GForce Swing Trainer Review
Someone on THP mentioned these, and they looked interesting, but I didn’t find a lot of info or detailed reviews on them. Several pros & teachers whose opinions I trust & respect did have good things to say about them. I also found old reviews touting the benefits of the Whippy TempoMaster, and
someone else mentioned how much they liked the Orange Whip Wedge, but I couldn’t find much on THP about either one.
The GForce seems to be more popular now in Europe (it was developed in the UK by PGA pro Stuart Small), so that might be why I haven’t seen as much info about it yet.
Basically, the GForce swing trainer is a regular club head (7 iron or 54-degree wedge) attached to a white, flexible shaft with a standard grip. The basic premise is to allow golfers to make swings & actually hit balls while feeling the weight of the clubhead and working on tempo & rhythm. The advantage is that they get immediate feedback while not getting bogged down with technical, positional/static/mechanical thoughts. This should allow golfers to get a correct “feel” for the correct swing that works best for them.
One of my ongoing struggles in golf is inconsistent contact with iron swings. And I tend to be overwhelmed at times trying to incorporate different thoughts about grip, stance, posture, impact position, etc. So I decided to take the plunge and try out the GForce swing trainer. I bought both the 7 iron and the wedge, since it was a bigger discount for purchasing both together (and since I help coach the golf team at my high school, I figured if there is a big benefit to using these, having two available would be better).
From the website; in Stuart Small’s words:
“There are certain elements of the swing that cannot be taught because it is down to the player to feel it. Coordination of the arms and body, Rhythm, Tempo and Transition are the key traits we see with the world’s best players, yet it is very difficult to learn and teach.”
Stuart felt that this kind of training device would have the following benefits:
The clubs arrived last week, in the middle of a snowstorm, and temperatures around here are in the teens, so it’s going to be a while before I can actually hit these outside. Here are some in-hand photos of the 7 iron:
Both clubs look well-made, and feel pretty much like normal clubs – until you try to swing them quickly. It appears to me (based on some youtube videos) that the GForce swing trainer is not as floppy as the Whippy TempoMaster. The shafts feel pretty solid; the outer surface feels a little rubber-like (no surprise there) but pressing on it with my fingernail didn’t leave any marks or permanent indentations. It has a slightly tacky texture that I imagine would be a dust magnet, but so far (10 days) I haven’t noticed anything sticking to the shafts after laying them down on various carpet materials and putting them in my golf bag. I’ll continue to keep an eye on that aspect and see if it ever becomes an issue.
These clubs are not super-floppy. Holding the grip level horizontally (in a vice), the 7 iron deflects 4.0 cm (1.6”) downwards. The wedge sags slightly less than that.
The weight of the 7 iron is 543 grams compared to 385 g for my Callaway Apex 7i (but that has a Recoil 660 shaft, so it’s pretty light). The GForce wedge is 540 g, which is 69 g lighter than my Callaway MD3 with a steel shaft. In hand, the GForce clubs don’t feel too heavy. When swinging, it still feels to me like I’m swinging a regular golf club, and not a weighted club.
I really like the look of the dark heads and how the white line on the bottom groove really stands out and makes it easy to align the club at address.
Not willing to wait for the weather to cooperate, I took both clubs to my high school’s field house to try them out by hitting some Almost Golf balls.
The lower level is mainly a basketball court, but there is a decent-sized chunk of turf to hit off of. I hit the 7 iron down there on a day when no teams were practicing.
What I noticed during my first attempts at a full swing is pretty much what I expected. I tend to swing too hard and too fast too early from the top, and when this happened the GForce club let me know it. The ball would squirt sideways to the right or slice badly. Even swings that initially felt pretty good to me saw the ball fading to the right.
Swinging easier without a ball, I started to get a better feel of the weight of the club head throughout the swing. After a minute or so, I put some balls down and tried actual golf shots. Voila! Arrow straight, high and penetrating (well, as penetrating as an Almost Golf ball can get). Occasionally a slight draw. By the end of the first session (maybe 25 minutes) I was hitting the ball more consistently (at least based on the ball flight I was).
The next time I was able to try them, the field house lower level was in use, so I headed upstairs with the wedge. The upper level of the field house has a turf floor and ceilings that are about 20 feet tall at their highest point and slope down to maybe 12 feet high at the outer walls. There are also 3 long 2-foot diameter heating ducts running across the ceiling and hanging about 12 feet off the floor. I found these to be decent reference points to check my ball flight on the wedge shots. If I tried to flight the ball down, I could keep the balls below the ducts; full swings (or partial swings with the face open) caused the balls to clear the ducts – and usually hit the ceiling shortly afterwards.
