- 6 minutes ago
Golf Monthly technical editor Joel Tadman highlights eight compelling reasons why you need to use a launch monitor if you want to improve your game and lower your scores! He uses the Foresight Sports GCQuad to demonstrate how a launch monitor can improve your driving, chipping, putting and even strategy choices and range time.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Hello everyone, Joel Tadman here from Golf Monthly and in this video we're going to highlight some
00:09of the reasons why you need to use a launch monitor. There's an awful lot of technology
00:14and innovation in golf recently and a launch monitor is one of those bits of kit you really
00:19shouldn't overlook. A lot of you are probably wondering what is a launch monitor? Well it's
00:24essentially a bit of kit that measures or tracks what the club is doing into impact and then what
00:30it's doing as it strikes the ball and what the ball is doing after impact and it kind of quantifies
00:35what it's doing into various forms of data that can be then used for club fittings, lessons and a
00:41variety of applications outside of that that we're going to cover in this video. Now at this point I
00:46need to remind you that if you're new to the Golf Month, the YouTube channel, make sure you click
00:50that subscribe button so you don't miss any of our other equipment review videos and do click the
00:55like button down below if you like what you're watching. So I think it's about time we get into
00:59the various different reasons why you need to use a launch monitor starting with knowing how far you
01:04hit your clubs It's on a good line but it's come up short and that's the main reason number one why you
01:27need to use a launch monitor and it's to work out exactly how far you hit your clubs. The majority of
01:33golfers out there overestimate how far they hit clubs so if they think they hit a seven on 150 yards
01:39more often than not they actually hit it about 130 or 140 yards and that's a really crucial mistake
01:44because the majority of hazards on a golf course are short of the green so that's going to get you
01:50into a lot of trouble and it's going to really affect your scoring. You really need to avoid these
01:54hazards by hitting the appropriate club for this shot that's in hand and that's where using a really
01:59good launch monitor like the Foresight Sports GC Quad can help you out because it will tell you
02:04exactly how far you hit your club how far they carry and also how far the total distance is which is
02:09really important with a driver on a hole if you're trying to avoid hazards so you know get yourself
02:13on a launch monitor hit a number of shots with each club in your bag make a note of the average
02:17distance and keep that with you for safekeeping you know on as a record if you don't remember it
02:22you can refer to it on the golf course so you know when you're over the ball you know how far
02:26you've got you know these reputable gps's and laser range finders give you the distance you need to
02:32hit the shot but if you haven't got the club to do it or you hit the wrong club you're going to get
02:36yourself into trouble so you know use the right club for the job in hand and you should see a more
02:40positive result more often than not.
02:42Now when working on our game or analysing our own swing we tend to have a pretty good idea about what the
02:57club is doing through the ball based on the ballpark that we see down the range but we're never 100% sure
03:04and that's why you really need to use a launch monitor to give you that immediate feedback and a camera
03:09based launch monitor like the Foresight Sports GC quad we've got here it's really clever because
03:14it uses four high speed high resolution cameras to measure and capture exactly what the ball is doing
03:21just after impact so it will tell us the ball's launch and spin and speed and then it will use
03:27accurate ball flight models to predict things like the curvature of the flight and the carry distance and
03:33the height of the flight as well so it's really important to give you a clear picture about what the
03:38club and ball are actually doing and the GC quad can actually also capture club data because it's
03:44positioned in front and on the target side of the golf ball it has a direct view of that collision
03:50between club and ball so it can tell us things like angle of attack the path of the club and also the
03:56loft and the line and that's also really important but it measures it independently from what the ball is
04:00doing so that's another key crucial difference between camera based launch monitor like the GC quad.
04:06It's really easy to collect that data and interpret it because the GC quad for example has inbuilt
04:12Wi-Fi so the pairing process whether you're using a laptop or an iPad is really seamless it's really
04:17quick and easy to do but then once you've got all that data it can be quite confusing there's an awful
04:22lot of ball and club data to get your head around and that's why it's really important to get that
04:27data in front of a PJ Pro who can really then use their knowledge to interpret the data and put you on the
04:33best course of action and if you do that I think you'll be pleasantly surprised about how quick
04:39the improvement is and it basically takes the guesswork out of what you're doing and how you're
04:44trying to change your swing there's no point basing your changes on something that you see or that is
04:49you think is happening that isn't actually accurate so the fact that it's based on facts
04:54should definitely speed up your improvement.
