SkyTrak Distance Issue

[Rubixcube]

I just bought a SkyTrak, and was so excited when it arrived. I charged it overnight, and rushed home from work the next dayto set it up. I am pretty tech savvy, so it all seemed to go smoothly...until I hit my first shot. 6 iron, 100 yards. I take another shot 90 yards, then 96 yards. I thought maybe something wasn't aligned properly. I have raised up the unit, lowered down to the floor, placed the ball forward/behind/left/right of the red dot, in the protective case and out, but I haven't been able to get Skytrak to give me a distance of more than 120 yards for my 6 iron. I switched to other clubs, and have the same issue of the distance seeming to be way under. Hybrid is going aobut 130-140 yards with Skytrak. I used Arccos all summer, so I know that I average 160 yards with my 6 iron, and 200 yards with my 3 Hybrid. The direction seems to be working well, if I hit a hook or slice, Skytrak is tracking that accurately. I gave up after an hour, and tried to figure out what was going on again last night. Unfortunately, I got the same results, no matter what club I used, the distance seems way too low.

I know people have commented that when you are inside, you don't swing like outside. My ceiling is 10ft, so I have no worries, and really do swing like normal. I have been hitting in my basement all winter, so this wasn't my first time hitting off of my mat. I find it pretty unlikely that my shots are all around 40-50 yards less then in real life. Unfortunately is is 20 degrees outside today, so I can't really go to a range to compare my shots to the real world. I would love to be able to use SkyTrak this weekend, and really don't want to return it, but it is kind of useless for me at this point.

I included some screenshots of some practice sessions and a picture of my setup. Do any of my numbers look way off? and therefore be causing the problem? Could it be a lighting issue? Any suggestions as to what I could be doing wrong would be really appreciated.
Thanks!

[N54TT]

I got my Skytrak a week ago. Tested it against a GC2 and distances generally 10% off. However, it was averages of 10 balls hit on each. So I took my Skytrak to my country club and tested against their About Golf simulator so that I could test on the same shot. Same thing...generally 10% off. More distance off on longer shots. I'm sending it back to have them take a look at it. Anyone able to solve their distance issue if they happened to have one?

Was the carry 10% off or was it the total distance. The carry is what you should really be focusing on.

[kjerath]

Carry distance

[TorchRedRob]

I would go even farther to say that you should ignore any reported distance and compare only the following parameters:
ball speed, launch angle (vertical and horizontal), total spin, and spin axis (or "backspin" and "sidespin" if so reported)

If these numbers are the same, you're good.

[kjerath]

I didn't check those although I'm trying to get my distances dialed in, so I look at distance firss. I've sent my SKytrak in to Sky Golf...let's see what they say. I'll look at those numbers when I get it back. Thx.

[wbond]

Are you just comparing them indoors? Have you been able to test outdoors with actual flight to a known target distance? You will quickly know if you are short 10%

[kjerath]

I have not tested it outdoors. My issue isn't that it's 10% off of what I think. It's that the numbers don't match GC2 or AboutGolf Simulators (on the same shot). I just want consistency or something that is a bit closer.

[BogeyMan]

Been a while since I logged onto this this forum caught this topic right off the bat. I have had distance issues since day one, took the unit outdoors confirmed same poor readings, tried most of the suggestions already mentioned. Got frustrated enough I sent the unit back to Skytrak support for analysis, they sent it back said it was within their specs. I gave up and pretty much have only used this thing a couple of times since, thought about selling but have not, been hoping for a real fix and have been holding out. Looks like people are still having issues and there is not real solutions just simple adjustments that might have marginal affects.

[wbond]

That sucks. When you did your testing outdoors, how far off do you think it was? Was it roughly the same percentage across all clubs or were some worse than others?

Been a while since I logged onto this this forum caught this topic right off the bat. I have had distance issues since day one, took the unit outdoors confirmed same poor readings, tried most of the suggestions already mentioned. Got frustrated enough I sent the unit back to Skytrak support for analysis, they sent it back said it was within their specs. I gave up and pretty much have only used this thing a couple of times since, thought about selling but have not, been hoping for a real fix and have been holding out. Looks like people are still having issues and there is not real solutions just simple adjustments that might have marginal affects.

