Launch monitors have made golf practice a lot better. They’ve also made it a lot more complicated.
Hit one shot on a TrackMan and you can immediately see ball speed, club speed, launch angle, spin rate, attack angle, club path, face angle, face-to-path, dynamic loft, spin loft, swing direction, carry distance, total distance and plenty more.
That’s great information. The problem is that most golfers don’t need all of it at the same time.
In fact, I think one of the biggest mistakes amateur golfers make with a launch monitor is trying to pay attention to everything. You hit a bad shot and suddenly you’re analyzing six different numbers trying to figure out what went wrong.
If you want to get more out of your launch monitor, simplify things.
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Don’t confuse “ignore” with “doesn’t matter”
Before getting into this, there is an important distinction to make. I’m not saying these launch monitor numbers are useless.
They aren’t.
A club fitter or golf instructor may look at dynamic loft, spin loft, swing direction and several other measurements to understand exactly what is happening in your golf swing. There are also times when those numbers can become important for you.
But that doesn’t mean you need to watch them after every shot.
Information overload is a real thing. If you are trying to make a swing change while watching club path, face angle, attack angle, dynamic loft, spin loft, launch, spin and ball speed, you’re making practice a lot harder than it needs to be.
The best way to use a launch monitor is to decide what you are trying to accomplish and then find the two or three numbers that help you measure it.
Everything else can wait.
5 things you can ignore
- Spin Loft: This is useful diagnostic information but it’s a relationship between how the club is moving and how the face is delivered. Most golfers don’t need to chase a spin/loft number during practice.
- Swing Plane: A coach may use swing plane to understand how the club is moving or if there is progress being made but there is no single swing-plane number every golfer should be trying to achieve. Watching it after every shot can create more confusion than clarity.
- Swing Direction: Swing direction is the direction the clubhead is traveling at the lowest point of the swing arc. It is not the same as club path, the direction the club is moving at impact. Because those two numbers can be different, swing direction can become confusing pretty quickly. For most golfers, club path is the easier and more useful number to focus on during practice.
- Dynamic Lie: Dynamic lie can matter in a fitting and it can help diagnose certain delivery issues but it’s rarely something the average golfer needs to monitor during a normal practice session.
- Spin Axis: Spin axis helps explain how and why the ball curves but most golfers already have more actionable information available through face angle, club path and face-to-path. If you can see the ball slicing and know what the face and path are doing, you probably don’t need another number describing the curvature.
Final thoughts
The goal isn’t to ignore launch monitor data. It’s to get better at filtering it. Figure out what you’re working on, choose the few numbers that can help you make progress and let the rest sit in the background. If you want a better idea of which numbers are worth watching based on your skill level, check out our guide on what to do with all of your golf simulator data.
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