Review Blast Motion Gen 3 Review

[JonD]

I've only been using this for putting in my basement so far, but plan on giving it a run with my full swing clubs when I can get to the range. I've been trying to speed up my overall stroke to closer to what they recommend as my tempo ratio is pretty good. Results were mixed at first, but at least from short range it's been coming around. Gonna be interesting to see if this can help me in 2022.

 

[baylrballa]

well. 12 days, no solutions, finally offered a warranty exchange on the sensor.

for s&g downloaded the app on the better half's iphone to see if that would fix the data/upload/reset issues. Nope not at all but yeah, the iphone app is way, way more developed and intuitive.

holidays and all but still waiting to hear about sensor I sent in for warranty/exchange.

 

[will]

I had some time today to get out in the yard to do a bit of chipping. Still not 100%, but feeling much better and needed to get some fresh air. I'm still having trouble getting the sensor to pick up chip shots. It only picked up about half of the shots that I hit. I tried closing the face, opening the face, hands forward, hands neutral, low/high shots. It just didn't want to pick any of those up. In the session I'm posting below, I did find that coming in steeper on the ball and taking a larger divot helped somewhat, but that's not the kind of shots I'm usually playing. So, the short game mode comes up a bit short for me.



Tempo was still good though, even with me changing up shots trying to get the sensor to pick them up. At least I seem to be fairly consistent in that regard. When I get back to the course, I intend to test out the bunker mode and I do want my wife to give this a try. I hope it will pick up shots for her, as I think she could benefit from working on tempo in the short game. For me, right now, the putting mode is definitely where it's at and I'm actually looking forward to using that more as I try to work on improving my putting this year. I'll report back when I get back to the course and try out the bunker mode.

 

[will]

Bunker Mode:

Went to the range yesterday and finally got to try out the Bunker mode on Blast Motion. I'm happy to report that it did pick up shots much better out of the bunker than it has been when chipping. It still missed some shots, but not as many. I would say it picked up 75-80% of the shots I hit. It tracks the same info as the short game setting and some of the metrics, I'm not sure how to judge, like swing speed, for example. Is an average of 45mph good hitting short bunker shots? The results were good for the shot I was hitting, so I have to assume it wasn't bad. My tempo averaged about 2.2:1 for all of my sessions, so it's nice to see that I do have some consistency there. Bunker shots have never really bothered me and I've always been able to get out of them fairly easily with decent results, though I do have my bad days out of the sand.



My angle of attack was within the green zone, but apparently my swing, start to finish, just takes a bit longer than average. That's not something I want to tamper with too much. Fortunately, it's easy to update these goals to your baseline. Doing that allows me to keep working on a consistent tempo, without also having to try to speed up or slow down parts of my swing. I do think there's an opportunity to fine tune your swing using this. If you have pretty wide points between your highs and lows, you can start to narrow it down and work on staying within your new goals.



I think the Bunker mode could be a benefit those just starting out or maybe they've just been inconsistent out of bunkers. I do like that Blast includes a bunker mode for those that want to make sure they are making smooth repeatable swings with the right tempo or maybe get more consistent with their angle of attack. I'm not sure how much I will use this feature, but being able to utilize this and track data from different swings is a nice thing to have. I may use it to work on narrowing the window for angle of attack, as I could stand to be a bit more consistent there. Still, I think Putting and Full Swing are where I'll use it the most, but I do want to set it up for my wife to see what sort of improvement she could get out of it. I'm going to make some notes and I may want to get back to the range at least one more time before writing up a final review and I'll do some follow up reviews for my wife, just for comparison and where we each saw the most benefit.

 

[JB]

That is great information.

