Thumbs Up to this Training Aid

I recently stumbled across a patent directed to a unique training device. The patent is USPN 7104897 titled “Golf Swing Training Device,” which describes the invention as:

A golf club for training golfers is disclosed. A specific club head shape encourages the golfer to envision impacting the golf ball with the back of their leading hand. A color system on the golf club handle helps with the release. The heel of the club head is heavier than the toe, promoting an inside-out swing. Additionally, the golf club head is heavier than an average golf club, improving the golfer’s strength.

The patent goes on to explain:

2. Background Art

It is common for golfers to attempt to scoop the golf ball with their golf club. Instead, a golfer should swing their golf club as though they were impacting the golf ball with the back of their leading hand (left hand for a right handed golfer). Additionally, the toe of a golf club head should be rotated faster than the heel. Neither conventional golf clubs nor clubs specifically made for golf training are ideally suited to encourage a learning golfer to practice these three aspects properly.

A golf club swing training device was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,569,525 by Folger. The Folger invention is made to aid a golfer in the address position, and focuses on line of flight. Folger does not comment on a golfer envisioning striking the ball with the back of his or her leading hand, nor on rotating the toe of the club head faster than the heel.

Therefore, there is a need for an improved training golf club having features to aid a golf trainee in learning a proper swing by envisioning impacting the ball with the back of their leading hand, encouraging a proper release, and rotating the toe of the golf club head faster than the heel.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide a training golf club having features to encourage a golf trainee to envision impacting the ball with the back of their leading hand. The training golf club of the present invention meets this object by using a novel head shape. The shape is that of the trainee’s leading hand: a left hand for a right handed golfer, and a right hand for a left handed golfer. The hand-shaped head is embellished with color coding for visual indications to the trainee when he or she is correctly swinging the club.

Another object is to provide color coding to help a golf trainee learn a proper release. On the handle of the training golf club, two different colors are applied. A first color is applied to the side of the grip corresponding to the “palm” side of the shaped head while a second, different color, easily distinguishable from the first is applied to the side of the grip corresponding to the back side of the hand-shaped training club head. The trainee observes the colors on the handle as well as the color indices on the hand-shaped head to determine the proper release.

Still another object is to utilize a specific weighting method to encourage the rotation of the toe of the golf club head faster than the rotation of the heel of the golf club head. A proper swing includes a rotation of the golf club in a counterclockwise direction for a right handed golfer and clockwise for a left handed golfer. By weighting the heel portion of the hand shaped training golf club head greater than the toe portion, the correct rotation is encouraged.

It doesn’t look like it could hurt my swing, so I would give it a try.

David Dawsey   – Keeping an Eye on Golf Practice Inventions

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