Now that it’s starting to get colder and we must find ways to work on our golf game indoors. In this blog, I will show you how to use the Skytrak Launch Monitor to help fix your slice indoors.

First, let’s talk about setting up the launch monitor. To set up, you are going to click on Session Settings. Set the camera angle to first person. You can play around with the settings to have it set up exactly how you want it but I like to see my main distance view to be set up as “carry”. Of course I make sure that it’s set up for a right handed golfer and I like for my ball spin to be set up as “spin axis”. Spin axis is going to show you the curve of the ball in the air.

I am using the Net Return in this video and this is particularly helpful in the winter months and rainier season. I have used the Net Return for 10 years and I have been very pleased with the customer service and the quality of the product. I have carried the Net Return around the country for golf events, it has seen literally thousands of swings. It has been packed up, shipped out, banged around, and driven over by a van and I would never go with another product. It comes with shank guards on the sides as well.

In this video, I was looking for a particular shot. This is a very common ball flight, something I see in a lot of my students. If you are having trouble with a slice or you are thinking about getting one of these indoor set ups, this may be the video for you. If you are seeing a consist situation where you have this 14 degree tilt to the right, you may be struggling with this. You may have an open club face with an out-to-in swing path which is causing the ball to go off to the right. Before we even begin, we may want to see where you are hitting the ball on the club. By putting some foot powder on your club face, you can see where you are hitting the club. If your path and face are both square to the target at impact and you hit the ball on the toe, your ball will hook. If you hit the ball on the heel of the club your ball will go off to the right.

So if you have seen a consistent trend of ball flight to the right and your club face is open, the first thing you may want to check is your grip. With the grip, make sure that the “V” between your thumb and forefinger on your left hand (for a right-handed golfer) is pointed at your back shoulder. The palm of your right hand should be perpendicular to the target.

If you’ve adjusted your grip so that you have a nice strong grip, and you are still seeing an open club face, the next thing you may want to work on is your swing path. First, with a very slow and short swing, you want to watch your club face to make sure that it remains square to the arc of your swing. As you take the backswing, check to make sure that club face is opening, squaring up through impact, and then closing on the follow through. This is much easier to do when you are slowing down the swing. Quiet down your hands and let the club swing. Once you start to see a spin axis that is consistently to the left, you can start to make a bigger and faster swing and see if you can maintain that leftward spin axis.

Practice this drill using the Skytrak to see if you can get your slice under control through the winter time and you will have more fun and see lower scores in 2021!

Check out the video here!

To purchase the Skytrak or Net Return Click Here!

Let’s keep this super simple. When you are practicing indoors, if you don’t have feedback as to where the ball is going, things can become difficult. When it comes to finding the latest and greatest in technology, understanding what is important on a screen full of numbers is also confusing and overwhelming. So today we are trying to keep it simple when it comes to comprehension of the numbers on your screen.

To watch the full video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URKSZlTXg8o&feature=youtu.be

We were on the third take of our instructional video when Lauren peered over the camera and said to me, “You’re making this too complicated. I don’t understand what half of these numbers mean. Give it to me straight. Which numbers are important when it comes to understanding ball flight?” The result was the final cut of the video.

In a nutshell, when I hit a ball indoors, possibly into a net, I want to make sure that the numbers I am seeing are giving me an accurate depiction of what my ball flight would do if I were on the range. Here are the important things to know on your launch monitor: how far you are hitting the ball and whether the ball is going left, right or straight. The Skytrak gives you a shot tracer so you can have a general idea of what your ball flight would look like. But there are also some other numbers to look at when it comes to ball flight. In this video we looked at spin axis and side angle. Spin axis, provided there’s no wind, will tell you if your ball would be curving right or left. Side angle will tell you which direction your ball launched in relation to the target. Next week we will dive more into some of the more common swing flaws and what they might look like on the Skytrak. In general though, if your spin axis is tilted to the right, you probably have an open club face and you are probably swinging on an out to in path. This is often true especially if your ball launches left with a spin axis to the right.

If you are practicing indoors and you can’t see where the ball is going, you may be in for a rude awakening. It’s very important to understand what is going on with your ball flight. The Skytrak is a fantastic product with a reasonable price point and is a very durable machine. We have used our Skytrak Launch Monitor for 6 years in a commercial setting and it still works great. If you have any questions about what you are seeing on your Skytrak, please reach out with questions. If you are interested in purchasing the Skytrak, click here for more information.