Power play…It’s time to get smart and beef up your game 

From rackets and bats with integrated sensors to high-tech clothing and the latest in smartwatches, today’s sports equipment is chockfull of smarts designed to carefully measure and monitor your performance. 

Be it running, swimming, cycling, golfing, or simply playing ball some digital devices are trusted trackers and ideal for providing that much-needed incentive. Others are tremendous tools that’ll give you the leading edge on the back nine or give you the oomph you need to ace your pickleball serve.

Sit back and smile as you discover what’s new and newsworthy.

It’s fair play on the fairway
While there are more affordable solutions, the Garmin Approach Z82 Laser Rangefinder ($669) is “the most accurate laser rangefinder on the market”, says the company. It gets you within 10 inches of the flag from up to 411 metres (450 yards) away. 

You’ll also see full-colour 2-D CourseView mapping—for more than 41,000 courses worldwide—overlaid on the viewfinder, with the arc feature drawing on the map, allowing you to see everything in play at that distance. Enhanced with image stabilization to make it easier to find and range the flag for precise distances to the pin, there’s also haptic feedback to give you a slight vibration when you’ve locked in the shot. A “hazard view” option lets you easily scroll through each hazard on the map, like bunkers and water.

Pickle me pink
Just because there’s no screen or sensor doesn’t mean this Pickleball accessory isn’t high-tech: Check out the OM Aero Pickleball Racquet ($344), considered the “Porsche of Pickleball paddles.” It’s crafted with a single-mold carbon fibre tennis racket-style frame that extends from the bottom handle to the top of the paddle. 

Along with the Hexiom Superpolyer core and nano-textured SharkSkin polymer wrap to provide a more professional-quality feel to your game, the company says a small opening between the aerospace-grade 3K Pro-weave carbon playing surface handle improves aerodynamics for a more powerful shot (and with less resistance). The 8.1 oz paddle measures 15.7” x 8.1” x 0.55.”

Hey, ballers
While it looks and feels the same as any other, the 94Fifty Smart Sensor Basketball ($249), as the name suggests, has the ability to capture near-time data and provide great feedback on your game—all sent to a nearby app on a smartphone or tablet. 

What’s cool… a friend or coach on the court sidelines can see info and graphics just 100 milliseconds after each of your ball manoeuvres. Specifically, the free 94Fifty app displays all measurable forces applied to the ball—including spin, speed, arc and acceleration—as a player moves, dribbles and shoots towards the net. 

The water-resistant orange ball delivers up to 8 hours of battery life between charges, offers upgradeable sensor software (when new features are introduced over time) and provides a range of up to 90 feet (30 meters) to your app-enabled smart device.

Get your head in the game
With sports concussions constantly in the news—as well as youth concussion clinics opening across the county—Reebok, after several years of testing in the lab and in the field, has launched the Checklight ($149), a head impact indicator worn with or without a helmet during sporting activities (contact sports, especially). 

This thin, light and all-black skullcap has built-in sensors that can monitor any impact experienced during sporting or fitness activities. Utilizing at a red (bad), yellow (medium), and green (good-to-go) LED-based system, the Checklight gives parents and coaches a visual real-time display of any physical impact during sports.

Instead of guessing if there was any impact, this product gives players consistent, reliable and actionable impact data. Plus, the Checklight automatically logs the total number and severity of impacts recorded for the user.

Tennis, anyone?
Compatible with tennis rackets by Wilson, Head, Prince, and YONEX, Sony’s Smart Tennis Sensor ($189) attaches to the base of your racket so that you can record all  of your shot data. Once again, it can be displayed in real time on your smartphone via Bluetooth. In the app you’ll find info like swing (shot) type, ball speed, swing speed, ball spin, ball impact spot, and other data. In Live Mode, you can use your phone’s camera to record your swing, and the intelligence will analyze your swing for feedback. A neat feature: you can play back your performance in slow-motion and break down every part of your stroke. Left your smartphone in the car? No worries. The Smart Tennis Sensor can work without the phone to record and store data from up to 12,000 shots in its internal memory. Later, back home, you can sync it with your phone.

