Reviews of Swing Coach iPhone app?

[kleriq]

Athletic Motion Golf just put up a video showing an app called “Swing Coach” that looks pretty interesting:

 

Of course they are not unbiased—they have some sort of relationship with the app maker and are offering a discount. So I’m curious if anyone here has tried it. I am hopeful that it can provide in-the-moment feedback that I’ve been lacking after switching to online instruction.

[iacas]

2 hours ago, kleriq said:

offering a discount

 

Are they?

 

I haven't messed with this app yet, but I may soon.

[txbadger]

have been trying it out and I'm impressed.   This is what I like most..

 

-  instant audio feedback.   I didn't do any customization once I installed it, just set it up and went.    It seems the default is to give you feedback on at least 2 specific parts of the swing (in this case club on plane at takeaway and steep/shallow at delivery).  

- coaching tips from Shawn on the areas that you most need help with.   Although you can specify certain aspects of the swing as mentioned above for audio feedback, you can look at 25 different "aspects" of each stored swing.   

- the "pro library" is interesting to see how tour pros  are not always in perfect range for certain aspects either. 

- you can swap out clubs and there is no adjustment needed for the app to provide feedback.   

 

I've only put 25 swings on it, but as I said.. impressed.    I'll be taking advantage of the 2 week trial to see how I feel about continuing on with $15/month thereafter. 

[aenemated]

Heh. 

[Scottbox]

3 hours ago, iacas said:

 

Are they?

 

I haven't messed with this app yet, but I may soon.

It's pretty good-- kind of a dumbed-down Sportsbox AI (which I mean as a compliment). Only does down the line right views right now. which is a little frustrating. Definitely valuable as a practice tool. I like that the app allows you to record dry swings sans a ball to ingrain a movement pattern in your gym or garage.

Edited May 26 by Scottbox

[kleriq]

13 hours ago, iacas said:

15 hours ago, kleriq said:

offering a discount

 

Are they?

It’s actually a 2-week trial. The standard trial is only 1 week.

[CasualLie]

I guess not using the QR code in the YT video cost me 7 days of free trial.  I just went straight from app store, gave it a try, liked it, and then my subscription is only 7 day trial.  But no big deal, I think I may keeping this app for awhile, it is really good.  But let's see after the "honeymoon".

 

It's very easy to use, literally no setup other than getting the right camera angle.  And while a previous post mentioned no adjustment needed when you change clubs, that's only true if you setup properly in the first place.  For example, you are on a range mat, you setup camera to where hands are, and ball is near edge of mat, that won't work when you setup for Driver because you are too far away from the ball...and the app tells you that.  Setup the irons with the ball more in middle of mat, then you won't have this issue.

 

It works so great using airpods (or whatever bluetooth earbuds) so you can hear the analysis.

 

What's really smart is you could choose one category to analyze, for example posture at top, then using the same recorded swing switch to a different category and it will re-analyze.

 

Here is my interesting experience.  I chose the category "posture at top" using a 6i.  I thought maybe I was coming out of posture.  This category measures hands, hip depth and neck.  Let me clarify "measurements".  It may be "measuring" but you are not getting numbers like trackman or sportsbox, you are getting a relative number on a scale of 1-10.  So it it is looking at swing plane, if it is 3 above, then you are not that close, if 1 above recommended plane, then that's pretty close, 6 above and you are way outside the line.

 

Anyways...I chose "posture at top", hands were at "6" meaning way too low/flat.  I tried about 4 swings trying to get my hands higher and at best I got to"3".  So I clicked on the "tip".  There's a quick video of Shaun Webb telling me to feel like I am pushing my hands higher / away from body at takeaway.  I had to feel like I was exaggerating the heck out of it to get it to "0".  Great!  And ballflight was better.

 

But here was the kicker...the "after" swing, where hands, spine and hips are "in zone" at the top, when I switch to analyzing the swing plane using the same video, I'm "7" outside plane on takeaway and "1" steep coming down.  I can live with the "1" steep, but the "7" outside plane, which is obvious from the video, ...how am I supposed to fix that and still have that pushing away go high with hands to be at the right place at the top??? 

 

This is where the "tips" videos fall apart.  I don't even need a "tips" video, but fwiw, I watched it and of course if you are outside plane on takeaway, you are pushing hands too far away from body and/or over hinging.  Fine.  I can fix that.  Actually, it does not need fixing.  I can do a takeaway right on plane no problem.  But when I do, then at the top, hands too far outside the plane.  So....app really doesn't have a tip for whatever is happening in between.  But that's ok, because another cool thing in the app is I can customize what I want to analyze and combine swing plane and hands at top, so I can experiment with moves to get me where I want to be.   I just didn't have time this morning to focus on that.

