Issues with distance on Skytrak

[GSchofield62]

I know this has been asked and all kinds of answers have been given...but I still can't get it figured out. I've had my Skytrak for about 3 months now. I set it up in my garage. I have tried 3 different mats including a Tru Strike and the Country Club Elite. I have set it up indoors in my garage, at a local indoor simulator place, and outside at a driving range. I was getting lessons from my clubs pro who uses a Trackman so I am really confident with my distances. Everything on my Skytrak is short. Every club. for example i typically carry my 7-iron 170 yards with less than 8000rmp spin. I don't get much distance after the ball lands. On the skytrak I struggle to hit 150 yards. On the trackman my swing speed with the 7 averages 89 mph. On the Skytrak it says maybe 82 or 83 mph. If I'm in the TGC 2019 game my swing speeds show up as even slower. It says my 7 iron only goes 76 or 77 mph. Driver speed in the game is only 85 when tpyically my driver on trackman is 110. 115 if I really swing hard. Accuracy seems ok. I can draw and cut it like usual and if I know I pulled it the skytrak resembles this. I've tried setting my altitude to 10000 feet and that gets me close to my usual numbers but still short by 10 or 15 yards. My altitude here is 2900 asl. If I set the boost in the TGC settings to 5 I get closer there too, but still not where it should be.

I am not a huge hitter by any means but I was really hoping this would be more accurate than it is. I know I could expect a few yards off but not as much as it is. I have tried all sorts of different clothes to eliminate reflections. I've tried different lighting configurations. Is there something I'm missing?

[GungHoGolf]

SkyTrak is *very* accurate with carry distance, especially since the v3.4.1 update. Ignore CH speed, it's calculated. Ball speed is what you should pay attention to.

99% chance it's ISS: https://gunghogolf.com/articles/indo...ndrome-skytrak - and 1% chance it's your ball (make sure you test with a brand new ball - they go short right before they crack).

[GSchofield62]

I've read about ISS. But I live in a place where we are covered in snow for 6 months of the year and I've been training indoors for years. I have no issue on any other simulator including About Golf and Trackman. Only the skytrak. I know carry distance is the only reliable distance, but my carry distance on my driver should not only be 220, even if it was ISS. I usually carry 270 outdoors and on the other sims.

[GungHoGolf]

Ok. You're on v3.4.1, right? Lots of videos out there of guys carrying 300+ on SkyTrak. Also, v3.4.1 hasn't made its way into sim integrations yet, so this is on the SkyTrak range, right? And you're selecting Driver for your club?

[Morini]

The best way to settle this is to bring it somewhere and do a side by side with TM. It is not clear if you have done that. If you have a place to hit outdoors off mat with premium balls, and have a spotter available to laser back carry, you could try that as well. It has to be a windless day. Don't bother with range balls.

It is extremely unlikely that skytrak reads short. I think there might have been one case where that was somewhat confirmed by ST.

Lighting does not have any impact. Reflections etc will may lead to no-reads, but won't cause short shots. What are your ball speed numbers like for say 7 iron? Based on your reported 170 carry, it should be PGA tour like, around 120. Maybe a bit less because you play at elevation, so maybe 117.

If you can't do a side by side with TM, or measure outside, the next best thing is to eliminate bad strikes at home. Tee up for an iron shot. Foot spray your seven iron. Place some tape on net or screen down your target line at around 16 degrees VLA impact point. If you hit it flush in the center of the face, and the ball impacts in the right area of screen ... you should see around 117 ball speed. If it is way off, something is up. ISS is still a possibility, but far less likely with 7 iron.

[GungHoGolf]

Great info here OP.

[GSchofield62]

I just did the side by side with Trackman last week. I can't remember the wind so there must not have been much. The numbers on the skytrack for my 7 iron are 89mph swing speed with 119 ball speed. My backspin was 6700 average with the 7 iron. That's the average. If I set my altitude on the skytrak to 10000 feet and I absolutely swing out of my shoes with a closed club face and pull way to the left I can get to 170 carry but it still only says my ball speed is 108...sometimes a bit faster but usually 108 or less. I have never switched my club within the skytrak range. To be honest I didn't even know you could do that. As I said before the accuracy seems correct, with pulls and pushes and fades and draws...shanks too. I have never had a non-read, not once. Actually that's not true once when I tried to use an orange ball it didn't read but only that once. I use new ProV1's or AVX's.

