The Best Golf Training Aids & Swing Plane Trainers

If you are looking for the best golf training aids and plane trainers, then this article is a great place to start. After reading this article, you will know what kind of products to look for and which ones are worth the money.

In my time as a golf coach, I’ve come across a wide range of golf training aids that I’ve used personally and some that my students have found useful. Below is a list of the best golf training aids – categorised based on the aspect(s) of your swing/golf game they’ll help improve.

Enjoy.

Training aids to improve your strike

Many golfers struggle to strike down on their iron shots, resulting in thins, fats, chunks and all manner of ugly shots. The following list of training aids will help you hone your strike and start piercing those iron shots.

Tour Striker Iron training aid

The Tour Striker iron training aid is one of the most popular out there. This training aid aims to help you strike your iron shots like a tour player.

The smaller clubhead encourages you to make a more centred strike, but critically, the face is raised off the ground. The raised clubface introduces an interesting element to your practice. To strike the face, and get the ball airborne, your hands must be forward of the clubhead at impact, which is required for great iron striking.

The raised face also encourages you to create a descending strike through impact. If you fail to do this, the ball will shoot across the ground.

The Tour Striker provides great feedback and a fun way to practice. Before you buy, be clear on what you need to change in your swing to improve your strike – is it your hand position, weight transfer or body rotation… This small piece of info will really help you make great progress with your iron striking.

Many amateurs who are trying to improve their strike struggle with a weak left-hand grip. If you have a weak grip and attempt to create a tour-like impact position, you will lose your shots a long way right – so fix your grip first.

If you’ve checked off these points and want to improve your striking, then go ahead and purchase the Tour Striker, it will really speed up your progress.

I would suggest the 7-iron model for most. If you are a single figure golfer and want a challenge there is also an x-pro version. These days Tour Strikers are sold direct via their sites in the US and the UK so check out the links below to grab yours.

Eyeline Golf Speed Trap training aid

The Eye Speed Trap training aid claims to do two things – improve your swing plane and improve your strike. Does it work?

Once set up, this device will provide you with highly accurate feedback on your swing path. Based on how you set it up you can focus on pre-impact, post-impact or both.

Having this cumbersome training aid close to your clubhead really makes you focus on grooving a great swing path. Another big bonus is that this feedback is very close to your impact point, so you’ll notice an immediate effect on your ball flight. If you have struggled to groove your swing path in the past then the Eye Speed Trap will be a great training aid to consider.

The second positive is the Speed Trap base itself. Placing the ball close to the back of the cutout in the base gives great feedback when trying to make a ball–turf strike. This can be really useful for improving the strike of your iron shots and wedges.

Grab this training aid if you want some clear and simple feedback on your swing path and strike.

Other training aids to improve your strike

If you’d like to consider some wider options, check out the links below. The B1 Blue Strike is a great value alternative to the Tour Striker. The impact bag will also be of use if you’re looking to improve your body action, and the anti-flip stick is also worth checking out if flicky wrists are the bane of your golf swing.

• B1 Blue Strike training Aid
• Impact Bag training aid
• Anti-Flip Stick training aid

Best training aid for gaining distance

Hitting the ball further can be achieved by increasing your clubhead speed, striking the ball closer to the centre of the club, or by squaring up your clubface – ideally you’ll master all three!

These training aids look at increasing your clubhead speed.

SuperSpeed Golf training system

The SuperSpeed Golf training system utilises overspeed training to improve your clubhead speed and driving distance. The system comprises of three weighted clubs that vary in heaviness. These training aids also come complete with SuperSpeed Golf’s online training program.

Check out our full SuperSpeed Golf review

SuperSpeed claim that golfers can noticeably improve their clubhead speed and driving distance in a matter of weeks. If you are keen to learn more, check out the link above to read our own case study.

Based on our own testing I’m delighted to place the SuperSpeed Golf training system on our review of the best golf training aids. The speed sticks are no magic bullet, but they provide golfers with a great system to increase their clubhead speed and start hitting their drives further in a matter of weeks.

The result will be more birdie opportunities and lower scores.

Other training aids to improve distance

SuperSpeed Golf are our top training aid for distance, but you may also want to check out the impact bag as another choice. Also, the Stack System, we’re yet to test it ourselves, but I feel this may be a challenger to SuperSpeed in the future.

