How accurate are the swing speed radars?

[Gata]

I am wondering if anyone has solid evidence of how accurate you can expect the swing speed radars to be compared to trackman/gc quad, etc... ? I recently had a fitting where trackman was used and I struggled to swing driver faster than 100mph. Granted the fitting was a lot of swings and I know I became fatigued, but the results were somewhat surprising to me. I expected to swing somewhat slower than normal at the fitting due to the pressure of feeling like I needed to hit it well and being inside in a bay (mental block), but I was genuinely disappointed. I have the superspeed sticks and radar and tend to swing the blue stick in the 120's. I realize that when swinging the sticks it is quite different than hitting a ball, but did not expect that much of a drop off. Last night I was at the range and was curious so I placed the radar next to the ball and hit some drives. Without trying to swing out of my shoes, I was consistently hitting balls with swings that registered 110+ on the radar. Is the radar typically that far off or could it just be I was just swinging that much better/faster?

[MonteScheinblum]

SSR are pretty accurate against themselves, but can read really fast.

I had one that was only a few mph fast.

i had another that was 12-15 fast.

 

[Gata]

I expected a few mph variance as it is a relatively cheap device, but that big of a difference seemed a little puzzling. It might have just been how I was swinging that day, or my SSR reads very fast. I guess the only way to know would to do a head to head comparison with mine and a legit monitor.

[Wesquire]

I've had two different ones. The first one was 3 or 4 mph faster than trackman, and about even with flightscope. The other one actually reads slower than both. They read somewhere toward the toe of the club, so I generally see faster speeds on heel strikes with the toe closing faster. You can also juice the numbers if you have a higher closure rate through impact.

[bradski]

they are consistently inaccurate.. I would say that most people say 3ish mph. but you can trick them by closing the club fast at the right time.

[Gata]

I did have one swing where I actually brushed the ground before the ball and it read in the high 120's. That would make sense as it probably caused the toe to rapidly close and give the false reading.

[dlow206]

Am I doing something wrong with the swingspeed radar? I was messing around with one and the speed is reading 82 mph. There is no way my swing speed is that slow. That is like my 7 iron speed as measured on multiple launch monitors including Trackman. Maybe I don't have it positioned right?

[bradski]

Driver is much better. I have similar issues with irons. I think it struggles to read them.

[puresurfr]

I use my SSR for swinging the speed sticks and measuring progress, it also seems to measure the driver swing quite well when swinging through the air but not when hitting a ball. It seems the more lag you have, the slower the SSR will read. If I swing a 6i with a floppy motion, ill get 90mpn on sir but if I hold my angle and compress it, the reading will be 60-65mph. For reference im hitting a green at 190 on the fly with a 65 mph swing ( according to SSR). Trackman has me at 84 and Foresight has me at 88. Distance is the same on foresight and trackman.

[clevited]

SSR reads the fastest part of your driver, which is the toe. As others have said, how far off it is can be very dependent on closure rate. With that, it can also be off regarding what your swing speed is if it is measuring the fastest part of your swing but that fastest part of your swing isn't at impact. So pretend the SSR is reading accurately that your peak swing speed is 100 mph, but on Trackman it is 95. You might be peaking at 100 in actuality, but just not at impact which is what the Trackman will read.

As far as the super speed sticks, if you follow the thread on this, I have posted some observations regarding the speed measurements with those. The radar seems to read those very consistently and accurately. Meaning, if you are swinging the blue stick 120, it could very well be that you are able to swing that particular club 120. However, from observations I have done of over a dozen people, the red stick seems to closely correlate with actual driver swing speed. For me it correlates really well and the only thing that holds me back is the ball in front of me.

To get a little more detailed for a moment. I think a lot of people with either flaws in their swings or a mental block can't realize that swing speed that they are physically capable of when a ball is in front of them. Could be that they wouldn't hit the ball at all or good if they swung the same way the did with the sticks and their subconscious holds back the body. It could just be that you have a great swing but go into hit mentality and you slow yourself down and don't even realize it.

Either way, don't trust the SSR for actual swing speed with your driver. Use it for increasing swing speed (if you swing 100 one day and after much practice consistently swing 105 and the ball isn't duck hooking or something, then you have probably gained 5 mph). I do think you can however, get an idea of you potential when swinging the red super speed stick and measures speed with the radar, but then it is up to you to figure out how to realize that speed with a ball in front of you.

Just my opinions and observations.

[Gamble Gamble]

@ZA206 - this is really good info on the SSR. Good luck with your swing.

[Lincoln_Arcadia]

The technology is very accurate. The issues with getting absolute readings is related to alignment. It’s a simple Doppler radar. Very accurate at measuring peak velocity but only if everything is aligned perfectly. Then subtract about 4mph for the face versus the tip of the driver.

