The Best New Golf App and Gizmo of the Year?

One of the biggest criticism’s made about golf swing apps is that while they are useful for recording your swing and analysing against the swing of other players (including professionals), when it comes to feedback, you are very much on your own.

That situation could be about to change thanks to American company Zepp and their range of sporting sensors and app.

Currently showcasing their products as the prestigious Consumer Electrics Show 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada,  Zepp have developed a simple, non-intrusive method of recording data about your skills in tennis, baseball and of course, golf.

In terms of the Zepp Golf product ($149), the user receives a small yellow sensor and a cradle which the sensor sits in. The cradle is then mounted onto the back of your golf glove and along with the sensor, weighs virtually nothing.

The user then takes a swing with a club and the data about your swing, such as the plane of the club,  the path the club and your hand takes through the swing and gives you a score for your swing.

Critically, the sensor also takes a whole host of other readings into consideration when judging your swing, including the speed of your club head, the tempo of your swing, the position of the club shaft at the top of the backswing and you can even put your smartphone in your pocket to measure how much your hips rotate.

All this data can be kept and updated as your swing skills improve and you can review your historic data at the touch of a button.

Critically though, which makes the Zepp Golf app so potentially useful, the data that the sensor provides is linked via Bluetooth to your iPhone or iPad and from the data that the sensor records, the app is able to give you vital pointers as to where you need to improve with your swing.

For example, when measuring the backswing element of your swing, the app knows that most professionals will aim to achieve a rating of around 270 on the backswing, so if you are above or below this level, you will know you need to make slight adjustments in order to maximise this aspect of your swing.

What the app does nicely too is when it presents the data to you, the data is colour coded to show you how the different parts of your swing work. A green score indicates that this aspect of your swing is on a par with what a professional would achieve, a yellow means you are relatively close to achieving that while a red means that you are some way off.

For the first time in an app, there is the ability to analyse multiple aspects of your swing and have them judged against a set criteria for you instantly, with no need for a coach at hand to pull up the GASP analysis or to comment about where you are going right or wrong.

Critically too, the sensor is exceptionally light and doesn’t require it to be attached to your equipment, making it feel different or unwieldy in your hands.

What is most pleasing about the sensor and app is that by working together, the golfer is able to get instant feedback about a swing and to compare it to previous swings they have made. So if they have made a change in their swing, they can see the data immediately as to whether that change has had a positive or negative aspect.

The app also gives the golfer goals to aim for on all aspects of their swing, in the knowledge that if they hit the stated goals, their game should drastically improve as a result.

The price for the app is currently $149, which is a tad steep when you consider it is merely a sensor, a USB Charging cable for the sensor and the cradle to hold the sensor on your golf glove that is included in the pack.

However if it can help a legion of golfers diagnose errors in their swing effectively and then help eradicate them, it will certainly prove to be money well spent.

Images Courtesy of Zepp.Com