• The Stack System
• Impact Bag training aid
• MISIG Golf Trainer

Training aids to master your golf grip

A great golf grip is one of the most important aspects to master. These training aids can help you do that!

SKLZ Tempo and Grip Golf Trainer

This is effectively a shortened golf club with a weight on the end and. agolf grip trainer on the other. However, it is surprisingly nice to swing!

The Sklz tempo trainer focuses on the most critical aspect of golfing technique – the grip. Using this grip training aid will get your left hand in a better position, and will enable your hands to work more as a unit throughout your swing. The result will be increased accuracy and consistency.

If you’re looking for a nice feeling club to swing in a confined space, and want a grip trainer, this is a great option.

Best golf swing plane trainers

Many golfers struggle to know what an on-plane golf swing should feel like. The following swing plane trainers will show you what a good golf swing should feel like.

Swing plane trainers are excellent tools for improving your technique and increasing the consistency of your ball flight. They can also help to eliminate any tendency to slice or hook by giving instant feedback on your club position and orientation as you approach impact.

PlaneSwing training aid

The PlaneSwing Trainer offers golfers a fully adjustable golf swing plane trainer to engrain that feeling of a great swing plane. The main hoop comes with a PowerSLIDER™, the length of a 5-iron and an alignment mat. The PowerSLIDER™ is heavier than a normal golf club (1.3kg), which the manufacturers suggest ‘helps train the correct golfing muscles’.

The PlaneSwing Trainers comes in three options: Par, Birdie and Eagle. Each package comes with the swing plane trainer and mat. The Birdie and Eagle packages come with additional length PowerSLIDERs™ to represent a short-iron and driver. All options offer full adjustability so you can tweak the angle of the trainer to suit your needs.

As with most swing plane trainers, you can’t hit full golf shots using the device, rather you use it for training, then transfer that feeling to your practice and play. However, PlaneSwing does suggest golfers have had good success swinging an actual golf club with their trainer, to help provide feedback on clubface control, whilst working on their swing plane.

I would personally opt for the Par Version, and add additional pieces if and when you wish.

Explanar Swing Plane Trainer

The Explanar is possible the most famous swing plane trainer. Developed by Master PGA Professional Luther Blacklock, it was his way of helping pupils get the feeling of the ideal backswing and downswing plane. The Explanar is a large metal hoop, that comes with a weighted swing trainer.

The hoop is fully adjustable, allowing golfers to tilt the frame to suit their perfect swing. The large fin on top provides additional feedback on if you are ‘on plane’ at the top of your swing. Just like the PlaneSwing Trainers, the weighted roller is heavier than a normal golf club, but provides a really nice feeling as your move back and through your swing.

Once set up this training aid is easy to use and offers a great way to practice your swing. It is very well built, but it comes in at twice the price of the Par PlaneSwing Trainer. If money isn’t an issues, you’ll love this, but if you’re shopping on a budget stick to the option above, or read below for a great value plane trainer.

Tour Striker Plane Station

Tour Striker have a history of making great training aids. The Tour Striker Plane Station is their training aid to help golfers improve their swing plane. This is a simple, but effective swing trainer to help golfers whilst making practice swings or hitting golf balls on the range.

The Tour Striker Plane Station doesn’t offer the feeling of the ideal swing, like the first two golf swing trainers, but it does give great feedback when you are too far inside, or out-to-in during your take away and as you approach impact.

The Plane station is fully adjustable (40 – 65º), so that you can alter the stick to suit your swing and the club you are using. You can then position the trainer outside your ideal swing plane (as pictured above) if you suffer from that over-the-top swing plane. Or place it closer to your back foot, if you struggle with dropping the club too far inside during your downswing.

The big advantage this swing trainer offers is the ability to hit actual golf shots, whilst getting feedback on your swing. The Plane Station can be purchased directly from Tour Striker, but I’ve also added an Amazon link too.

More training aids to improve your swing plane

The Eyeline Speed should certainly be considered if you are looking to improve your swing plane. This training aid won’t give you feedback throughout your swing, but will give great feedback on your swing path through impact – where it matters!

