Golf Swing Training AidsThe choice of gizmos and accessories in golf is endless. Here are some of the training aids I use and find useful: Listing of Golf Training AidsTo help organize the list, I've broken the nine items into two categories: Swing Trainers; and Practice Aids. Swing Trainers:Practice Aids:Swing Trainers:Momentus Golf builds and sells a number of clubs (driver and irons) of different weights, ranging in weight and size. The club pictured below is an iron shaped similar to a 7-ron which weighs 2.5lbs. Momentus Weighted Club
The club is fitted with a training grip to place your hands in the correct position. The heavier-than-standard weight helps you groove your swing between rounds and in the off-season. Momentus Club Grip
The momentum you build by swinging the weighted club shaft helps you swing the club along a consistent path. The weight ingrains the proper feel into your golf muscles, builds muscle flexibility and strength, as well as consistency. I find it is a great warmup tool, especially if I don't have much time before the round. When I've just made it to the parking lot, I pull the Momentus out and take a few swings. It is surprising how light and easy it feels to swing a normal club after practicing with the Momentus. The other aspect I like is that it helps me fight my tendency to swing over the top on my downswing. With the Momentus, the weight forces me to drop the club down and into the slot properly as I move to the ball. The added weight makes it almost impossible for me to go over the top without really noticing I have made a "wrong move". The short club is an ideal tool for off-season swing therapy. The grip is molded into the proper finger position, so you can't develop bad habits over the winter. Short Club
At the end of the club, a weight is screw-mounted to the shaft to simulate the club head. Though the club is only about 30 inches long, its total weight is heavier than any club in your bag. The total weight is good for keeping your swing muscles limber. I use the short club whenever I can during the winter months -- usually while I'm watching golf on television. I watch the Australian Tour on the Golf Channel during November - December, plus the European Tour. Both tours keep me inspired so I have to swing something. In March, just as our season begins, I'll use the short club every day for 15 minutes or so. The short club is great for practicing your takeaway and checking your swing positions in the mirror. I face a full-height dresser mirror on one wall, with a mirror hung on the back of a hallway door. So, I can check the face on position and check the hall door mirror for the 'back view' while I'm at the top of my backswing. A caution to all out there who are thinking of buying this club: though I swear by it, I've managed to clean out my hallway ceiling light, a bedroom lamp and even the light above the kitchen sink with this thing. I'm pretty hard on lights, despite being careful. It's a good thing I'm not married. The laser guide is a gizmo I bought while watching a Golf Channel ad by David Leadbetter, a great instructor. The Guide is simple and effective. A small mini green carpet traces the proper swing paths in colored lines for takeaway, downswing, impact and follow-through positions of your swing. A VHS video accompanies the kit, with tips on how to use them in training your swing. Laser Guide Swing Mat
A laser light which attaches to the butt of any golf club (or swing trainer) makes the line tracings work. Laser Guide Light Adapter
The idea is to turn the laser light on and swing your club. Slowly at first. By training the laser light on the tracks painted on the carpet, you map the correct swing path. Repetition builds the correct feel, so you can reproduce the swing minus the aids. Assembled, the laser light and club are shown below: Laser Light on Club
I use it together with my short club. Early on, it was a great help to me as I have this recurring set of problems with coming over the top on my downswing. To have the laser light trace the correct swing path line, you are forced to maintain the proper angle of attack with the club on the downswing. It made me keep the my arms and the club closer to my body during the first half of the downswing (a much more powerful position). This gave me much more power at impact and more accuracy.
The lines also help keep you maintain proper stance and ball position at address. The only thing I still had trouble with was that it did not help me much with my weight transfer. You have to use these swing aids in the proper context. Naturally, no one tool does everything. You shouldn't focus on one swing element to the exclusion of everything else. Medicus Dual Hinge Driver and Iron The Medicus Driver and Medicus Iron are two very popular swing training aids. They each come with an instructional video to help show you how to use them in your practice. The secret is in their dual hinge technology that "breaks" or collapses the shaft depending on the swing flaw you exhibit on either the takeaway or downswiing. Once you learn to swing the Medicus Driver without breaking it you know you are swinging in tempo and on plane.
