How accurate is the swing speed measurement?

[pbrb]

How accurate is the Skytrak swing speed measurement? I think it's computing swing speed, and not actually measuring it, but I'm shocked at how low it's telling me some of my swing speeds are.

First, a little context... normally, I hit my 7i about 165-170yds, and driver around 270yds. I'm currently doing something weird with my swing and lost a bunch of muscle mass, which has me clubbing up a full club on basically every shot. For example, I used to hit my 8i 150yds, but for the past few months, I've been hitting my 7i from 150yds out.

Even with my current reduced distances, the Skytrak distance measurements seem perfect. They're spot on to my 'real life' distances. The only thing that sometimes seems off is that I'll have a wedge shot that I swear would be 50yds (half swing with 58 degree) register as 65yds or 70yds.

Swing speed though, seems way off sometimes. For example, I would guess I swing in the 90-100mph range based on my current distances. Though, Skytrak has registered a few swings that do show the correct distance, but only have a swing speed in the 60-70mph range. That just seems impossible. I don't think you can physically hit a 7i 150yds with a 60mph or 70mph swing speed.

Any ideas? I should probably actually track the shots that seem off to save the data points.

[3on3putt]

Ball speed is measured and then club head speed is calculated based off that.

Around 75mph is about typical for a 7 iron. Remember, your club head speed goes down with each club. You aren't swinging at the same speed with a short iron as you are with a driver.

If there's anything you're questioning, post screen shots of the data so we can get a better idea.

[Mirek_62]

Skytrak does not measure the speed of the club head, it only estimates it. I don't know why Skytrak displays this value at all. It can be confusing.
SkyTrak_Seth It would probably be good to change the description to "estimate club speed" instead of "club speed"

[Morini]

Honestly, just ignore it. If say a 7 iron went a bit low, it will assume it was struck by say a 4 iron. The assummed smash on a 4 is much higher than a 7. So when it divides the ball speed by the higher smash, you get lower club head speed. Garbage in garbage out. Ignore, look at ball speed.

[SkyTrak_Seth]

Club head speed is tricky for sure. On a center-struck shot, I would say that we are VERY close (<1mph). Our calculations can only assume you are hitting it in the center of the face, so the less well-struck the shot, the further off the calculation is going to be.

Also, check the back spin on those wedge shots. It happens to me a lot where the club just slides along the mat (instead of taking a divot) and results in much lower back spin.

[pbrb]

Club head speed is tricky for sure. On a center-struck shot, I would say that we are VERY close (<1mph). Our calculations can only assume you are hitting it in the center of the face, so the less well-struck the shot, the further off the calculation is going to be.

Also, check the back spin on those wedge shots. It happens to me a lot where the club just slides along the mat (instead of taking a divot) and results in much lower back spin.

Thanks, this is really helpful. Swing speed isn't ultra-important to me as long as I can ballpark it, which seems like I should be able to. The spin off my wedges seems pretty legit so far, with only one or two outliers that seemed on the high end. One thing that I find awesome is actually seeing the difference in spin between a z-star and a soft feel. I've always noticed it while playing, but to see it reflected on the skytrak with wedges is really cool.

[GungHoGolf]

FWIW, I had an extended session with my 8 iron using a Pro V1 ball the other evening, using both the SkyTrak and the Mevo+ in tandem. SkyTrak had my average clubhead speed at 82, Mevo+ (which measures clubhead speed) had it at 87. Same ball speeds and spin and launch angles.

[nbar]

" I don't think you can physically hit a 7i 150yds with a 60mph or 70mph swing speed." The male amateur driving efficiency to be 2.29 yards per mph of club head speed. So a 60 mph swing speed should be 137.4 65 MPH 148.85 etc.

[Morini]

Did you mean yards, not MPH? 60 mph swing speed is max 90 mph ball speed with driver.

[nbar]

Yes sorry "So a 60 mph swing speed should be 137.4 YARDS, 65 mph 148.85 YARDS etc"

[pbrb]

I guess I was way off on my understanding of swing speed then. I'll have to look up how it scales with different length clubs etc. I thought 65mph was way too slow for that yardage. Thanks.

[brward]

Thanks, this is really helpful. Swing speed isn't ultra-important to me as long as I can ballpark it, which seems like I should be able to. The spin off my wedges seems pretty legit so far, with only one or two outliers that seemed on the high end. One thing that I find awesome is actually seeing the difference in spin between a z-star and a soft feel. I've always noticed it while playing, but to see it reflected on the skytrak with wedges is really cool.

This so much. Getting a SkyTrak really opened my eyes. I never thought the ball made THAT much difference. I was hitting some crappy, cheap balls with a full 56 and getting really high launch with little back spin. I'm talking 26ish launch with 10k backspin to 38 launch with 3k backspin. I thought my swing was messed up. Grabbed a Pro V1 and my numbers were right back to what I expected.