• Eyeline Speed Trap training aid

Golf wrist trainers/release training aids

Your wrist action during your swing has a considerable impact on both distance and accuracy. Here we’ll cover the best wrist trainers on the market and explain what each will and won’t do for your golf swing.

Swingyde Wrist Hinge Trainer

As a young coach, I disregarded wrist hinge trainers, however after a few more years of coaching I have changed my view. The premise is simple – you attach this to your golf club and you will receive feedback when your wrists are or aren’t fully hinged.

The golf wrist hinge trainer also provides useful feedback on the angle your wrists are set at (cupped or bowed). The plastic cup will only fall correctly onto your forearm if you have a neutral left wrist position.

If your wrist is bowed or cupped during the backswing or downswing, the cup will miss your arm. A cupped left wrist during a downswing can be a critical factor that causes a slice.

So, for poor wrist setting and wrist position, the Swingyde provides great feedback, hence its conclusion is this roundup of the best training aids on the market. You can read our full Swingyde review here.

A useful note – if your grip is poor to begin with you will always struggle to hinge your wrists correctly. Be sure to master your golf grip before grabbing this training aid.

The Hanger training aid

The Hanger training aid is a similar product to the swing setter – it gives some great feedback on your wrist hinge and specifically your left wrist position. This one expensive piece of plastic! It promises to fix a slice and do all sorts else – what does it do?

Pros: It gives you great feedback on your left wrist position throughout your swing. To keep the plastic wing in contact with your arm, you have to keep your left wrist flexed (bowed) which encourages a draw. Your left wrist position has a strong impact on your clubface angle at impact and therefore shot shape.

Cons: The Hanger training aid is pricey and is also it is fiddly to attach to your golf club. This training aid will help you reduce your slice, but please do check your left hand grip first. From my experience coaching, achieving a good left wrist position is near impossible without a sound golf grip.

If you have a sound golf grip and want to work on your left wrist position the Hanger training aid is a great option for you and will provide useful feedback to help you hit straighter golf shots.

Tour Striker Impact Strap training aid

The Tour striker Impact Strap works a little differently to wrist trainers in this section. Essentially it fixes a minimum angle between your left forearm and golf shaft. This prevents you from casting the club and forces you to find a new way to release the golf club.

You can read our full review here, but despite being a little fiddly to set up, it really does help you develop a powerful release. You’ll find you have to rotate your forearms more, which will result in more power and a squarer clubface for you golfers who slice the golf ball.

A useful training aid, well worth considering.

More wrist trainers

Wrist trainers are aplenty in the golf market. Below are. a few more for you to consider. Click on each for a full review.

• LC-1 training aid
• Swing Doctor training aid
• TruSwing training aid
• Sureset golf training aid

Training aids for connection

If you want to improve the way your body and arms move during your golf swing, or suffer from the dreaded flying right elbow, then this is the section for you.

Tour Striker Smart Ball training aid

The Tour Striker Smart Ball has received attention from pros and amateurs alike over recent years. The premise is simple – place this inflatable ball between your forearms to ensure your arms work as a unit during your swing.

This simple device will help you learn how your arms should fold and rotate during your backswing and how your arms should work as you release the club into impact.

This simple constraint has some great additional benefits. Firstly, by stopping your arms from flailing around you’ll begin to make a far more powerful pivot with your body, resulting in a better strike and longer shots.

You will also create a better connection between your arms and body throughout your swing – making the swing feel more effortless and improving your swing plane.

This training aid is ideal for golfers looking to improve their connection, release and/or flatten their swing plane. You can click this link to read the full review of the Tour Striker Smart Ball, or click the buttons below to check the price and grab yours.

Golf Impact Ball training aid

Next, we have the Golf Impact Ball training aid which claims to help you swing your arms, shoulder and torso in harmony. By placing this object between your forearms, you receive feedback via the impact ball either staying firmly in place or falling out.

Pros: This training aid doesn’t really state which swing fault it aims to cure. However, from previous experience, I can tell you it really does give many golfers a novel feeling. Once in place, you will feel inspired to rotate your forearms and torso more during your backswing.