[Gamble Gamble]

I respectfully disagree. On my GC2 my ball speed was regularly 160-169 and with my SSR setup it was giving max readings of 95 to 97 MPH. The max ball speed a 97 mph chs could produce would be 145 (97 x 1.5 max smash factor). So i borrowed another SSR to see if maybe i had a defective one. It gave readings of 119-122. My SS ranges from 107 to 113 as measured on trackman and flightscope. These things can be way off on both ends of the curve.
Like @MonteScheinblum said, use these to gauge your relative SS improvement, not your actual number.

[Lincoln_Arcadia]

We’re not disagreeing, the trajectory you made is likely not their intended line of read.

[clevited]

I have owned 3 SSRs and either I got lucky or they aren't that crazy different unit to unit. Dumb question but are you positive one wasn't on kph instead of mph? Or perhaps if its the blue one, baseball mode instead of golf mode? One last thing, were the batteries fresh in one and not the other?

That is incredibly wack if one was that different from another and I have yet to run into any that does that. I would blame any of the many variables before I would ever blame the radar itself. They are just so simple and reliable imo.

Edit: Misread ball speed for club speed, so kph not the issue my bad. Still wacky though.

[Gamble Gamble]

It was the blue one. I was not aware that there was a baseball setting on it. I thought it was weird that the other one was so much higher. I can assure you ive never hit 120 on any golf swing so that 2nd one was definitely off.

 

[clevited]

I think the second one was more normal. I have rarely ever seen one read low, and to read that low makes me think baseball setting was on and possibly some issue with set up or different club being swung? Idk, just thoughts. If you want a little rule of thumb with these things, they will typically read a driver 5 to 10% high. It can be even higher but if I were to guess at a range that covers most swings, that would be my best guess.

SSR "can" read low, but usually not that much below a true swing speed. It can pick up slower parts of the club at times depending on swing path and the driver you are hitting. This just isn't nearly as common as reading high imo.

[Gamble Gamble]

Potentially, but i got similar numbers when i put it directly in front of the bottom of the swing arc at a 45* angle. I think @clevited hit the nail on the head if it was in some other (baseball) mode.

[leekgolf]

I've owned SSR and Flightscope X2 for some time. I think the SSR is consistent. It also seems to read ~ 7 mph faster then the Flightscope.

FWIW, I've also compared the results on the Flightscope to a Trackman 4 and they read about the same.

 

[GoTime]

Has anyone seen pretty drastic reading differences with their SSR over time, or between uses? It's been some time since I used mine, but the last time I did I was hitting 130ish with driver and a ball, and a good amount above that with the green superspeed stick.

 

Granted it's winter and in my garage, but my 7i just read 92-95 with ball, driver 105ish, green stick 112ish.

 

Something is fishy. Anyone else have similar exp? Going to try and replace batteries then try again.

Edited January 12, 2021 by GoTime

[stingerfade]

I read somewhere that the baseball setting is more accurate than the golf setting at least with sticks? Anyone know if this is true or not? 

[clevited]

7 hours ago, stingerfade said:

I read somewhere that the baseball setting is more accurate than the golf setting at least with sticks? Anyone know if this is true or not? 

Take a look at this.  He accidentally has it in baseball mode for the fairway wood and driver swings I think.  Was close on the fairway wood but still off on the driver swings.  It should be closer than it would otherwise be in the normal golf mode.  I think it basically reduces the output number by a flat percentage because with a baseball bat, it would see the end of the bat, not the sweet spot.  The reduction converts the end of the bat speed to a more reasonable sweet spot speed.  At least that is what I recall reading somewhere, I could be misremembering but I think it was something like that.

 

 

[stingerfade]

1 hour ago, clevited said:

Take a look at this.  He accidentally has it in baseball mode for the fairway wood and driver swings I think.  Was close on the fairway wood but still off on the driver swings.  It should be closer than it would otherwise be in the normal golf mode.  I think it basically reduces the output number by a flat percentage because with a baseball bat, it would see the end of the bat, not the sweet spot.  The reduction converts the end of the bat speed to a more reasonable sweet spot speed.  At least that is what I recall reading somewhere, I could be misremembering but I think it was something like that.

 

 

I don’t guys that wear two gloves....haha

[hoselpalooza]

i tested one against trackman indoors tonight.

 

note: make sure the SSR is upright. i.e. don't use the kickstand if possible -- the numbers can be way off.

 

with a ball the SSR was close to trackman. a little fast by a couple of mph on average, and many times identical.

 

without a ball the numbers were much different despite same/similar swing speed (according to my feel). i wasn't very scientific about it, but the SSR instructions state it can be "5 to 30 mph slower" without a ball.

 

what are people doing who use the SSR to measure speed training increases without a ball? if it's not accurate (which i can absolutely confirm) is it at least consistent? i don't care about the actual numbers so much as i do charting progress over time. thanks!

[clevited]

7 hours ago, hoselpalooza said:

i tested one against trackman indoors tonight.