Also, within TGC 2019 it reads the distances almost the same as Skytrak but in the shot analysis my swing speeds are even lower. If I hit a 160 yd 7 iron...and that's with the 5% boost...it says my swing speed was only 75mph...My driver speed in the game never reads above 92. Anyways, I appreciate as always everyones input. Thank you.

[wbond]

Ignore swing speed, it's not measured at all. Pay attention only to ball readings as that is what's measured. If you did it side by side, what ball speed, spin and LA's were measured by each unit and compare the results.

[Morini]

First of all, as gunghogolf has mentioned absolutely ignore the calculated clubhead speed. It is calculated from ball speed, and is totally meaningless and just complicates trying to sort things out.

I am a bit confused, when you say "numbers on the skytrack for my 7 iron are 89mph swing speed with 119 ball speed". The ball speed is about right. Did you mean Trackman is 119, not Skytrak?

Just so it is clear, what is the side by side ball speed for TM and ST? By this I mean that you hit one ball and measure with both monitors. The ball speed should be near identical. The odd one might be a few mph apart, but on average it should be less than 1 mph. If you have say 5 mph average difference, you have a problem. But when comparing, try to use premium balls, and make sure that Trackman is NOT set to normalize, because it will artificially boost the TM ball speed.

Switching clubs in ST has no bearing on ball speed. It will make the calculated club head speed more accurate, but as mentioned, don't worry about that right now.

[Morini]

Since we have your TM measured swing speed for 7 iron, you should get around 118 ball speed on your best struck 7 irons. You report 108 average, but so maybe your cleanest two faster, so let's go with 110 mph. What can cause that 8 mph shortfall?

• Faulty ST
• Indoor swing
• Club mat interaction
• Other

The first one is unlikely, but not impossible. Easiest way to confirm it is to hit side by side with TM. It is not clear if you have done that, but if you see 8 mph difference using premium balls, the unit has issues.

Indoor swing: The cause of most distance short falls. It can be subconscious. You may have hit indoors before, but unless you have the same distance to walls and ceilings, you can't rule it out.

Club mat interaction: Use a tee to rule this out. It happens.

Other: Can't think of any.

[GSchofield62]

Okay so today my golf coach and I did a side-by-side or should I say Side by behind comparison of trackman and skytrak. I am definitely getting shorter results with the skytrak. The track man was not set to normalize. We used Titleist Pro V1 and AVX has that were brand new. We confirmed but there was an issue with my swing and with his. Here are the results
avg driver carry on trackman 278
Avg driver carry on skytrak 229

Avg 7 iron carry on tm 172 ball speed 119
avg 7 iron carry on st 155 ball speed 108

We only had time for the two ckubs but he had similar results. Driver on TM 298 carry
driver on ST 257 carry

[Celeras]

Those numbers are absurd and there is zero reason for that kind of differential other than a defective unit. Send it in.

[Morini]

Well that pretty well settles it. You have a wonky unit. There was only one other case where it was suspected that the strobe was too weak. Not exactly sure how that results in lower ball speed being calculated.

There are some other causes, but most would result in misreads, not consistently short reads.

[Morini]

Interesting. I found the post. It was opposite problem, the Skytrak was long, not short. The wife was hitting 170+ 7 irons and it pushed him into action, lol.

A late updated for the forum. After my wife was hitting 175 yard 7-irons I got fed up and sent the unit in for service. They confirmed the distances were way too long and fixed it with replacing the flash module. Now, the distances are spot on, across the bag. I should have sent it in sooner. Since it was within the warranty time frame it was free of charge.

https://golfsimulatorforum.com/forum...akman-thoughts

You are an anomaly in that in all likelihood have a hardware problem that results in actually having an ST that reads short. I am happy that you had access to TM and could confirm it beyond a doubt. The ratio of perceived to actual hardware issues is about 300 to 1.

[wbond]

haha and that ratio is probably being generous