The same occurs during the downswing. This can be really helpful to flatten out a golfer’s swing plane and improve connection. It gives a simplified feeling to a golfer who tends to lift their arms too much in their backswing.

It also gives great feedback on how to correctly rotate the clubface during the take away, for anyone who gets the clubface very shut in their takeaway. Both these can be great to improve both long game and pitching technique.

Cons: not all golfers find it comfortable to swing with. I personally feel it is fine up to 3/4 swings, but wouldn’t want to use it for full out iron or driver shots.

More training aids for connection

I personally feel the Tour Striker Smart Ball is the winner in this category. But feel free to check out the LC-1 training aid review using the link below if you would like to compare and contrast your options.

• LC-1 training aid

Best training aids for tempo & rhythm

Many golfers suffer when their swing becomes too quick and rushed. Never fear, this next section is full of useful gadgets to keep your golf swing smooth and controlled.

Orange Whip training aid

This training aid promises a lot – the designers suggests you can use this golf training aid for warming up, improving your swing speed and improving your consistency.

Does the Orange Whip work?

Essentially this training aid is a weighted ball mounted on a flexible shaft. This can be a useful tool for warming up and improving swing speed, but its main benefit is in helping golfers time and sequence their downswing.

As you swing to the top of your backswing the additional mass will want to keep travelling onwards. As you start your downswing your arms will be affected by this additional weight, meaning your lower body will unwind, before your upper body and arms.

This move is a key way to generate power and prevent the dreaded over the top move. The positives – if you struggle to get this feeling, this training aid sure will help. The downside, you can’t hit golf balls with it, meaning it will take practice to take this great feeling and apply it to your iron and driver swings.

Overall, this is a really useful training aid for golfers wanting to work on their timing and downswing sequence. You can check out our full review of the Orange Whip here and the latest price using the button below.

SKLZ Gold Flex training aid

The Sklz Gold Flex golf swing trainer is designed to improve swing tempo, strength and flexibility. The exaggerated flex in the shaft has been combined with a weighted ball to help lengthen your swing.

This training aid also encourages you to start the downswing with your lower body and encourages more lag. Similar to the Orange Whip, you can’t hit balls with this training aid, but warming up and practicing with this golf swing aid can help you build the feeling of a great sequence and downswing.

The Sklz Gold Flex golf swing trainer also gives you a great way to warm up before rounds. If you struggle to feel the correct sequence during your downswing and/or want a fun way to warm up the Gold Flex golf swing trainer is well worth considering.

You can purchase this training aid in 40″ and 48″ versions. For perspective, a men’s driver is 45.5″. I would recommend most golfers opt for the 40″ version. However, if you are over 6’1″ and/or want to use this more for strength and conditioning you should consider the 48″ version.

More training aids for tempo

There is a growing of copy-cat golf training aids within this area. From the Great Lizard swing trainer to the Balight Golf Swing Trainer Aid. We haven’t got our hands on these yet, do let us know if you would like us to test and review any specific new models by leaving a comment at the end of this article.

The extended list of training aids

Below is a rundown of training aids that are still worth considering but didn’t make the top one or two in our categories. These are still worthy of our best training aid list, either because they fly under the radar of most golfers, or are a popular golf training aid that we feel needs an honest review online.

TruSwing golf training aid

The Truswing wrist trainer is a simple but effective way to get feedback on your wrist hinge during your backswing and downswing. This swing trainer attaches to your golf grip and as you full set your wrists, the cup will rest on your left forearm.

Along with providing feedback on if your wrists are fully hinged, the Truswing will also provide feedback on how they are set – if your wrists are too cupped or bowed (flexed / extended) the cup will miss your forearm. This will help you hit straighter shots and ensured its place in this review of the best golf training aids.

The Truswing training aid takes a little tinkering to setup, and you do have to ensure you grip the golf club close to the attachment to get feedback on your wrist hinge. However, overall the Truswing provides a simple and effective way to gain feedback on your wrist hinge and comes in at a lower price than its rival Swingyde wrist hinge trainer.

B1 Blue Strike training aid

The B1 Blue strike is a great training aid backed by Hank Haney. It offers a lot, but its key focus is on improving your impact position and strike. Similar to the Tour Striker, the B1 Blue strike has a raised leading edge, which means to get the ball up in the air, you need to strike down on your iron shots.

