Novi, MI – V1 Sports (V1), creator of the industry-leading golf swing analysis software for teaching pros and golfers, has released a significant update to its innovative V1 Game mobile app that now includes A.I. Shot Tracking as well as Virtual Coach and Virtual Caddie functions to make the app one of the most versatile GPS, performance-tracking and comprehensive game-improvement platforms on the market.
With the V1 Game app, a mobile phone or Apple Watch becomes a golfer’s personal caddie, game performance tracker and pocket golf coach. V1 Game’s powerful GPS data provides accurate yardages to greens, hazards and landing zones to help you navigate the course like a professional. After a round is completed, V1 Game’s intuitive performance analysis technology provides a wealth of articulated statistics that reveal the user’s strengths, weaknesses and paths to improvement. With these newest features, the sky is the limit on GPS- and A.I.-powered game improvement. What’s more, V1 Game functions without the need for wearables, attachments or any external hardware other than a smartphone or Apple Watch.
“We’re excited that these new features make V1 Game the most comprehensive personal game management app on the market,” says Ryan Hebert, co-creator of V1 Game. “Using Artificial Intelligence, our A.I. Shot Tracking will help you make better decisions on the golf course and in practice. And, from club selection to aim point to what to practice next, Virtual Coach and Virtual Caddie reveal the very DNA of where you gain and lose shots and the path to scoring better. These new features revolutionize the way apps are being used help golfers effectively play better golf.”
For just the subscription price of V1 Game, golfers get player-friendly GPS plus the most robust platform for shot and performance tracking (including a wealth of Strokes Gained categories) on the market, plus dialed-in lesson prescriptions, metrics that chart a golfer’s target potential and A.I. functions that can “intuitively caddie” and guide them toward smarter practice and better play.
A.I. Shot Tracking uses available sensors in your smartphone or Apple Watch to detect shots and automatically mark your round. An Apple Watch helps V1 Game’s new swing detection algorithm detect when you swing and will automatically mark your location. Since the sensors are on your wrist, the app can accurately detect swing events and gives a soft vibration to indicate that V1 Game has detected a swing.
Golfers who don’t have an Apple Watch simply need to start a round and keep their phone in a front or back pocket. Using a combination of GPS and accelerometer data, V1 Game finds the locations where the golfer was stationary and potentially hit a golf shot. For example, if the phone is in a pocket, the app can decipher when the golfer is sitting down in a cart or standing over a golf shot.
V1 Game still works if the golfer leaves the phone in a cart or golf bag. There may be slightly more post-round editing, but within a few minutes golfers can have a fully tracked round. Speaking of, edits are as simple as dragging shot locations with your finger on the hole map, in places the A.I. might have mismarked. The system also has several settings that allow golfers to fine tune the A.I., depending on if they play fast or not, to further increase accuracy.
“The best part is you don’t have to remember anything,” says Dallas Webster, developer of V1 Game. “Once you start a round, the app tracks where you go on the course and automatically detects shots and locations. If you use the built-in sensors and let A.I. do the work, it is accurate to within three yards. Every shot tracking tool today requires some edits– even those with external sensors. We keep ours to a minimum. You don’t even need to remember what club you used on any shot– you can simply tap on any tracked shot to mark the club you used, right after you swing. One area where we separate ourselves is putting accuracy. While competitors rely on GPS information for putts– which just isn’t good enough for putt tracking– we use our quick-putt methodology to get those distances from users, accurate to the foot.”
Webster says V1 Game’s Virtual Caddie is beyond anything else out today, delivering tactful A.I. for course management. “Sure, we provide adjusted ‘Plays Like’ yardages like other systems, but we also build a history of how a golfer performs from various situations based on club use, lie, distance to the hole and weather conditions, and then offer simplified insights as they play,” he says.
