Determining swing speed via video?

[Soup Fan]

I am planning on going to the range sometime soon to get video of my swing. One thing that I absolutely already know that I lack is distance and I know that (usually) means swing speed. What I want to know is if it is possible to determine swing speed using a regular video camera, or would it need to be a high speed camera? It should be easy enough to set up one of those lined strips as a reference and just stick it at my feet, but would the 29.97 fps capture be enough to provide any useful data?

I am hoping there is a math whiz or two here who can lend me a hand in setting this up (if it is even worth trying).

[JackieTreehorn]

30 frames per second would likely be too slow to get an accurate speed measurement. Your club will be traveling so fast that it will appear as a blur at impact.

[JimmyDoesGolf]

Ways of getting a very rough estimate could be timing the entire swing using video, ie from the top of the backswing to the finish as well as measuring the distance from the centre of your chest to the clubhead with your arms fully stretched out. You could then work out the circumference of this circle/arc and use this measurement with the time of the entire swing to work out a speed.

In fact, having written that out, its probably not worth doing, because a swing is nowhere near a perfect circle, nor does it turn through exactly 360 degrees. Also swing speed isnt constant so it would be extremely innaccurate.

This brings me to the conclusion that measuring your swing speed with a 30 fps camera will be extremely difficult if not impossible.

[iacas]

  JimmyDoesGolf said:

In fact, having written that out, its probably not worth doing, because a swing is nowhere near a perfect circle, nor does it turn through exactly 360 degrees. Also swing speed isnt constant so it would be extremely innaccurate.

Yeah, not worth it at all.

To the OP, forget about distance right now. With proper technique, distance will come. I recommend at least 60 FPS for diagnosing and fixing any swing flaws. 30 is "okay" but won't help you to fine-tune much at all.

[tribecalledjeff1]

Even if you could, it would represent average velocity at best, from the start of your downswing until the end. That doesn't tell you what it is at impact, which is what matters. You need instantaneous velocity. I suppose if you shortened the distance enough to say, 1 foot behind the ball to 1 foot past it, you could estimate the instantaneous velocity, but the video would have to be like 200 FPS and it would still be awfully inaccurate.

As others have said, forget about swing speed and distance, there are far better things to worry about!

[Soup Fan]

I am not dead set on hitting it 300 yards or anything, but I finally have myself straightened out now and I was hoping that my awful slice was a contributing factor to not hitting it long but it appears not to have been, as my distances (particularly with my woods) are still not where I would like.

I've always said I would rather hit it short and straight than long and inaccurately (breaking news: WHOA IMMELMAN NICE FINISH) but now that I am comfortable and confident I want to know if my clubhead speed is what is holding me back.

I am a mixture of interested and terrified about seeing myself swinging on video.

[Dent]

Do they even sell cameras specifically for video taping golf swings?

[iacas]

  Dent said:

Do they even sell cameras specifically for video taping golf swings?

Yeah. Remember Fore Inventors Only? There are also the SwingVision type ones you can buy.... if you have $15k or whatever.

[ctmurrray]

  Dent said:

Do they even sell cameras specifically for video taping golf swings?

I have been investigating and eventually got the software for my home digital camcorder to be a swing recorder. They all offer some sort of method to measure swing and ball speed. True they capture only 30 frames per second, but can capture a good "still" image at each frame if you can manually set your shutter speed (1/1000 second is recommended) and have enough light. Then you need to calibrate the image with a yard stick (a large one with easy to read markings). You could leave the measuring stick in the frame for each swing or a single recording at the same zoom where you can determine the distance.

So you have an accurate measure of time (29.97 frames per second so you have 1/29.97 seconds per frame) and a distance measure. The software allows you to draw a line or somehow indicate a distance in an image - to calibrate this to the software. Then I think you just mark your club head in two or more frames and they do the calculation for you. I have not done this yet, just reading up on the process. Some software has this option as an extra add on, others include in some "level" of the software package. But I also agree the more dedicated instruments at golf stores or with some pro's is probably more accurate. Ball speed is harder as it is moving faster, is close to being out of the frame with a typical way we frame the swing image, and harder to capture as it is smaller than the club head. One site had an example where they did get ball speed.