At the 2010 PGA Merchandise Show, I got a tweet from ZENIO asking me to stop by their booth and check out the ZENIO Putting System. I’ll be honest, I’ve never heard of this company and I was really curious.

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This was probably one of the more interesting putting training aids I saw at the PGA Merchandise Show and in the video, you’ll see Dr. Richard Jaekel talk about the benefits of the ZENIO Putting System.

How Does it Work?
ZENIO is a revolutionary new training and fitting system that gives golfers immediate and accurate data on their putting in real time and in real outdoor conditions. Measuring the size of a matchbox and weighing just 29 grams, the ZENIO attaches to any putter in just 15 seconds. It uses the latest sensor technology to measure the key parameters of the putting stroke – impact, rhythm and face angle – and then immediately transmits the information to a Smartphone of PDA via Bluetooth, where it is displayed in an easy-to-understand graphical format.

Why ZENIO?
With data from each session being recorded, users can chart their progress over time on all manner of putts (straight, breaking, uphill, downhill) from a variety of different distances, helping to build up a clear picture of putting strengths and weaknesses and how to improve your putting consistency . ZENIO’s innovative software uses the player’s ‘Best’ performance as a benchmark for future sessions and also includes a Tour player consistency benchmark for comparison. Golfers can also use the ZENIO to find their optimum stance, grip and posture, and by using the fitting option can even reveal which putter type suits their stroke best.

The real beauty of the ZENIO is that you can use it to train in real conditions rather than in the protected environment of a putting lab (not sure how many of have access to one). ZENIO’s mobility allows you to test your putting on the practice green as well as on the golf course in real time, anywhere you want, anytime. All you need is the ZENIO and a Smartphone and you have your putting coach in your pocket.

My Thoughts on the ZENIO
I really liked the idea of the ZENIO Putting System, but there are a few minor drawbacks. It only works on a Windows Mobile Operating System Smartphone/PDA. But they will release a version eventually for the iPhone. The other drawback is the high price tag. At 671 Euros or $912 USD, the cost might be a little too high for most consumers. Hopefully, as they sell more units the  manufacturing costs of the ZENIO will go down.

Overall, I was really impressed by the ZENIO Putting System and it shows a lot of promise as robust putting training aid, that gives you tons of quantitative data and feedback.

http://www.zeniosports.com

When I watch golf on TV, I’m always amazed at how fluid and effortless the swings are of Vijay Singh or Tiger Woods. All great golf swings have three things in common: great rhythm, tempo, and timing. Without those three things, it would be difficult for the PGA players like Vijay and Tiger to unleash the amount of power on the golf ball like they do on a consistent basis. But how can you tell if you have good timing and tempo? There are plenty of swing training aids, like MyGolfSwing iPhone app, and others that claim to help you develop a proper swing tempo, but they all fall short in one aspect or another.

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This past January, I had the opportunity to check out the Sonic Golf System at the PGA Merchandise Show, where I met Dr. Bob Grober, the inventor of Sonic Golf. After watching Dr. Grober give me a demonstration of the Sonic Golf System-1, I couldn’t wait to receive a test unit to see if this swing tempo training aid would actually improve my swing tempo? Last month, I received my test unit and I have been using the System 1 for a little over three weeks and the results are quite surprising. 

What is Sonic Golf and how does it work?

The Sonic Golf S1™, developed by Yale physicist Dr. Robert Grober and based on cutting-edge science and modern learning theory, that uses accelerometers, wireless signals, and music processing chips to convert your swing motion into musical tones. Slow swings are low pitch, quiet tones. Swing faster and the pitch and volume gets higher. With each swing you hear your rhythm and tempo, backswing/downswing transition, and the timing and speed of your club head release. 

In order to use the System-1 you need to have the golf clubs you plan on using to be regripped with the custom Golf Pride Tour Velvet grips. The custom grips have a removable end cap that you remove to insert the Sonic Golf shaft insert into the club and is held in place by special o-rings inside the grip and on the insert. I ended up regripping my PW, 7 iron, and 5 iron. Once the transmitter is inserted and properly seated in the shaft, you turn on the transmitter and set the transmission channel (10 total channels).  In case your wondering the Sonic Golf System-1 shaft insert is very light and strategically placed that it is not noticeable during practice. The shaft insert weighs only a little bit more than a single AA battery and that weight is located under and behind the hands.

Next you turn on your receiver and set the channel to the same one as the transmitter and your set to begin listening to your golf swing, through the included headphones. When you begin using the System-1 you’ll notice how the tone varies, depending how fast or slow you are moving the club. You’ll hear a high pitch when you move the club very quickly and a low pitch tone for a slower moving club. This is what makes the technology so amazing, is that you can get audio feedback of timing, rhythm, and tempo of your golf swing.

Does it work?