 

[rlew]

Bunker Mode:

Went to the range yesterday and finally got to try out the Bunker mode on Blast Motion. I'm happy to report that it did pick up shots much better out of the bunker than it has been when chipping. It still missed some shots, but not as many. I would say it picked up 75-80% of the shots I hit. It tracks the same info as the short game setting and some of the metrics, I'm not sure how to judge, like swing speed, for example. Is an average of 45mph good hitting short bunker shots? The results were good for the shot I was hitting, so I have to assume it wasn't bad. My tempo averaged about 2.2:1 for all of my sessions, so it's nice to see that I do have some consistency there. Bunker shots have never really bothered me and I've always been able to get out of them fairly easily with decent results, though I do have my bad days out of the sand.

View attachment 9058627View attachment 9058635

My angle of attack was within the green zone, but apparently my swing, start to finish, just takes a bit longer than average. That's not something I want to tamper with too much. Fortunately, it's easy to update these goals to your baseline. Doing that allows me to keep working on a consistent tempo, without also having to try to speed up or slow down parts of my swing. I do think there's an opportunity to fine tune your swing using this. If you have pretty wide points between your highs and lows, you can start to narrow it down and work on staying within your new goals.

View attachment 9058629View attachment 9058632View attachment 9058630View attachment 9058634

I think the Bunker mode could be a benefit those just starting out or maybe they've just been inconsistent out of bunkers. I do like that Blast includes a bunker mode for those that want to make sure they are making smooth repeatable swings with the right tempo or maybe get more consistent with their angle of attack. I'm not sure how much I will use this feature, but being able to utilize this and track data from different swings is a nice thing to have. I may use it to work on narrowing the window for angle of attack, as I could stand to be a bit more consistent there. Still, I think Putting and Full Swing are where I'll use it the most, but I do want to set it up for my wife to see what sort of improvement she could get out of it. I'm going to make some notes and I may want to get back to the range at least one more time before writing up a final review and I'll do some follow up reviews for my wife, just for comparison and where we each saw the most benefit.

Quite helpful, thank you.

 

[baylrballa]

no further communication but new sensor arrived in the mail today.

 

[baylrballa]

no further communication but new sensor arrived in the mail today.

Got everything set up and the putting seems pretty intuitive, and accurate. Still a bit unsure exactly how the face angle is reported, seems off at times.

Kiddo wanted to give it a go. Putter length only goes down to 30" so his 25" putter might not be exactly accurate. But he had a "blast" hitting about 100 putts in 30 minutes. About 90% of them recorded.
Immediate positive impact to his tempo. Hes 5 so kinda let him do his own thing most of the time, but he would take a big quick backswing and attempt to decelerate accordingly to match putt distance. Blast gave a lot of red graphs and he worked hard to turn them green and he was hitting some great looking putts in only 10 minutes or so. Pretty cool.

 

[DataDude]

I had about 30 minutes before dark tonight and I have been setting at my desk all day. I bundled up, stuck the Blast on my driver, grabbed 5 balls and went out to my course to hit some drives.

I am hitting a pretty consistent tempo every time and Blast likes my ratio but says my back swing is too slow and my downswing is almost too slow. I am thinking about trying to increase my tempo the next couple times I go out with it. The training even has a drill for that. I will try it out and report back.

More to come. This thing is interesting the more I use it. I like it. It's a good tool to have around.

 

[baylrballa]

the immediate feedback is great. really helped to slow down my backswing even after 10 minutes or so of putting. would do something a little off and had an immediate graph confirming. pretty cool when the sensor works. I do think i'm more comfortable around the 1.8-1 range, any more starts to feel forced.

some good recaps about the full swing aspect, so that'll be fun to try as well.

 

[gkeller813]

As I work on putting this winter, I've really noticed that a slower tempo in the backswing yields good results for me. I wonder what testers are seeing here as far as putting tempo goes. I thought ideal was around 2:1, and I see @baylrballa above most comfortable at 1.8:1.

 

[will]

As I work on putting this winter, I've really noticed that a slower tempo in the backswing yields good results for me. I wonder what testers are seeing here as far as putting tempo goes. I thought ideal was around 2:1, and I see @baylrballa above most comfortable at 1.8:1.

