Feature Request: Clubhead MPH without ball impact

Swing speed training is becoming commonplace, but owners of launch monitors must sometimes also buy a PRGR because they want swing speed measured without hitting balls with training sticks.

Could we have a 'swing training mode' where club head speed is measured without a ball being struck?

  • I don't own a R10 but love this functionality on my G80 so can totally understand if such a practice mode is wanted.

  • Pretty convinced this is one reason we’ll never see this feature added to the first gen r10. Garmin wants you to buy the g80 or have a reason to buy the next r10 generation. They often do this same thing with new software features on their watches, their pretty terrible at pushing updates to older devices. 

  • Currently the design of the Approach R10 does not have a way of only determining only swing speed without a golf ball being hit.

    The Approach G80 can provide swing speed without hitting a ball because the G80 is designed with one radar, which can record swing speed without the ball being hit, eliminating the need for ball flight to complete a shot capture calculation. This was something that, due to the one radar design in the unit...was able to have the swing speed metric only recorded through a later update to the software on the G80. 

    The Approach R10 has three radars all sending a signal to capture very specific components of the swing using those three radars...and the device is not designed to have the option of shutting the other two radars off to only record specific components of the swing. So this results in the current option of swing speed with no ball flight to record...same with not having the options of only recording ball speed...launch angle...or launch direction. They work all in conjunction to provide the radar derived metrics...along with the algorithm derived metrics. 

  • Currently the design of the Approach R10 does not have a way of only determining only swing speed without a golf ball being hit.

    We know that's not entirely true though. As a few others have stated here -- and it's something I've tried myself -- if you connect the R10 to GSPro using some of the connectors out there e.g. [external link removed] then we are able to see clubhead speeds without a ball and they look fairly accurate. So we know it's possible using the R10 as-is.


    External link to non-Garmin supported software removed per Terms Of Use. 

  • GSPro is non-Garmin supported. Currently there are not any official open source software methods supported directly by Garmin for the Approach R10. The efficacy, device safety, and accuracy of those open source workarounds are not guaranteed, and is use at your own risk...if chosen to be used in the manner outlined in the comment above. 

    If something not listed as compatible by Garmin for Garmin products is promising to offer a feature through openly-sourced workaround software (for features not being offered by Garmin a Garmin product) ...should not be considered as reliable unless Garmin states otherwise. 

    When the R10 is powered on, set up, and ready to record a shot...the radars are broadcasting and reading movement from that point going forward...regardless of whether a swing, with ball flight is being captured or not. This is how the device can sense if there is interference (which alerts on-screen if detected) as well as the LED indicator providing a real time status with light changing if a shot is not ready to be captured...etc. 

    Workaround software providing standby data, or exploiting other movement the radars are is picking up simply by the device being on & ready to capture, is not data that should be considered reliable. 

  • Nobody cares if it's "reliable", we're not tracking aircrafts here. If you don't want ball-less speed data to be a core feature of the Garmin Golf app due to the noted concerns, you could still allow this to be enabled as an advanced/experimental feature like every other app does. You can put whatever disclaimers you want in the app alongside the experimental feature settings.

  • The accuracy of the Approach R10 is important per the statements on the our in the Accuracy of Approach R10 Radar article. 

    The answer on adding the feature has not been given as a no...and the feature could still potentially become an offered feature at some point in the future...how that would be implemented, workarounds, and other potential options cannot be discussed until Garmin announces it and then the update becomes available to users. 

    In terms of non-supported options...Garmin Forums is in place to offer the community of Garmin users to discuss Garmin supported products, software, and services...so any non-supported promotion of Garmin product use in the forum...whether in the forum of external links...unsupported workarounds, or services are outside of the terms of use. 

  • Fantastic :)

    All we are saying is that the R10 unit sends out club head speed regardless if You are hitting a ball or not.

    Just because the Garmin Golf app don't show this info, does not mean that other software can't.

    Stating that the R10 unit can not measure this is b...*** as the unit sends out this data for every shot, ball or not.

    The reliability is questionable, for sure. But the data is quite close to my prgr data, and could be useful for many I guess.