Recommended Golf Training Aids

If you have the time to practice it is important to practice smart and with a clear purpose. These training aids will help you do that because remember practice makes permanent!

Best Training Aids

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Nobody has ever told any golfer that they don’t have to practice in order to get better at this great game.

And as you will be more than aware by now there are hundreds of golf training aids going around today aimed at improving the quality of your practice sessions.

Many of them are useful, IF, you know what to buy.

On the whole however the majority of the golf training aids out there are only useful, if:

  1. you have the specific fault they are targeting, and
  2. you have the time to spend wisely and diligently ironing out that natural faulty you have.

And let’s face it, when you are watching Bryson DeChambeau smashing his driver 350 yards through the air, do you really want to head off for an hour’s practice with that training aid designed to hone that perfect wedge shot?

Nope, me neither!

But when it comes to practice there are some fantastic training aids going around today which can help you improve.

So to try and maximise the benefit you get from any practice you do with golf training aids I’ve put together the following list of ones that have helped me and will allow you to develop your ball striking as that’s the real point of truth in the game.

As arguably the greatest ball striker of all time Ben Hogan used to say – “The secret is in the dirt.” And for those of you who don’t know who Ben Hogan is …. he is worth looking up.

In short, there is no perfect golf motion, but there is a correct structure at impact as you hit the ball and these are my top recommendations to help you get there and practice better and more consistently.

“You don’t have to have a perfect swing to play golf. The secret to playing golf is to get the clubface on the right path and square at impact. That’s it.”

Butch Harmon, The GOLF Hall of Fame teacher and No. 1 teacher on Golf Digest’s list

1. The Impact Bag

Getting used to hitting something hard and with balance is a fantastic way to improve you strike the ball at impact.

And that’s where the Golf Impact Power Smash Bag comes in.

No driving range or golf course or instructor is required. All you need is a club, the Impact Bag and you.

In days gone by players used to have to strike an old car tyre, but with litigation such a high factor these days, its probably better to use this training aid.

It can take a beating and still deliver results, however, I would encourage you to use an old club and probably not your expensive driver with the custom shaft!!

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Golf Impact Power Smash Bag

2. Alignment Sticks

Simple alignment sticks may not seem like much but they are a great training aid.

Some golfers still use their longest iron in the bag and that’s ok but alignment sticks will help you avoid any mishaps with your nice shiny clubs and are more useful at the same time.

They have the added advantage for example that you can stick them in the ground to use as sticks to help you work on your swing ‘plane’ or as markers between you and your practice net which you try and hit between as you practice hitting draws and fades.

And when you need to as well you can use them as a simple camera holder for your smart phone if you want to record your swing for posterity!

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3. Tour Striker Smart Ball

The Tour Striker Smart Ball is a very well known training aid device these days.

Many tour pros use it as it encourages a better connection between your arms and your body throughout the golf swing.

If you complete the swing motion with this training aid slowly, and I mean slowly, you will quickly begin to develop the correct posture, arm position and impact all associated with better golf.

It will feel incredibly uncomfortable to start with for sure and you’ll be thinking, I cannot do this …. ever, let alone in front of your friends on the practice ground.

But if you start slowly, and maybe just do it at home to begin with, watching carefully how your body behaves as you use it you will start to get a sense of where your body needs to go. And when that happens just go with it!

If you fight it, there is no use in using it but there is a reason over 1 million of these things have been sold worldwide!

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Swing Trainer Smart Ball

4. Putting Mats

A good putting mat can work wonders, especially throughout the bad weather months.

Working on your putting in the comfort of your own home is the ideal place to hone your stroke and one of the fundamentals of putting – learning to putt so the ball rolls ‘end over end’ in a straight line.

This is an area that I don’t think we focus on enough as we are often so focused on line, how much to allow for the break and that confounded “aimpoint”.

But if you roll the ball ‘end over end’, the break on a 6-foot putt, almost becomes negligible.  And for working on that I would recommend one of these 2 superb putting mats.

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BEST VALUE PUTTING MAT

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Why I Picked the Wellputt Golf Putting Mat

I’ve compared many of the putting mats out there with each other and the Wellputt golf putting mat undoubtedly stands out.

  • It measures between 10 and 11.5ft on the stimpmeter and is fantastically easy to rollout and get started using.
  • Once you are done with your practice session it is then equally easy to roll up and conveniently store away if required.
  • Including helpful markers and lines to assist with putting stroke drills it also comes with an associate free smartphone app which provides yet more tips and putting exercises to keep practice fresh and interesting.
  • The Wellputt mat is also available in three sizes – 10ft, 13ft and 26ft – meaning that if you have the space the biggest version can also help you improve your putting distance control in addition to your stroke.

The best place to practice your putting stroke is at home and with the Wellputt golf putting mat you can’t really go wrong.

[Note – Working on the second fundamental of putting – distance control – is not so easy at home unless you are lucky enough to have a family which will let you have a 30ft putting mat lying around the place and using your carpet to putt on instead is not always a great idea.]

Why I Recommend the PuttOut Pressure Put Trainer

The Wellputt golf putting mat is a brilliant putting mat and has helped me enormously to improve my putting.

But to add that little bit extra to my putting practice I also use the PuttOut Pressure Putt Trainer with it to make my practice sessions even more effective.

This training aid can simply be placed on top of the hole marking of the putting mat and is designed to simulate the putting into a real hole on the green.

Manufactured to return successful putts and reject bad ones each good putt is also returned the same distance it would have gone past the hole if it had missed giving you great feedback on pace as well as accuracy.

It’s folding design means you can easily pack it up and take it with wherever you go meaning so there’s always time to get some quality putting practice in whenever you have a bit of free time.

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