Before smartphones were readily available in our pockets, analyzing your golf swing was a difficult task. In years past, golfers hoping to improve their swings by analyzing and critiquing would need to set up a tripod and a video camera to capture video or rely on their golf professional or swing instructor to handle the video capturing and analysis of their swing.
Thanks to smart phones, however, analyzing your golf swing has never been easier — or more impactful to your game. Below, we break down four ways to analyze your golf swing with your smartphone to help you decide which way is optimal for you.
Mobile video
The simplest form of swing analysis using your smart phone, mobile video swing analysis, is as easy as shooting a video for playback. There are a number of ways to capture video of your swing.
Perhaps the biggest challenge to capturing high-quality video of your golf swing is the lack of a tripod to give your smartphone a proper place to shoot from. Companies like Proto Sports, however, have made it easy to capture video using tools easy to store in your golf bag.
With Proto Sports’ mobile phone clip, you can capture smartphone video using your alignment stick. Simply place your smartphone in the Proto Sports clip and attach it to your alignment stick at the proper height to capture quality video. Stick your alignment rod into the ground behind you on the driving range and you’re able to capture quality video for instant analysis.
In the event you don’t have a tool available to serve as your tripod, a friend or playing partner will suffice. Simply have your friend hold and shoot video with your smart phone at the proper height to capture the necessary video to analyze.
3D analysis
Many tools are now available to help golfers capture and analyze their swings by way of 3D motion. Perhaps the most cost-friendly way to utilize 3D technology is using Zepp. Zepp Labs offers smart sensors and 3D analysis through its sensor and mobile app system.
Zepp users simply mount a Zepp sensor to their golf glove and pair to the Zepp Golf app. Whether on the driving range or the course, golfers can use the Zepp Golf app to capture their swings and analyze them in 3D. Zepp Golf captures and records unique swing data, including club speed, club plane, hand plane, backswing position, tempo and hip rotation.
Video analysis using a mobile app
Mobile applications like Blast Motion make it easy to analyze your swing using your smart phone. Like Zepp, Blast Motion captures a number of different data points on each and every golf swing, but it does so in traditional video format. This offers a more realistic representation of you and your game than a 3D rendering.
Blast Motion’s complete, full-swing version includes a sensor that attaches to any club which pairs with the Blast Motion 360 Golf app to record backswing time, downswing time, total swing time, swing tempo, swing speed, blast factor, power index, efficiency index, velocity index and energy transfer.
Blast Motion’s app includes automatic video curation, which dynamically clips video and automatically creates a series of video highlights to aid in the analysis of your swing. Another great feature is Blast Motion’s “Adaptive Slow-Mo” technology. The app captures high frame rate video, which can speed up or slow down playback, depending on your actions and analysis needs.
Video submission
When all else fails, simply submitting a video of your swing to a trained professional can do wonders for your golf swing. Mobile apps like Swingbot and V1 Golf make it easy to send video to top-notch swing instructors and receive customized and effective lessons based on your swing to help improve your game.
Using Swingbot, golfers simply record their swings and upload it via the mobile app. After processing, an analysis of your swing will be available on your smartphone.
With the V1 Golf Academy app, golfers can capture, compare and improve their swings by uploading directly to the exclusive, member-only group of swing instructors.
— Ben Larsen