Similar to the first session, I noticed that I had to warm up a bit by just swinging the club lowly at first, and with partial swings, until I got the feeling of the club head moving and could feel the weight of the head throughout the swing. This resulted in fewer topped/shanked/sliced shots. Unfortunately full shots with the wedge upstairs couldn’t be followed for long, since they hit the ceiling pretty quickly, but I could definitely tell if they were going straight, slicing right, or drawing to the left.
I think that the wedge GForce swing trainer might actually be the better option for more people. I tried using it for lots of different shots, and it responded like a normal wedge – as long as I maintained my correct rhythm and tempo. Trying to hit lower punch shots or “one hop and stop” shots resulted in a decidedly lower flight. Opening up the face and cutting across while keeping my hands close to my belt line gave me a nice high, soft shot over the heating ducts which landed much closer with little rollout.
I’m already thinking about how I could build a PVC and string “gate” or ladder to practice hitting different shots and to check launch angle on my pitches (I think James Ridyard wrote about how most tour pros and great wedge players all have a launch angle of – I think – around 30*)
My initial thoughts after trying the GForce swing trainers? I think this has the potential to be a game changer for me. I love the immediate feedback, and I feel surprisingly ‘thought-free” after swinging these for a while. I suspect that if I practice with these regularly, and switch back and forth between my normal club swings and the GForce trainer swings (which is recommended on their site), I will be able to improve my ball striking significantly. Final judgment will have to wait until I can use these outdoors with regular golf balls, but I really like what I’m seeing and feeling so far, and I plan on continuing to practice with both the 7 iron and the wedge indoors as much as I can over the winter.
Someone on THP mentioned these, and they looked interesting, but I didn’t find a lot of info or detailed reviews on them. Several pros & teachers whose opinions I trust & respect did have good things to say about them. I also found old reviews touting the benefits of the Whippy TempoMaster, and
someone else mentioned how much they liked the Orange Whip Wedge, but I couldn’t find much on THP about either one.
The GForce seems to be more popular now in Europe (it was developed in the UK by PGA pro Stuart Small), so that might be why I haven’t seen as much info about it yet.
Basically, the GForce swing trainer is a regular club head (7 iron or 54-degree wedge) attached to a white, flexible shaft with a standard grip. The basic premise is to allow golfers to make swings & actually hit balls while feeling the weight of the clubhead and working on tempo & rhythm. The advantage is that they get immediate feedback while not getting bogged down with technical, positional/static/mechanical thoughts. This should allow golfers to get a correct “feel” for the correct swing that works best for them.
One of my ongoing struggles in golf is inconsistent contact with iron swings. And I tend to be overwhelmed at times trying to incorporate different thoughts about grip, stance, posture, impact position, etc. So I decided to take the plunge and try out the GForce swing trainer. I bought both the 7 iron and the wedge, since it was a bigger discount for purchasing both together (and since I help coach the golf team at my high school, I figured if there is a big benefit to using these, having two available would be better).
From the website; in Stuart Small’s words:
“There are certain elements of the swing that cannot be taught because it is down to the player to feel it. Coordination of the arms and body, Rhythm, Tempo and Transition are the key traits we see with the world’s best players, yet it is very difficult to learn and teach.”
Stuart felt that this kind of training device would have the following benefits:
- “Allow users to gain instant feedback from the performance of their swing and educate the user to develop better coordination, swing tempo & rhythm but more importantly nurture sound swing mechanics.”
- Help improve students’ coordination, rhythm and tempo
- Another big advantage of using this training device is that “by being able to hit balls and see the ball flight, this would show the user if their swing mechanics were sound. The more efficient the swing, the straighter the ball flight… An inefficient or poor swing [caused] the ball [to] fly to the right.”
- By actually hitting balls with the trainer, students could see the results of both good and bad mechanics and get immediate feedback without focusing on swing positions or other mechanical thoughts.
