All of a sudden - Major ball speed distance loss

[Lombo]

Been a Skytrak user since 2017 and although over the years I've had some minor issues, with the help of people on this site I've managed to solve pretty much everything and have been a very happy user overall. But something has happened over the last month or so that is confusing me and I'm at a loss for an explanation. I purchased a new hitting insert (Bullseye 3D strip) and cut it into my hitting mat - It's totally 100% flush with my matt and it's nice. At this time, I decided I didn't need the protective case anymore, so I decided to set up the Skytrak on a separate mat next to my hitting mat with the new hitting strip. It sits 100% level to my hitting mat so that's not the issue.; Since then though, I've noticed that the ballspeed is down with every club, just incrementally with the irons, but the driver is especially affected on the low side of ball speed. Normally I would think that it was a direct result of the new strip, but it's happening most on the driver. Routinely, I have ball speeds with the driver that range between 246-251 before this change, with the occasional a bit more or less than that depending on quality of strike. In the past, I've gotten as high as 154/155 when I am swinging really well and trying to swing out of my shoes but that's not my normal swing - right in the 246-251 realm. If I'm lower than say, 144, it's usually a bad strike/swing that you know even before the shot registers. But right now, even my really good strikes are only getting to about 245/246. Last weekend I was in an AboutGolf commercial simulator setup with my buddies and my average was around 154, with a high of 156 - now I will say that is a lot higher than I would expect, but I don't know much on the AboutGolf setups, maybe it was slightly juiced for commerical purposes- I don't know but we didn't do anything or request anything for the setup like that. This weekend I really tried eveything with the Skytrak - double checking the setup direction, double checking with a level making sure the skytrak and surface were completely level ,using new balls (Maxfli Tours, Snells and even a ProV1) and basically got the same results with all of them as far as ballspeeds go. Now I know when I hit it well and when I don't and I can say I hit a ton of these balls really well that would normally register in the 149/150 range a couple of months ago on the Skytrak and all I could muster was about a 144/145 average this weekend. I think I hit maybe 1 or 2 at 246 and those couple were right out of the middle based on feel and I'm not sure I could hit them any better to be honest.
As far as it being strip related, these balls are teed up (about an inch behind the dot or so is where I routinely tee it up). The shots are registering just fine, so it's not a no read situation at all. Shot shapes seem to be accurate. - I use a rubber tee - always have.
Any thoughts on this? Would the removal of the protective case have any bearing on this? I've cleaned the lens thinking maybe that was affecting the reading somehow. I'm super confused on this - any thoughts?
I am going to test it out more, but am interested in any ideas or if anyone has experienced something like this in the past. The obvious answer is to put it back in the case and try again and that's what I am going to do this week, but looking for anything else to try.

[Morini]

There is nothing in setup that will cause reduced ball speed. The unit is either accurate or miscalibrated. And the latter is very rare ... though I have a suspicion that there might have been some lately, ... after the server migration.

Regardless, it is much more likely that your ball speed is down than the unit being miscaligrated. What could cause it? The first guess would be cracked ball, but you already ruled that out. So the next most likely is that you are making crappy contact. I think it is foot spray time.

A couple of years ago, I'd say that it was zero chance that it was a calibration issue, as it was essentially unheard of. Especially spontaneously. But as mentioned, some strange things have occured. The most well known is that alignment goes out for some in the case. The other is that different sim option has different ball speed for some users. That is a headscratcher, but the most logical explanation is that the each software is using different calibration info. Another strange happening was that alignment would change between sims.

[Lombo]

Thanks for the message -
I too believe the vast vast majority of situations where we see lower than expected results with the Skytrak involve some sort of setup problem, or ball problem. that's why my next step is to put it back in the case, and start from scratch with the alignment and setup.
You mentioned that my swing speed could be down - and that is a very possible option - however, let me explain that I was hitting the 150/151 BS mark in February, right before a Florida golfing trip and even after that when I returned in later February while the unit was still in it's protective case. I removed the unit from the case when I switched around my hitting mat as I had described above and have since kept it out of the case since. It was immediately after that I noticed these changes in BS - most notably with the driver.
I too find it hard that it's the Skytrak but even using it a couple of times since I posted, the BS numbers remain unchanged.

