I was given the opportunity to review the Zepp golf swing analyzer. At the heart of the system is a tiny yellow sensor which mounts to your golf glove and analyzes club speed, timing, swing path, and impact. I realize that I am no Tiger Woods on the golf course, nor will I ever be. However after reviewing the Zepp Golf 3D Training System I can visualize and improve my swing like never before. The best part, I don't need to spend a ton of money on lessons. I can analyze and tweak my golf swing at my own pace. Read on for the full review of the Zepp sensor for golf.
First off, the packaging is neat and simple. Inside the box you will find the Zepp Sensor, glove mount, and charger cable. You will need to go and download the free iOS or Android app. The little Zepp sensor has dual accelerometers and a 3-axis gyroscope for tracking your sports movements (in this case, golf swing).
Just like Fitbit, or any other hardware/software solution, the product is only as good as the software/app. In this case Zepp Labs did it right. After charging up the Zepp sensor, downloading the iOS app, and pairing the device I was almost ready to hit the range. First, I had to enter a bit of data about myself, age, name, gender, height, right/left handed, grip, golf club info, etc, The Zepp application also tries to get an understanding of where your skill level lies. Are you a professional, a senior, or an amateur (like me)? Everything is very intuitive, I didn't spend much time with the PDF manual.
Watch out golfers, here comes Adam. After attaching the sensor to the mount and then to my golf glove I was ready to get started. I did a few test swings. After every swing, the app will score you. The score given is an average of tempo, backswing, club plane comparison, and hand plane comparison. One point of frustration was how my swing scoring would vary. Let me explain. I would hit balls scoring low into the 70’s, and the ball flight would be perfect. Then I would hit balls, either topping or hitting fat, with a terrible ball flight and Zepp would score me high 80’s to low 90’s. I realize that there are many facets to a "perfect" swing, but this was driving me a bit crazy. I guess I need to go through more buckets of balls to fully understand what is going on here.
The really cool thing about Zepp is seeing your swing speed, tempo, and visual replays. That really helped me. Also when showing your swing path, you can compare it to a professional golfer swing path and see the difference. So overall I think Zepp has done a great job and would like my father (single digit handicap golfer) to give it a try. I will add a follow-up after he gets some swings with the Zepp sensor.