[Godfather]

For me, so far it looks like wedges are a touch short (10 yds with 58), mid to long irons a touch long (6-7 irons maybe 10 yds long, sometimes more) and driver a touch short (not sure on exactly how much). I haven't hit outside on the Skytrak with the same balls to compare, but to me it's not a big deal. I know my real yardages and my Skytrak yardages. Done. Driver is a bit strange in that normally I can take a little off and dial a little up, but ball speed barely changes. At Golfsmith on a GC2 I put up 155-6 MPH ball speed consistently with a normal swing, but on Skytrak I can swing out of my shoes and only hit 148 MPH. Not a big deal, just odd how the yardage differences work across my bag.

[TorchRedRob]

For me, so far it looks like wedges are a touch short (10 yds with 58), mid to long irons a touch long (6-7 irons maybe 10 yds long, sometimes more) and driver a touch short (not sure on exactly how much). I haven't hit outside on the Skytrak with the same balls to compare, but to me it's not a big deal. I know my real yardages and my Skytrak yardages. Done. Driver is a bit strange in that normally I can take a little off and dial a little up, but ball speed barely changes. At Golfsmith on a GC2 I put up 155-6 MPH ball speed consistently with a normal swing, but on Skytrak I can swing out of my shoes and only hit 148 MPH. Not a big deal, just odd how the yardage differences work across my bag.

I originally saw the same thing with driver. You might want to check the mat you are standing on with the SkyTrak. I had a soft mat that allowed my feet to sink and twist, and that was sapping a lot of ball speed on driver, both because of the wasted motion/energy since my feet couldn't properly support the loading, and because I wasn't hitting it as centered since I was sunk down a bit. I started standing on a long 2x12 I had lying around, just to see if my theory was correct and it was. Standing on the piece of lumber, my ball speeds with the driver went right back up to where they should be.

[SomaPLR]

There is no distance issue. One swing going after it the other normal.

[TorchRedRob]

I agree with all of your comments, SomaPLR

[SomaPLR]

You hit the ball pretty hard too Rob are you seeing that as well?

[TorchRedRob]

If you mean the effect of side spin being a little high, yes. I see that, too. That's regardless of ball speed for me. When I'm in good golf shape, I'm low to mid 160's, but even when I haven't played in a while, I still see the effect around 150-155.

[Godfather]

I originally saw the same thing with driver. You might want to check the mat you are standing on with the SkyTrak. I had a soft mat that allowed my feet to sink and twist, and that was sapping a lot of ball speed on driver, both because of the wasted motion/energy since my feet couldn't properly support the loading, and because I wasn't hitting it as centered since I was sunk down a bit. I started standing on a long 2x12 I had lying around, just to see if my theory was correct and it was. Standing on the piece of lumber, my ball speeds with the driver went right back up to where they should be.

Wow that is a great theory. Thanks for the heads up. I'll try it out and maybe go to a smaller mat with a firmer platform. Right now I have a mat on top of carpet on top of the carpet pad, so it's soft and also moves back and forth with your weight.

[SomaPLR]

over 95% of golfers over estimate how far they hit the ball. This study was done at Torrey Pines.

[SomaPLR]

Guest - I do I can post it later tonight, it was actually done by Trackman - I'm not sure if they used Trackman or Trackman did the study but I'll post it later. Most golfers over estimate how far they hit the ball due to anchoring theory...when I was browsing there used to be a rumor that SkyTrack didn't track drives over 250. See my screen shots above

[SkyTrak_Seth]

Those are great numbers! But, we've tracked them over 400 yards no problem

[SomaPLR]

only a few guys on the planet that can do that on normal fairways with no wind...who was it?

[BogeyMan]

That sucks. When you did your testing outdoors, how far off do you think it was? Was it roughly the same percentage across all clubs or were some worse than others?

I would say probably the percentage off was the same up the club line but the actual distance per club was greater as I moved up to the driver. So the unit is consistantly off. I have a bigger issue at the moment, its not even reading a shot period. Waiting on tech support to cal me back on what they are going to do next.