What I really need to do is get my hands on a PRGR unit to measure the BS for a comparison with the same setup - That would settle it.
I also wonder if the unit somehow is starting to show it's age with the curtain problems I've heard about in the past - my unit is now going on it's 7th year of use. But to my knowledge that would only involve the unit reading the ball, not necessarily the results but I don't know for sure.

I used the unit on Saturday for about an hour, and only worked on wedge numbers (which did seem accurate but I've never had an issue with those numbers), so I didn't really have the opportunity to test it out fully like I wanted with driver. This week I should have some time to do this. I should mention that I see these results in the Skytrak app and that's what I'm basing this post on.

Explain to me one thing you mentioned about different SIm Options - I recently started using GSPRO but didn't think that could be a culprit. I'm seeing the lower BS numbers in GSPRO as well since those numbers are taken directly from the Skytrak.

[nbar]

"I have ball speeds with the driver that range between 246-251" Think there maybe something wrong with this 1 mph of ball speed equates to 2 yards of distance with the driver according to trackman. That would mean your hitting your driver 492 yards.

[Lombo]

Sorry - that was a typo and didn't catch it until you pointed it out - and I typed that number twice in my original message - sorry about that - let me state it clearly below -
My normal ballspeeds on average used to be between 146-151 - that's what I was referring to in the original message. I'm in the high 130's now and can get to about 144/146 on what I call center struck well struck shots, something that in the past would be in the 150/151 range.

[JFreen]

Did you ever figure this out? I have the same experience. Everything fine for approximately 3 years then a sudden loss of ball speed. I go over to by buddy's house and hit on Skytrak+ and ball speeds instantly back to normal. Contact Skytrak and they tell me to try a few things and so far nothing has worked. Would love to hear any update you can provide on this. Thank you.

[Lombo]

No - never figured it out. I actually took advantage of the Black Friday deals on the Uneekor Mini Lite for $1800 new and have been using that for the majority of time since and using it with GSPRO. Unfortunately, I cannot hit the same shot with both units at the same time as I can't get the hitting areas to match up but I have gone between the both of them using alternate shots and reading the data. Everything matches up nicely until we get to the 3wd and driver - the ball speed is definitely an issue with the Skytrak. The Uneekor reads the normal ball speed of roughly 147-150 and the Skytrak seems to be anywhere from 4-5 miles (sometimes more) consistently slower. The carry distance is also affected. This week, I went to a golf galaxy and demoed the new Qi35 driver on a trackman. 1st swing was 149 ballspeed and my final swing I hit the 155 mark (in room temperature), which is very high for me - although I can't really speak to the Trackman numbers as I was hitting a new driver (by the way, it was a super performing driver).
The only variable in my head is possibly temperature. My Sim setup is in my garage and I'm in the Northeast with temp around 45-50 degrees in my garage. Possibly the balls are so cold that they lose a little pop and I lose some ballspeed - but I also saw this in the summer as well, so I don't think that is it. It's not really a big deal to me, as the Skytrak is awesome with every other thing I use it for, especially the shot shape and bag mapping features. It's just that the driver and 3wd I know will not be as accurate when it comes to ballspeed. I'm chalking it up to the unit being a bit older and maybe it's starting to show it's age - I don't know really how to otherwise explain it - I've tried to take out all the other variables. The only thing I have not tried is to put it back in it's protective case but I can't believe that is it.

[JFreen]

Thanks for the reply. Ya, I can't see the case being an issue either. For me, ball speeds are down across all the clubs. It's weird. I was wondering the same thing about a the age of the unit but I would hope that it could last longer. I have always really enjoyed Skytrak but it's frustrating when you know the numbers are off and you have to take more club into every hole than you know you would actually need to.