Steve Atherton (@AthertonPGA)— GolfTEC VP of Research and Development and PGA Master Professional in Instruction — responds to the poll on training aids.
We certainly received the expected result from the training aids poll. I figured a lot of you would try training aids here and there. The results showed that 79% of you either try every training aid you can get your hands on, or try most of them and use a few. 21% of you said there’s no room for training aids in your bag.
Here is my take on training aids: there are some really good ones and there are some really bad ones. I believe there are three key elements that almost all of the “great” training aids have in common:
- Simple – they have to be very easy to use — typically the more moving parts or more complex the design the worse they are. If it requires batteries, installing it on a club with epoxy, special lighting to be able to see it, or a remote control it’s probably not worth your time.
- Portable – you should be able to take it with you in your golf bag, set it up quickly, and use it almost anywhere. A great example is the No 3-Putt Cup Reducers that you can drop into any golf hole to make it smaller. Great to improve focus and precision in putting, small, light and can be set up in 3 seconds.
- Intuitive – Eyeline Golf, one of our great vendors, comes up with more intuitive training aids than anyone. Their training aids for putting require almost no instruction, yet they promote functional improvement in many ways. They have a great new product coming out soon called the Ball of Steel. It’s a golf ball that weighs 5 times more than a regular ball. You hit it around for 5 minutes, and all of a sudden you don’t decelerate anymore, and you hit the ball solidly every time. No instructions needed to improve your putting!
I am happy to offer advice on some of the more popular training aids out there if you have questions, but I really feel if you keep those three things in mind when analyzing a training aid you’ll find more good ones than bad ones!
Question for Steve? Leave it below.
If you would like to check out a few training aids and receive one-on-one guidance on how to use them, call or stop by your nearest GolfTEC Improvement Center and talk to a Coach.
Hi Steve,
What do you think of the True YMPACT from trueympact.com
Peggy KORTE
Hi Peggy,
We have used the True Ympact a few times. I will say that it’s a pretty effective training aid. The thing that we heard a lot from students was that it’s a bit cumbersome, and tends to hurt a bit after use. It does effectively teach how to hinge the wrists the correct way throughout the swing though.
Steve