Medicus Driver
Fix the tempo and plane and swing without any shaft breakdowns and you are well on your way to hitting straighter, more dependable shots. Medicus Iron
The unique advantage to both of these aids is that you can actually hit balls with them on the range. So, not only to you get the feedback on the feel of a good swing, you see the results on the actual ball flight. The iron and driver each come with a video that is very good at explaining how to use and assess your swing wih these tools. The Speed Stik (manufactured by Prairie Golf) is a golf swing trainer that contains a built-in swing speed indicator in its shaft. The Stik is a tube-like shaft, almost 1-inch in diameter with a baseball grip at one end and a swing speed guage at clubhead. Speed Stik
Take your stance, hold the Stik as you would a club and swing at an imaginary ball. The speed guage registers the speed yu club head is travelling at its fastest point (at impact). The faster you swing, the farther the ball will go. Speed Stik Speed Guage
The Speed Stik provides you with instant feedback on how fast you are at moving the clubhead through the hitting area. Repetitive practice will teach you your most effective (speed-wise, that is) swing motion. So, assuming your use of the other swing aids abobe has grooved your move properly, you have a package that will help you swing fast, on plane, with consistent tempo and grooved into the sweet spot so that you hit the ball farther into the fairway.
Practice AidsThe SetRight Disc
This is a small yellow, plastic disk with snaps on both sides. The snaps hold old golf shafts that can be inserted at right angles to one another. Think of a circle with an iron shaft running East to West at the equator and a second shaft running North-South through the middle. The SetRight Assembled
Take the disk to the range and place the disk down on the mat in front of you. The East-West should point down your target line. It will keep your feet square to your target. The North-South shaft fits between your feet and juts out to point to your ball position. So, if I'm hitting driver, the North-South Shaft is just inside my left heal; it is in the center of my stance, if I'm hitting my 5-iron. This is another gizmo from David Leadbetter, the master teacher. It helps to keep your stance, ball position and alignment consistent while hitting balls on the range. Aids like this help keep bad habits from creeping back into your game. I've seen Jim Furyk use an metal ruler to lay in front of his feet while playing practice rounds. It serves the same purpose while he is out their playing. The ruler is small enough to keep in his bag, and easy to use while he is out on the course. Shag Bag
A zippered bag wih collector tube and carry handle is a great help with short game practice. Save your used golf balls and re-use them for chipping, pitching, putting and bunker drills. In my bag, I keep yellow golf balls for practice. That way, it's difficult to confuse my practice balls from other people sharing the practice area. Just in case, I also mark them on the off-chance the somebody else chooses yellow.
A shag bag holds 30-40 golf balls. I keep mine handy in the back of the car to use whenever I get the urge to practice. During the du Maurier Classic in Ottawa (1999, I think) I watched Betsy King practice at the Royal Ottawa prior to the tournament. She took about 100 balls and scattered 6 or so in lines every 5 yards back from the practice chipping green. There were at least 15 lines from about 5 yards out all the way back to the 100 marker. Her caddy stood at the flag and Betsy practiced pitching and chipping starting from near the green, working here way back along the practice fairway to the 100 mark. She repeated the drill 3 times. I've never forgotten that drill and use it for all my wedges. After hitting from the lines, I go back and scatter balls at random distances and hit them too. This way, I develop a feel for the different distances. Regular intervals develops technique, scattering balls give the feel you need to simulate game situations more accurately. Practice Hitting Net
Even on Vancouver Island there are days when the practice range is closed. It's handy to keep a net for testing new clubs and to photo my own swing while practicing. You're out of the weather, you've got all your practice aids around you in the garage or in the yard, so it is a good place to get your groove or keep your swing muscles oiled and ready. I've seen nets priced from $50 to $300. On a recent blog post I frequent, one of the responders described getting a tarp from the local hardware -- the sale was $15 for an 8 x 10 -- and it worked fine for him. I use one from Callaway and it helps me test clubs with the impact labels on their face when doing fittings (see the Impact Labels in the following section). Often used by clubmakers, impact labels are self adhesive, impact senitive tape that you can stick onto the clubface to see where the clubface hits the ball. Impact Labels
In a dynamic club fitting -- where you test a variety of clubs of different length, lie and swingweight characteristics by hitting balls and seeing their actual ball flight -- impact labels indicate swing accuracy and club effectiveness. Apply self-adhesive labels to the clubface and ball marks help assess proper club length and lie angle for a particular club and swing type. If the marks are all clustered in the center of the face near the sole of the face, then the club is the perfect length and lie angle for your swing. If marks are out on the toe, the club may be too upright and the angle between shaft and toe of the club should be lowered. Labels are inexpensive but very effective tools in your self-assessment of your clubs and the accuracy of your ball striking. Each label can be worn for about 10 or 12 hits before it gets so marked up that it becomes hard to distinguish one hit mark from another. Use the labels in practice to indicate where your ball marks are clustered on the clubface. This periodic feedback will help you monitor your swing and your equipment as your game progresses.
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