The clubs arrived last week, in the middle of a snowstorm, and temperatures around here are in the teens, so it’s going to be a while before I can actually hit these outside. Here are some in-hand photos of the 7 iron:
Both clubs look well-made, and feel pretty much like normal clubs – until you try to swing them quickly. It appears to me (based on some youtube videos) that the GForce swing trainer is not as floppy as the Whippy TempoMaster. The shafts feel pretty solid; the outer surface feels a little rubber-like (no surprise there) but pressing on it with my fingernail didn’t leave any marks or permanent indentations. It has a slightly tacky texture that I imagine would be a dust magnet, but so far (10 days) I haven’t noticed anything sticking to the shafts after laying them down on various carpet materials and putting them in my golf bag. I’ll continue to keep an eye on that aspect and see if it ever becomes an issue.
These clubs are not super-floppy. Holding the grip level horizontally (in a vice), the 7 iron deflects 4.0 cm (1.6”) downwards. The wedge sags slightly less than that.
The weight of the 7 iron is 543 grams compared to 385 g for my Callaway Apex 7i (but that has a Recoil 660 shaft, so it’s pretty light). The GForce wedge is 540 g, which is 69 g lighter than my Callaway MD3 with a steel shaft. In hand, the GForce clubs don’t feel too heavy. When swinging, it still feels to me like I’m swinging a regular golf club, and not a weighted club.
I really like the look of the dark heads and how the white line on the bottom groove really stands out and makes it easy to align the club at address.
Not willing to wait for the weather to cooperate, I took both clubs to my high school’s field house to try them out by hitting some Almost Golf balls.
The lower level is mainly a basketball court, but there is a decent-sized chunk of turf to hit off of. I hit the 7 iron down there on a day when no teams were practicing.
What I noticed during my first attempts at a full swing is pretty much what I expected. I tend to swing too hard and too fast too early from the top, and when this happened the GForce club let me know it. The ball would squirt sideways to the right or slice badly. Even swings that initially felt pretty good to me saw the ball fading to the right.
Swinging easier without a ball, I started to get a better feel of the weight of the club head throughout the swing. After a minute or so, I put some balls down and tried actual golf shots. Voila! Arrow straight, high and penetrating (well, as penetrating as an Almost Golf ball can get). Occasionally a slight draw. By the end of the first session (maybe 25 minutes) I was hitting the ball more consistently (at least based on the ball flight I was).
The next time I was able to try them, the field house lower level was in use, so I headed upstairs with the wedge. The upper level of the field house has a turf floor and ceilings that are about 20 feet tall at their highest point and slope down to maybe 12 feet high at the outer walls. There are also 3 long 2-foot diameter heating ducts running across the ceiling and hanging about 12 feet off the floor. I found these to be decent reference points to check my ball flight on the wedge shots. If I tried to flight the ball down, I could keep the balls below the ducts; full swings (or partial swings with the face open) caused the balls to clear the ducts – and usually hit the ceiling shortly afterwards.
Similar to the first session, I noticed that I had to warm up a bit by just swinging the club lowly at first, and with partial swings, until I got the feeling of the club head moving and could feel the weight of the head throughout the swing. This resulted in fewer topped/shanked/sliced shots. Unfortunately full shots with the wedge upstairs couldn’t be followed for long, since they hit the ceiling pretty quickly, but I could definitely tell if they were going straight, slicing right, or drawing to the left.
I think that the wedge GForce swing trainer might actually be the better option for more people. I tried using it for lots of different shots, and it responded like a normal wedge – as long as I maintained my correct rhythm and tempo. Trying to hit lower punch shots or “one hop and stop” shots resulted in a decidedly lower flight. Opening up the face and cutting across while keeping my hands close to my belt line gave me a nice high, soft shot over the heating ducts which landed much closer with little rollout.
I’m already thinking about how I could build a PVC and string “gate” or ladder to practice hitting different shots and to check launch angle on my pitches (I think James Ridyard wrote about how most tour pros and great wedge players all have a launch angle of – I think – around 30*)
My initial thoughts after trying the GForce swing trainers? I think this has the potential to be a game changer for me. I love the immediate feedback, and I feel surprisingly ‘thought-free” after swinging these for a while. I suspect that if I practice with these regularly, and switch back and forth between my normal club swings and the GForce trainer swings (which is recommended on their site), I will be able to improve my ball striking significantly. Final judgment will have to wait until I can use these outdoors with regular golf balls, but I really like what I’m seeing and feeling so far, and I plan on continuing to practice with both the 7 iron and the wedge indoors as much as I can over the winter.
Last edited: