Golf swing analysis apparatus and method

Abstract

A method and integrated golf club apparatus for directly measuring physical parameters of the golf club head motional acceleration swing forces, golf club head face, golf ball impact forces, and subsequent calculations of other metrics useful to a golfer's understanding of the effectiveness of his or her golf swing and impact result in totality. The physical parameters that are directly measured include three dimensional motion force vectors of club head prior to, during and after impact and full impact pressure force profiles across the golf clubface with respect to time. The force measurements are made by at least one piezoelectric or differential capacitance based acceleration g-force sensor internal to the club head and pressure impact force sensors integrated into the clubface. The sensors are connected to electronics which condition, record and store the time varying sensors information electronically, then process and translate the information into one of several forms for delivery to a human interface function.

I claim: 
     
         1 . A golf swing measurement and analysis system comprising:
 first and second impact sensors that detect impact of a golf club head; and   sampling circuitry that is coupled to the first and second sensors, wherein the sampling circuitry samples the first and second sensors simultaneously at a single point in time.   
     
     
         2 . The golf swing measurement and analysis system of  claim 1 , wherein the sampling circuitry further holds for a period of time a first value sampled from the first sensor and a second value sampled from the second sensor at the single point in time, wherein analog to digital conversion of the first and second values occurs during the period of time. 
     
     
         3 . The golf swing measurement and analysis system of  claim 2 , further including a processor that applies a sequencing group tag and time reference to both the first and second values and stores the sequencing group tag, time reference, and first and second values in a digital memory. 
     
     
         4 . The golf swing measurement and analysis system of  claim 1 , wherein the sampling circuitry samples at a sample rate at least as fast as a Nyquist rate determined by a highest frequency component of all of a plurality of analog sensors connected to the sampling circuitry, the plurality of analog sensors including the first and second sensors. 
     
     
         5 . The golf swing measurement and analysis system of  claim 1 , further including first and second accelerometers, wherein the first and second accelerometers are also simultaneously sampled by the sampling circuitry at the point in time. 
     
     
         6 . A golf swing analysis system comprising:
 a clubface;   first and second impact sensors embedded in the club face; and   sampling circuitry that samples the first and second impact sensors,   wherein the first impact pressure sensor is at a first location further from a center point of the club face than a second location of a second impact pressure sensor, wherein the first and second impact sensors are calibrated differently based on the first and second locations.   
     
     
         7 . The golf swing analysis system of  claim 6 , wherein the first and second sensors are piezoelectric elements of a same surface area and thickness. 
     
     
         8 . The golf swing analysis system of  claim 6 , wherein the clubface has an edge that is connected to a club head shell housing such that the clubface deforms less near the edge than at the center point. 
     
     
         9 . The golf swing analysis system of  claim 6 , wherein the calibration is accomplished with fixed calibration coefficients that are set within a processing circuitry of the system. 
     
     
         10 . The golf swing analysis system of  claim 6 , wherein the first and second impact sensors are sampled simultaneously by the sampling circuitry.