Full Swing KIT Launch Monitor Review

There is a lot of cool gear in the golf equipment world that doesn’t always fit neatly into Most Wanted Tests or Buyer’s Guides. You still want to know how it performs. In our We Tried It series, we put gear to the test and let you know if it works as advertised.

WHAT WE TRIED

The Full Swing KIT.

WHAT’S A FULL SWING KIT?

A Full Swing KIT is a Doppler radar-based personal launch monitor that can be used outside and, soon, indoors as well. The Full Swing KIT offers 16 different data points to help you dial in your game. If that wasn’t enough, the launch monitor has a 4k-resolution camera built into the unit to record every swing.

Personally, I think the camera is a huge plus because you can really see what your swing looks like. If you don’t understand what you’re doing wrong, you can send it to your coach and get instant feedback. Neat, huh?

The Full Swing KIT operates like your smartphone. You can click and drag, remove or add any data points, see your dispersion pattern and more at a touch of a button. It is as easy as that. This is just one reason why Full Swing KIT is unique because of its fully customizable interface.

You just plunk it down on a range and get real-life data straight to your phone via the app so you can see how you’re hitting it on that particular day.

The Full Swing KIT has the biggest Doppler radar unit in its price range. But is it big enough to capture accurate data?

Unlike the Bushnell Pro, the Full Swing KIT unit doesn’t require subscriptions to unlock all its metrics. Subscriptions exist but $3,999 gets you nearly full functionality. If you want to get a few more visuals or the ability to save unlimited range sessions, track stats or unlimited video storage, you will have to upgrade to the premium package on the app. That will set you back $99.99 a year. That’s not too bad.

That is the Full Swing KIT personal launch monitor in a nutshell.

WHY ARE WE TRYING IT?

Well, there are a couple of reasons. One, TIGER WOODS! Need I say more?

Tiger became an investor in the company after getting Full Swings’ top-of-the-line camera-based model for his house. Trust me, his simulator is pretty sweet.

Secondly, the personal launch monitor market is getting more action than ever and this product is one to add to the list.

The Full Swing KIT sits right between a Foresight GC3 and SkyTrak with a price tag of $3,999. I know for a fact that both are good so we wanted to see how the KIT performed. For a Doppler radar-based unit, the Full Swing KIT is a whopping $15,999 less than a Trackman.

PRODUCT EXPERT

Hi, I’m Harry, and I am a professional golf product tester. (Yes, they exist.) I test a lot of things at MyGolfSpy and play professionally when I’m not checking and comparing specs on gloves, rangefinders, bags, ball retrievers, etc. You can call me the Director of Product Testing here at MGS. You can also just call me Harry. That’s fine, too.

USING THE FULL SWING KIT

The Full Swing KIT is the most user-friendly launch monitor I have ever used. Not even close. I purposely don’t read the instructions to see how user-friendly each launch monitor is and I figured it out within minutes. So believe me when I say this: any generation of golfer should be able to get rolling with ease.

As I alluded to before, the app is as easy as working on a smartphone. I love the interface. One of my highlights is going back to previous range sessions when I was hitting it well and seeing what my swing looked like compared to a bad swing. That instant feedback is huge in my opinion.

The graphics on the app are a lot better than most but nowhere near their Pro Series Indoor launch monitor. However, once they get their indoor version up and running, you might get upgraded graphics with e6 Connect software in the future. This is where you might see some cheeky subscriptions come into play.

Like Trackman, Full Swing uses Doppler to collect head data which eliminates the need for fiducials (stickers) on the clubface. A huge plus in my opinion.

FULL SWING KIT VERSUS GC QUAD

First off, this test was conducted OUTSIDE!

We compared the Full Swing KIT with the camera-based Foresight GC Quad. As mentioned, the Full Swing KIT is a Doppler radar unit. We considered testing against another radar device. However, the accuracy of those units has been spotty and testing radar units side by side can create additional problems.

