Skytrak Number Question - Does This Make Sense ????

[StanMI]

When using the driving range,
Lower right corner of the screen says "Side Angle". Can I interpret this number as my club face at impact ? And, if I have a arrow pointing to the Right and open face ??
Next number to the left says "Side Spin". Can I interpret this number as my club path through the hitting zone ? And, if I have an arrow pointing Right my club path was from the outside in ??

[ironFrank]

The side angle is the way the ball is starting. This is not about if the clubface was open. It is more the direction the club was travelling.(not the face)

- if the club is travelling to the right but the clubface is square to the target you will produce a draw
- if the clubface is open when your club travels to the right it will produce a push or if it is more open a push slice

The side spin is a bad number cause it makes no sense. A ball always spins only in one directon. So switch to "spin axis" to understand around which axis the spin is going

One thing is easy to have.

- If the arrows point away from each other or point to each other it is good. (draw or fade)
- If they point both in the same directon (both right- push slice, both left pull hook) thats not so good :-)

[andygg1986]

Actually, with a driver the club face dictates 85% of the starting direction, and with an iron club face dictates 75% of the starting direction. This understanding has changed fairly recently with the use of launch monitors like Trackman. Here is an article that describes it well. http://blog.nextgengolf.org/golf-hel...-with-trackman
ironFrank is correct in that spin axis is a much better metric. Since a wedge spins about 3x as much as a driver, it can have 3x the amount of side spin but the shot curvature will be proportional to the driver. The two shots will have the same spin axis but 3x different side spin numbers.

The spin axis is determined by the relationship between the club path and face.

[ironFrank]

Actually, with a driver the club face dictates 85% of the starting direction, and with an iron club face dictates 75% of the starting direction. This understanding has changed fairly recently with the use of launch monitors like Trackman. Here is an article that describes it well. http://blog.nextgengolf.org/golf-hel...-with-trackman
ironFrank is correct in that spin axis is a much better metric. Since a wedge spins about 3x as much as a driver, it can have 3x the amount of side spin but the shot curvature will be proportional to the driver. The two shots will have the same spin axis but 3x different side spin numbers.

The spin axis is determined by the relationship between the club path and face.

I read that as well, but due to the reason I made different observations to that what they want to tell me I doubt that.

Here is my observation which make me doubt that article.

- When I am travelling from inside out by 4 degrees and my clubface ist straight to the target, my ball starts slightly right and turns back slightly left. A nice baby draw
- When I am coming from inside out about 8-10 degrees I must already close the clubface a bit, to compensate. It will start much harder to the right as well with a closed clubface

That is my personal observation made with launch momitors and Highspeed Video telling me what my clubface pointing at, at impact.

There is for sure a dictate but not that much in my humble opinion

[SomaPLR]

When using the driving range,
Lower right corner of the screen says "Side Angle". Can I interpret this number as my club face at impact ? And, if I have a arrow pointing to the Right and open face ??
Next number to the left says "Side Spin". Can I interpret this number as my club path through the hitting zone ? And, if I have an arrow pointing Right my club path was from the outside in ??

No.

I can have a closed face and still start the ball right of the target. There is no correlation to either situation.

The numbers mean what they mean, you can't extrapolate them to mean something else. Side angle is the degree off-cent the ball path starts and sidespin is the amount of RPM it is spinning left or right. To get face angle and club bath you'd have to have a Trackman or GC2 HMT

[andygg1986]

Just a few links in case you want to read or watch more about it. Also, trackman calculates face angle based on where the ball starts and how it curves. The radar cannot "see" the face of a club since it sits behind you. GC2 with HMT does seem to be the most accurate in that it actually takes pictures of what is happening.

https://www.golftec.com/blog/2016/08/golf-ball-flight-laws/

http://blog.trackmangolf.com/the-new-ball-flight-laws-david-leadbetter/

http://mytrackman.com/media/b8947def-453c-4bd2-8166-6b8b9f62eae3/.../Site