Wearable tech helps athletes perfect their swing

The Zepp range of sensors is helping golf, baseball and tennis players to improve their swing with real-time feedback on their performance.

The concept of wearable tech is becoming a reality in more and more varying ways, and it’s gaining significant traction in sports — take for example the Vibrado smart sleeve for basketball players, recently covered on these pages. Now the Zepp range of sensors is helping golf, baseball and tennis players to improve their swing with real-time feedback on their performance.

Each of the sensors for the three sports are designed to track the user’s swing of the club, bat or racquet in three dimensions, recording 1,000 data points per second. For golfers, the 1 inch x 1 inch accelerometer can be attached to the players glove, where it can track the swing’s exact movement, speed and angle, as well as the club’s motion plane. The companion app enables users to see how their performance compares to that of the pros, and then they can track and share their progress. For baseball and tennis players, the sensor does a similar job, except its fits comfortably onto the end of the bat or racquet handle. It lets baseball players know when their bat is in the optimal hitting zone, as well as the exact location and angle of the strike. Tennis players get feedback on topspins, slices and flat shots, and the app can automatically detect if each strike is a serve, forehand or backhand.

The Zepp kit for each sport retails at USD 149.99. What other aspects of sports performance could be automatically detected and evaluated using digital tech such as this?