Get roped into this
Skipping is a great way to get the heart pumping, shed some pounds, and it doesn’t require a big investment or a lot of space. And now today’s tech can better help you achieve your skipping goals, too. 

The Renpho Smart Jump Rope ($37) is a cordless jump rope with an integrated counter—ideal for home gym, CrossFit classes, or to be used outside. The adjustable jump rope lets you choose an ideal length, and once you start skip-ping, data is wirelessly sent to the Renpho Health App (iOS and Android). Track your jump count, calories burned, time spent jumping, and more. In fact, there are three modes (including a countdown timer) tied to the integrated chip and three sensors.  

The rope itself is made from a high-quality PVC material and metalcore that’s durable and wear-resistant. Even without your phone, the main handle is embedded with a backlit LCD display to provide glanceable skipping data. 

Watch this
Samsung’s Galaxy Watch6 (from $409) and Watch6 Classic (from $549) are also smart wellness wearables that offer style, water-resistance, advanced sleep coaching and a Samsung body analyzer that can track body composition based on weight, body fat, body mass index (BMI), skeletal muscle and more.

It’s time to track your progress
Smartwatches are ideal for tracking health and promoting wellness, as they’re loaded with sensors that cleverly monitor your activity, sleep, and any potential medical issues—and the good news is that today’s models go well beyond just capturing your steps, distance, and estimated calories burned. 

Ideal for those who engage in sports, Apple Watch Series 9 (from $549) is a good choice for iPhone owners, as it’s packed with health and fitness features, including auto-tracking of a variety of workouts. Whether you’re merely walking around the block or partaking in Apple Fitness+ classes ($99/year, after three free months). Supporting up to five family members per subscription, Apple Fitness+ provides access to thousands of 4K video and audio workouts, led by expert trainers, from 5 to 45 minutes per session, which you can follow along on a mobile device, Apple TV, or Mac—while your wrist captures and displays all relevant data. 

Exercises include walking, running, HIIT (high intensity interval training), strength training, yoga, Pilates, cycling, dance, rowing and more—even guided meditation—and each with music playlists. While most classes don’t require any equipment, for some you may need items like a yoga mat, dumbbells, an indoor cycling bike, a rowing machine or a treadmill. You can use any brand of equipment.

For heart health, an embedded ECG can detect unusually high or low heart rates or irregular heart rhythms (“arrhythmias”), plus there’s a blood oxygen monitor (“pulse oximeter”) to assess the amount of oxygen carried in the body by sending light into your wrist. The Apple Watch also has integrated fall detection, which can call emergency services and select contacts if it detects a sudden drop, and you don’t confirm you’re okay. (Fall detection is also available on the less expensive Apple Watch SE, starting at $329.) The smartwatch also helps you understand your sleep quality with a personalized Sleep Score.

Android users, on the other hand, might opt for the more affordable Fitbit Sense 2 ($269) which also offers all-day health tracking—such as blood oxygen (SpO2) levels, ECG tracking and heart rate variability, and an EDA scan for stress management (which includes sensors that measure electrodermal responses on your skin). Fitbit Sense 2 includes six months of Fitbit Premium Membership ($12.99/month), for deeper, highly personalized health insights.

For additional features, Google Pixel Watch 2 (from $399) lets you set workout goals, get real-time feedback with pace training, track heart rate zones, and be notified when you move from one zone to another. As you might expect, there’s also Google AI built in, which compliments the new heartrate sensor, for more accurate reads (up to 40% more precise tracking during vigorous workouts like HIIT, compared to the first Google Pixel Watch).  Other features include 24 battery life, an SMS emergency mode, fall detection, and more.

For the past 25 years, Marc Saltzman has been a recognized expert in consumer electronics, business tech, and automotive trends. Marc is a keynote speaker across North America and hosts the weekly Tech It Out podcast. You can follow Marc on X @ marc_saltzman.