Comparing Swings — Reference & Ghost

Seeing two swings together is where a lot of light bulbs go off — your good one next to your bad one, today's against last month's, or yours against a model swing. MotionEdge does this right inside the Video Player panel, using two controls: Reference and Ghost. There's no separate "compare screen" to go find — it's built into the player you're already watching.

Reference — compare against another swing

Reference brings a second swing in alongside the one you're viewing. Tap the Reference button (the stacked-film icon) in the Video Player's control bar, pick the swing you want to compare against, and the two play together.

Once a reference is loaded, you get three controls grouped together:

• Display mode — a single toggle that flips between two ways of looking:
  • Overlay — the two swings stacked on top of each other, with an opacity slider so you can fade between them. Best for seeing exactly where your body positions differ.
  • Side-by-side — the two swings next to each other, full size each. Best for matching positions frame by frame without anything obscured.
• Sync lock — when on, scrubbing moves both swings together so they stay matched at the same point in the motion. Turn it off to line them up independently (handy when two swings have different tempos and you want to match positions, not timestamps).

Each swing keeps its own filmstrip scrubber, so you can fine-tune where each one sits.

A few good ways to use it:

• Your best vs. your worst of the day — what's actually different at the top?
• Now vs. then — pull up a swing from a month ago and see whether the change you've been drilling is showing up.
• You vs. a model — keep a reference swing you like and check your positions against it.

Ghost — compare against yourself

Ghost (the layered-squares icon) overlays a faded copy of the same swing on top of itself. It's a self-comparison tool — useful for checking that your move repeats, or for seeing a single swing's positions layered as it moves. Like overlay mode, it has an opacity slider to dial the ghost in and out.

The difference in one line: Ghost is the same swing layered on itself; Reference is a different swing brought in to compare.

On a Mac — open more than one window

On a Mac you have another option for true side-by-side: open multiple Swing Review windows at once and arrange them however you like — no formal compare mode needed. This is great for laying out three or four swings across a big screen. See Multiple Windows on Mac.

Tips

• Match the camera angle. Comparisons are most honest when both swings are shot from the same view (both face-on, or both down-the-line). Mixing angles makes positions look different when they're not.
• Use the filmstrip to land on the same position. Get both swings to the same point — top of backswing, impact — before you study the difference. See Filmstrip.
• Sync lock on for tempo, off for positions. If you care about timing, keep it locked. If you care about shape, unlock and match positions by eye.

Back to the full screen tour: Video Review — Reading Your Swing.