 

Here is where this app shines, if you just want feedback on one thing, and you are working on the feelings of the difference in feels between the extremes, you do not have to keep going back to review video.  For example, again the takeaway.  Let's say you struggle with inside takeaway.  You load up the app, setup, you have airpods in, and you swing.  Voice tells you 1 under plane, next swing you exaggerate the inside move, app tells 6, great you did it, next swing you exaggerate the other way going way outside, app tells you 5 above, great...without having to go back to the video to see if it was inside or outside, you get the audio feedback right away.  Clever!

 

 

[kleriq]

I started the 2 week trial and captured some swings without a ball… it kept telling me “good swing” even on shots where I whiffed the mat. You can see my incredibly over the top swing that it called “on plane” at delivery. It took me a bit to figure out how to get feedback at every point it captured, instead of the two it highlighted over audio. I could see that being useful for the purposes on drilling a feel. But it’s definitely not a replacement for an actual coach in its current state.

[Doodlebug87]

It looks like you have the camera set up high and left of where it needs to be - it should point straight through the hands. This probably won't help the cause.

 

I acquired an iPhone yesterday just to run this app as I was intrigued. It picked up my two main issues immediately, bringing the hands and club too far inside during takeaway. I've struggled to fix this in the past with the frustrating routine of filming some swings, going back to the gallery on my phone to check, assessing the impact of a feel on the reality, getting the camera set back up, pressing record then rinse and repeat. Having instant feedback after every swing on this app is a game changer for me and it has helped me already to identify what I need to feel in order to get to where it needs to be. It also picked up that my hands were too inside at impact, which is something I hadn't diagnosed myself. This led me to look at the pro swings on the app in comparison and jogged my memory of an AMG video which covered the release. Within 10 swings I had again figured out the right feel to get in the right spot, which for me almost feels like releasing to the right of the target line, which when rotation is added releases down the target line and brings my hands out to where they should be... overall very impressed already and will build it into regular practice. I believe they are already working on adding face on analysis which will be great for things DTL can't really cover like getting left and extending properly.

[txbadger]

8 hours ago, kleriq said:

I started the 2 week trial and captured some swings without a ball… it kept telling me “good swing” even on shots where I whiffed the mat. You can see my incredibly over the top swing that it called “on plane” at delivery. It took me a bit to figure out how to get feedback at every point it captured, instead of the two it highlighted over audio. I could see that being useful for the purposes on drilling a feel. But it’s definitely not a replacement for an actual coach in its current state.

While I would agree that it isn’t a replacement for an actual coach, I would say that about any app (sportsbox ai) or gadget (hackmotion, etc).

 

the “good swing” reply is only based on the metrics you selected.  It is a little misleading as if you only selected to watch a single metric to monitor say swing plane on takeaway then proceeded to nail that part and the rest of the swing was a dumpster fire, you’d still get the “good swing” feedback.   Furthermore, the app does not seem to care about impact with a ball or any associated result so a whiff doesn’t impact feedback the app gives.  In my opinion this is good as this allows practice swing feedback.

 

Bottom line, the app only provides feedback on various swing positions.  Having said that, I still am very pleased with what the app provides.  As you can see from the pro swings, you can have a swing position in the backswing that is way off the mark but impact position on every metric is green/in range.

[vernon]

Glad to see this - had been curious as well.

[ricknoberts]

I’ve put 250 swings on this over the last two days. I think it is extremely useful for swing plane and hip depth, but it keeps flagging me for spine stability halfway down, telling me that I’m diving down too much. Literally the only two ways I could get it to read high was to stand straight up and intentionally swing above the ball, where it told me I was in the zone, or to set up 45 degrees closed to the target.

 

Oddly enough, the majority of the pros are also too far down halfway down.

 

However, I’m definitely shallow into the ball and I come from the inside, so that spine flexion likely is causing the fat shots that plague me.

 

Now, if only I could figure out if that is a contributer to my hips and shoulders being too closed at impact.

[CPT_LHR_ATL]

This is quite interesting just from a data collection standpoint? If the app gets decent uptake there will probably be some more interesting insights on what your average hacks are actually doing.

 

 

[Scottbox]

I think it's a really good app. I'd like to see future versions have a front-on view so I can work on pivot issues.