Welcome everyone back to Golf Weekly where each week we dive into the latest golf gear, technology, apparel, and experiences. This week we dive into our favorite training aids for 2021.
In last year’s post, we featured products like the Impact Snap, Orange Whip, and PuttOut Pressure Trainer. This year we have compiled a new and improved list of the hottest products in the golf training and practice category. This year’s list consists of a few products we have featured in other videos before, and a few new products as well. Let’s dive in!
The LagShot is essentially a weighted 7-iron with a blue shaft that is extremely flexible & whippy. What the LagShot helps you with is to develop a sense of timing, rhythm, and balance. Also, a feeling of the weight of the club swinging around your body and providing really good feedback. The LagShot has the perfect amount of whip where you can make your normal swing with your regular clubhead speed, and get that instant feedback while hitting range balls. You are definitely going to learn something about golf swing just from swinging the LagShot. It’s naturally going to put you in a better sequence when you learn how to make good contact and swing naturally. If you want to try one out for yourself, the company offers a 30-Day money-back guarantee so it’s worth a shot if you struggle with tempo, timing, and ball striking. The LagShot comes in both left-handed and right-handed, comes with a video training series, and you can pick one up for $119.
Developed by one of our Male Trainers of the Year George Gankas: After studying countless upon countless golf swings Gankas learned what golf swing worked the best for most players and that was to “Turn and Turn”. Knowing this Gankas created the Gbox, which is the easiest way to not get lost in all the mechanics is to just plain and simple Turn and Turn. The device is basically a belt with two large boxes that fit your sides which will help you turn. The GBox allows you to get a full turn, relative to the length of the swing, and it allows you to actually use your body, by getting into the ground, and pushing back off the ground which creates a lot more speed, a lot more face control, and a lot better contact through the shot. When you don’t turn, which the GBox MAKES you do, you tend to compensate by tilting, standing up, pulling down with your arms, which are all compensations, which you will see a lot of good players do. Gankas also developed the G-Shallower which allows the players to see and feel the proper arm movement throughout the swing. The GBox costs $99.00 and the Shallower Costs $59.99.
Now, this product is not brand new as it won Best New Product at the 2019 PGA Merchandise show, however it has recently gained a ton of popularity. The 19” X 10” product is a mat that you can bring with you to the range, or use at home with a practice net. The special fabric is designed to leave a dark mark that shows you where your clubhead hit in relation to the ball. The device comes in outdoor and indoor options. The indoor option is thicker than the outdoor option but both can be secured to the ground so the device stays put. We love this product because of its simplicity and effectiveness in giving immediate feedback to your swing path. The prices range between $50.00 and $70.00
Featured in our “Best of Putting Green’s” post from last year, the product is still on fire. Started by a couple of guys who were sick of the poor quality of putting mats on Amazon, so they set out to design a product that addressed all their flaws, and that is where the Perfect Practice Putting Mat was born. The company also recently went into a partnership with Dustin Johnson but has been endorsed by many PGA tour pros including Marc Leishman, Vijay Singh, and Jimmy Walker. “The Perfect Practice Mat is far and away the best indoor putting mat I’ve ever used, and has become part of my daily routine,” said Johnson.” The Perfect Practice mat offers two different sized cups: 1 regulation, and 1 smaller than regulation. One of the most important parts of any putting mat is the quality of the surface, and Perfect Practice Mat offers a thick Crystal Velvet with TrueRoll Technology. The ball retrieval is a nice feature of this mat as well as you will be able to putt as long as you want if you have 3 or 4 balls around. The standard edition comes in at $170.00
With the least expensive product on our list, the SKLZ Impact bag is used specifically to learn the feeling of the correct ball impact for your swing. Used by many golf instructors to help their students with impact position and feel, we love the SKLZ version because of the target map which provides visual feedback on the quality and accuracy of impact. The Smash bag is a low-cost training aid for around $30.00 that you can use at the range or at home in the backyard.
If you have watched PGA professional Justin Rose warm-up for a tournament on the range, you will see him with a little black ball that has a lanyard on it squeezed between his arms during the swing. That ball is the Tour Striker Smart Ball. The Tour Striker Smart Ball will help you understand HOW the arms and body work during an effective golf swing. This inflatable “beach ball,” connects to an ADJUSTABLE lanyard to fit anyone. The Tour Striker ball is aimed to Rid You Of The Dreaded “Chicken Wing”, Provides The Feeling Of Striking From the Inside Out, and finally, Lengthens & Strengthens Body Pivot. The Tour Striker Smart Ball costs $42.00 and is a great addition to your practice routine.
What devices have you used this year that weren’t on our list? Let us know in the comments below!