-shot routine of evaluating wind, lie, elevation,.. You need the body and mind altering effects of pressure from hitting over water or fearing making a critical shot, or letting a partner down who's anxiously watching your shot live. Even those with the yips sink everything on the practice green.

Outside I'd be tempted to occasionally hit from the grass to keep things real as the Fiberbuilt, of all mats, gives a dream lie. We hit well at ranges because of forgiving lies and nice alignment aids such as the edges of the mat which we don't have on course.

Many who play online sim golf have little formulas adjusting the distance they need to hit or putt due to differences in elevation. You don't get to (legally) know elevation changes on course and would never know if a putt goes up 24", so I don't feel playing left-brained like this is conducive to handicap improvement. Many players convert putting distance into how many mph they need to hit the ball, whereas in real golf we look at our putting distance and the right-brain it to the hole by feel.

Then you have the SkyTrak - excellent fun for the money but its limitations must be understood with respect to real golf. Was the 8 yards you missed left with your 7 iron due to your SkyTrak not being perfectly aligned, or was it perfectly aligned and you hit a dead straight shot but SkyTrak's 2 deg horizontal accuracy and 250 rpm spin accuracy has made you believe it wasn't. Do you try to fix it for the next shot and this time you push slice it and SkyTrak errors the same and shows it as straight?

So overall, simply hitting a ball into a net even without a LM will improve handicap for new players, but the lower your handicap gets, the more you have to replicate the conditions you're preparing for.

[allen2be]

Completely agree with the 'random practice' mentality. See here https://golfstateofmind.com/random-practice-for-golf/

Even the elevation changes in TGC (full shots or putting) has helped me IRL. I have never played TGC with wind, but maybe that would help too? IDK how good the wind mechanics are and we don't get a ton of wind in woodsie Michigan courses.

Like shimonko said (and Hank Haney)... just swinging a club is going to improve your game and lower your handicap.

FWIW, one of the biggest impacts on my game has been wedges from 100 yards and in. Just working on what length of swing produces what distance has been huge for me in getting on greens this summer. I have never played as good as I did this summer... and I think my summer is over - 32 degrees tonight in Michigan

[Mandragora]

I used the Skytrak to lock down my chipping and pitching distances. I got distances for each of my wedges at 7:00, 8:00, 9:00, 10:00 and 11:00. I keep a card with this information so I know which wedge and which swing to use in my approaches.

I agree with the random practice idea. Repeating multiple shots with the same club leads to forgetting the first shot which may have been poor with the club. IRL you only get one shot so random practice helps with focus as well. I very rarely duff a shot IRL now.

Over the next few months, I am going to concentrate on strike. I notice that IRL I get more distance but I believe it is because I am in most cases hitting the mat before the ball. The mat gives a more severe penalty then grass which gives way easier.

[MizunoPhil]

Thank you for all the replies: they make perfect sense. I can see how I can easily create an imaginary hole game using the range: I can use my local course yardages and just work through the hole yardages selecting clubs accordingly (and giving myself anything within 20 yards because I'm nice like that!).

I've just started playing with wedge yardages and was surprised by how much more accurate I was with a gap wedge at a half swing over a full sand wedge: wedge experimentation and learning yardages will be a good use of my time.

As someone who is a relatively high handicapper (UK 16c - so I can par any hole on a good day, but not usually more than four in a round) I still have plenty of scope to develop more consistency, so perhaps getting some of that initially will be helpful from grooving my swing? But, to emphasise the point Shimonko makes, if I hit a ball out of bounds on the course I rarely send the second ball to the same place, so I can see why hitting repeated shots in the Skills Assessment will be misleading.

I can definitely benefit from practicing strike; and like Mandragora I think that my intense dislike of mats is because I frequently hit behind the ball and get a much greater penalty from doing so versus when I'm on grass. It's telling to see the ball speed drop off by 10 or 20 mph on Skytrack and the feeling in your hands is something of a give away too! I just watched this video of Gary Player giving a clinic (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZkxmr2wMyU) and using what he talks about around 8''30 found my strike improved enormously: I got my best score on a target challenge with my 8 iron (450/600) - then I ran out of daylight!

Any other thoughts, particularly given the added information about my current level will still be appreciated.

[iv76erson03]

I'm going to go a different way here than some of the other posters. I wouldn't mess around with chipping at all. Your not going to find grass anywhere in the world that matches your mat. If you want to dial in your 1/2 and 3/4 wedge distances, great, but anything around the green and you need to get out the practice area at your local golf course. Figuring our how the wedge interacts with different lies, how much spin it will have from different lies, etc., cannot be replicated in a golf sim. I think practicing putting is equally worthless, but to each is own. I use the winter to fix swing flaws since I'm not going to be playing for anything for a few months and I can deal with changing my swing around. also, I practice hitting a lot of tee shots. Driver, 3 wood, hyrbids, 3 irons, because the mat doesn't really matter. The biggest improvement I've made since getting skytrack is definately my long game.

[MizunoPhil]

Thanks Iv76erson03; I need to work on strike and if I could get consistent off the tee it would save me five or six shots per round at the moment.

I agree on little chips, I think, but getting those 50-120 yard shots more consistent for someone like me is, I think, worthwhile. I guess a lot depends on what level you're starting from; for people who've been playing golf for years I can see how finessing the short game requires all the variations of lie and slope that you mentioned but, for me, any more consistency that I can get from my practice should prove beneficial.