Improve your swing with these smart golf grips from Microsoft

Golf is a game of impossibilities. Whack the golf ball into the hole from hundreds of yards away. It shouldn’t be possible, and yet people can be really good at it. For the rest of us, we need a little more training. Thanks to Microsoft, that training just got a little bit easier.

One of the most important aspects of a golf swing is the grip. Grip too tightly, and the ball likely won’t travel as far. Grip too loosely, and you’ll have to retrieve your club, too. More important than that though is consistency. By maintaining your grip, there is one less variable to your perfect swing. Many golfers are inconsistent in their grip throughout the course of a game or tournament.

Microsoft is teaming up with Sensoria and professional golfer Bryson DeChambeau to develop the Smart Grip for your golf club. The grip measures pressure levels and relays the data to a tablet or computer. An app then interprets the data into audio and visual feedback that is easy to interpret. Now you can be sure that your grip is consistent before you take your swing.

What powers the Smart Grip is the ultra-light Sensoria Core. Weighing under half an ounce and just one-inch square, it won’t hinder your performance. The core gathers data from eight pressure sensors embedded in each grip and sends it to the application. Using a built-in accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer, it can also provide data on the club’s movement through space.

The Smart Grip is still just a proof of concept, but it is currently going through testing with DeChambeau. By using the grip while he plays, he can better determine the best grip, club, swing speed, rhythm, plane, and other variables.

With more smart tech being used by coaches and athletes, there are a lot of opportunities to learn more about efficiency and movement. We won’t all become professionals, but we can definitely get the upper hand against our friends.