To put the unit to the test, I brought it to my golf lesson at Golf-Tec to show my PGA Instructor Justn Bently and to use it during my lesson. Justin hooked up the receiver to the computer speakers in the lesson bay, so we could hear my golf swing. Justin, took my golf club and demonstrated what tempo he wanted me to use for my takeaway and how long to pause at the top of the backswing, before I transitioned to my downswing. Just by listening, I was able to get a better understanding of what Justin was showing me, than if I had no audio feedback at all.During the course of the lesson I was able to tell immediately if I my takeaway was too fast or if my transition on my downswing was too slow. I was now more aware of what my golf swing was doing and learning what a proper and fluid golf swing should feel like, by listening to the audio feedback. 

The other cool thing you can learn by using Sonic Golf System-1, is if you are releasing the club too early on the downswing. You can tell very easily if your releasing the club too early, by how weak and low pitch the sound will be at where the ball is located. With this information, you can now work on moving the sound forward, so that there is a high pitch sound at impact. I wouldn’t have been able to do this before with other swing training aids.

Over the next few weeks, I used the Sytem-1 at home and at the driving range focusing on my swing tempo that Justin had demonstrated for me at my golf lesson. And the results have been have exceeded my expectations. I can truly say that the Sonic Golf System-1 has made a huge improvement in my overall swing tempo, timing, and rhythm. Justin even noticed a dramatic difference in my tempo after one week of use.  I think that any golfer of any skill level could learn a lot about their golf swing by using the Sonic Golf System, especially those just learning how to play the game.

The only flaw I could find with the Sonic Golf System-1, is the price. At $399 for the Solo Edition ($599 Pro Edition), may stop some people from purchasing the unit. To be fair, the price of both units have come down in price quite a bit, since I last wrote about the System-1 back in February. 

If you want a swing training aid that will really help you develop the three characteristics of a great golf swing, than you should purchase a Sonic Golf System-1 or take lessons from a PGA Professional who uses it. After all, You really can’t put a price tag on developing good tempo, timing, and rhythm.

The Sonic Golf System-1 Solo Edition includes the following components:

• A golf shaft insert (SX-1)
• 1 belt-worn receiver/audio processor (RX-1)
• 1 pairs Sony headphones
• 3 custom Golf Pride® Tour Velvet grips that hold the shaft insert in your club
• Instructional materials/DVD
• Carrying case

Sonic Golf System-1 Solo Edition Retails for $399; Pro-Edition is $599 (includes all of the above, 1 extra receiver (RX-1), 1 extra set of Sony headphones, and 6 custom Golf Pride grips)

http://www.sonicgolf.com/store/catalog/Systems-1-1.html

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.

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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.

I love playing golf, and the next best thing to playing is watching it on TV. I really enjoy studying the golf swings of all the players on PGA Tour and take notice of their swing styles and technique. I’m always amazed at how effortless and smooth the swing tempo’s are of Tiger Woods, Vijay, Singh, and Sergio Garcia. This often leaves me wondering how can I learn to emulate their swing tempo? Now, you can practice the swing tempo’s of Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Lorena Ochoa, Sergio, Karrie Webb, K.J. Choi, Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Annika Sorenstam, and Mike Weir with the iPhone/iPod Touch app MyGolfSwing. 

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We all know how important it is to develop a smooth and consistent swing tempo is to playing consistent golf. The MyGolfSwing is a simple iPhone app that makes it extremely easy for you to practice your swing tempo anywhere. Whether your at the driving range, at home, or at the office, you can now practice your swing tempo.

How it Works
Step 1) Set your Swing Tempo Preferences by selecting the number of repetitions you’d like to practice, this can be from 1 -99. Next determine how long of pause you should have between swings. And finally determine what type of sound you want for your alerts. You have one of three options: Voice, Beep, or Vibrate. 

Step 2) Set your Tempo Preference by selecting the tempo of your backswing, pause, and downswing to best match your swing tempo. The three dials determine the lengths of time (in icrements of 1/10ths of a second) for your backswing, pause, and downswing. You can select one of the three presets which range from slow, average, and fast. The average tempo setting is 0.5s, 0.4s, 0.7s. The backswing of 0.5 seconds means it will take 0.5 seconds from the start of the backswing to the top of the backswing. The 0.4 seconds indicates the amount of pause in the transition from the top of the backswing to the start of the downswing. The 0.7s means that it will take 0.7 seconds from the start of the downswing to the finish of the complete swing. 

You also have the option to select one of the tempos of Pro’s (Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Lorena Ochoa, Sergio, Karrie Webb, K.J. Choi, Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Annika Sorenstam, and Mike Weir). When you select one of the pros you can watch a video of their golf swing and tempo from YouTube and select their tempo to practice with. This in my opinion is what make this app pretty cool. 

Step 3) Practice. Just set your phone down and begin practicing your swing tempo, with or without a golf club. When you practice at home, you can set the app to use voice prompts which is my least favorite of the three options available. I preferred the beeping or vibrate mode. I appreciated the idea of having a vibrate mode, so you can just practice your swing tempo at the driving range without annoying your fellow golfer. 

