Virtual Coach

[Tomf]

Our golf season is rapidly coming to an end in Minnesota.  Perhaps I shouldn't call it a season...it's more like an event.  Winter is a full blown season while golfing weather seems to be but a brief interruption.  Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration. But it seems that way this time of year.  I will probably get out a couple more times and then have to wait five or six months before playing again.  Golf is the way I relax.  Even though I am a terrible duffer, I am madly in love with the game.  Not being able to golf for such an extended period every year drives me up the wall.

 

A couple of years ago a friend and I set up a smallish hitting cage and mat in the man cave we share.  We also bought an optishot so as to have a little fun during the winter.  Then last year I bought a Swingbyte, primarily because our indoor hitting area is so small that I can't shoot video's of my swing and I wanted to at least have some vague idea of what my swing is doing.  There is no doubt in my mind that the cage, the optishot, and the Swingbyte have helped me keep sharper than I otherwise would be after a long winter (sharper is relative, of course).  However, I soon realized that without a teaching pro looking at the Swingbyte data, analyzing it, and giving me a plan for improvement, it wasn't going to be the boon I expected it to be.  The data could be super helpful, but not so much in the hands of a hack alone. 

 

Well, a couple of weeks ago I ran across a new app that Swingbyte is testing.  It is called "Virtual Coach."  If you have a Swingbyte, you can download this app and it will analyze your swing, pick out three or four of your biggest swing flaws, and then it will set up a personalized plan for improvement, providing multiple drills via video on your iphone that will help you make the changes in your swing.  You practice the drills, then use the Swingbyte and it will tell you how close you are with each swing to overcoming each fault.  In this way it helps you to connect what you feel to what is real, which is often a problem especially for high handicappers like me where what I feel I am doing is usually not actually what I am doing at all.  I think the plan, the drills, and the immediate feedback as I swing could potentially be a huge help to me this winter as I am relegated to hitting balls into a net in a small space.  In any event, once you have mastered the first few faults, you can start the process again where it will identify a few of the largest faults still remaining, etc....

 

Presently there is a beta version of this app that can be downloaded for free, as they want feedback from golfers before they make it available in a more final form.  But the beta version only works on iphones with ios 7 or more recent operating systems.  Unfortunately I do not own and cannot afford an iphone. But I found a cheap used ipod with ios 7 and am hoping against hope that I can download the app onto it and make use of it this winter. It seems to me that it has real potential to help me practice more intelligently.  BTW, the teaching pro's that are working with this app are Jim Hardy and Chris O'Connell.  Very fine teachers of the game.

 

I should know in the next week or two if I can get this app to work on the old ipod.  If I can, then I would be glad to come back after using it over the winter and let you guys know if it helped.  If I can't, then I may just go drown myself in cheap vodka.

[revkev]

Please do keep us in the loop. I have another good friend who is doing this over the winter here. Of course he's doing it outside either on the range or course.

 

He's been at it about a month and already having nice results with the driver. It hasn't kicked in with tiros as he's still way over the top. I'm helping him with his short game, I'm actually good enough at that to feel comfortable offering some help.

 

Best of luck!

[Tomf]

Please do keep us in the loop. I have another good friend who is doing this over the winter here. Of course he's doing it outside either on the range or course.

 

He's been at it about a month and already having nice results with the driver. It hasn't kicked in with tiros as he's still way over the top. I'm helping him with his short game, I'm actually good enough at that to feel comfortable offering some help.

 

Best of luck!

 

Thanks, my friend!

 

I am very satisfied with my iron play...7i through wedges.  But any irons longer than a 7, and any hybrids, fairway woods, or driver....and it really is a struggle.  My score would improve by many strokes immediately, if I could just drive with some consistency.  I am Tarzan on one drive, and then Jane on the next three.  No offense to Jane, lol.  So I am VERY glad to hear your friend has had success using virtual coach with his driver.  I hope I will, as well.  My indoor practice area is very tight so working with the driver may or may not pan out over winter.  I may have to wait until spring for that.  But working with hybrids and irons indoors will be easy to pull off.  Of course it will also be frustrating should the app show improvement.  And why is that?  Well, it's because I will be dying to go outside and see how the ball looks flying through the air.  Every once in a while we will get a thaw during winter.  I will take a few old balls and go to the course I play and find some open ground and let her rip.  I use old clubs because the ground is frozen rock hard.  Yes, that's how desperate I become during winter up here.

 

I should know in a few days if I will be able to use the free app and depending on the length of winter I will be glad to offer a duffer's report in Spring.

[Kenny B]

Tom, as I said in the PM, please post your experiences throughout the winter; good or bad.  It's a long winter in other parts of the country too, and we like to have some good reading!  

[Tomf]

Tom, as I said in the PM, please post your experiences throughout the winter; good or bad.  It's a long winter in other parts of the country too, and we like to have some good reading!  

 

Thanks Kenny.  I will do that.  If you like comedy, my attempts to learn golf should provide you with quality entertainment. lol  Seriously though, I appreciate your helpful comments and pm's.