[N54TT]

I would say probably the percentage off was the same up the club line but the actual distance per club was greater as I moved up to the driver. So the unit is consistantly off. I have a bigger issue at the moment, its not even reading a shot period. Waiting on tech support to cal me back on what they are going to do next.

That's unfortunate to hear about your distances...especially since mine are spot on, verified outside with laser. Others have posted the same and have hit on trackman at the same time with the same results. Please post back after you hear from tech. Tech support is one of my biggest concerns especially since it only has a 6 month warranty. Wonder if your laser curtain is broken. Has the unit ever been hit?

[BogeyMan]

That's unfortunate to hear about your distances...especially since mine are spot on, verified outside with laser. Others have posted the same and have hit on trackman at the same time with the same results. Please post back after you hear from tech. Tech support is one of my biggest concerns especially since it only has a 6 month warranty. Wonder if your laser curtain is broken. Has the unit ever been hit?

No the unit has never been knocked over or hit, matter of fact I have it the hard case, I purchased that also. It was working about a month ago when it was used last. I brought a guy home from work at lunch and we banged away a few shots for about 30 minutes. Since then its just sat int he corner until 2 days ago.

[Lefty]

Here's a summary of my perceived distance issues with Skytrak:

My carry distances on Skytrak were about 15% shorter than what I experience on the course. My typical carry distance for an 8i is 145; on Skytrak it was always around 125. I was convinced that my Skytrak unit was defective and the issues were not due to common user errors such as swinging differently indoors, alignment of the unit, etc.

I finally brought the unit to a Golftec to have one of their instructors test it against a GC2. He wasn't able to use the Skytrak and GC2 at the same time, but he did compare sets of 5 shots on each with a PW and 6i. The results were almost identical with the 6i and the PW distances were slightly shorter on Skytrak and also showed slightly higher backspin numbers.

I also hit at Golftec to see if I had the same distance issues using their setup. What I found is that I was hitting about two inches behind the ball. I have a new Country Club Elite golf mat at home and realized that it was slowing the club down significantly more than when I hit on grass or on a worn commercial mat at a driving range. This was the reason the distances were much shorter on Skytrak.

The feedback from Skytrak has really helped with hitting the ball first and has greatly improved my game. I was amazed to see how similar the ball flight, spin and distance numbers matched up to the GC2.

[rsuslow]

I'm right there with you. I blamed my Skytrak when I first got it for seeing 20-30 yard distance loss. Mostly because IRL I did not have this loss. 8 iron IRL was 150-155, but 125-135 on Skytrak at home.

I had the same realization you did. Hitting behind on the mat versus hitting behind on grass is different.

I realized this when I saw that my driver was fairly accurate, sometimes only a 10 yard loss, but overall very consistent to my IRL drives.

[N54TT]

Here's a summary of my perceived distance issues with Skytrak:

My carry distances on Skytrak were about 15% shorter than what I experience on the course. My typical carry distance for an 8i is 145; on Skytrak it was always around 125. I was convinced that my Skytrak unit was defective and the issues were not due to common user errors such as swinging differently indoors, alignment of the unit, etc.

I finally brought the unit to a Golftec to have one of their instructors test it against a GC2. He wasn't able to use the Skytrak and GC2 at the same time, but he did compare sets of 5 shots on each with a PW and 6i. The results were almost identical with the 6i and the PW distances were slightly shorter on Skytrak and also showed slightly higher backspin numbers.

I also hit at Golftec to see if I had the same distance issues using their setup. What I found is that I was hitting about two inches behind the ball. I have a new Country Club Elite golf mat at home and realized that it was slowing the club down significantly more than when I hit on grass or on a worn commercial mat at a driving range. This was the reason the distances were much shorter on Skytrak.

The feedback from Skytrak has really helped with hitting the ball first and has greatly improved my game. I was amazed to see how similar the ball flight, spin and distance numbers matched up to the GC2.

Good to see you've gained confidence in the Skytrak data. I've been through it myself and It's happened over and over with other users. When I read posts like yours my first suggestion is to always take it out to the range and compare with actual ball flight and distance. More often than not...there's nothing wrong with the Skytrak. CCE is well known to drastically reduce club head speed/distance....if hit even a fraction behind the ball.