Free Shanktuary app turns two $20 Wii Balance Boards into golf pressure plates

Joe Lagowski's latest video, posted Tuesday, tests Shanktuary Performance Golf Studio, a free simulator practice app that turns old Nintendo Wii Balance Boards into rough pressure plates. Lagowski says he bought his two boards on Marketplace for about $20.

The software comes from Shawn, the developer behind the Shanktuary mini-games, whom Lagowski says some golfers know as Rocker Toe. It's a free download on GitHub, and there's a Shanktuary Discord for support.

How the boards work

Each Wii board has a sensor in every corner. After a quick calibration (step on the left board, then the right, then hold your address and shift 85% onto each foot), the app's Lab view shows where your pressure sits and how it moves through the swing.

Lagowski says it isn't perfect, and he doesn't expect it to be. His hitting mats are soft, and he thinks the corner sensors want a harder surface. That made heel-to-toe and front-to-back readings less sensitive than he'd like. Lateral weight shift is where it shines. When he swung normally, it showed pressure moving to his trail side and then forward. When he faked a reverse pivot, the trace went the wrong way first, just as it should.

One setup note: standing on the boards raises you about 40 to 50 mm, so he'd cut a piece of turf and build up the hitting area to match. A single board works too.

The rest of the app

The pressure lab is the headline, but the app does much more. Lagowski ran it straight off a Nova from OpenLaunch, and he says it can also run in a separate window and pull shots from GSPro. Tabs cover shot dispersion and shape, club delivery, averages by club, a range view, a bag setup and a club comparison tool for testing two drivers or shafts side by side. You can export sessions to CSV or PDF, and there are OBS overlays for floor projection.

He's clear about where the numbers come from. Ball data comes from the Nova. Club speed, smash factor, path and face are derived by Open Golf Coach. Strike location is Shawn's estimate, since the app can't see the Nova's cameras, though Lagowski says it has matched his usual toe strikes so far.

What to do now

If you own a Nova or play GSPro and want to see your weight shift without buying pressure plates, this is a cheap experiment: two used Wii boards and a free download. Put them on a firm surface and build up your hitting area. Lagowski thinks ground forces are the missing piece in home coaching. He'd love to see Shawn build a dedicated low-cost plate next, so watch the Discord for that.