Launch monitors have become a critical part of club fitting, and for elite golfers and teaching professionals, they can be a great tool to help monitor progress and provide information that you can’t see with your eyes.
The most sophisticated machines cost $15,000 to $20,000, putting them well out of reach for recreational golfers, but over the last few years, some units have been released with weekend players in mind. Typically costing $500 or less, they provide basic numbers and information but lack the technology to provide deep analytics and feedback. Now, with the release of its first launch monitor, Full Swing is trying to create a new space within the market and give golfers a highly-accurate device at a price that will not completely break the bank.
At $3,999 plus a $99 per year subscription charge, the Full Swing Kit is not cheap. It is designed for aspiring college golfers and tour pros, teaching professionals who cannot afford a $20,000 machine and serious recreational players.
Full Swing has been designing and selling indoor golf simulators for years, and pros like Tiger Woods, Jon Rahm, Jason Day and Brandt Snedker have them in their houses. The goal with the Full Swing Kit was to bring the accuracy and data the simulator captures to a portable unit.
The Full Swing Kit is designed to be positioned 10 feet behind you on flat ground as you hit balls. Setting up the device is simply using a free smartphone app. After you indicate to the system which club you are hitting, radar follows each shot from beginning to end before a color, front-facing screen provides details about the shot. The numbers are large and easy to read from 10 feet away, and you can customize which of 16 stats you want to see on the screen, selecting from things like ball speed, launch angle, spin rate and carry distance. All the data is available for view on your smartphone or tablet, including sophisticated data like face angle, attack angle and spin axis.
As you practice, each club is assigned a distinct color, so it is easy to see patterns and overlaps when you look at the data on distance and dispersion charts. All the data is stored in the cloud, and information from each session is added to your cumulative averages.
In addition to capturing swing and club data, a 4K color camera captures video of each swing that you can view in the app and easily share.
Right now, the Full Swing Kit is only usable outside, but the company says that software updates planned for the first quarter of 2022 will allow golfers to use it inside when hitting into nets.
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