Alongside this clubface adjustment, the Blue Strike training aid has a looped wire that runs from the top of the grip, to just under the base of the grip. This provides you feedback on your left wrist position during your golf swing.

The developers’ key argument is that most golfers slice the ball. If they try to strike down on their iron shots, they will get the clubface more open at impact and increase their slice. To solve this issue they have added the looped wire to ensure you have clear feedback on when you have the correct left wrist position and have squared up your clubface.

I am a fan of the B1 Blue strike. Golfers who want feedback on their strike, and struggle to square the clubface up should consider the B1 Slue Strike.

Impact Bag training aid

The impact bag is a classic golf training aid – they have actually changed in the past 10 years, now you purchase an empty heavy-duty bag and fill it with items, such as a towel or padding. There are many options in this category, for more information check out our full review of the best impact bags.

Pros: when used correctly the impact bag can make a real difference to how you strike the ball. If you’re looking to create a good descending blow with your irons this will help, particularly if you also have some good coaching points to work on.

I personally would not recommend the impact bag as a workout device or to purely improve clubhead speed. It will send some serious forces through your joints and soft tissues instead find a great golf workout routine.

If you are looking to improve your clubhead speed you will probably see more gain from the SuperSpeed Golf training aids, but do grab the impact bag if you’re looking to improve your strike and impact position.

Anti-Flip Stick training aid

What I like about the anti-flip stick is that it is a simple and effective training aid. Golfers struggle with their wrists flipping through impact. This leads to highly destructive hook shots with longer clubs, and even worse effects with chipping and pitching – thins, duffs…. let’s stop there.

The anti-flip stick attaches to the end of your golf grip and gives you clear feedback when your wrists flick through impact – you get a nice whip into your abdominals from the training aid. Unfortunately, the Anti-Flip Stick goes onto claim it will fix your slice and improve your swing plane – in my humble opinion it won’t, but it is still a useful training aid.

Buy this training aid if your wrists break down through impact for long shots, chip shots and you wish to get feedback during practice. Unlike the Hanger and other swing aids, this anti-flip stick doesn’t come with instructions, so you do need to know what you are trying to change in your swing before buying.

Sure-Set training aid

Next in our training aid round up we have the Sure-Set training aid. This training aid has great promise and received a lot of exposure due to The Golf Channel, but how exactly will it help your golf?

The Sure-Set promises a lot, it claims to give you a better understanding of your swing, and to add 25 yards to your shots! How? Well these claims are a little vague, so here is my feedback post testing:

Once you have the Sure-Set setup for your arm length (a very simple process), you hold the grip of the Sure-Set and allow the ball on the other end to nestle into your left armpit.

Making backswings with this training aid provides a really good feeling of how your arms and body should work together during your backswing – you can’t collapse your arms, meaning you create a better body turn. It also locks your arms in place, helping them keep in sync with your body.

During the downswing this training aid provides feedback on when you un-hinge your wrists and it also encourages your body and arms to stay in sync. These two parts of the swing are key in creating and storing energy – hence the claims on increased distance. I also like the fact you have a grip trainer attached – which is a useful feature for any beginner.

The downside is that the motions in the downswing discussed above are highly dependent on your lower body dynamics. The Sure-Set comes with some nice drills, but you will not recreate the downswing positions hitting golf balls until you have mastered your lower body mechanics.

Secondly, you can’t hit golf balls with this training aid, furthermore you can’t make a full speed swing (without potential injury). The Sure-Set allows you to practice key parts of your backswing and the beginning of your downswing and gives you feedback while doing so, but the transfer to your swing might be limited or take time.

For these reasons the Sure-Set has made our review of the best golf training aids, but I wouldn’t suggest it will revolutionise your golf game.

LC-1 Swing training aid

The LC-1 golf training aid is a relatively new addition to the training aids market. Like many other training aids it promises a lot. The key premise is the LC-1 keeps your arms linked together throughout your swing.

This has two effects, firstly, it restricts your right elbow popping out if you struggle with what golfers like to call a ‘chicken wing’. Secondly, it keeps your arms quieter during your swing, which in turn encourages you you to use more body rotation to swing back and through. 

