The golf industry is loaded with gadgets that promise to make your drive explode off the tee and turn bogeys into birdies. And there are plenty of golfers who pay handsomely for these promises in hopes of shaving a stroke or two off their average.
Most get suckered.
But a tiny device by Blast Motion, coupled with the iPhone, is slowly gaining approval among golf’s teaching professionals. It makes no promises, but it does provide numbers and video proof to support what your teacher’s been telling you all along – your game’s got problems.
Photo: Blast Motion
The Blast Golf Replay is a quarter-sized removable sensor that attaches to the end of a club grip that records data like swing speed, loft and wrist release. With the Blast golf app and your iPhone or iPad camera, the data flashes over the video capture of each swing and putt.
“Sometimes there is a nuance of two or three degrees, especially in putting,” said Laird Small, director of the Pebble Beach Golf Academy. “I can see it because I’m trained to see it. Now the golfer can see it, too. You try to teach a player awareness and this gives them that growth path. This helps everybody and it’s very accurate.”
Collecting nuanced data on an athlete’s mechanics has been part of sports for a while, but was out of reach for the average non-elite athlete until recently, when wearable technology, like smart watches and athletic clothing with sensors, exploded onto the scene.
Blast Motion, which began in Carlsbad, Calif., in 2011, has attachable sensors to record metrics for a range of sports including basketball, volleyball, skateboarding – anything that involves jumps, speed and forward motion. A number of professional athletes, including NBA player James Ennis, use the sensors and apps to detect flaws and fine-tune skills.
Blast Motion also has a sensor that attaches to the end of a bat to record swing metrics for hitters.
The apps for its products all have slow-motion replay with the metric overlay on the video.
The Blast Golf Replay will not iron out your swing. It’s only there to show you the wrinkles.
Photo: Blast Motion
Small, named one of the 50 best teachers by Golf Digest in 2013 and 2014, has about 20 students, including juniors, who use Blast Golf Replay and he has even found it useful on his own game. He especially likes what it provides for golfers with putting problems.
The problem can’t always be felt, Small said, but if a putting back swing is 10 degrees when it should be 5, a student suddenly as a measurable and visual piece of information that can be refined on the practice green.
“I was able to make some improvements in the tempo of my stroke,” Small said. “I saw I was not as repetitive as I could be on how I was delivering the club back. Sometimes the metrics change because of the slope of the green.
“Teachers need to be more aware of this because of the rich information and how easy it is to use.”
The Blast Golf Replay retails for $149.99 at several sporting goods and Amazon.
