The iPhone has ton of uses when it comes to golf, like using it as a GPS, digital scorecard, training aid, etc. Now you can add swing analysis to the list, thanks to iAnalyze Golf by Ten Times Design.

[View with PicLens]

iAnalyze Golf Swing App
If you have ever taken golf lessons over the past couple of years, your instructor probably used a video camera and special software to record and analyze your golf swing. With the widespread adoption of the iPhone, you are able to do the same thing with iAnalyze Golf Swing, for a fraction of the cost your golf pro charges, and not have to invest in a video camera and special software.

How it works
The basic approach of this app, is to break down the golf swing into images of distinct positions in the golf swing for purposes of analysis and comparison with other golfers/images. You can analyze just one photo or a full ten-photo sequence. The app allows you store up to 200 sequences for each golfer and store a golf profile, which can be color coded by type (pro, student, etc.)

If you have an iPhone 3Gs or iPhone 4 you can also record your swing and have it analyzed by iAnalyze Golf Swingand the default Pro Golfer in the app, depending on the type of shot (Driver, Long Irons, Mid Irons, Short Irons, Pitch, Sand, Flop, Chip, Long Putt, Medium Putt, and Short Putt).

Analyze Your Swing
What’s really nice about the iAnalyze Golf Swing, is that for each of the different types of shots, there is a video and photo sequence of each shot, plus a down the line view and face-on view, which is great for learning. The app can be used to build a library of swing sequences used to help you visualize and emulate. The images can come from your phone’s camera or downloaded off the web, which makes it great for learning how to emulate Tiger Wood’s swing.

A really cool feature allows you to compare your swing to another golfer in the app, which is very easy to do and display them side-by-side. And the controls allow you to play each frame of the swing sequence of each golfer for comparison. In addition, you can also draw lines, enter notes or comments on your sequence or the pro golfer you are comparing, just like your golf instructor would. But probably the coolest features had to be the Merge feature, which super imposes your swing sequence over the pro golfer and simulates motion, so you can analyze your swing.

With all these cool ways to analyze your golf swing, you might be thinking that iAnalyze Golf  Swing would be a great way to learn how to play golf or forgo golf lessons all together. While you can learn a lot by taking a 5-10 second video of your golf swing, the app isn’t meant to be a substitute for professional golf instruction. I think its a great learning tool to use in between lessons.

The export function of the app makes it very easy to share or post your swing via email, twitter, facebook, etc. The only problem I had with the export function is that I didn’t know that I exported anything after I clicked the “Export” icon. It would be nice if the future version of the app displayed an alert message, otherwise you might end up clicking the “Export” button over and over again.

The app itself has a ton of features which a lot of people are going to like, but I did find that iAnalyze Golf Swing home screen and some of the submenus to be a little bit confusing to use. A perfect example, is on the video sequence screen for my swing I recorded. In the bottom left and right, there are two icons that hide different useful features. The one on the left looks like a fastforward icon, which it is, but it’s for the playback speed of the video. The icon on the right looks like an upload icon, but it’s hiding a ton of useful features like, displaying a grid on your sequence, drawing tools, photo sequence of your video. I would have passed these by, if I didn’t click on them and can be easily corrected with better icons in a future release.

Overall, iAnalyze Golf Swing is full featured app that is great way to leverage the power of the iPhone to help you analyze your swing in between golf lessons. The $9.99 is a bargain for this app, considering what it would cost to buy a video camera and specialty golf swing software for your computer.

iAnalyze Golf  Swing $9.99

Lots of things can easily go wrong in your golf swing if you’re gripping the club too tightly or loosely. The greatest players in the history of the game, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, in their “How To” books emphasize the importance of steady and consistent grip pressure.  While making my way back from the equipment area at the 2010 PGA Merchandise Show, I came across Hank Haney’s Swing Band and wondered what this color coded band was all about.

Hank Haney's Swing Band DVD

Watch the video to see Colby Huffman show how to use Swing Band and how it can help improve your game.

The Swing Band
Is a simple golf training aid which is thick rubber band that is color coded on each side (Red indicates off plane swing, Black ball curves right for a slice, White ball curves left for a hook, and Green ball goes straight). The Swing Band is designed to be worn for one minute at a and it helps you see where your wrists should be for maximum power and feel proper grip pressure.

