If Ben Hogan liked to hone his swing out of the dirt, it’s a good bet that many of today’s players like to work on their games by swinging a club and then swiping a finger across the screen of a smartphone or tablet computer.
When it comes to golf, there’s an app for that – probably several hundred, in fact, for every inch of your swing. If you’re comfortable with the high-tech boom and have the savvy and money to buy the latest gadgets and clubs, you likely think it’s pretty cool. If you’re not and don’t, you probably think old school is just fine. Just don’t yell, “You high-tech kids get off my range!” because the trend is here to stay.
“This is absolutely the way things are going,” said Randy Bergstedt, group product manager for Epson America in Long Beach. “Every time we go to shows, what we see is that the adoption of technology is increasing in golf so quickly and on so many levels, particularly from the younger instructors.”
Though high-tech golf products have been around for years, Epson, an electronics company known for its sensors and printers, started Epson Active this year and entered the crowded field of sports and fitness wearable technology.
I got a look at Epson’s M-Tracer MT500G swing analyzer recently on the range at Strawberry Farms. The device, which is unobtrusive and weighs 15 grams, uses motion-capture technology to record swing statistics at 1,000 frames per second, including the path of the club, clubhead speed, clubhead path, face angle at impact and tempo. Once the data has been collected, the free M-Tracer app allows users to view swings on a wireless device – such as an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Android – that shows the results in 3D and provides graphic analysis of the impact zone and shaft rotation as well as a freeze frame option to instantly view swing positions.
For a low-tech guy like me, I found it fascinating and, unfortunately, spot on when it comes to my swing. I’m one of those players who knows what I’m doing wrong but am powerless to stop it. But, for reinforcement sake (oh, joy!), the M-Tracer showed that my driver swing’s attack angle was steep and out to in, the clubface was slightly closed at impact, my tempo was quicker on the backswing than the downswing, and my strike through the ball was more downward than upward. Buy, hey, my swing speed was consistently in the 102 mph range and the ball, surprisingly, still traveled an average of 242 yards. If only, right?
“What technology is bringing to all sports is the ability to separate what you think you’re doing from what you are doing and what you want to do,” Bergstedt said. “What technology is bringing to all sports is the ability to gain insight into what’s really happening and then translate that into areas that will help you improve. That’s really true for golf but applies to all sports as well. It used to be that if you wanted access to this information you had to have or go to someone with a $25,000 machine or visit a high-tech studio. This technology is simply the latest in personal devices that do many things quickly and in amazing detail.”
It was a natural for Epson to join the fray of the crowded device and gadget world, Bergstedt said, because of the company’s financial might and experience in research and development, seeing that many of today’s GPS, motion-sensing, heart rate-monitoring and plyometric devices are equipped with Epson sensors.
“As sensors became smaller and lighter, we really saw how this application, particularly in fitness and sports, became more viable,” he said. “The technology is evolving to a place where we can get really accurate motion sensing for the golf swing. We really like the M-Tracer for guys who know what they’re working on, through an instructor, or really know their golf swing. That way you can fine tune your swing on your own, between lessons, or check and monitor your progress to make sure you’re grooving what you need to be doing.”