That's the goal set by Blast Motion, but I think each person will be a little different. When I'm in the 2.1:1 or 2.2:1 range, I see the best results. The putting stroke feels smoother and more natural in that range for me. I make more putts and keep it closer on longer putts. Working on keeping that tempo helped me control my distance better, but it's still a work in progress. The good thing about the Blast Motion system is that if you have a tempo that really works for you, you can adjust the goal ranges and narrow them as you go to work on making consistent putting strokes.

 

[gkeller813]

That's the goal set by Blast Motion, but I think each person will be a little different. When I'm in the 2.1:1 or 2.2:1 range, I see the best results. The putting stroke feels smoother and more natural in that range for me. I make more putts and keep it closer on longer putts. Working on keeping that tempo helped me control my distance better, but it's still a work in progress. The good thing about the Blast Motion system is that if you have a tempo that really works for you, you can adjust the goal ranges and narrow them as you go to work on making consistent putting strokes.

I agree, each person will be different, but really cool that you can find the optimum for you, then narrow the goal and work at hitting it.

 

[B-Mc]

Sorry if I’ve overlooked this somewhere in the thread, but… do they offer a discount code for THP? I’m very tempted to get one due to this thread!

 

[will]

I was finally able to get my wife to try the Blast Motion sensor while putting, so I wanted to do a quick update and some final thoughts. I will continue to update as my wife starts to use this as well.

Blast Motion App:

First, the app has worked pretty well from start to finish. The setup for the sensor was super easy and quick and I was able to start using the Blast Golf sensor immediately. While practicing, the app worked very well and I like that you can enable/disable the chimes and voice notifications. If I was on the putting green or chipping green alone, it was nice to have that instant feedback and see that you hit the correct tempo. The app is fairly intuitive and I had no problems navigating about and doing things like modifying my goals to fit my swing. That is a super helpful feature and can really help work towards more consistency as you narrow those goals. I also like that there are drills to help you practice, so it's not always just going to putt or hit balls, but rather to actually practice something. The only complaint I really have is that it would miss strokes, especially on the short game setting. Not sure if it was an app issue or the sensor itself. Overall though, I think the app does a good job of providing a lot of info, but also remaining simple enough to allow for easy navigation and use.

Putting:

I think this is the area where Blast Motion Golf really shines. Tempo wasn't something I thought too much about when putting, but this has shown me the importance of that in the putting stroke. I've improved my distance control and I'm working on getting better at squaring the face. My wife has practiced some with the sensor and saw some improvement as well. I want her to keep practicing with it, as it was already helping her avoid those overly long backstrokes that were really hurting her distance control. She also liked the instant feedback and seeing when her putts were in the green zone. I think this could really help her and I'm still using the data help identify the areas where I'm struggling on the green.

Short Game:

The short game setting is where I ran into the issue of it missing strokes. It would pick up some shot and then miss several in a row. My tempo was okay, but I found to get it to consistently pick up shots, I would have to get too quick and take a divot and it didn't feel natural and the results weren't great. I didn't spend a lot of time with this setting due to that technical issue. I do think it has value and I'm going to get my wife to try this setting as I think it could be beneficial to her. Hopefully it'll pick up shots better for her as getting more consistent with her tempo would make a big difference in her chips and pitches.

Bunker:

This was a fun setting to try and one that I think could benefit those new to golf. I found that I was fairly consistent with my tempo, so for me it would just be a way to track my consistency and maybe angle of attack. For someone just learning to hit out of bunkers, this could be very helpful as they learn to maintain a consistent tempo. You could also use this to see what swing speeds worked the best for certain distances, which angle of attack gave you the most consistent results, etc. and then work on repeating that. You could even modify your goals to hit those targets to work on different shots out of the bunker. I did find that this setting picked up most shots. It only missed a few here and there as I've used it and it wasn't enough to cause any issues for me.