Hank Haney's Swing Band

During your swing the goal is to keep the green tab in the middle of your wrists at all three parts of your at address, top of the backswing, and the follow through. What’s nice about the Swing Band is that it’s very easy to use and carry in your bag. But, it also helps in grain proper feel in your golf swing with your wrists and grip pressure. Feel cannot be taught, so we have to experience it for ourselves to understand what it feels like, and the Swing Band helps with that.

What’s also nice is that the Swing Band can be used for teaching proper chipping technique, where you lead with your left arm and not break down the wrists. The Swing Band also comes with an hour-long DVD featuring Hank Haney and Colby Huffman showing you the various ways to use the Swing Band and get the most out of it.

The Swing Band shows a lot of promise and I look forward to reviewing it.

About Colby Huffman
Colby has taught at the David Leadbetter Junior Academy, and at the International Junior Golf Academy (IJGA) both under Gary Gilchrist. While working for Gary, he developed two Byron Nelson International Junior Golf Award recipients, and worked with many other highly ranked juniors and LPGA standouts on a daily basis such as In-Kyung Kim and Song-Hee Kim (both professionals ranked in the top 15 in the world).

Colby has also served as a Hank Haney Lead Instructor from 2007-2009 at HHIJGA, where he was a mentor and valued golf instructor. Colby also appeared on the Golf Channel series “School of Golf: Hilton Head Island” under Hank Haney.

Hank Haney’s Swing Band $29.98 (includes free shipping)

As a golfer I’m always looking for ways to improve my accuracy and distance with my golf clubs. Taking golf lessons has helped with this tremendously, but can you improve your accuracy and distance by using a weighted golf club? This is the question I wanted to answer and where the Medicus Golf Power Maximus 7 iron comes into the equation. The Medicus Golf Power Maximus 7 iron is a patented non-hinged weighted hittable swing trainer that builds strength and trains the muscles for improved accuracy and distance.

[View with PicLens]

Look and Feel

The Power Maximus 7 iron is part of the Medicus family of Swing Trainers that is completely hittable and looks like your normal 7 iron. The leather wrapped grip and steel shaft give the Maximus its real club look. The club weighs 2 lbs, 8 oz. and has a shaft length of 36.5″. When you address the golf ball with the Maximus 7 iron, it looks like your typical golf club, but with one major difference. The Medicus Maximus uses a proprietary “Soft weighting system”, which gives the club its weight to help you improve your distance and accuracy. The minute you pick up the Maximus you’ll notice how much heavier the golf club feels compared to your regular 7 iron. 

Performance

The Power Maximus 7 iron comes with an instruction manual and instructional DVD featuring Chuck Evans (Executive Director of Instruction, Medicus Golf Institute) on how to use the Maximus 7 iron.  The instructional manual is broken up into several parts, Stretching, The Grip, The Swing, Drills, and Other Maximus Products. The instructional DVD (10 Minutes in length) covers some of the same material in the manual, but it uses the Maximus Driver and not the 7 iron.

Since the Maximus is a weighted golf club, you really don’t want to use it without warming up your muscles first, or you might hurt yourself. This is very important, especially for your lower back. The manual provides four stretches to help warm up your muscles and those include: The Shoulder-Hip Stretch, The Rotation Stretch, Back swing for Rotation Stretch, and Forward Movement.

After you’ve completed the warm up exercises you can move on to the next section dealing with The Grip. Your golf grip is important to your golf swing, because it helps with accuracy and distance. The provided manual walks you through how to grip your golf club properly, the details I won’t go into for the purpose of the review. One important thing to note, is that the pictures in the manual show what must be an older version of the Maximus with a molded golf grip. The version of the Maximus 7 iron I tested has a standard leather wrapped grip. 

The next section is the swing, where it walks you through some simple tips for making a repeatable swing. One of the key features of the Maximus is that it’s weighted and hittable, so you get instance feedback. And the other benefit according to Medicus is the weight of the Maximus drops into the perfect swing plane every time and trains you to swing the perfect swing.  This is a claim that I don’t think is 100% accurate, because I was able to swing the Maximus and cast the golf club without much resistance. While the weight of the clubhead is supposed to drop your hands into the slot duringthe downswing, but if you start your downswing with your shoulders, your going to be too steep and hit behind the ball and off plane. When using the Maximus it’s recommended you only swing at 75% your normal golf swing to help build your golf muscles and muscle memory. You’re supposed to use the Maximus for 4-5 shots at the driving range and then switch to your normal golf club. 