 

note: make sure the SSR is upright. i.e. don't use the kickstand if possible -- the numbers can be way off.

 

with a ball the SSR was close to trackman. a little fast by a couple of mph on average, and many times identical.

 

without a ball the numbers were much different despite same/similar swing speed (according to my feel). i wasn't very scientific about it, but the SSR instructions state it can be "5 to 30 mph slower" without a ball.

 

what are people doing who use the SSR to measure speed training increases without a ball? if it's not accurate (which i can absolutely confirm) is it at least consistent? i don't care about the actual numbers so much as i do charting progress over time. thanks!

 

In my experience it can be consistent.  If you swing the same and your low point or release doesn't really vary too much, you will get pretty consistent numbers.  If you have a high degree of face rotation, it gets more off.  The faster you swing, combined with this face rotation means you can get way off.  For instance, I can make it read upwards of 140 when hitting golf balls but I am nowhere near that on Trackman.  

 

The without a ball thing I assume is because when you don't swing at something, your low point/release will vary and your maximum won't be near the ball/radar.  That is just my humble guess/opinion.  (I am actually one that can make it read much higher without a ball vs with a ball).

[stingerfade]

10 hours ago, hoselpalooza said:

i tested one against trackman indoors tonight.

 

note: make sure the SSR is upright. i.e. don't use the kickstand if possible -- the numbers can be way off.

 

with a ball the SSR was close to trackman. a little fast by a couple of mph on average, and many times identical.

 

without a ball the numbers were much different despite same/similar swing speed (according to my feel). i wasn't very scientific about it, but the SSR instructions state it can be "5 to 30 mph slower" without a ball.

 

what are people doing who use the SSR to measure speed training increases without a ball? if it's not accurate (which i can absolutely confirm) is it at least consistent? i don't care about the actual numbers so much as i do charting progress over time. thanks!

Why no kickstand? I’ve never heard anyone suggest this previously?

[hoselpalooza]

14 minutes ago, stingerfade said:

Why no kickstand? I’ve never heard anyone suggest this previously?

 

long story short, i set it up (without reading the instructions) using the kickstand and the speeds for the first 10 swings vis-à-vis trackman were wildly inaccurate. i was honestly ready to return the damned thing but decided to RTFM just in case.

 

well, well, well... take a look at tip #5 in the "IMPORTANT TIPS FOR USING YOUR RADAR" insert in the manual:

 

Quote

STAND RADAR ERECT -- the Wire Bale Stand upon which the radar rests has a stop that prevents the bale from freely rotating 360 degrees. however, the stop is not the best position for the bale because it causes the radar to "look" somewhat upward. a more upright posture for the radar will "see" the clubhead approaching the ball along the ground. however, be sure that the radar is physically stable and not falling over due to wind or other forces.

 

there were no such issues once i stood the radar up and stopped using the kickstand. we all had a pretty good laugh at my expense.

 

moral of the story? RTFM, kids! 🤣

Edited January 14, 2021 by hoselpalooza

[stingerfade]

3 hours ago, hoselpalooza said:

 

long story short, i set it up (without reading the instructions) using the kickstand and the speeds for the first 10 swings vis-à-vis trackman were wildly inaccurate. i was honestly ready to return the damned thing but decided to RTFM just in case.

 

well, well, well... take a look at tip #5 in the "IMPORTANT TIPS FOR USING YOUR RADAR" insert in the manual:

 

 

there were no such issues once i stood the radar up and stopped using the kickstand. we all had a pretty good laugh at my expense.

 

moral of the story? RTFM, kids! 🤣

Hahaha wow well there it is!

[hammersia]

4 hours ago, hoselpalooza said:

 

long story short, i set it up (without reading the instructions) using the kickstand and the speeds for the first 10 swings vis-à-vis trackman were wildly inaccurate. i was honestly ready to return the damned thing but decided to RTFM just in case.

 

well, well, well... take a look at tip #5 in the "IMPORTANT TIPS FOR USING YOUR RADAR" insert in the manual:

 

 

there were no such issues once i stood the radar up and stopped using the kickstand. we all had a pretty good laugh at my expense.

 

moral of the story? RTFM, kids! 🤣

OK I’m prepared to believe that might work.... but honestly the SSR is what twenty years old tech now?
 

For the same money delivered I had a much better experience with this, the Yupiteru, which is functionally an SSR measuring both club and ball speed.

 

 

[hoselpalooza]

50 minutes ago, hammersia said:

OK I’m prepared to believe that might work.... but honestly the SSR is what twenty years old tech now?
 

For the same money delivered I had a much better experience with this, the Yupiteru, which is functionally an SSR measuring both club and ball speed.

 

 

 

i mean, doppler radar is like 80 years old tech... if it works, it works. 🤷‍♂️

 

on a more serious note, have you tested the yupiteru against a high-end launch monitor like trackman?