It does take a bit of work to get the LC-1 training aid set up and feeling comfortable, but once in place, it is easy to use and will give you the feeling of a flatter swing, with more forearm rotation back and through. 

Before you consider purchasing the LC-1 please check that you have a good golf grip and posture at set up. If both are in check consider this training aid to help improve your wrist and arm action.

Both the LC-1 and golf impact ball are great swing aids if you are looking to improve your arm movement and swing plane.

Golf Swing Doctor training aid

The swing doctor is yet another wrist hinge training aid that promises a lot in this review of the best golf training aids. As with the previous reviews of the Truswing and Swingyde products, this device gives you feedback on when during your swing your wrists are fully set.

Furthermore, the cup will only sit on your wrist correctly if your wrists are correctly set – if you are too cupped or bowed and the cup will miss your forearm when setting. The Golf Doctor wrist hinge trainer promises another 40 yards, to cure your slice and stop you topping it. This is a slight exaggeration, but if you want to work on correctly setting your wrists this training aid will provide great feedback – I do also like the little wrist cover that comes with it.

As mentioned in earlier wrist hinge trainer reviews, please check your left hand grip before working on your wrist hinge – this is a common fault that prevents golfers setting their wrists. Once you have that box ticked grab the Swing Doctor, or the Truswing as a similar alternative.

Impact Snap training aid

A full review of the impact snap training aid will soon be up on this review of the best golf training aids. This training aid gives you feedback on your wrist angle during impact and beyond.

This can be useful for golfers working on their long game and short game.

Puttout pressure putt trainer & putting mirror

The puttout pressure putt trainer is one of the biggest selling training aids in the past 18 months – and for good reason. The puttout pressure putt trainer itself provides great practice if you’re at home or in the office.

The clever design of the parabolic ramp gives you precise feedback on your putting stroke performance. Getting a golf ball to finish in the small hole on the ramp requires a perfect pace and line.

Along with the puttout pressure putt trainer there is a putting mirror and rail set. The putting mirror will give you great feedback on your alignment and putting swing path. I’ve personally used a similar putting mirror and rail setup for the past 18 years – I would certainly recommend using one for your putting practice.

Do golf training aids work?

The short answer is yes – they don’t fix your swing instantly. Instead they provide feedback on when you make the correct or poor movements when you swing the golf club.

Training aids often claim to fix many faults, however as you can see in this review each training aid provides specific, instant feedback on one or more swing principles. These swing principles in turn affect your performance, leading to straighter, longer golf shots.

The question that usually follows from golfers – so what are the best golf training aids on the market?

What is the best training aid?

The best golf training aid will be the one that fits the area of your swing you are trying to improve. A swing trainer doesn’t cure a slice, stop you fatting it or prevent the yips.

The best golf training aid will be easy to use, simple and give you feedback on when you make the correct movement in your swing.

What are the best training aids for my short game?

The key to building a great short game is being able to consistently strike your chip and pitch shots well. The anti-flip stick training aid and Eyeline golf speed trap are two training aids that help golfers create a slightly descending strike, which is ideal.

You may also wish to look at the impact ball training aid and the Tour Striker impact ball. These golf training aids will improve the connection between your arms. Both training aids also fix your arms, which will encourage a better body turn back and through your chip and pitch shots.

What are the best putting training aids?

We have a full article on the best putting training aids. Click the link you are on the look out for the best putting training aids, putting mirrors or putting gadgets to help you hole more putts.

Or for the best indoor putting greens to improve your putting stroke check out this article.

Are launch monitors considered training aids?

Launch monitors could also be considered as modern-day golf training aids. We cover there separately, so check out this article for a roundup of the best golf launch monitors and this article for our FlightScope Mevo Plus review.

Best golf training aids – Summary

That wraps up our review of the best golf swing trainers and training aids. I hope this guide has been useful for selecting the best training aids for you. Remember to focus on the swing principles causing your fault when choosing your training aid.

Consider how long you will use the swing aid, some may provide a one-off feeling or insight into your golf swing. Whereas, others may provide you with weekly use to keep on top of your bad habits. For more equipment reviews check out our review of the best golf rangefinders here.

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Happy golfing – Will @ Golf Insider UK