ShotVision Launch Monitor App Review
The era of iPhone launch monitor apps is upon us, and it’s a beautiful thing.
The most popular golf launch monitor app in Apple’s App Store, at least based on the number of reviews, is ShotVision. So what exactly can ShotVision tell you about your game, and what are the drawbacks you should know about? We took ShotVision for a thorough test drive, and here are the answers to all your questions.
ShotVision Launch Monitor App Key Takeaways
ShotVision: $59.99/Year | CHECK THE APP STORE
Proper lighting is key to using ShotVision successfully, and in order to get ShotVision working in my space, I needed to swap out my existing light bulbs with flicker-free bulbs. I’ll go into more detail on lighting, and other tips on using ShotVision a little later, but your lighting is a make-or-break detail, so I want to mention it at the top.
Using ShotVision, you get detailed data on your golf swing, including swing speed, carry and total distances, plus ball speed, smash factor, launch direction, and even backspin. The complete list of data points is below, but suffice it to say that’s a lot of launch data to get from your iPhone.
At $59.99 per year, ShotVision is about half the cost of one of its main competitors, Golfboy, which checks in at $9.99 per month.
Using the data ShotVision spits out, you can work on improving your swing speed, distance, distance control, ball striking, and accuracy. It’s really hard to argue the upside of an effective launch monitor iPhone app, which is exactly what ShotVision is.
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ShotVision track shots from about two feet away from the ball and never gets in the way of your swing. It also does not have any minimum space requirements, which is a nice bonus for golfers with tighter spaces, seeing as most personal launch monitors require 14-20 feet of space between the launch monitor and a screen.
ShotVision works with real golf balls. You can use it with foam balls if you don’t have the option of hitting real balls in your space, and you’ll still get accurate swing speed, angle of attack, and launch direction data, but using a foam ball will discredit the distance, ball speed, backspin, smash factor and launch angle data ShotVision spits out.
Any time an iPhone app attempts to replicate the performance of a $20,000 device – such as a Trackman or Foresight launch monitor – there will be shortcomings. That’s not to say ShotVision is trying to be Trackman for your iPhone, but at the basic level, they have a common denominator.
Starting a practice session with ShotVision can be difficult. To get set up, you must place the ball within a specific window for ShotVision to track it, but you can’t see the screen when you’re placing the ball because it's facing the other direction. This pain point can be short-lived, because when the ball is in the correct position, you get visual feedback via the flash on your phone, and audible feedback when the app is ready to track your shot. Once you’ve identified the hitting zone, it’s not so cumbersome to get the ball in the right spot throughout your practice session.
The other downside of the screen facing away from you during your session is that you can’t see your data after each shot. The app reads one data point back to you after every shot, which you can choose, but there’s no easy way to review multiple data points on a shot-by-shot basis.
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Benefits and Drawbacks of the ShotVision Launch Monitor App
After several practice sessions using ShotVision, here’s my complete list of pros and cons that you should know about.
Pros:
- Clean interface with easy-to-read data
- No minimum space requirements
- Works great when flicker-free lights are installed
- Offers backspin and dispersion data
- Audible feedback on the metric you select
- Half the cost of competitor Golfboy Launch Monitor App ($59.99 per year vs. $9.99 per month)
Cons:
- Must use real golf balls, which makes it less accessible for some users
- Setup can be cumbersome
- No visual feedback since the screen faces away from you
- No putting tracking
What Data Does ShotVision Track?
ShotVision cranks out 11 different data points on each shot. That’s a lot to pack into your iPhone. Most notably, it offers backspin data. That’s super helpful for anybody who wants to do their own ball fitting from home, monitor the health of their wedge’s grooves, or keep their ball-striking sharp.
We also love that it offers dispersion maps. Because the app tracks only backspin, not sidespin (or spin axis if you really want to split hairs), it can’t tell you your shot shape, but it will show you your starting line, which is really important information that you can use to improve your game.
Here’s the complete breakdown of the data ShotVision offers.
- Carry distance
- Total distance
- Ball speed
- Club speed
- Efficiency (smash factor)
- Backspin
- Launch angle
- Dispersion
- Angle of attack
- Apex
- Dynamic loft
How Accurate is ShotVision?
A launch monitor is only as good as the data it gives you. If you practice hitting 50-yard shots on a launch monitor, but those shots actually go 75 yards, you’re going to have a hard time shooting lower scores. So how accurate is ShotVision?
The answer is, all things considered, it’s pretty darn good. It’s certainly accurate enough to get a clear understanding of your swing, and log some meaningful practice, whether you’re working on distance control, swing speed, or accuracy.
I compared the data ShotVision collected on some partial wedge swings with partial-wedge data I collected earlier this year using Foresight – the top-of-the-line $15,000ish launch monitor – and the ShotVision numbers check out. On partial 54-degree wedge shots that produced comparable ball speeds, the carry and total distances, backspin, and peak height numbers all aligned.
That doesn't meant ShotVision's data is always perfect, or as consistent as the data you'd get from those top-of-the-line launch monitors, but you should quickly become familiar enough with your numbers that you can spot a misread from the group pretty quickly. Whether it’s a misread, or just a mis-hit, it’s easy to delete a shot from ShotVision so it doesn’t skew the data from the rest of your session.
How to Use ShotVision
Here are the details on those flicker-free light bulbs I mentioned earlier.
When I first tried using ShotVision in my garage, the app couldn’t detect a shot. I tried the low light and standard modes, exposing windows, and adjusting lights, but nothing worked. Then ShotVision support informed me that using flicker-free lightbulbs would solve the problem.
I had never heard of flicker-free lights, but thanks to Amazon, I had them in my hands just a few hours later. And yes, those bulbs solved the problem, as ShotVision picked up almost every shot since swapping out the bulbs.
Having the right light bulbs is a perfect example of how important it is to get the details right. Make sure you nail these three details to use ShotVision effectively.
- We’ve already touched on the flicker-free lights, but since that gets our vote as the most important detail, it’s worth repeating. If ShotVision struggles to pick up shots, it’s probably the lights.
- Since ShotVision tracks dispersion, it’s crucial to make sure that your phone is parallel to your target line. Otherwise, your dispersion map will be out of whack.
- Tell ShotVision what club you’re hitting, and select which metric you’d like read back after every shot, which you can change at any time based on what you’re working on.
The more you use ShotVision, the more familiar you will become with its ins and outs.
Why Use an iPhone Launch Monitor?
Even tracking just two or three key metrics in your golf swing can really help you optimize your game and improve your consistency. Whether or not you use every metric ShotVision provides, you can use the data that resonates most with you to monitor your swing, identify opportunities, and track your progress.
The beauty of golf is that we’re always trying to get better, no matter what. Even Tiger Woods, at the absolute pinnacle of his career, never stopped trying to improve his golf swing. ShotVision is just one more tool you can use to improve yours.