So, I got curious about this whole wristband golf thing a while back. Saw some stuff online, you know, people tracking their swings and all that jazz. Figured I’d give it a shot myself, see what the fuss was about.
Getting Started
First thing, I didn’t want to splash out loads of cash. Some of those fancy systems, the ones with sensors for every club, cost a small fortune. No way I was doing that just to try it out. I found a pretty basic fitness tracker wristband online, one that claimed it could kinda track sports movements. It wasn’t specifically for golf, mind you, but I thought, hey, maybe it’ll pick up the swing motion, right?
It arrived after a few days. Charged it up, strapped it on my lead wrist – felt a bit weird playing with it on at first. Downloaded the generic app that came with it. The setup was easy enough, just pairing it with my phone.
Hitting the Range
Took it down to the driving range. My plan was simple: just hit balls like normal and see what data this thing collected. Would it know I was swinging a golf club? Would it count my shots? Maybe measure swing speed? Who knew.
So I started hitting. Driver, irons, wedges. Made sure the wristband was snug but not too tight. After about 30 minutes, I stopped and checked the app.
What I found was… well, interesting, sort of.
- It definitely tracked movement. Lots of it. It logged it as vigorous activity.
- It didn’t automatically know it was golf. Just looked like random bursts of arm waving to the app, I guess.
- No shot count. No club detection (obviously, it had no sensors for that).
- No real useful golf data like swing speed or path. Just ‘active minutes’ and calories burned, maybe.
Thinking About It
Honestly, it wasn’t much cop for actual golf improvement using just a basic fitness band. It didn’t give me anything specific to work on. I suppose it confirmed I was moving my arm a lot, which, yeah, kinda expected that hitting golf balls.
I looked again at those expensive systems online, the Arccos and Golfshot types. They use sensors you screw into your clubs, or need you to tag each shot on your phone or watch. That seems like way more faff during a round, but I guess that’s how they get the proper data, knowing which club you hit and where from.
There’s also that shot tracing software stuff, like Shot Tracer Pro. But that’s different, that’s for analysing video afterwards, not tracking live on the course with a wristband. Seems powerful if you’re really serious and record all your swings, but again, more effort.
So, my little experiment with a cheap wristband? Didn’t really turn into a useful golf tool. It was just a fitness tracker picking up movement. To get the real deal golf tracking, you gotta invest in the proper golf-specific gear, the sensors and dedicated apps. For me, just playing and feeling the swing seems simpler for now. Maybe one day if I get really serious, but the basic wristband definitely wasn’t the magic bullet I half-hoped it might be.