Verdict
The main goal of using this app is to perfect your swing temp, which is a key component to a consistent repeatable golf swing. Version 1.0 of MyGolfSwing only focuses on your swing tempo and future versions will include other elements of your golf swing. Over the course of a few weeks, I started practicing at home with and without a golf club. At the recommendation of my golf pro, he suggested I practice using Vijay Singh’s swing tempo. I’ve been practicing using Vijay’s swing tempo and can’t say I can emulate Vijay’s tempo like you see on TOUR, but I do notice a more consistent rhythm in my golf swing. I think that if I continue to use MyGolfSwing, that over time my swing tempo will improve.  MyGolfSwing is not going to correct proper swing technique or swing faults, it will only help improve your tempo. I’ll watching closely to see how this app gets improved with other elements of the golf swing get incorporated.  

For a $.99 MyGolfSwing is worth purchasing despite a few draw backs. http://www.mygolfswing.biz/

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.

One of the most exciting training aids at the 2009 PGA Merchandise Show, is the Sonic Golf System from Sonic Golf. All great golf swings have great rhythm, timing, and tempo. And developing a great golf swing is no easy feat, but now golfer’s of all abilities can benefit from this excellent system, that will revolutionize the we learn, practice, and play golf.What makes this system so unique and amazing is that it uses audio biofeedback technology developed by Yale physicist Dr. Robert Grober. 

Sonic Golf System

How it works: A wireless transmitter is inserted into the shaft of the golf club. Data is sent wirelessly to a receiver worn by the golfer. The receiver converts the data into audio soundscape which provides an acoustic representation of the swing. The transmitter measures the speed of the club. The slower the speed the lower the volume and lower pitch. The faster the speed the louder the volume and the higher the pitch.

Now you can actually get audio biofeedback of your entire swing, so you can now hear when your casting the golf club, or taking the club back to fast and starting your downswing to slow or fast.

The Sonic Golf System is available now in two editions: Pro $649.99  (comes with 1 shaft transmitter insert, 2 audio receivers, 2 Sony Stereo MDR-J10 Headphones 6 grips, Sonic Golf Insertion Tape, User Manual, training DVD, and Travel Case) and Solo $429.99 (The Solo comes with all the same equipment, except it only has  1 audio receiver, 1 Sony Stereo MDR-J10 Headphones, and 3 grips ) .  

I look forward to reviewing the Sonic Golf System. If it’s good enough for Vijay Singh to use, it must be good. 

Sonic Golf

Swing Reminders

If you have ever taken golf lessons your probably familiar with being told a swing thought during your lesson. I remember when my golf instructor was working on my backswing, he would tell me, “take it back slow and low” or “one piece take away.” Like all golfers we are constantly looking to improve our game and often we forget these swing thoughts when we go out and play or practice at the range. The reason is are brains can only hold so much information at any given point in time. There is a reason why phone number are only ten digits long, and it not because of some guideline made up by the phone companies.  So to remedy our short term memory limitations, we bring note cards with these swing thoughts written down on them and pull them out to remember what we should be focusing on. The problem with note cards is that they can get wet, causing the ink to run and they can be bulky to carry in your pocket. Swing Reminders is a simple system of 25 hardwood tokens that have swing thoughts imprinted on each side of the token, broken into categories. Each category covers several different ideas and make it easier to see which area you may want to focus on.

The Swing Reminders concept was created by Scott Jessee, who woke up in the middle of the night back in November of 2006 with the idea for wooden round tokens with swing thoughts imprinted on them. As the Head Golf Professional at Turquoise Valley Golf Course in Naco, Arizona, Scott would tell his students to stop thinking  and just react when playing golf. We all know that the more you think, the worse we play. And Swing Reminders is there to help by providing simple tips to keep you focused while your learning or relearning a technique.

Look and  feel
The Swing Reminders are 25 double-sided, wood tokens (50 tips) that are 1.5″ in diameter, which make them very easy to see and carry in your pocket. Each token is very smooth and has very polished feel to them, so you don’t have to worry about getting splinters. The tips are silk screened in blue ink on the center of each token and are very easy to read, even when used as a ball marker.  The categories for the Swing Reminders is broken out into six aspects of the golf game: Mental, Set Up, Swing, Head and Eyes, Hands and Arms, and Lower Body. The accompanying booklet that comes with the Swing Reminders, gives a detailed explanation of each category and the swing thoughts. The swing thoughts are matched up accordingly, based on the category on each side of the token. For example, Mental swing thoughts (Visualize-One Shot At A Time) only appear on both sides of the token, etc.

What’s nice about the Swing Reminders is the simplicity of the swing thought, partly because it needs to fit on the token, but also to make it easy to remember. The last thing any golfer needs is to have too many thoughts in your head while trying to play or practice. I really liked being able to use the token as a reminder for a particular part of my game I’m trying to improve, but also using them as a ball marker. When marking my ball, I would pull out one of the tokens from the Head and Eyes/Hands and Arms category and use one of those token’s as my ball marker, like “Eyes Over The Ball-Left Hand Firm.” This way I could remind myself to keep my eyes over the ball when attempting my putt.  Overall, I found Swing Reminders to be a simple and effective training aid that can help you improve your game, one swing thought at a time.

Swing Reminders retails for $9.99