Immediately you’ll notice how much lighter your normal irons feel and supposedly swing the club faster as a result. In terms of improving my swing speed, no training aid can do that in my opinion and I didn’t notice an improvement in my swing speed as result of the Maximus. If you really want to improve your swing speed, you need to get proper golf instruction to determine what’s cause of your lack of power and accuracy. Being able to hit with the Maximus is a big bonus in my opinion for helping develop good muscle memory and seeing instant results on the the driving range. During my tests, I was able to hit a draw with the Maximus, even though its not intended to be used to practice shaping your shots. 

The Drills section provides you with one simple drill that involves creating a swing channel with some golf tees to help with your aim and swinging on plane. While this drill is beneficial, it requires you do this on a grass driving range, which are not available in the offseason in the Midwest and other parts of the country. I would have liked to have seen another drill that could be practiced indoors or on driving range mats.

Does it work?

The million dollar question is weather the Medicus Golf Maximus 7 iron can help you improve your distance, accuracy, and swing plane? The answer is no, in my opinion, because no training aid can teach you how to swing the golf club on plane and correct your swing faults. What the Maximus can help you with is helping you hinge your wrists at the take away. The weight of the club really does a great job of doing this and hinging your wrists properly is one of the keys for properly setting the club on plane in the backswing. The other area that the Maximus can help you with is your release and finish. The weight of the club when swung on plane helps you release the club properly and come to a balanced finish. If your not on plane and too steep on your downswing you will not be able to come to a balanced finish. The fact you can hit golf balls with the Maximus 7 iron is a plus in my book, because you get to see instant feedback.

Overall, I think the Medicus Golf Power Maximus 7 iron is not a bad investment if you want to practice using a weighted club. It may not correct your swing flaws, but it will help you with developing good muscle memory. 

The Medicus Maximus 7 iron  comes with a full 60 day money back guarantee to take strokes off your game.

The Medicus Maximus 7 iron retails for $99.85

Doug over at Crunchgear just spent the weekend at the Boston Golf Expo and has a bunch of great videos of new golf gadgets and training aids that he saw at the show. One of those items that caught my eye, is the Perseus Athletics Anchor Training Aid and PostureTek Shirt.

The Anchor Training Aid ($149) looks like a knee brace that you wear that helps stabilize your right knee (right handed golfers) throughout your swing. Developed by Dr. Brian McKeon, orthopedic surgeon and team doctor for the Boston Celtics, the Anchor fits over your back-most knee and locks it in place using a special hinge. If you have a tendency to straighten your back knee in the backswing, the Anchor will help retain the “flexion angle”, promising proper backswing plane and more clubhead speed. The Anchor is meant to be worn during practice and not legal for tournament play. Watch the video for more information. 

The PostureTek Shirt ($129)

Dr. McKeon also developed the PostureTek shirt, a normal-looking athletic shirt that has filaments running along the shoulder blades and something called the Perseus Puck that sits in a hidden pocket underneath the armpit. When your shoulders slouch, the puck vibrates until you straighten back up. Biofeedback to help improve your posture, sounds like an interesting idea. There’s more information about the shirt in the above video as well.

To checkout the other gadgets that Doug saw at the Boston Golf Expo, visit Crunchgear.com.

At the outdoor demo day at the 2009 PGA Merchandise Show, I had the opportunity to try out the Plane Perfect Golf Training System and I was quite impressed by how easy it is to use this revolutionary golf training system. What makes the Plane Perfect stand apart from other similar concepts, is that you can actually hit golf balls while ingraining proper swing plane with all of the clubs in your golf bag, from your wedge through driver. While the Plane Perfect is ideal for teaching professionals, it can be purchased by consumers looking to have the ultimate swing plane training system in their home.

The Plane Perfect Golf Machine is the most complete training system ever developed for golf! Using your own clubs it guides you on a perfect swing plane and path every single swing and will engrain muscle memory quicker than any form of practice available.