Have you ever been practicing your hockey or soccer skills and wondered how hard your shot is? Maybe you want to figure out your swing speed for baseball or golf? Or your pitch speed in baseball? Knowing this information is not only cool and extremely fun for kids, it is a very handy thing in tracking your training progress in sports. The HockeyShot Extreme Radar 2.0 is a product that lets you figure this out. This allows you to see your gains and eventually how you stack up against the pros.
Design & Specs
The HockeyShot radar is made of plastic but is very sturdy. It comes with a small, folding tripod so that it can be held off of the ground or ice by approx. 6”. It also comes with a carry bag so you can easily bring it with you to practice at a field or rink. It doesn’t look like much at first glance. Once you take a closer look though you will notice that it has a lot to offer.
On the front the only indication of the radar technology is a x-shaped design at the top of the unit. At the bottom there is a small speaker and in between you will see the large, red, LED number display. On the back you will notice a series of buttons that let you change the settings and turn the power on. Besides that there is a battery compartment and an extended base. The extended base allows you to place the unit directly on the ground if you do not want to use a tripod.
The HockeyShot Extreme Radar 2.0 can detect the speed of objects within 30 ft. of the front of the unit. The farther you are from the radar the larger the detection range gets. This is especially helpful in sports like soccer or hockey where your shots come from a lot of different locations. The radar will detect the speed of objects between 3 mph and 150 mph. So it should cover all of your speed needs. The display has large, 2-⅛” tall digits. The LED’s are nice and bright so it is very easy to see. The unit also can say the speed through the speaker if you would like.
Use
Using the HockeyShot Extreme Radar 2.0 is pretty straight forward. The first thing that you need to do is insert 5 AA batteries in the back. After that all you have to do is push the “Power” button on the back and select any settings that you want to change.
The first setting that you should check is whether you want the radar to display your speed in MPH or KPH. Next you can turn on the audio option if you want to have the unit read your speed to you. The main setting that you have to select though is whether the unit is in “Still” or “Motion” mode. This tells the unit if you are going to be running/skating towards it or if you are standing stationary. Motion mode helps the unit to pick up your shot and to not pick up your body movement. Be advised though that the speed detection range starts at 30 mph in Motion mode. You may not be able to use this mode with small children who can’t shoot very hard. The still mode though seems to work pretty good in this situation.
After you are done selecting the settings that you want (which only takes a minute) you just need to decide if you want to use the tripod or not and where you want to set it up. The tripod is used to hold the unit off of the ground a bit. This is extremely useful if you are using it on grass. On a smooth surface you don’t really need it though. Placement of the unit is highly dependent on what you are doing. The unit can pick up motion from up to 30 ft. away. So placing the radar in a spot that works is pretty easy. After you have used the radar for 10 or more shots you can turn on the “Speed Recall” feature if you want too. This will let you display the speed of your last 10 shots if you want to see that information.
In my testing with hockey and soccer shots I find placing the unit facing the shooter, behind the net works great. The speeds that were displayed were very consistent when I was attempting to shoot with approximately the same power. Also the radar seems to be very accurate. The speeds that my son and myself were recording were right on par with the results that we got at the Hockey Hall of Fame shooting simulator as well as at a few festivals that had radar games. When I tested my golf swing speed the unit seemed to work flawlessly as well. Just make sure to use the Still setting for that.
Conclusion
If you want to track your progress in sports or just have some more fun while training, I highly recommend the HockeyShot Extreme Radar 2.0. It works flawlessly, is very well built and is highly portable. I have tested it in “Motion” and “Still” modes with multiple sports. It always gives an accurate and quick reading. The audio option is more than loud enough to hear and helps in a situation where the display is hard to read. Also I have used it a lot and the batteries haven’t died yet so it is pretty easy on power. If you or your kids play sports go get the HockeyShot Extreme Radar 2.0, you will not regret it.
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