Sky Trak Excessive Side Spin - Especially Hooks

[Sfoss]

I've had my ST now for 2 months. I'd say it is accurate up to 3 wood or driver. Irons and hybrids are spot on and ST has helped me in practice. No over excessive side spin numbers.

Interestingly, when I first recieved that ST seemed extremely accurate on most clubs.

Now, after using and playing it has become a frustration especially driver. It shows 99% fade spin on most clubs. I don't fade the ball, ever. I have played on the SIMS at Xgolf recently and my golf game is spot on.

Is there a way to "recalibrate" ST?

Curious.

[TrueGolferNorth]

What is your swing speed for driver? I read SkyTrak has issues with fast swings - could it be the same syndrome?

[wbond]

Have you taken it outside to confirm that it's reading correctly? Maybe you are still dealing with indoor swing after only two months.

[Sfoss]

Around 100mph.

I know this could be an issue but it is very frustrating especially when I want to play golf with E6. I end up taking 1-3 mulligans on the tee which is not fair nor is it healthy (my old body can only swing hard that many times ;-) Golf is supposed to be enjoyable.

I have tried moving the ball back, forth, up, down and everything in between. I have even tried marking a ball with a sharpie with numerous marks to help the camera.

Has anyone contacted Skytrak about this? Any comments back?

I will try contacting them myself, I was hoping someone found a hidden switch in the software to increase swing speed calc.

[Scoop]

What kind of tee are you using? Some people have posted about issues with the bigger white rubber tees (or any white tees really). Is the driver head or shaft white? From my understanding, the ball speed issues were on the distance numbers, not the shot shape, but I could be wrong.

[GungHoGolf]

FWIW, I use the big white rubber tees setting on top of the mat, white golf shoes, and an M1 Driver (half white) all the time with no issues.

[Sfoss]

I have used regular white tees, BirTee (white), Rubber tees (White).
My driver does have a white shaft but I tried my other driver shaft yesterday (black). No changes with either one. Same side spin readings.
Actually my distances, with fade spin, seem to be correct as a miss hit would be. On the occasion I am able to get a decent reading (straight or draw) the distance is close to what is should be (255-270) depending on strike on face.

[trhuke]

It definitely takes a while to get used to swinging indoors. I think that could be a big part of your problem. Particularly if you're set up in a slightly tight space, I'd give it a bit of time before reaching any conclusions. Also, make sure where you're aiming is where the ST is aimed. Mine is set up in my garage and I had to put the hitting mat a little to the right of the screen center to clear the garage door opener. I have to constantly remind myself that "straight" is about 2 feet to the right of where the center line shows. If where you tee off is not lined up with the center of the screen target, and you aim at that target, it's going to have you hitting off line. My $.02.

[Sfoss]

I appreciate the input, I do have a large space and don't worry much about swinging incorrectly indoors.

That said, my ST and alignment are parallel, lines on floor and mat. I don't have a screen (only net), I use my laptop on the bench to see the actual shots while practicing or playing. (its a surprise when I look then).

I do practice almost once a day so indoor swing is not an issue.

I'll try "mis-aligning" when I use the driver, purposely trying to swing either right or left. I might try varying the ST height by 1/4" increments.

Funny, my first month of use, roughly, I didn't have these issues with the driver....I was pleased. Only change is the mat. I was using a cheap mat from Golf Galaxy, then upgraded to a mat that accepts tees. I raised the ST accordingly.

It would be nice if you could "reset" the skytrak.

[Scoop]

A good way to make sure your SkyTrak is at the right height is to measure the distance of the laser from the SkyTrak. It should be 11-12 inches. If its more, lower the SkyTrak. If it's less, raise the SkyTrak. I would also experiment with dark colored tees if you have only used white. That may not be the issue, but seems like an easy thing to try at least.

[Sfoss]

Hi Guys

I think I may have it, at least it worked this afternoon. There were two changes in the past month, new mat and Birtee's. I got home, tried a real "white" tee and the driver was straight again!

I will try a black tee to see if it makes it better.

