Lower club head speed on PRGR when hitting without a ball

[barnum1]

Anyone experiencing the same thing as me: when I measure club head speed on PRGR without hitting a ball, club head speed is often lower than with a ball?

I guess it's a mental thing, because the PRGR can't measure club head speed differently with or without a ball, right?

Edited March 22, 2022 by barnum1

[clevited]

19 hours ago, barnum1 said:

Anyone experiencing the same thing as me: when I measure club head speed on PRGR without hitting a ball, club head speed is often lower than with a ball?

I guess it's a mental thing, because the PRGR can't measure club head speed differently with or without a ball, right?

 

I don't own a PRGR but I assume its acts similar to voice caddies and such.  Its probably a mental thing.  You swing faster when there is a ball present vs when there isn't.  It may just be that your speed peaks at a different spot when you don't have the ball there.  

 

It is possible however, that the device needs to see two signals before it spits out the results as a means of timing the measurement right.  Meaning, without a ball leaving, it might give you your club speed as it was well before or after you would have struck a ball.

Edited March 23, 2022 by clevited

[Sandhurst241069]

No it’s absolutely a real thing .. my PRGR reads dry swings about 7-8 mph slower.. its consistent though .. so you can still track progress 

[barnum1]

Thanks! Yes, it's pretty consistent for me too. Sounds like a bug to me, it shouldn't need a signal from the ball... 

[barnum1]

Update: this has been discussed in another thread:
https://forums.golfwrx.com/topic/1760668-strange-prgr-launch-monitor-readings/

 

[Kevin N R]

I absolutely concur that this is an issue hitting without a ball.  But I've sort of come to the conclusion that I'd get better readings with better club path on dry swings. 

 

These portable devices don't have a camera and rely on the limitations of doppler.  I've learned this the hard way by hitting ball after ball at my range, which has floater balls.  Floater balls simply do not take off from the club at the same speeds.  

 

The answer to *all of this is that these devices sort of "work backwards" based upon ball speed, and calculate swing speeds it might not see as well, based upon the ball speeds.  The doppler devices "cross check" to some degree.  

 

My average swing speed with Driver is 106-107.  When dry swinging, I will capture these more consistently when my focus is swinging down the line of the target.  If I swing slightly across the target, I register a lot of 98,99, 100 mph swings (which never show up when hitting a ball.  

 

 

 

[barnum1]

I get lower club head speed not only on dry swings, but also with a ball when the PRGR doesn't give me ball speed.

It's all very strange. If PRGR measures both club speed and ball speed, it shouldn't be a problem with dry swings.

[Maz]

I have a PRGR HS-130A and can verify that it is pretty useless when dry swinging. A few minutes ago I made a couple of swings with a 7-iron, without ball and with a ball. The difference is immense: without a ball it measures approximately 60 mph. With a ball, it measures around 80 mph which is pretty much my stock speed with a 7-iron.

So, with a ball, it works okay. Without ball, you can possibly use it for relative measuring, i.e. if you add to your speed.

Another thing: 5 days ago, Padraig Harrington posted this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7ollOKaolc?si=dWvvKs66z-6Fc1Cv on YouTube. In the video, he promotes a PRGR monitor. It seems to work when he's dry swinging. Perhaps another model?

 

[downbylaw11]

i have a prgr 120a and ha e had mostly positive results. i do sometimes get inconsistent results dry swinging bit im pretty sure there is a reasonable explanation for this.  i think many people, and definitely myself, when dry swinging, especially swinging hard, have a tendency to swing with the club head hovering too far above the ground, or maximizing speed at the wrong part of the swing because theyre not focused on hitting an object.  to remedy this, while dry swinging i set my unit to be about 3 or 4 inches above the floor as well as setting up a rubber tee to focus on hitting to mimic the ball, and the results went from being all over the map to being within 2-3 mph of each other.  if youre having issues with this i would suggest plauong arounf with yhe height of the unit as well as focus on on object  and see if your results improve.  realistically the prgr shouldnt give a s*** whether or not a ball is being hit when determining swing speed.