Dicks Sporting goods Launch Monitor

[MattM]

I read that Dick's has two different kinds of monitor.  One is a camera and one is a radar.  To help you get the idea of what I hit on.  It was in it's own room with a white screen and you would have to go back to look at the computer to see your scores etc.

Reason I am bringing this up is that my buddy and I went in to try out the new RBZ 3 wood.  He is a 6 handicap and you can see what I am.  His swings were in the 106-108 range and the monitor was saying that he was hitting his 3 wood in the 280-290 range.

I went in to it and I got anywhere from a 100mph swing to a 108 mph swing however it said I was getting from 250-275 because of the spin.  His was 2800 and mine was like 3300 or so.

I'm wondering if this thing is accurate?  I mean I usually hit my 3 wood anywhere from 230 to 245 with roll added in and I think my buddy is probably in the 250 range or so. Do we really have 108 mph swing speeds?  It just seems to me to be a little to fast.

[tazrestling27]

It is different on every machine you step on, you could be close to that, but the distance may be a little false. For example, I went into one Golf Galaxy machine, it said I hit my drives on avg. 335 yds. Longest one being 340 yds. However this isn't true, I would pay attention to ball mph. not your swing speed. I have been tested on a lot of machines, my distance for my clubs avg on the machine like 320 yds. However on the course it is more like 300- 305 yds.

[EverythingGolf]

It is hard to get a real number on a launch monitor if you dont hit the ball on the sweet spot or near the sweet spot on every swing. The reason for this is that the swing speeds are based on 1 MPH of swing speed = 2.5 yards of distance. So if your swing speed is 100 MPH and you hit the ball on the sweet spot or close to it you could hit the ball 250 yards and a ball speed of 143 on average. This will change when you hit the ball closer to the toe or heel. Even if your swing speed is 100 MPH the ball speed will not be 143 it could drop to 120 and now the ball will only go about 210 yards.

This is just an example the club and other things can effect the outcome.

[MattM]

Guys I'm just wondering if the Swing Speed itself is accurate.  I take the distance with a grain of salt, but I'm wondering if it can accurately read swing speeds?

[poser]

Originally Posted by MattM

Guys I'm just wondering if the Swing Speed itself is accurate.  I take the distance with a grain of salt, but I'm wondering if it can accurately read swing speeds?

Hard to tell it could still be off also.  If you really want to know for sure I would look for a flightscope or trackman.

[Beachcomber]

You should go hit on a doppler radar rather than using a camera based system.

Trackman's are pretty accurate with regard to club speed and ball speed in my testing.

[saevel25]

I wouldn't rely on the yardage, just the swing speed, and launch angle. The machine will try to interpolate a golf ball distance from a defined equation, but there inaccurate. I had launch monitor say i hit the ball 350-370 yards before, while another one had me at 285, while another had me at 310. Yet my ball speed, 160-170 hasn't changed at all.

[golfernc]

Interesting, Anyone know who makes the launch monitors for Dicks? Seems like they use two different companies a radar, and a camera based.? Or maybe one company makes both?

[EverythingGolf]

I believe this is what they use.

Zelocity Pure Launch

[MattM]

Thats exactly what they used. Any info on it? Is it any good at measuring swing speed?

[saevel25]

I hate that machine, because it uses doplar radar. The issue is, that the golf club can put off such a loud noise from the clubface to ball interaction that you can get NaN results. I spent a good half an hour, using that, only getting a handful of results to get some data points.

[Gifted Golfer]

The radar “sees” the club and golf ball before, during, and after the moment of impact, and follows the ball as it flies down range. This allows Zelocity to collect a stream of actual data points from the Doppler radar signal. It is then processed through patented mathematical algorithms, to produce vital statistics about the shot.  It is suppose to be accurate.

I think all of them will be off some.

[MattM]

hmm.. Well if it is even within 5 miles an hour accurate that explanes some things for me. Its probably the reason why im way more accurate with my r11 with a stiff shaft than I was with the 09 burner with the reax stiff. I always felt like I had to take alot of speed off the 09 to hit it right.