For example, the V1 Game app knows that if someone tends to miss left from 150 yards and a right-to-left wind is also detected by the app, V1 Game suggests a club and to aim farther right. Virtual Caddie gives a recommendation and a quick snapshot of the data– just like a Tour caddie would– so that the golfer can make the best decisions on the course. V1 Game will even warn what to watch out for on approach shots, based on the golfer’s miss tendency from similar previous situations. A teaser video of this function can be seen at https://youtu.be/7CbuxUfnDqA.
The game-changing Virtual Coach takes the app to another level. It’s loaded with features to help players play their best. While many golf stat apps collect data and then dump it on the golfer to figure out how to apply that to their game, Virtual Coach does the insightful “heavy lifting.”
Not only does V1 Game plot a golfer’s putting performance, it uses A.I. to analyze the data and then advise specifically where there’s work needed. It displays advice, such as “Work on Approach Shots First” and “You are losing the most strokes on putts from 6-10 ft. Practice this range to improve the fastest.”
V1 Game also tracks “scorecard wreckers” and the shot events that culminate in big mistakes and big scores. “Knowing exactly what to practice is a game changer,” says Webster. “We remove the guesswork. Actionable data yields measurable results. You can use the ‘trends’ plots from Virtual Coach to quickly see what areas of your game are improving with practice or declining from neglect. Pairing this data with a V1 instructor can further accelerate progress.” A teaser video can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGsXCdQqrtE&feature=youtu.be.
“The V1 Game app is now positioned to be the most indispensable tool for golfers to personalize and fast-track their game improvement,” says V1 Sports CEO Bryan Finnerty. “If you want powerful, detailed data on where you lose and gain all your shots to become a better player, V1 Game delivers everything you need to fine-tune your approach and reach the golfing skill level you’ve always dreamed about.”
Other new features include Course Explorer that allows golfers to check out a course before they play it, and explore how the V1 Game community has previously played the course with ShotLink-like shot distributions; and Course Records that allows golfers to see their best score on every course they’ve played and compare them to the V1 Game community’s course records.
Users can connect and share stats and performance data with instructors and friends. V1-connected instructors can invite students to start receiving powerful feedback on performance and plans for improvement thanks to the V1 Coach app for instructors. V1 Coach, a companion to V1 Game, is a dynamic, data-rich system to help golf instructors and coaches manage their students’ performance data to optimize lesson content, practice plans, course management and scoring habits using the data supplied from V1 Game usage.
CONVENIENT NEW PRICING MODEL Par: $1.99/month or $19.99/year – includes 40,000+ golf courses in the V1 Game directory, Accurate GPS Distances, Simple Shot Tracking, Breadcrumbs/Auto Shot Detection
Birdie: $5.99/month or $59.99/year – includes 40,000+ golf courses in the V1 Game directory, Accurate GPS Distances, Simple Shot Tracking, Breadcrumbs/Auto Shot Detection, Strokes Gained Data, DIY Golf Stats
Eagle: $11.99/month or $119.99/year – includes 40,000+ golf courses in the V1 Game directory, Accurate GPS Distances, Simple Shot Tracking, Breadcrumbs/Auto Shot Detection, Strokes Gained Data, DIY Golf Stats, Virtual Coach, Virtual Caddie
V1 Game is a perfect complement to V1’s current line of video analysis software and mobile apps, including the V1 Golf and V1 Pro mobile apps which allow golfers and coaches to conduct online video lessons with advanced feedback including voice-over, telestration and side-by-side swing analysis.
Visit https://v1sports.com/athletes/v1-game-app/ to learn more.
About V1 Sports Founded in 1995, V1 Sports (V1) is the leader in swing and motion analysis software for golf and baseball. The V1 coaching software and apps deliver top instruction by connecting coaches and athletes to improve performance. V1 is recognized as the pioneer in delivering seamless video lessons with integrated telestration and voice-over. V1 products capture, review and analyze swing video for the creation and sharing of lessons and instruction content. To date V1 has delivered nearly 4 million internet video lessons by its more than 10,000 coaches. V1 Pro software is used by the most respected coaches, instructors, athletes and training facilities around the world. Visit https://v1sports.com/. Follow V1 on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @v1sports.
