nick kokonas

Gentlemen, I've been asked to stop posting lest it seem like I am plugging Swingbyte too much without being a paying advertiser. That was not my intention -- I saw the questions on here and thought it a good forum to answer them to a number of people at once. So for the time being I'll scoot over to other topics.... I'm enjoying the site and the boards. Regards, Nick

Regarding Tempo: We are in the process of aggregating Tour data for a range of top players and various clubs. Once we do we will have the data posted on our website for Swingbyte users. Previously, most of the tempo numbers for tour players that I have seen have been generated from analyzing video frame by frame. Given that a typical swing lasts about a second and broadcast video is at 30 frames per second, the actual ratios generated are an estimate. With a club head traveling in excess of 100 MPH the top of swing and impact often happens between frames. The Swingbyte generates 3 numbers in regards to tempo: Start of backswing to top of swing / Top to impact / and the ratio between the two. It measures to the nearest 1000th of a second. In this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v;=jPtrgGRwWf4 that we posted to show the accuracy of the Club Head Speed function vs. a leading (and very expensive!) launch monitor you can see the ratio of our own Brian Payne. Brian played on the Canadian tour for several years, winning the 2001 Aliant cup. He is also the winner of the Illinois Open. You can see that Brian's swings are incredibly consistent with a tempo ratio right around 3.5 with a driver. We have found that players of this level are right around that number -- and perhaps more importantly are wildly consistent. In my own experience my numbers are pretty in line with that. With a 7-iron swing speed of 83 MPH my start to top is right around .975 and top to impact of .280 -- 3.5 ratio. With a driver the average of 20 swings was .893 to the top and .263 to impact... 3.4 ratio at 96 MPH. As I work to increase club head speed on my drives I often generate more variable tempo numbers... 4.1 to 4.3. On those I tend to lose flow and balance. As soon as I dial back it falls more in line. So I've personally found this to be very good instant feedback on how to stay balanced and with a proper tempo as I work to gain speed and distance. In fact, that is what I have found to be most useful thus far with the Swingbyte as I am not currently working to change my swing plane. That will come after the golf season.

The Android App has been updated to fix the issues you mention.

So here is a short informal video showing the Swingbyte vs. the "leading launch monitor". We set this up and shot only once. You'll see that Swingbyte is very consistent even at a high swing speed with a driver -- and is internally consistent. http://blog.swingbyte.com/post/22722066946/how-does-swingbyte-compare-to More polished video showing all of the features coming very soon.... but we were getting this question daily so a little quick iPhone video seemed in order.

ER, Thanks. A few of the issues in terms of saving were a server reboot. We've shipped a few devices and the majority of orders will ship next week. So we have cleaned up a few issues and I'm afraid that's why some of your data was lost. Won't happen again. Portrait mode and most of the changes you requested have already been submitted to the App store as an update. Those go more quickly than initial approval -- and we knew of a bunch of changes and improvements that needed to be made but had to work withing the Apple process. Now that that is done, you will see: portrait mode, better ranges, equipment upgrades, etc. And the benefit of having this software based is that as we make improvements all upgrades are free -- the more data we collect, the more accurate and useful it will become.

If by knackered you mean broken... I don't see that happening here. This is solid state electronics and thermal molded plastic... with rubber around the shaft of the club for added grip and a very tight band to secure it to the shaft. The bands do break over time -- 3 are included with the swingbyte and should last a very long time. But the unit itself -- we've thrown it against walls and dropped it from heights and stress tested it more professionally than that... and it holds up very well. Unless you're throwing your clubs against the clubhouse you should be fine.

It does show you angle of attack, position at impact, club path (out - in), lie angle, shaft lean, club loft. If the admin sends me an email we'll send him a unit for testing...

Hi.... I'm an investor in Swingbyte and have been using it for the past 6 weeks or so. I can answer a few of the questions on here -- though please understand that I am not one of the developers and these are only my impressions. Happy to answer any more you may have as well. I have been golfing since I was 9 years old (now 44) and have tried my share of teaching aids, swing trainers, and have been utilizing Trackman, Flightscope and similar for a few years. I'm a 4.8 index. When the developers came to me, introduced through a mutual friend who is a PGA teaching pro, I was skeptical. I've seen a number of electronic gizmos that do very little. In fact I put off the meeting for about a month and only did so as a favor to my friend. Alex, Brian and Nathan dropped one of those golf matts with a ball on a string right in my living room, attached the Swingbyte to my 3-wood, and I hit a few. After each swing, within about 2 seconds, the tablet 'chirped' letting me know it captured the swing. They then walked me through the features... Swingbyte is very different than Trackman and similar launch analyzers in that it models the entire swing in 3-D. This is something I had not seen before anywhere with my own swing. I've utilized video (at Golftec) and have seen my swing... but with this I can see precisely where I am at every point along the swing plane because the Swingbyte is on the club itself. So down the line, face on, and even a view from above is instant and accurate and can be rotated in 3d along any axis -- it does not rely on the positioning of a video camera. The visual analysis can be stepped through point by point. More interestingly, I can see the swing speed at every point along the swing plane... and could therefore easily visualize and see the data of my swing acceleration. Like most amateurs my maximum swing speed was just before the ball -- casting slightly -- instead of accelerating through the ball. This is something that I have used the Swingbyte to address... and while I have read about a million ways to create lag I never had a way of measuring the difference in swings except by watching the ball flight. Also really interesting is a Tempo feature that measures very precisely the total time of the takeaway to top of swing / top to impact / and overall swing time then gives you those numbers plus the ratio of backswing to downswing. Again, because the accelerometers are on the club tempo can be measured precisely. We've begun gathering Tour data on Tempo with some surprising results (see that Ernie Els article about his speed vs tempo and you'll know what I mean). So this is the other piece of the puzzle that I've found very, very useful in practicing. As for the speed measurements.... Swingbyte sits just below the club grip and weighs less than an ounce. Once it is on there I don't notice it or feel anything different in the club and I've put it on a bunch of my friends' clubs and no one has swung differently. The shaft of the club moves at a rate slower than the head, but by putting in the club data (length, type, shaft) the club head speed can be interpolated very accurately. I've been on a set up of Trackman / Flightscope / Swingbyte at the same time and have found that Swingbyte was consistently +/- a few MPH. But here is the key point -- the swingbyte is *internally consistant* -- meaning that from swing to swing it reports back the same baseline data. So improvement in swing speed can be accurately tracked even if the absolute swing speed is off a few MPH. Whether I'm swinging at 98 mph or 94 mph doesn't much matter to me... but improving upwards does. Swingbyte is not a launch monitor nor is it intended to be such. For golf simulation and and club fitting it is not nearly as useful as Trackman or Flightscope. You're not going to get ball speed or spin. Swingbyte is meant to be an instructional and *swing* analysis tool. And in that regard it is far superior to Trackman as it monitors and reports the entirety of the swing, not just launch conditions. It is the best learning tool I have ever seen -- totally mobile, usable on the course itself (my swing is of course different on the tee box than the range), and simple to use. And that is why I surprised myself by investing in and helping -- to the extent I am able -- the company get off the ground, so to speak. I'm hugely excited that they have started shipping the Android version and the iOS should have App store approval very soon. Happy to answer any further questions.