Different mats, different distances (and strange club speed numbers)

[bonvivantva]

In 2019, I bought my dad a skytrak setup with a rainorshinegolf Swingturf mat. It's pretty firm with a tight weave. I'm used to hitting off this mat, and when I swing say my 7 iron, I get about 160 carry on average at an average swing speed of about 75mph. Just for reference, I also take lessons on occasion on a trackman with an unknown make of mat. The mat is similarly firm and very well worn. On trackman my 7i speed is similar, about 75, but my carry distance is about 10 yards less than on skytrak, about 150 average.

I just got my own skytrak setup in my garage and I went with a fiberbuilt mat. Off the fiberbuilt, I'm getting carry numbers more in line with my trackman numbers. 150ish for a 7i. However, my club speed numbers are very high. Off the fiberbuilt, the club speed numbers are maybe 10mph higher than my dad's skytrak w/ swingturf, or the trackman. If I hit a 150 carry 7i, it may read as 88mph. I'm very skeptical about these club speed numbers. My skytrak does seem to be getting my driver swing speed right though. I usually swing it about 95 or so per trackman, and on my skytrak I've gotten a range from 93-100. That's why I'm thinking maybe it's a turf interaction issue. Any thoughts? It first I thought maybe the fiberbuilt was not slowing the club down as much at impact as the other mats, but the only way the speed could increase AND the carry could decrease would be more loft or more spin, which may be happening, but it doesn't seem like that is the case. The part of the fiberbuilt that you don't place the ball on, where you stand and where the skytrak sits, has not quite flattened out yet from how it was rolled during shipping, so my suspicion is that I'm just getting wonky numbers from a less than perfectly flat surface under the skytrak. Any ideas about what could be causing the club speed discrepancy?

[3on3putt]

1. Skytrak does not measure club head speed, it calculates it. Any club head speed given by Skytrak should be taken as a reasonable estimate but certainly not exact. I wouldn't pay too much attention to club head speed with a Skytrak anyway. Focus on ball speed, which is what it's actually measuring.

2. It's not recommended to have your Skytrak on the same surface that you're hitting from. Is your dad's on the same surface?

3. Is this only a 7-iron thing? Anything strange with any other club?

4. Posting pictures of shot data often helps in these discussions.

[bonvivantva]

1. Skytrak does not measure club head speed, it calculates it. Any club head speed given by Skytrak should be taken as a reasonable estimate but certainly not exact. I wouldn't pay too much attention to club head speed with a Skytrak anyway. Focus on ball speed, which is what it's actually measuring.

2. It's not recommended to have your Skytrak on the same surface that you're hitting from. Is your dad's on the same surface?

3. Is this only a 7-iron thing? Anything strange with any other club?

4. Posting pictures of shot data often helps in these discussions.

1. - I'll look into ball speed. I've paid attention to my club speed numbers, but it sounds like ball speed should be my focus instead. 2. - We've had my dad's skytrak on the same surface, or just off of it on the little adjustable stilts. We haven't noticed any difference between the two, but like I said, it's a firm mat and doesn't move much at all. 3. - No, the carry numbers are about 10 yards less across the bag and the speed numbers were about 10mph high across the bag, save for the driver. Off my dad's mat my GW for instance is almost always 104-110 on a full swing. I was maybe get 80s-90s from it last night. I'll try to get some pictures to compare.

[3on3putt]

Different mats can produce different launch conditions in terms of spin and launch angle, and therefore different distances (and of course different golf balls between the two locations). If it's more than a few yards it's likely something environmental. Would be curious to see ball speed comparisons (along with spin) between the two locations as that's going to tell you a lot more than club head speed.

[bonvivantva]

I haven't had a chance to compare ball speed numbers off the mats, but I did mess around with the skytrak's placement in my garage. I added the screws to the bottom to raise it up some and that improved the numbers, but I also started getting some obvious outliers. For instance, ball speed with my 8i ranged from 100-109, but club speed ranged from 62 to 90. I definitely didn't swing as slow as 62, but I also doubt I swung as fast as 90 with an 8i. On my dad's sim, my 8i club speed is probably mid 70s to high 70s. Same with trackman which actually measures club head speed. With the skytrak slightly elevated, I mostly got mid-high 80s numbers, so almost exactly 10mph higher than I'm used to. But the extreme high and low numbers were strange, especially since they didn't seem to correlate to distance or ball speed changes.

It also seems like the numbers are more unusual/not what I'm used to the shorter the irons get. After raising the skytrak unit, my hybrid was going about the right carry distance, 185-200ish. My 6i was also more or less what I'm used to in terms of carry, around 170-180. But I still struggled to consistently carry 150 with my 7. 140 was difficult with my 8. And then below that things were off by a full club or more. I hit my SW full, which at my dad's and in real life is about a 95 yard club, but I was only carrying maybe 75 today in the sim. My 104-110 GW was only getting me maybe 85 carry. The short irons and wedges seem more off.

[3on3putt]

The bottom of the skytrak should be at the same height as the hitting surface. That can get tricky if you're putting them on the same surface and using the skytrak case, which is why they recommend putting it on the floor next to the mat and then using the screws to raise it to the proper height. The double sided fiberbuilts complicate things in that respect because you can't really put the skytrak on the floor. If you're using a case, try taking it out of the case and see what kind of results you get.

Seeing wonky numbers for short irons and wedges could maybe be attributed to a grabby mat since you'll typically have some more mat interaction with those clubs than with hybrids and obviously driver.

[bonvivantva]

The mat is both new and different, so it may be a little grabbier than I'm accustomed to. It also just occurred to me that I did spin a few wedge shots back on the new set up and I've never done that at my dad's. I bet the spin rates are higher off the fiberbuilt, but I still have not had a chance to gather data for both.

[Morini]

I will word it a little stronger than 3on3 putt did. Completely disregard skytrak club head speed. It is just estimated off ball speed. Do not draw any conclusions from the club head speed about anything.

[bonvivantva]

I understand that now. I used to watch club head speed because it helped me when I was trying to figure out an early extension issue. When I had good rotation, the number was higher. Bad early extending flippy swings would cause lower numbers. I imagine I could have done better looking at ball speed, but I didn't realize that club speed was an estimate at the time.

I've got the skytrak set now where I'm getting pretty close to my normal carry numbers (real life, trackman, my dad's skytrak). For some reason I'm still getting shorter carry numbers from my lob and sand wedge. The next club up, my gap wedge, is 104-110ish now, which is what I'm used to. My SW is about 10-20 yards shorter than I'm used to. Same with the lob. Might be spin, might be the skytrak setup. I'll try to figure it out.

[Morini]

Most likely your wedges are launching too high off the mat. Check the VLA. If the ball rolls up the face, it can launch quite high, especially if your AoA is shallow.

[bonvivantva]

So I more or less solved the issue. When I was in direct/USB mode, I was getting a lot of misreads and strange results as previously discussed. When I switched to network, the misreads went away the numbers looked good again.

[Morini]

The connection method should have no bearing on ball data. Misreads ... yes if there is a problem with the connection method, such as static with USB. Direct mode is wifi directly between Skytrak and device (no router). Most reliable of all ... but as mentioned, has no bearing on accuracy.