05:04Now one of the common pitfalls golfers fall into is not taking into account the outdoor conditions
05:11when hitting balls on a driving range. You can see today maybe from the clouds there is a bit of a
05:17crosswind from right to left but if you don't take that into account when you're hitting balls
05:21obviously you're going to be hitting shots on the range and the balls are going to be drawing so
05:25maybe you go out on the course thinking that for today you're going to be hitting a draw so maybe
05:29you're aiming slightly to the right to allow for that but then you hit on the course and actually
05:33your ball goes dead straight or even cuts off to the right and that's because you haven't taken into
05:37account what those conditions are doing downrange and that's where using a launch monitor can really
05:42help you out especially one like the Foresight Sports GC Quad because this uses closed data which isn't
05:48affected by downrange conditions so basically what you can do is use its alignment tool here which
05:54I've got here it's just a kind of little fold out stick and it will basically automatically calibrate
05:58to wherever you want it to be pointing to so you can basically support so I'll pick out that yellow
06:03flag down there and if I line the stick up to where I want it you can see it's already calibrating
06:08gives you a little beep so there it's targeted now right at that yellow flag just a little beep there
06:14so then you can take the stick away you know it's pointing the launch monitor is set up at the target
06:20that you want to be hitting to so even if you do hit a shot and it is affected by the crosswind that
06:25won't come out on the data on the launch monitor so let's hit a shot here at that yellow flag
06:32just move it into the hitting zone the other good thing about the GC Quad is that it does have a
06:40really a large hitting zone so you can have a full session using it on grass you haven't got to keep
06:45moving it based on where your divots are you can basically hit a full range bucket on grass and
06:51off the mat of course so right let's hit this six iron towards that yellow flag
06:55pretty good shot did drift a little bit on the wind but that won't be reflected in the data so again
07:06gives you a clearer picture of how you're hitting the ball on the day which should help you then out
07:11on the golf course now there are certain types of shot around the green that we all want to pull off
07:24and it's only through experimentation during practice that we work out exactly the best way to master them
07:31but actually using a launch monitor can really speed up that process for example if you want to play that
07:36low flying high spinning that chip shot that really checks up quickly that Phil Mickelson plays so well
07:42you might adjust your technique in a certain way for example you might decide to lean the handle
07:47forwards as well to get the ball launching really low or you might move the ball position back
07:51there's different things you could try but actually you might find that hitting shots on the launch
07:55punter you know that immediate feedback's telling you that maybe the shot doesn't actually spin quite as
08:00much with that shaft leaning forward than if you had it in a more neutral position so
08:04that process of experimentation is just sped up significantly so it allows you to kind of master
08:10how are you going to play that shot a bit quicker and gives you that feedback as to
08:14how you're going to get the most spin and the best ball flying result for your game
08:18I'm pretty happy with that one so like I said using a launch monitor can speed up that process of
08:28experimentation and help you pull off those difficult shots around the grain
08:32now wedges are your scoring clubs and a decent launch monitor can really help you make sure you have
08:47even distance gaps between the wedges in your bag whether you carry two three or four it's really
08:52important to have even distance gaps between those wedges to make sure you're covering up as many
08:57distances as you can but where a launch monitor can also help you out is on those really awkward
09:02kind of half swing or three quarter swing wedges shots you know if you've hit a good drive on a
09:06short par four or maybe you're close to the green on a on a par five you really need to make the most
09:11of those opportunities you know maybe even make a par or even a birdie and by mastering those different
09:17distances it's really going to help you out and launch monitor is going to help you do that
09:20there are a number of methods out there to help you so there are some teachers and golfers out there
09:25that recommend say you have three different wedges you then have three different swings with each of
09:29those wedges so for example you could have all your hands go to waist height chest height and shoulder
09:35height and so therefore you've got nine different distances across all your different wedges covered
09:40off but it's only by using a launch monitor you would then know exactly how far each of those shots
09:46go so for example I've got my 54 degree wedge here and we're going to do a chest high swing with the wedge
09:51and the launch monitor is telling us that goes 62 yards so you get again immediate feedback from
10:00the launch monitor to tell you how far you're hitting those shots and that should certainly
10:05help your scoring around the greens
10:07you might be surprised to hear that it's not just your long game where a decent launch monitor
10:20can help you out no there are some out there that can provide an analysis of your putting one of those
10:26is the foresight sports gc quad and that's really important if you're maybe going through a putter
10:30fitting or simply want to know that the putter you're currently using is giving you the best
