SkyTrak Horizontal Launch Angle / Side Degrees

[DannyMRICS]

I’ve been trying to achieve a slightly positive HLA, and looking through my history of hundreds of shots, I have only found two shots with a Side Degree of between 0.1 and 1.9. Dozens at 0.0 and 2.0, and any fraction above that, but virtually none between 0.1 and 1.9.

On the actual range I realise that it rounds off, and I get many shots at 0 and 2, but none at 1.

Anybody else seen the same?

Curious.

Dan.

[AndyF]

Ali,
Here is a scatter plot of mine from a session at the end of September and there doesn't appear to be any correlation with yours... Definitely something strange going on

Andy

[DannyMRICS]

Andy, yours is definitely less pronounced than Ali’s, but still not what I would expect to see. I would expect the distribution to approximate a normal distribution or bell curve around the average. Your average is about +1.0, but there are zero readings between 0.8 - 1.4. And nine readings of exactly zero. Only three readings between 0.1 - 1.4 (all of them at 0.8), which is where most of the readings should be if it were a normal distribution.

It looks like SkyTrak has preferred numbers, e.g. zero ...

Dan

[AndyF]

Danny,
The comment about the average would be correct if I was trying to hit the same shot every time however during that session I will have been practicing shot shaping therefore I will have been deliberately trying to start some of them right with a fade (I'm a lefty) and likewise left with a draw and some will have been trying to be hit straight. I'll see if I can get some numbers later this week with just trying to hit the same shot

Andy

[DannyMRICS]

Andy,

Fair enough - good point. I’ll have a session where I’ll try to hit dead straight and see what numbers I get...

[Clevited]

ST does seem to round or something with certain measured values. I am not sure about HLA but I do know that many times I get the exact number 2083 for my spin calculation. If I were to look at all of my recorded history hitting driver, that spin number comes up with very consistent frequency and it matters not which driver I use (I have a few I mess with). So ST being the lower priced option that it is, I am sure has to take some kind of liberties with its accuracy on certain measured parameters.

A side note, I have had two different Skytraks now, and both are 2083 biased in the spin readings. So there could be some weird thing they do with HLA as well.

[wbond]

Seeing 2083 over and over again would be somewhat concerning on whether or not it's actually reading spin or doing something else. What percentage of the time does it come up?

[Clevited]

Don't know for sure, I do know it is a lot.

I would have to dig through my history. I look through it some time.

[Dan McWhirter]

11,667 backspin comes up a lot...that may be its maximum read.

[DannyMRICS]

Interesting research paper here, showing that Trackman and GC2 struggle to measure HLA accurately, so I guess I might have to alter my expectations in this regard. All other measurements seem accurate enough to give useful feedback, but HLA not so much. I might have to go to an actual range to practice hitting it straight!

[wbond]

IMO the GC2 is definitely more accurate on HLA than ST.

[DannyMRICS]

You’re probably right wbond, and even that isn’t particularly accurate (for HLA).