A few weeks ago the team from Flightscope came out to test their product against the juggernaut of the launch monitor industry Trackman.  The goal for the Flightscope team was to prove that there is no true difference between the two devices other than the initial purchase price and annual software maintenance fee, which is higher with Trackman.  We tested the devices both indoors and outdoors to see how these machines stacked up against each other. 

Here is what I found to be true:

Outdoors-

We brought both devices outdoors and had a player that is a scratch handicap hit shots.  He hit around 60 shots or so, everything from a driver to a 30 yard pitch shot.  The units registered the numbers virtually the same other than 2 numbers each time, the club head speed consistently registered faster on Flightscope and the angle of attack on Flightscope would change more than Trackman.  There are a couple of reasons for that according to the Flightscope guys.  First I will discuss why the speed was faster, Flightscope told me that the reason their device has a different speed is that the launch monitor registers at a different point than Trackman.  Flightscope says that they register speed at first contact with the golf ball and that Trackman registers their numbers at full compression of the ball.  With the differences of where they measure speed, it makes sense why Flightscope would read faster because there is less energy transfer into the ball.  The second thing is the angle of attack; Flightscope’s representatives told me that their machine is the one that reads the angle of attack properly.  They suggest that Trackman puts parameters on the angle of attack numbers, and doesn’t actually read the angle of attack each shot for what it really is.  Flightscope says that they accurately read the angle of attack for each shot, without putting a box on the possible number the angle of attack could be, thus leading to the changes in the numbers.

Indoors-

We then brought the 2 units inside to test them indoors and what we found was interesting.  We had the same player hit shots inside with a 7 iron, so we could compare the units.  The mat that we were using was one with very little give and not much ability for the club to slide under the ball.  The numbers on perfectly struck shots were very similar.  The differences are the ones I have already talked about the clubhead speed and angle of attack.  Where things started to really show a difference is when the player struck a shot slightly heavy when coming through impact on the mat.  The angle of attack numbers for Flightscope would start to register as being on the way up really affecting the numbers and the distance the ball travels, where Trackman on that same shot would show a very similar number to the perfectly struck shot. 

What the Flightscope representatives did to show their angle of attack was reading correctly was to break out a phantom camera.  A phantom camera is one where they can slow down the speed of video so much that it allows us to see what the angle of attack is really doing.  Unfortunately, due to the lack of light in the area, we were hitting inside the camera wouldn’t work as efficiently as the Flightscope guys were hoping to prove their point.

Conclusion-

My take on the 2 units is that they are virtually giving the same numbers when outdoors but when the 2 units are indoors that is when things were starting to change.  What I do believe is that Flightscope was willing to go the length of bringing out a phantom camera, which is not cheap to show they are accurately reading the angle of attack.

Which one should you buy? When I go to purchase a launch monitor I will be looking to purchase the Flightscope and here is why.  With the numbers being virtually the same outdoors and seeing how much they are the same and how they have very little differences, I think that for the price point it makes more sense to get Flightscope.  Depending on what mat you use for the indoor hitting, the Flightscope could still give you very accurate numbers, and for the other ones, it is important for the instructor to be able to accurately identify numbers that should be tossed out as misreads.

I hope this article helps you best understand what the differences is between the two units!

Give it a try!