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So I bought the skytrak for the winter to mainly just keep my swing going through the winter. Since I don't have time to build a full enclosure right now, I'm hitting almost golf balls off a mat I bought from golfsmith closing (lol) and a sleeping bag hung off the ceiling as a net. This is my findings for those interested:
1. The distance loss compared to real ball data varies from club to club. For example, using my 50 yard pitch shot with a sand wedge I get nearly identical distances of the skytrak. A full swing with my sand wedge is about 100 yards in real life and about 95-100 yards with the almost golf balls.
2. As you approach the mid irons, the almost golf balls become super sensitive to strike and launch angle unlike real golf balls. A slight mistrike with real balls might throw off your results by a few yards, but with the almost golf ball a slight mistrike can result in 1-2 club differences. I found that the carry distance is somewhere between 8-10% lower than real balls, but total distance is actually not that far off (due to the lower spin readings from the almost golf balls).
3. The balls seem to launch a few degrees lower and 1/2 the spin a real ball would. Again, this is more exaggerated the lower the loft you present.
4. It helps if you marker in 3 different shapes on the ball for the skytrak to read. I found that it was inconsistent with some readings until I put a square, circle, and triangle on the ball (and pointed this at the skytrak).
With consideration to point 2. it would still make skytrak a good way to practice indoors, you just need to interpret the results differently. For example, in real life my iron distances between my 7 and 9 iron are 155, 143, 130. With the skytrak, trying my best to have a similar strike and swing speed i get 140, 130, 118. While the 9 iron goes 118 on average, I found that the inconsistencies with strike (and the ball) can create readings between 140-110 yards, which would mean I would've hit my 9 iron 155 yards on a misstrike. This wouldnn't happen with real balls. I'm thinking that the way the almost golf ball launches, it has more normalized results with higher lofts. This makes sense since it would be difficult to actually compress the ball off the fake turf when hitting lower lofted shots.
My next experiment would be to see if placing the ball on a slight tee would help make the ball data more consistent.
That being said, my idea of having a short course using the golf club to adjust for flight difference might be totally doable. I'm able to get readings of about 210-225 carry with the driver so we would be able to set a course where the par 3's are between 100-140 yards, a par 4, around 300-350 yards, and par 5's to be 400 yards.
Edit: Just tried it off a shortest slightest tee I could get secure on top of the mat (it was pretty the thickness of a nickel off the mat) and the results are super promising. Launch angles were a bit better and the flight looked more normal. I was able to hit specific distances with the clubs more consistently this way. Only problem is the short tee flies all over the room so you would need a solution for that.
1. The distance loss compared to real ball data varies from club to club. For example, using my 50 yard pitch shot with a sand wedge I get nearly identical distances of the skytrak. A full swing with my sand wedge is about 100 yards in real life and about 95-100 yards with the almost golf balls.
2. As you approach the mid irons, the almost golf balls become super sensitive to strike and launch angle unlike real golf balls. A slight mistrike with real balls might throw off your results by a few yards, but with the almost golf ball a slight mistrike can result in 1-2 club differences. I found that the carry distance is somewhere between 8-10% lower than real balls, but total distance is actually not that far off (due to the lower spin readings from the almost golf balls).
3. The balls seem to launch a few degrees lower and 1/2 the spin a real ball would. Again, this is more exaggerated the lower the loft you present.
4. It helps if you marker in 3 different shapes on the ball for the skytrak to read. I found that it was inconsistent with some readings until I put a square, circle, and triangle on the ball (and pointed this at the skytrak).
With consideration to point 2. it would still make skytrak a good way to practice indoors, you just need to interpret the results differently. For example, in real life my iron distances between my 7 and 9 iron are 155, 143, 130. With the skytrak, trying my best to have a similar strike and swing speed i get 140, 130, 118. While the 9 iron goes 118 on average, I found that the inconsistencies with strike (and the ball) can create readings between 140-110 yards, which would mean I would've hit my 9 iron 155 yards on a misstrike. This wouldnn't happen with real balls. I'm thinking that the way the almost golf ball launches, it has more normalized results with higher lofts. This makes sense since it would be difficult to actually compress the ball off the fake turf when hitting lower lofted shots.
My next experiment would be to see if placing the ball on a slight tee would help make the ball data more consistent.
That being said, my idea of having a short course using the golf club to adjust for flight difference might be totally doable. I'm able to get readings of about 210-225 carry with the driver so we would be able to set a course where the par 3's are between 100-140 yards, a par 4, around 300-350 yards, and par 5's to be 400 yards.
Edit: Just tried it off a shortest slightest tee I could get secure on top of the mat (it was pretty the thickness of a nickel off the mat) and the results are super promising. Launch angles were a bit better and the flight looked more normal. I was able to hit specific distances with the clubs more consistently this way. Only problem is the short tee flies all over the room so you would need a solution for that.
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