When most people discuss golf swing trainers, they mean those modified hinged clubs made by Medicus and Momentus. These clubs are meant to help you train and perfect your golf swing mechanics. When you swing your club wrongly, these trainers will “break” apart.

Do these golf swing trainers work? Yes, if you know the theory of how to swing your golf club correctly. In addition, you need to know if you are using a one plane swing or a two plane swing. Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh use the one plane swing, while Jack Nicklaus and many other golf pros use the two plane swing. Which type of swing is that golf swing trainer designed for? If you have any doubts, write in to the manufacturer and ask them. Face it, these things are not cheap.

Companies like Medicus and Momentus produce golf swing trainers for both drivers and irons. Their golf swing training drivers are the most useful. Face it, you will use your driver 10% to 20% of your time in a round of golf, but use each iron only two or three times. Getting the golf swing trainer for the driver will give you the most bang for the buck. Another machine you may find useful is the golf swing plane trainer. This is a pretty bulky machine, available in some golf clubs and golf schools. Golf instructors sometimes use it to help train their students to master the correct golf swing mechanics. Used correctly, this machine will help you to master the correct tempo and swing your club in the correct plane.

By far, the cheapest and most useful golf swing training aids are golf club training grips. The training grip will teach you how to grip a golf club correctly. You will be surprised how many weekend golfers find their slices and other golfing problems disappearing once they learn how to grip their golf clubs correctly. Amazon is selling these training grips for $5 to $15. However, it is better if you get it from your local golf shops or golf schools, where they can help you get the correct fit. Unless you have a big budget to blow, you should get your putter fitted first. After all, you spend 30% to 40% of your time on the green. The next clubs to get fitted would be your wedges. Most golfers spend another 15% to 20% of their time chipping up to the green. Last is your driver.

Another excellent golf swing training aid is a video camera and tripod and plenty of cheap golf balls. Just spend some time capturing a video of yourself swinging your club at hundreds of golf balls and you will soon see your most obvious mistakes. When you can no longer spot any mistakes in your golf swing techniques, this is the time to schedule more advanced golf swing lessons with your local pro.

My favorite golf swing training aids are the video camera and training grips, followed by golf swing trainers for drivers. Combine these with some judicious help from your local golf pro, and you will quickly lower your golf handicap.

I was transferred from Ohio to Connecticut in June of 2004.

My office was 500 feet from a driving range on Sullivan Ave. and a nice golf course was about a mile down the road. I literally had nothing else to do most of the time so I hit balls and golfed just about every day.

By the middle of August I was killing the ball. Drives long and straight, irons unbelievable and the short game was better than ever. The only thing keeping me from playing scratch golf was putting.

I was so comfortable with my swing and golf game that in November I decided to give myself a set of fitted clubs for Christmas.

After the long winter layoff, I never felt comfortable while I was being fitted. I was worried about my swing but excited about the new clubs.

I picked up my new fitted clubs at the end of February 05 and started swinging at a heated driving range.

My swing from 2004 was gone. I could barely hit a ball.

Every wood shot was driven into the ground a couple of inches in front of the tee. Every iron shot was hit fat or thin or shanked or pulled. And I couldn’t chip.

I literally felt like I forgot how to swing a club. The winter layoff then hitting hundreds of balls during the fitting process really screwed me up.

The first time I played in 2005 was ugly and it didn’t get better after that. I suffered for 3 years. Bad shot after bad shot. I can’t begin to tell you how bad it was.

And I couldn’t fix it. I went to 3 different pros for lessons and couldn’t get it fixed.

The pros tried to fix the swing they saw which wasn’t my normal swing.

I hated golf and I hated all golfers but I kept playing. What else was I going to do?

Let’s fast forward to May of 2008.

I still can’t hit a good shot. I know that the bad habits I picked up over the past 3 years made me stay back on my right side. I couldn’t transfer my weight back to the left side which had me raising my left shoulder and while hitting down and across the ball. I could see it on film but I couldn’t fix it. Man was I screwed up.

Then one day I get this email from a guy who advertises to take his golf swing test and find out about your swing faults.

His test was actually something I use to practice and kind of forgot about it so I gave it a try.

To make a long story short, a bell rang in my head and I knew exactly what I was doing wrong.

During my club fitting after the long lay off, I can’t tell you why I did it but I really flattened my swing and got way out of plane.

That just caused me all kinds of trouble and I really suffered for 3 long years.

In a couple of minutes, the golf swing test showed me how out of plane my swing was and I corrected it in a couple of swings. It really clicked for me and saved the day.