Golf training aids are one of the most searched golf items on Amazon in addition to golf clubs, golf books, and other golf accessories. But are golf training aids worth it?
Do they actually help you improve at this challenging sport? Or are you better off spending money on lessons from a golf pro at the driving range?
In this guide, we will review the pro’s and con’s of using golf training aids and what expectations to set when using them.
We will also share several different golf training aids you can buy and what purpose they serve to help your golf game so you’re making the best decision when deciding which ones to invest in.
Sound good, my friends?
Resource: Here is a downloadable golf training plan to follow (PDF Worksheets)
Before Buying Golf Training Aids – How They Work?
Before you head over to Amazon or your local golf sporting shop looking for training aids, you should first understand the purpose of them.
The golf training aids themselves won’t fix your problem. Instead, they are designed to give you feedback so you know when you are performing a golf shot with poor technique vs proper technique.
For example, if you are pulling putts and missing left of the hole often, a putting training aid like an alignment guide can give you feedback to show you what putts are staying on line and what putts are going off line.
Then you can make adjustments to your putting stroke until you notice your putts are holding the straight line that the training aid putting mat has built into it to give you such feedback.
But again, this is only feedback. It’s your job to diagnose the underlying cause in your golf swing, chipping stroke, or putting stroke that is resulting in the slice, chunk, mishit, off-line shot, etc.
Then find the right golf training aid that will help give you feedback on the issue you’re trying to solve. But don’t expect it to actually be the cure itself. It’s only a training aid.
Feel free to use the links to skip ahead to the golf swing aid most interesting to you.
Golf training aids
- Tour Striker
- Super Speed Stick System
- Orange Whip
- SkyTrak Launch Monitor
- SkyPro Swing Analyzer
- Golf Tempo and Grip Trainer
- Swing Setter
- The Hanger
- Eyeline Speed Trap
- Golf Impact Ball
- Impact Smash Bag
Golf Training Aids – 11 Awesome Swing Aids
Tour Striker
The Tour Striker is a great training aid for teaching you forward shaft lean at impact and teaching you how to hit pure shots with your irons.
You can select the standard 7 iron Tour Striker or opt for a different option like the pitching wedge (for beginners) and 5 iron (for advanced golfers).
The Tour Striker club is made with 433 stainless steel and comes with a True Temper, uniflex steel shaft.
The clubface is raised off the ground which forces you to swing down at the ball with a descending strike and forward shaft lean to be able to make contact with the ball.
It’s one of the most popular golf training aids and can help your ball striking improve. But don’t buy this training aid if you expect it to cure your slice or hook.
SuperSpeed Sticks System
The SuperSpeed Stick System is perfect for golfers looking to increase swing speed and power.
Essentially the Superspeed sticks are three weighted golf clubs. The lightest club is 20% lighter than a standard driver, the next one is 10% lighter than your driver, and the third is 5% heavier.
Players will swing all three of these clubs in a light to heavy progression during the overspeed training protocols.
SuperSpeed Founders find that players typically gain between 5% and 8% additional swing speed over the first 4-6 weeks of regular practice. Each training session only takes about 10 minutes to complete. We recommend 3 training sessions per week for optimal results.
Resource: See the Training Protocol Routine + Full Review Here
The SuperSpeed training system works by getting a golfer’s body to move at above average speeds during a known motor pattern. Initially the load is reduced by using a light club in order to get the golfer to make fast swings.
With time the load is increased and the brain learns that the body can perform that same motor pattern at faster speeds than what it initially did.
SuperSpeed Golf has a training system for golfers of all skill and strength levels. The SuperSpeed training system selection includes a men’s, ladies, senior, long drive, junior, all-star and pee wee set.
Each set is made up of three of the following four training clubs, a yellow super light club, a green light club, a medium blue club, and a heavy red club.
In general players will use the set from the category that they fall under, but exceptions to the rule do exist. In order to get the set that is perfect for you, look at the weight of your driver and then get a set that fits according to that weight.
Orange Whip Golf Swing Training Aid
The Orange Whip golf training aid is designed for helping you improve your golf swing tempo. And that is really all this training aid is useful for.
The orange whip is a bendy stick with a mass on the end (the orange ball).
When you accelerate a mass a force is applied. The bigger this force the more the stick bends.
Therefore this training aid gives you feedback on if you have a smooth acceleration of the golf club (swing tempo) during your swing. If you are too quick at accelerating the golf club the stick will bend a lot.
The proprietary flexible shaft coordinates the rhythm between your arms, upper body, and lower body. Swing over and over to develop your own tempo and balanced swing for consistent shots on the golf course.
What this training aid won’t do is fix your slice. It also isn’t the best option for working on strength training and flexibility even though the marketing copy on Amazon claims to use a patented counterweight system.
