Check Out These Two Great Training Aids
In my many years of teaching the game of golf, I’ve come across training aids that really help students get a grasp of how the full swing, chipping move and putting stroke should work to assure success on the course, and more enjoyment of the game. Here are two new products that, when put into action, delivery immediate and accurate feedback on three of the most crucial aspects of good golf — proper sequencing in the full swing, crisp contact in chipping and a solid, accurate stroke with the putter.
THE GOLF CHUTE
The Golf Chute is an awesome training aid that produces wind resistance, great for producing more distance. I call it, “wind resistance produces more distance.” It’s easy to clip onto any club. It’s great for increasing lag, the coordination of events in the swing. Players get so tied up, they get “frozen.” The Golf Chute creates an elliptical circle and an athletic motion. You have to pull on that resistance just enough to create drag, which means snap and speed at the bottom of the swing.
Whey you work with it for about half a dozen times with a half-swing, and go back and forth as a warm-up drill, it fills up with air. Do full-throttle six or seven times, and when you remove it, the clubface feels a lot lighter. This means speed, which activates the fast-twitch small muscles. That’s what many players lack — they hang onto the club and don’t get the speed. This activates the speed part, keeping the club back just a hair longer, and creates more distance, plus a better-balanced swing.
The Golf Chute is especially valuable to women and kids. They’re absolutely looking for more distance. They’re very straight but distance and contact is what they’re looking for. They can use their existing equipment with this. It’s not hard work but it’s just enough — when they remove it and hit a ball farther than ever because they’ve activated those fast muscles, they love it; they’ve been looking for that distance forever. It’s portable, easy to clip on, and it’s lightweight for travel. It’s great for working out and loosening up even before you get to the course.
In the drill shown in Photos 1-6, I’m demonstrating the correct way to warm-up with the Golf Chute: You don’t want to stop, and you want to keep swinging it back and forth. You’ll quickly get the sense of how it works. And it’s self-trainable. The first thing you notice is you can’t flip or “scoop” the clubface. Notice that I don’t “short-cut” my swing; I take it all the way back, not necessarily parallel. You need to let it fall back in the backswing and through-swing. If you do, you’ll use your arms better because of the wind resistance. You’ll get full extension. You’ll notice you won’t be as robotic or stiff.
Everybody is a different size and shape and has different abilities. The Golf Chute will help anybody.
THE PUTT-PURE
This training aid works with wedges and putter alike. Consisting of two lightweight, short metal magnets that attach to the toe and heel of the clubface, it shows immediately whether you’re lined up properly to the target. The two mini-rods have such a dynamic visual presence that’s it’s so empowering. If you’re just a little open or closed at address, they will show it — and if you add yardage to that, you end up way off line to the right or left. So the Putt-Pure creates awareness of that; a light bulb goes on, and you self-correct.
It also helps with centeredness of contact. Sometimes students get all over the place — outside-to-in, especially, on the path. This helps create a more centered strike; it’s a reality check on what’s happening in your swing or stroke. In putting it helps golfers get their stroke back on path and helps shorten the backstroke to create more of a “pop” moving forward.
The above photos show how simply and quickly the Putt-Pure attaches to the clubface, and how it shows the squareness of the clubface. I use it to show not only alignment, but whether the clubface is toe-up at address or throughout the swing; it’s another way of communicating visually why someone hits the ball to the right. It creates awareness of where the clubface is.
To check out both of these products, plus the new RAKE Series wedge, visit www.golfresultsnow.com
Kathy Gildersleeve-Jensen is Director of Instruction at Indian Canyon Golf Club in Spokane, Washington. She has been a PGA Class A professional since 1990. In 2014 she was named the first-ever female PGA National Teacher of the Year, and the first from the Pacific Northwest PGA Section. Reach her at (509) 993-2303