Full Swing:

This was another setting that I had a lot of fun with and I think I'll continue to use to help with my driver. Being able to work on angle of attack with driver could be a big help for me. I would have thought I was hitting up on the ball just a bit, but that's not the case. I also saw the same results when demoing drivers on two different launch monitors, so the Blast Motion sensor seems to do a pretty good job at producing reliable data. I also liked being able to see swing speed here. That's something I would like to work on down the road, so it'll be nice to see if different exercises and drills make a noticeable difference in swing speed.

Overall Thoughts:

I've really enjoyed working with the Blast Motion Golf sensor and it has actually helped me in dialing in my distance control putting. I'm still a terrible putter, but I think this has helped me start identifying the pieces of the puzzle and where I need to improve. Now it's just a matter of working on those areas and truly practicing to hit a goal and the Blast Motion sensor will enable me to track the results. Eventually I want to work on increasing swing speed a bit with driver, so I'll use the sensor to try track that as well.

Overall, I think this is a solid training tool that provides a lot of useful data to the user. I think the strongest part of the Blast Motion Golf System is still the putting setting, but there are definitely gains to be made with the other settings as well. Outside of the missed strokes on the short game setting, it has worked very well each time I've had it out for practice. I intend to keep working with it and I'm going to let my wife practice with it as well and will try to update as we go. My niece is just taking up golf as well and struggles a bit with putting, so this might be fun way to work on tempo and distance control. In the end, I think Blast Motion is providing a lot of useful data in a small, easy to use, and reasonably priced package and I'm looking forward to seeing what gains I can make as the weather warms up and I have more time to dedicate to practicing.

 

[Scooby45]

I was finally able to get my wife to try the Blast Motion sensor while putting, so I wanted to do a quick update and some final thoughts. I will continue to update as my wife starts to use this as well.

Blast Motion App:

First, the app has worked pretty well from start to finish. The setup for the sensor was super easy and quick and I was able to start using the Blast Golf sensor immediately. While practicing, the app worked very well and I like that you can enable/disable the chimes and voice notifications. If I was on the putting green or chipping green alone, it was nice to have that instant feedback and see that you hit the correct tempo. The app is fairly intuitive and I had no problems navigating about and doing things like modifying my goals to fit my swing. That is a super helpful feature and can really help work towards more consistency as you narrow those goals. I also like that there are drills to help you practice, so it's not always just going to putt or hit balls, but rather to actually practice something. The only complaint I really have is that it would miss strokes, especially on the short game setting. Not sure if it was an app issue or the sensor itself. Overall though, I think the app does a good job of providing a lot of info, but also remaining simple enough to allow for easy navigation and use.

Putting:

I think this is the area where Blast Motion Golf really shines. Tempo wasn't something I thought too much about when putting, but this has shown me the importance of that in the putting stroke. I've improved my distance control and I'm working on getting better at squaring the face. My wife has practiced some with the sensor and saw some improvement as well. I want her to keep practicing with it, as it was already helping her avoid those overly long backstrokes that were really hurting her distance control. She also liked the instant feedback and seeing when her putts were in the green zone. I think this could really help her and I'm still using the data help identify the areas where I'm struggling on the green.

Short Game:

The short game setting is where I ran into the issue of it missing strokes. It would pick up some shot and then miss several in a row. My tempo was okay, but I found to get it to consistently pick up shots, I would have to get too quick and take a divot and it didn't feel natural and the results weren't great. I didn't spend a lot of time with this setting due to that technical issue. I do think it has value and I'm going to get my wife to try this setting as I think it could be beneficial to her. Hopefully it'll pick up shots better for her as getting more consistent with her tempo would make a big difference in her chips and pitches.

Bunker:

This was a fun setting to try and one that I think could benefit those new to golf. I found that I was fairly consistent with my tempo, so for me it would just be a way to track my consistency and maybe angle of attack. For someone just learning to hit out of bunkers, this could be very helpful as they learn to maintain a consistent tempo. You could also use this to see what swing speeds worked the best for certain distances, which angle of attack gave you the most consistent results, etc. and then work on repeating that. You could even modify your goals to hit those targets to work on different shots out of the bunker. I did find that this setting picked up most shots. It only missed a few here and there as I've used it and it wasn't enough to cause any issues for me.