In the graphics below, you will see six key metrics that we felt most golfers would want to know about. These are just a sample of the metrics offered by the Full Swing KIT.

As you can see from the data, the biggest concerns are with spin and carry distances. On more than half of the shots, spin differed by more than 500 rpm, topping out with an alarming miss of roughly 1,680 rpm.

Carry distance was a similar story. The Full Swing Kit averaged +/- 15.4 yards difference relative to the GC Quad. More than half the shots differed by more than 10 yards with the biggest difference topping out at just under 40 yards. Not good, at best.

It is also worth mentioning that clubhead speed readings are abnormally consistent. The same numbers appear multiple times in succession while the GC Quad reports differences on each swing. Full Swing is aware of the issue and is fixing it ASAP.

Other metrics shown in the chart are within an acceptable range given the significant price difference between the Full Swing KIT and the GC Quad.

With 7-irons, the biggest issues were again spin and carry. On average, the Full Swing KIT produced +/- 439 rpm and +/- 5.5 yards of difference. However, the pattern continued with more than half the shots differing by more than 500 rpm, topping out with a a difference of more than 3,000.

When looking at carry distance, half the shots differed by more than five yards compared to the GC Quad. This is roughly half a club difference for most golfers.

Looking at club speed, about a third of the shots differed from the Quad by more than three mph. Other metrics were within an acceptable tolerance compared to a $15,000 unit.

The biggest issues with the Full Swing KIT when hitting a pitching wedge were again with spin numbers. Club and ball speed values are also problematic. Every shot we hit differed from Quad by at least 500 rpm. The biggest miss was by nearly 4,300 rpm.

The Full Swing KIT appears to be generous with its ball speeds, on the slower swing side. For instance, readings for more than 80 percent of shots differed by more than three mph difference from the QC Quad. With club speed, the Full Swing seemed to record lower than the Quad with more than two-thirds of the shots differing by more than three mph.

Once again, other metrics were within an acceptable range.

FINAL THOUGHTS

As with most personal launch monitors, the value ultimately comes down to what you are looking to get out of this. Chances are you’re either buying this unit for entertainment or for the data to improve your game.

For the entertainment golfer, this unit is our favorite so far. The fact you can customize your range session to show whatever metrics you want to focus on that day, save each session, record every swing, and more … Just get your credit card out now. When the update with indoor support and e6 Connect launches, it’s going to be even better.

For the golfer who wants to improve (which, in my opinion, is the whole purpose of a launch monitor), the Full Swing KIT isn’t there yet. We saw too many numbers that were off by way too much. The issue might be a simple firmware fix or it could be a long road ahead.

Here’s what I do know about Full Swing. They have always figured it out. Based on their premium camera-based models, they have some of the best launch monitors and graphics in the industry. It stands to reason Full Swing should be able to figure out how to make one of the best launch monitors for the everyday golfer in the future.

To learn more or purchase the Full Swing KIT, check out FullSwing.com.

FOR THE GEAR HEADS

For all of those who like to delve into the data, we have charts with average actual (distance off from GC Quad) and average median (more accurate representation without huge outliers). I have also broken down other metrics that weren’t included in the charts but are also offered by the Full Swing KIT which needed a little more attention.

Club Data

• Club Path – 11 out of the 24 shots recorded showed the path going in the opposite direction. Granted, the opposite direction pattern wasn’t a massive distance off but if you were working on your in-to-out path or vice versa, you could be getting wrong readouts.
• Face to Path – Like the club path metric, we saw the same opposite direction occur. However, 14 out of the 65 shots recorded over pitching wedge, 7-iron and driver were in the opposite direction. We saw the highest number of shots that were off within the driver data set.

Ball Data

• Spin Axis – Within the ball data arena, this was the most alarming metric in my eyes. Twenty-nine out of the 65 shots recorded from PW, 7-iron and driver showed the opposite direction of spin axis. Some of the biggest differences were upwards of 15 degrees compared to the GC Quad.