A Decibel Meter as a Free Speed Meter?

[p1n9183]

Yesterday I installed a free decibel meter in my smartphone, put it on the floor and made swings with my 6 iron without a ball. 
Also set the PRGR (speed meter) to have something to compare. 

The PRGR was giving me numbers around 90 miles per hour, the decibel meter was around 30 without a swing and jumped to 85 with the woosh of the club. 
If the whoosh of the club gets louder when you swing it faster, can a decibel meter be used as a cheep way to compare speed from one swing to another, even be used for speed training?  

 

 

 

 

[iacas]

No. You would have to be so precise with the distance and angles and what exact club you swung and the location and so so so so much.

[p1n9183]

Remember that you are measuring sound, sound waves have speed that goes in all directions. The attenuation of sound at 20°C is around 3 decibels if you are 1 meter from were the sound is created. Just set a coin on the ground and swing over it towards the same direction. You are going to have just a few cm between each swing, so attenuation is not going to be a variable.

Of course you are going to have different measures if you use different clubs! the idea is to use the same club and figure out how to swinging it faster to create more whoosh to get a higher decibel mark. 
For location of course is better at nights were is calmer and you don't have noise from the outside. 

I took the time to test it a little bit and the decibels went up and down as the PRGR also went up and down with the different swing speed I tested. 

What other things you think can mess with the readings?  
 

 

[GolfLug]

You don't need to build an algorithm if you can build a table with PRGR and decibel readings. I proper statistician can provide better guidance but Im guessing you need hundreds of readings for each club to establish a d decibel to speed curve.

[boogielicious]

A much better use of the free Decibel Meter is to see how loud your amps are when you crank them and rock out!!! I try to keep it below 90dB (emphasis on ‘try’ 😉).

I think there are too many other variables to consider using sound. You would have to set up a designed experiment with randomized runs and block variables to really see if it’s worth the effect. I can see the following variables in addition to the normal swing speed variables:

Temperature, Humidity, wind speed, time (as in how long the experiment has been running), repetitions, angle and elevation of the meter, elevation of the ball and club above the ground, ground surface roughness and reflectivity, distance to surrounding objects like walls and ceilings. This does not include the variable in sound of different club head materials and designs.

[p1n9183]

I get that if I do a couple swing today at my home course, and later in the week at my house the decibel readings could be totally different. The surrounding environment of both are totally different so the reading are likely to be different.
But for one session only, the current one with the same environment from start to finish, if my normal swing produces 90 decibels as a base line, I should be able to test other swings in order to find one that produces more decibels and expect it to be faster than the base line.

I look at this the same way as I work with my PRGR. With 7 iron at home, my average ball speed is 115 but at my home course ball speed is around 120 (same ball, same intent. I guess this is because at my home I don't hit that hard down on the ball to prevent injuries).
So.. when the other day I tested a new swing and averaged 122 at home I knew that at the course it should be around 127 and It was almost there at 125.  
My question is.. if the environment is the same from swing A to swing B, could I compare their speeds by comparing their decibels? Not the exact speeds but witch one is faster? 

 

[iacas]

1 hour ago, p1n9183 said:

I get that if I do a couple swing today at my home course, and later in the week at my house the decibel readings could be totally different. The surrounding environment of both are totally different so the reading are likely to be different.
But for one session only, the current one with the same environment from start to finish, if my normal swing produces 90 decibels as a base line, I should be able to test other swings in order to find one that produces more decibels and expect it to be faster than the base line.

I really don't think it's going to be anywhere near as accurate as you think it will be. It'd require you to have the same speed at the same distance and angle to the mic every time. Otherwise, if you swung faster, but the maximum speed was another 6" past the microphone and another 2" away from it, it could read as significantly quieter.

I think you're ignoring some really basic physics here, my man. And the fact that microphones in phones are highly directional, too. It's not like an open-air mic in a quiet room.

I think this idea lacks almost all merit.