Instead, try actual weight lifting and cardio like we use in our Golf Fitness Program here.
Overall, this training aid helps golfers focus on their timing and tempo. Timing is super important in golf, and staying on tempo can keep your arms, legs, hips, hands all in sync to deliver a solid strike on the golf ball.
Click here to see pricing and reviews
SkyTrak Launch Monitor
One of the more expensive golf training aids but surely will provide you lots of data to understand what you’re swing is doing.
With the SkyTrak launch monitor you get measurable parameters like club speed, ball speed, carry distance, total distance, launch angle, spin rates, and more.
The golf ball is measured by high-speed photography from the device to provide accurate reading of your golf ball’s flight as the club makes impact with it.
It’s a great tool for helping you build distance in your golf swing and gain more yardage off the tee.
Click here to see pricing and reviews on Amazon
Skygolf Skypro Swing Analyzer
You’re going to love the Skygolf SkyPro Swing Analyzer. This golf training aid is for the data junkies who love to make decisions after reviewing data on their golf swing.
It’s a great alternative to a simulator if you don’t have hundreds of dollars to spend on the SkyTrak Launch Monitor or don’t have access to a Trackman.
Plus, this training aid device gives different feedback than most simulators since it actually attaches to your golf club. It sits just beyond your golf grip and it fits on all clubs from wedges through driver.
The swing analyzer will provide you with lots of information on your swing such as:
- Address: Shaft Angle & Shaft Lean
- Clubhead speed & Swing tempo
- Halfway Back: Takeaway Angle & Face Angle
- Top of Backswing: Backswing length (degrees)
- Halfway Down: Return Angle & Face Angle
- Impact: Shaft Lean, Shaft Angle (relative to the ground), Angle of Attack, Face Angle (FOR PUTTING ONLY)
The SkyPro Swing Analyzer uses ultrafast 3D performance to explore your swing with complete 6 degrees of freedom rotation at a smooth 60FPS for entire swing exploration.
You’ll enjoy the visual, interactive comparisons that can overlay your favorite swings to help you find out what went wrong in one swing compared to your good swings.
And if you thought this device was only for your golf swing, think again. It also works for your putting stroke to help you analyze why you’re missing putts.
The completely redesigned and stunning new user interface includes comprehensive Putting Analysis, Focus mode and Intelligent Putting Recognition with path direction, rise angle, putting length, and displays face angle at impact and throughout your entire putt
SKLZ Tempo and Grip Golf Trainer
The SKLZ Tempo and Grip Trainer club is designed with a unique golf grip that has position guides for your hands and fingers to help you learn the proper grip.
It’s also a shortened golf club with a weight on the end of it to help you learn tempo. There are two different removable weights to help you simulate irons and woods.
This golf training aid is best used for beginners trying to learn the proper grip which is the most important technique to master when working on your golf swing.
Having the wrong grip is a major cause of slices, hooks, and other swing faults most golfers face.
A slight limitation however, is the Tempo & Grip trainer club doesn’t have a clubface on the end so you can’t work on squaring up the face at impact position.
I’m also not sold on how much this club helps you with tempo. When you switch back to a normal golf club how well will the results achieved on this training aid tranfser over to a real golf club?
Overall, it’s got a nice feel and great option for working on your grip but be cautious thinking it can fix much beyond that. For swing path fixes to help cure slices and hooks, try other training aid options below.
Golf Swing Setter
The Golf Swing Setter, also known as the Hinge Setter, is a simple training aid that attaches to your golf club to give feedback on when your wrists are fully hinged or not.
It comes with a protective forearm band so the plastic doesn’t scrape or irritate your arm.
The goal of this training aid is to help you get into the perfect hinge position at the top of your backswing. It also gives you feedback in your follow through as well.
However, if you don’t use a neutral golf grip then you’ll find that the plastic grabber misses your arm. Additionally, if you bow your wrists this can also lead to a miss fire.
These are added benefits this swing aid provides to teach your proper grip and wrist movement during the swing but it also can become annoying due to how touchy this device is. Small tweaks can throw off the plastic grabber and make it miss connecting with your forearm.
Set up is simple. Attach the hinge setter to your shaft and slide it down to the start of your golf club’s grip.
The Hanger – Golf Training Aid
Right away you’ll notice this swing aid device seems quite similar to the swing setter training aid we reviewed earlier in this guide. And you’d be correct.
It serves a similar function of helping you achieve the proper wrist set throughout your golf swing. But it comes at a much more expensive price tag.
While they claim is will help you fix your slice, the reality is that a proper golf grip should be focused on first before buying this training aid to cure a slice.
