The “Duffix” Swing Trainer

Grade: B+
Teacher’s Comments: A nice one-trick pony. If you have a bad slice or hook, this might help.

In one sense, the basic premise of all swing trainers is the same: they seek, through mechanical means to impart to the player the shape and feeling of the proper golf swing. The hope is that the player will develop a muscle memory that they then can take to the course and repeat without aid.

The success of any training device, then, lies first in the degree to which it guides the player’s movements, and second in its lasting impact. The Duffix Swing Trainer passes the first test with flying colors. As for the second, only time can tell.

The Duffix Swing Trainer consists of a metal clamp and a weighted arm which extends from the clamp at an angle. You attach the clamp to a club, just below the grip,and rotate the arm to one of two positions. If you’re trying to fix a slice, place it at the ten o’clock position; to work on a hook, set it at the 2 o’clock position.

I’d caution that you should only use this device on a steel-shafted club. The pressure from the clamp just might damage a graphite shaft, which should never be subjected to any crushing forces.

I used the Duffix for an extended session at the local heated range the other day, and found that it works as advertised. When swinging with the Duffix set at 10 o’clock, the weight forces your hands over, closing the clubface. The reaction was quite noticeable when hitting live balls.

After some weeks of practice with this, I can clearly see how a player with a slice issue could train his hands to snap through. The same might be said of a hook.

If there’s a complaint, it’s that the weight is almost too much, forcing my hands into a quick snap. A future redesign might include some adjustable weights, so that a person could ratchet down the effect. That also would be useful for extended training use. Over a matter of weeks, a player could weaken the force needed until he weaned himself off the device.

Physically, the Duffix is incredibly well made. No plastic here. It’s all machined steel, brass and aluminum. It no doubt will last for many, many years. I hope the company resists going to plastic to get the price point down.

And that beings me to the last point. The Duffix is not cheap. It doesn’t run to the ridiculous price points of celebrity endorsed swing gadgets, but at $90 or so, it’s not a spur-of-the-moment purchase, either. But if you have a severe problem with the banana ball, this might do the trick.

Stan Utley Learning Curve

Stan Utley is the latest PGA Tour short game guru. He won just one game during his PGA Tour, but had established his reputation as one of the best putters and chippers in the game. He set the record for fewest putts in nine holes—six—at the 2002 Air Canada Championship.

For my money, putting is the area of the golf game that you should be most able to improve. It involves no high speed motions, and you can practice it practically anywhere, in any weather.

Utley makes $1,500 a session for private lessons, but you can get this training device and a dvd for $100.

Tour Tempo Player Package with Tour Tempo Book

Grade: A
Teacher’s Comments: A useful upgrade from the original book.

I reviewed the Tour Tempo instruction book a couple of years ago and thought that it offered some interesting insights into the golf swing. Using high speed video, author John Novosel has determined that one of the major differences between a Tour Player and a Hacker is in their tempo. All Tour players, Novosel claims, have a swing with a 3:1 swing-set-through tempo. Some swing faster; others, slower, but the the ratio is always the same.

I’ve found this principle to be quite useful, and when my swing goes awry, one of the things I concentrate on is getting my tempo back on track.

At the core of Novosel’s original book was a cd that contained tracks of beeps in several variations on the golden ratio: 27/9 (slow) to 18/6 (fast) and so on. You were supposed to listen to the beeps and remember the tempo. It wasn’t a problem for me—I come from a musical family, but I can imagine that others would have difficulty. If you were clever and computer included, I suppose you could have ripped the tracks to a mp3 player and used that on the range.

The Tour Tempo people also seem to have thought it a shortcoming in their program, for they’ve since developed a “Tour Tempo Player,” a small electronic device the size of an IPod, which plays the beeps. You can wear it at the range or on the course, and set the beeps at the desired speed.  The player also will play a series of beeps designed to help you keep your short game on track.

I recently acquired the Tempo Player Player Package—which in addition to the book includes the player, an instructional DVD and a CD with musical tracks in the proper tempos. All are extremely useful additions to the program. I’ve worn the player at the range and find that it helps me get into a groove. Perhaps more useful is the musical cd. They’re not great tunes—consisting mostly of a snare drum and an electric piano—but I can remember the music much more easily than the beeps.

With the addition of the player and musical cd, I give the Tour Tempo a grade improvement from B+ to A.

Glideball Portable Golf Range

Ridiculous Golf Item of the Week

When I first started playing golf, my instructor put a medicine ball in my hands, set my stance, and then had me swing back and through with it. It’s a good drill to ingrain the feeling of a good swing. I’ve used it myself, and in training new golfers for my girls high school team. (I rarely had any player with experience join the team).

This Golf Swing ball works just like a medicine ball and includes a training dvd to show you how to use it. Its been endorsed by Ernie Els.