10:34performance there are a couple of key areas of performance you're looking at with putter
10:39most notably the launch angle but also how well it's rolling so we're looking at things like skid
10:45and the distance from when you strike it to when the ball is achieving true roll so when it's rolling
10:51end over end and obviously the shorter the better the more likely it is to stay online if it's got a
10:56shorter skid distance and the gc quad will give you that skid distance with its putting analysis so
11:02you know for example if i just hit a putt here hopefully hole it for you there we go and we
11:10can see on the screen here it's got a variety of numbers but like i mentioned the launch and the
11:14skid and distance to roll are the most important so if you're looking to change your putter or just
11:19want to kind of see if your putter is performing as well as it should do get on a launch monitor
11:23and hopefully those numbers will really help you out
11:25now just because it's raining freezing cold or pitch black outside doesn't mean you can't work
11:39on your game if you have a launch monitor that's right you can practice in total comfort when others
11:45can't giving you that competitive edge and you don't need a room like this to do it in really all
11:50you need is a mat a net and some sort of compatible device like a laptop or ipad to work with the
11:57launch monitor to give you all the relevant numbers and ball flights so whether you just want to hit
12:02various shots on a virtual range or maybe you want to compare two different demo clubs that you're
12:07thinking of buying to see which one works best you can do that with a setup like this and if
12:11you're lucky enough to have foresight's fsx software that kind of takes it one step further
12:16and provides a lot of different skills challenges for you to really hone in certain areas of your
12:21game there's a short game one where you can chip and pitch to under six feet challenge there's nearest
12:26the pin challenges there's online long drive championships where you can compete with other
12:30online users so that's a fantastic way to really keep playing when the weather's bad outside and you
12:35can't hit balls outside you can come inside work on your game and hopefully improve ready for the start
12:41of next season and that's the benefit of using a camera-based launch monitor like the foresight sports
12:47gc quad it captures shots within some relatively small space and basically all you need is a room
12:52that's big enough to swing a club in and you're good to go
12:55now using a launch monitor doesn't always have to be about the serious process of improving your game
13:09it can also be about having fun and there are various software packages out there if you have
13:14a setup similar to this with a screen you can undertake various different games for example foresight
13:20have a really good software package where you can go through various different fairground games they're
13:26really really fun to do we've done some bullseye challenges on dartboard we've done some putting
13:31challenges with 10 pin bowling and we've also done a shooting range as well where you're trying to kind of
13:36punch targets and knock them down it's a really really fun thing to do and it can also get different
13:41people into the game that maybe hadn't considered playing golf before because they thought it was
13:45too boring you get them along into a similar setup like this you know socialize together and get them
13:50playing these games and i'm pretty confident they'll really enjoy the experience and potentially get
13:55them hooked on golf and get them keen to play proper golf out on the golf course another thing you can do
14:01is also play some of the world's best courses from the comfort of your own home and you can see here
14:06we've got the 18th hole at the famous Wentworth West course second shot into this par five
14:12i'm 225 yards away and i'm going to have a go at trying to hit the green and it's a great thing you
14:17can do with your friends get them all around play around together on a famous course have a few drinks
14:23it's a lot of fun and really put them under pressure like i feel like i'm i'm under pressure now so
14:28225 yards into this par five let's see if we can hit the green
14:33oh it was a good strike it's gotta go
14:42oh it was wet unfortunately that's so annoying but as you can see
14:49it's a lot of fun to play courses like this and i think you'll agree it's really going to bring
14:54people together so hopefully you'll agree we've highlighted some pretty compelling reasons as to
14:59why you need to get yourself on a launch monitor in this video and yes it's true that the best
15:04launch monitors on the market do come in at a very premium price there are some options out there that
15:09make them easily accessible to you for example on the foresight sports website you can click on
15:14their venue finder feature type in your postcode and it'll give you a rundown of all the pj pros in
15:19your area that own a launch monitor there are also a variety of finance options available so
15:25through foresight you can own a gc2 which is a slightly older version of their top quality launch
15:31monitor for just four pound a day so you can own launch for the two there are affordable ways you
15:36can do that guys i'd love to hear from you so make sure you comment on this video tell me
15:40have you used the launch monitor and what do you think of it and if you haven't used the launch
15:44monitor has this video convinced you to go and use one whether on the driving range or maybe even out
15:49on the golf course with your local professional i'd love to hear from you so whether it is club fittings
15:53lessons whatever it might be hopefully you'll agree that getting on a launch monitor is the perfect
15:58starting point for improving your game
Comments