Unbelievable that it matters but it must.


One thing of note;
I realigned the ST using the laser and alignment laser. My new mat is not cut perfectly perpendicular to the edge where the ST presides. Set to the laser line via sharpie and things are better.

It is amazing.

Thanks for all the tips.

[Morini]

Good to hear that the problem appears solved. I can't remember if this has been mentioned in this long thread, but according to Trackmans research, hitting the ball one dimple towards the toe will create 6 degrees of left side spin. 2 will create 12 and so on. Thus, being ever so slightly cramped (in any direction) in your indoor set up, can dramatically alter your ball flight. Use foot spray regularly if this is a concern.

[FaultyClubs]

Good point although my M4 isn't nearly that sensitive. Personally I doubt any modern driver is due to improvements in ball and club design. Some of the trackman info is quite old.

[Morini]

I believe it was written around 2017. See link below. It is a good read. One dimple is 4 mm. Thus 8mm is two dimples, and will create 12 degrees of spin axis. 12 degrees will move the ball offline about 7 yards per hundred, which is around 17 yards for a typical amateur.

I don't think it is that far out of line. https://blog.trackmangolf.com/hows-my-strike/

I am not certain, but I believe that the recently added ability of trackman to determine impact location is based on similar calculation. For example, if trackman determines that the face to path was one degree (which should result in 6 degrees of spin axis), but the ball had neutral spin axis, the impact location must have been 4 mm off center to offset. There is a similar calculation for vertical component. Not sure how the bulges on modern drivers are accounted for.

[FaultyClubs]

I remember reading it probably 10 years ago.

[Jitzking]

I recently got a Skytrak and I was starting to consistently draw/hook the ball. Wasn’t sure if it was machine but after playing a round, it was definitely me.

Thought it could be the indoor swing causing it but I’ve gotten comfortable free swinging. At times I will hit the straight shot.

so I don’t think there are alignment issues with my ST, I just have to cure my hook! I’m happy with the ST so I can now figure it out!

Side note, I briefly had the optishot 2. Was great to have the courses to play for free, but since it reads the club head, I was pushing the ball a lot!

[rothvonhoyte]

I believe the spin decay issue has been fixed as of the last update. Still waiting for a response from skytrak to confirm. After hitting yesterday morning, I reached out to the customer service to see if they had any information regarding the issue. They didn't but suggested I update to the latest version. Not hopeful that it would have a change, I had very low expectations hitting after the update. They have absolutely done something in regards to ball flight. I don't know if it's related to spin decay or not but I could immediately tell a difference. Absolutely night and day from when I was hitting in the morning.

[Morini]

I am fairly sure seth would have mentioned it as people have been complaining about it for years. Maybe he "snuck" it in there. We can only hope. No disrespect meant to customer service, but I think their focus is on basic troubleshooting rather than in depth knowledge of ball flight model issues.

Other than spin decay, the ball flight model is solid, so at most it would be very minor tweaks, and there is no way you would notice those. If your shot shape changed significantly, most likely something else going on.

[SkyTrak_Seth]

Ha! Guys, we haven't touched anything regarding spin decay or ball flight for quite some time. I will say that we do have spin decay in the works (per your requests), but nothing has changed over the last several releases. FYI, I won't sneak anything in. If we improve on or fix anything, it will definitely be in the release notes. Of course we want to take credit for making the product better

[GungHoGolf]

See https://gunghogolf.com/articles/indo...ndrome-skytrak and https://gunghogolf.com/articles/how-...n-your-skytrak

Many, many SkyTrak owners have reported this when first starting out, then realized it was their indoor swing or alignment error in the end.

[rothvonhoyte]

Yeah I was definitely wrong it was not changed, my bad! It was definitely me doing something weird that day. GungHoGolf It's not indoor swing or anything like that. I've plugged the skytrak numbers into the trajectory optimizer and they are significantly different. You'll even notice on high draws for instance that the ball does not drop out of the sky but appears to accelerate to the left. Not normal for anything but a duck hook.