Retest
A retest is a short follow-up protocol attached to each advice. This means how many shots. This metrics, and what counts as success. This means that confirms whether a fix actually worked.
A retest is the mechanism that closes the loop between a advice and a confirmed result. When SwingVantage surfaces a primary advice, it also generates a retest protocol. This means a defined number of shots or sessions, a specific set of metrics to track. A success criterion that tells you whether the recommended change achieved the intended effect. The retest is not a general "try it for a while" suggestion. It is a concrete evaluation structure that produces a clear outcome. This means the change worked (the fault no longer appears above the threshold), it partially worked (improvement is present but the fault persists at lower severity), or it did not work (no measurable change was detected).
Retest results are the primary input to the advice engine for the next cycle. If a retest confirms that a fault has been resolved, the engine removes that fault from the primary findings and re-runs to identify the next highest-priority issue. If the retest shows partial improvement, the same advice continues with adjusted drill intensity. If the retest shows no change, the engine may prompt a review of whether the fault was correctly identified or whether the recommended fix was appropriate for the specific cause of the fault in your case. In all three outcomes, the retest produces actionable information rather than leaving you to guess whether the change was effective.
The retest is also the "one retest" in the "one fix, one plan, one retest" commitment. The commitment is a deliberate constraint on how the platform delivers advice. This means not multiple simultaneous tips, not an ongoing list of things to improve. But a single focused change confirmed by a structured test. This constraint reflects research on skill acquisition showing that focused, verified practice on one element produces faster improvement than divided attention across multiple concurrent changes.
Follow the retest protocol as written rather than self-evaluating whether the change felt better. Feeling is often misleading after a technique change — what feels different is not always what improved. The retest provides an objective check that either confirms the improvement or shows you more clearly what still needs work.
If a retest reliably fails to show the expected improvement despite honest effort on the recommended change, flag it in your session notes. This pattern may indicate that the primary fault was correctly identified but the recommended fix was not the right approach for your specific mechanics. This means a prompt for a coach consultation or an AI-assisted review of the diagnostic.
Example
After a grip change, the retest asks for ten drives and counts success as the slice curve dropping below a set threshold.
How it shows up on video
A retest session looks exactly like a regular analysis session in video — same setup, same club, same number of swings. What distinguishes it is context. This means the retest is recorded after a focused drill block that targeted the primary fault identified in the baseline. It is compared explicitly to that baseline in the report.
Common mistakes
- Running the retest immediately after just a few range balls instead of a complete drill block. This means the retest measures whether the drill produced real change. It needs to come after the full prescribed drill volume.
- Changing conditions between the baseline and retest (different club, different range, different time of day) — uncontrolled variables make the delta uninterpretable.
- Not retesting at all and assuming the drill worked — the retest is the only objective confirmation that the session produced real mechanical change.
- Treating a positive retest delta as permanent confirmation. This means the post-drill retest confirms the session produced change. A follow-up retest in the next session confirms whether the change was retained.
In SwingVantage Motion Lab
Retest protocols appear in your SwingVantage training plan alongside each advice. The protocol specifies the session structure (how many shots, which club or stroke type, what to measure), the success threshold, and the timeline. When you upload a retest session, SwingVantage on its own compares it against the baseline and reports whether the success criterion was met.
Frequently asked questions
How many shots does a typical retest require?
Retest protocols are calibrated to the fault type and sport. For a golf swing fault with a measurable launch monitor metric, a typical retest might require 10–15 shots from a consistent lie or distance. For a tennis technique fault evaluated from video, a retest might require two uploaded sessions showing the target stroke pattern. The protocol is designed to provide enough data for a meaningful comparison without requiring an entire training season.
What if I cannot complete the retest protocol exactly as specified?
Upload what you have and note any deviations in the session comments. The system will still evaluate your data against the success criterion and note where the data diverged from the protocol. A partial retest is more informative than no retest. This means the key is to keep the conditions as consistent as possible with the baseline session. As a result, the comparison is meaningful.
Related terms
- Recommendation EngineThe advice engine ranks possible fixes by impact and confidence so you get one high-leverage priority fix — not twenty competing tips.
- Confidence ScoreA confidence score is a 0–100 calibration of how much to trust a finding, scaled by sample size, shot-to-shot consistency, and how complete your inputs were.
- Retest DeltaA retest delta is the change between a pre-drill baseline and the post-drill retest measurement for the same specific metric targeted by that session's fix. This means the short-cycle confirmation of whether a single training session moved the needle.
- Progress TrackingProgress tracking is the longitudinal record of how your key metrics change over multiple sessions and retests, displayed as a timeline that shows improvement, plateaus, and regressions.
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