Full Swing:

This was another setting that I had a lot of fun with and I think I'll continue to use to help with my driver. Being able to work on angle of attack with driver could be a big help for me. I would have thought I was hitting up on the ball just a bit, but that's not the case. I also saw the same results when demoing drivers on two different launch monitors, so the Blast Motion sensor seems to do a pretty good job at producing reliable data. I also liked being able to see swing speed here. That's something I would like to work on down the road, so it'll be nice to see if different exercises and drills make a noticeable difference in swing speed.

Overall Thoughts:

I've really enjoyed working with the Blast Motion Golf sensor and it has actually helped me in dialing in my distance control putting. I'm still a terrible putter, but I think this has helped me start identifying the pieces of the puzzle and where I need to improve. Now it's just a matter of working on those areas and truly practicing to hit a goal and the Blast Motion sensor will enable me to track the results. Eventually I want to work on increasing swing speed a bit with driver, so I'll use the sensor to try track that as well.

Overall, I think this is a solid training tool that provides a lot of useful data to the user. I think the strongest part of the Blast Motion Golf System is still the putting setting, but there are definitely gains to be made with the other settings as well. Outside of the missed strokes on the short game setting, it has worked very well each time I've had it out for practice. I intend to keep working with it and I'm going to let my wife practice with it as well and will try to update as we go. My niece is just taking up golf as well and struggles a bit with putting, so this might be fun way to work on tempo and distance control. In the end, I think Blast Motion is providing a lot of useful data in a small, easy to use, and reasonably priced package and I'm looking forward to seeing what gains I can make as the weather warms up and I have more time to dedicate to practicing.

This is great stuff. Anyone else have thoughts? Especially with the full swing side of things?

 

[DataDude]

Went out today to hit some drivers and used the Blast Motion. It's really useful to see what tempo makes a good swing for me. Generally if I hit a .93-.95 second back swing, I will hit the best swing speeds and the most consistent strikes. That also gets me in a nice 3:1 tempo range for the through swing. I like that this helps me get a feel for what the right tempo for me is. I don't swing super fast, which this also shows, but I do have a decent tempo.

This is a really useful.training aid so far. I am playing a round Sunday and I plan to use it to warmup with and dial in. I think this may be really good as a warmup tool.

 

[DataDude]

Did get to use this on Sunday for warmup. It actually worked quite well for this. I stick the device on my 7 iron. Set the app to 7 iron and it took me about 7 swings to steady my tempo at a comfortable rate. I then moved onto my 7 wood and then my driver. 15 swings total and my tempo felt pretty good.

I didn't get a chance to chip with the device but I did putt with it on for about 10 minutes before teeing off. My putting stroke is pretty consistent and I found I was already dialed in there.

This device is really good for making me focus on pace and confirming that the pace I am using is correct. I think before owning this I just never knew and I was kind of guessing. With this I know now what is right so one less thing to guess about and one less variable to lead to inconsistency.

 

[Scooby45]

I think I see why the SIK putter face helps me…

 

[rlew]

Used a gift idea on this, just got it and am excited to dive in! First wanting to focus on putting. Have been really determined to make strides with the short game.

 

[Wkndhookr]

Got a message today about being able to use it with SuperSpeed Sticks. Plus now can use Android. When I origianlly looked at Blast Motion it was iOS only. Thinking this may be ordered soon.

 

[dirty-d]

Yeah I am in to see how it works with super speed. My Rapsodo is great but doesn’t measure speed without a ball.

 

[Wkndhookr]

I placed my order the other day so should have by end of week.

 

[DataDude]

Excited to see how you all do. This has really helped me find a tempo which has improved my ballstriking a lot. I need to get back out with it soon and make sure I am still in range.

 

[Puttmaster]

Anyone still using this on a regular basis? Thoughts?