An Accelerometer Based Instrumentation of the Golf Club: Measurement and Signal Analysis

TL;DR

This paper presents an accelerometer-based system mounted on golf clubs to measure swing dynamics, analyzing signals to understand swing tempo, rhythm, and hand motion within a double pendulum model.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method of using differential and common mode signals from accelerometers to analyze golf swings based on a double pendulum model.

Findings

Differential mode correlates with rotational kinetic energy.

Common mode relates to hand motion.

Both signals effectively recover swing motion.

Abstract

Two accelerometers are used to measure the motion of the golf club. The accelerometers are mounted in the shaft of the golf club. Each measures the acceleration along the axis of the shaft of the golf club. Interpreting the measurement with the context of the double pendulum model of the golf swing, it is useful to resolve the resulting signals into differential and common mode components. The differential mode is a measure of the rotational kinetic energy of the golf club, and this can be used to understand the tempo, rhythm, and timing of the golf swing. The common mode measurement is related to the motion of the hands. It is shown that both components can be used to recover the motion of the swing within the context of the double pendulum model of the golf swing.