The Hanger will help you achieve a better left wrist position through out the swing which can effect your club face angle at impact, helping reduce the severity of a slice.
If you usually have a very open club face at impact, you’ll tend to have a more drastic slice. So learning how to bow your wrist (flexed) to keep the hanger in contact with your forearm, will also create a stronger impact position for the club face, helping reduce the slice.
How to Set Up – Pick your iron of choice, Connect the two pieces found inside box, Attach to golf club before tightening, Set the HANGER club face slightly open to the club face on the ground, Secure into place by tightening both screws.
Overall, buy this training aid if you know you need to work on your left wrist position but don’t buy it if you think this expensive piece of plastic is going to cure your swing path, grip, or posture issues which also are likely causing you to slice.
Eyeline Golf Speed Trap
The Eyeline Speed Trap is our first swing path related golf training aid. It claims to improve your swing plane and help your strike improve.
The 4 red rods you see above in the image are adjustable to match your skill level.
The goal is to swing through the hitting zone without making contact with these rods. They give you instant feed back on your swing path so you know if you’re coming too far from the inside or have an outside to inside swing path.
This training aid also helps you improve your strike and “trap” the ball by hitting ball first then turf.
You’ll learn how to create a nice crisp divot, hit it solid with great trajectory and phenomenal spin. The polycarbonate base tells you instantly if you are scooping the ball or hitting it fat.
Struggling to Swing on-plane? When you learn to swing the club between the speed rods, your club will be on plane and on path. Great for eliminating a slice or hook and ultimately leaded to straighter longer shots.
Do you often swing over the top? This golf swing aid can help take away the “over the top” golf swing move to help cure your slice by maneuvering the rods to different swing path positions.
For outside to inside golf path fixes, you’ll put a rod on the back top corner, and front inside corner (right-handed golfers) to force your swing path back square or inside to outside.
You’ll know when you come over the top by hitting that back outside corner rod.
Golf Impact Ball
Could holding a golf ball between your forearms really make a difference in your golf swing technique? That’s the idea behind the Golf Impact Ball, which is our next training aid in this review.
This golf training aid claims to help you swing your arms, shoulder and torso in harmony. By placing this object between your forearms you receive feedback via the impact ball either staying firmly in place, or falling out.
It comes in 3 sizes; large (men), medium (women), and small (juniors). Price tag is also fairly affordable but you can click the link here to check Amazon current prices.
If you’ve got a steep golf swing or too flat of a golf swing, this training aid will give you great feedback.
It gives a simplified feeling to a golfer who tends to lift their arms too much in their backswing.
The golf impact ball also gives great feedback on how to correctly rotate the club face during the take away, for anyone who gets the club face very shut in their takeaway.
Overall, I’d recommend this training aid for golfers looking to flatten out their swing plane and shaft angle. It will help you keep your body and arms more in sync and help you learn how to avoiding shutting the face during take away.
You should see a reduction in pulled golf shots and duck hooks that result from the arms and body getting out of rhythm as well as a poor swing plane.
Impact Bag
The smash bag is a popular and affordable golf training aid you can find on Amazon here for under $20.
The smash bag impact trainer is great for learning the correct clubface position at impact. It also has a target printed on the bag to give you visual feedback of where the clubface should strike.
They claim that the smash bag should help you eliminate fat and thin shots while also curing slices. I would be skeptical of this claim and come in with lower expectations than that.
But it’s still a great training aid for working on squaring the club face at impact which can reduce slices and hooks that result from an open or closed clubface.
A few different ways to use the smash bag:
- Take a swing and strike the bag
- Start off with the clubface pressed against the bag and push it while maintaining some forward shaft lean to feel what a proper impact position should be like
When you receive your golf smash impact bag, it likely will be empty so be prepared to fill it yourself with either towels or clothes.
Final Thoughts on Today’s Training Aid Reviews
Overall, these are some of the best golf training aids you can buy if you’re looking to get feed back on your golf swing.
It’s important to buy the one’s that fit with your specific needs, so first determine what issue you are trying to solve and then review the training aids to determine which seems like the right fit.
They’ll serve the three purposes of (1) fixing technique, (2) giving you feedback, and (3) helping you practice golf at home away from the golf course.
Check out our additional review articles for option (3):
Golf Practice System for Lower Scores
Learn the exact golf practice routines thousands of students at Foy Golf Academy are using to lower their golf scores.
Follow these step by step practice plans and watch video lessons to learn how to improve your golf swing, chipping, and putting fundamentals.
Get access to hundreds of golf drills to practice as well as content on the mental side of golf, fitness plans, worksheets, and many more resources. This is a complete golf practice system.
Start Following These Practices —> Nick Foy Golf Practice System
Work hard,
Nick Foy, Instructor