Here at THP we have had the opportunity to review countless pieces of equipment, everything from golf balls, drivers, irons, putters, golf gloves…well, you get the picture. It seems like every month that goes by there is a whole new wave of items waiting for us to review. We love doing it, but let me tell you a little secret. All the juggling of equipment in and out of our bags really does not lend itself to helping us find a consistent golf game. I’m not complaining, trust me, but think about this for a second, a different driver and shaft combination in your bag every month can just get downright confusing! Here at The Hackers Paradise we’re equipment nuts and even if it might cost us a stroke or two on our handicap we love doing it and we will continue to keep doing it so that readers and members have a place to go when they’re looking for good honest reviews. This review is different, reviewing the Tour Tempo Micro Player did not confuse me about my ball flight or my kick point, in fact, this review promised to help me and that was just fine by me!
Tour Tempo is a book by John Novosel and SI writer John Garrity, the purpose of the book is to help golfers synchronize their golf swing with some step by step instruction. I’ll be honest, I’ve heard of the book and have seen the book but I’ve never read the book. I don’t know, I guess I’m one of those people that don’t feel that I’ll get my game Tour ready by reading a book. I need visuals and examples to lead me in the right direction, I don’t think I trust my interpretation of what I’m reading in a book to get me squared away. Well lucky for golfers like me there is now the Tour Tempo Micro Player, same information that’s in the book, only the Micro Player comes with an instructional DVD for those look and see people like me. The Tour Tempo Micro Player comes with a DVD, a charger, and a nice little protective case to store your player when you’re not using it.
As soon as I received my Micro Player I dug everything out of the box and of course I started to tinker with it, turning the player on and hearing nothing but tones I was number 1 confused and number 2 sort of thinking I was missing something. I looked at the fold out instructional sheet that came with it and just figured this was something I’d be able to short-cut my way through and get some good tips to help my swing, after all, who really needs to follow the step by step instructions anyway? Ha, me…and you, and well everyone. Seeing how I’ve never read the Tour Tempo book I had no idea what to expect from the Micro Player, it certainly wasn’t something I could just power on and head to the driving range with, that’s for sure. Realizing this was not going to be something I could just figure out on my own I popped in the DVD and immediately was told by John Novosel Jr to watch the DVD all the way through in its entirety before using the Tour Tempo Micro Player. See guys, sometimes you just have to follow the instructions first. Crazy concept, I know.
The DVD itself was actually very thorough and watching it was rather enjoyable. It didn’t take long to get all the way through the entire contents of the DVD and there is even a Tour Tempo work out that you can follow to have some drills to get your golf swing in tune and ultimately lead you to playing better golf. Watching the DVD alone is actually helpful enough, but the purpose is to help you get familiar with the features of your Micro Player and to teach you how to use it so that you can groove a golf swing that is consistent.
Once you know what you’re doing with it The Micro Player is actually very easy to use and fits on your ear just like a blue tooth headset that everyone uses for talking on their cell phones. I wasn’t sure how I’d like having this on while hitting golf shots but for me the fit is great and I had no issues at all. The Micro Player plays a series of tones that you can select to fit your own personal tempo setting, this part can get kind of confusing, especially when watching the DVD and hearing them explain the ratios, but what I did was experimented with a couple of the settings until I found a sequence that fit my swing and I was set. There are settings for the full swing and also a short game series as well. The tones get faster for the long irons and slower for the shorter irons and even slower for putting. The goal is to have your swing follow the tones for proper temp. The tones help you keep the correct rhythm for a more fluid, even tempo, swing. I started with putting and worked my way to a full swing, that seemed to help me get comfortable with the device and really understand what it was I should be doing while using the Tour Tempo Micro Player.
Before this review I did not research this device nor did I really have a clue what I was going to be using. Like I said earlier, I was aware of a book called Tour Tempo but having never read it I was really clueless to the kind of device I was going to be working with. I didn’t know if it was a device that hooked onto the club itself to gauge if I was swinging too fast or slow or exactly what I was getting into. But once I went through the instruction sheet and watched the DVD I quickly found out exactly what the purpose of the Tour Tempo Micro Player was and I quickly learned how to use it. So now the question becomes: Does it work? For me the answer is yes, I think it works well for me. I’m not a touring professional, but I’m not a bad player with a handicap of 7, so I think for players like me it is very helpful because of the fact that I know my swing and I know when things just don’t feel quite right. The Tour Tempo Micro Player was very helpful for me in just getting me swinging in the right rhythm or TEMPO as is the case with this device. I have been using the Micro Player on the driving range for practice as well as on the range while warming up before a round. Before my rounds I’ll play the tones from the Micro Player just for maybe 10 shots or so, just to get that motion going and get a good feel for where I want my swing to be that day and I really have found it very helpful. I have been going to the first tee knowing that my swing feels right and that my tempo is good before my round begins. The thing I like about the Tour Tempo Micro Player is that it’s not a use it once and you’re done kind of training tool, I see this device becoming a very regular piece of my warm up routine and as well a method that I can use to get a lot more out of my practice sessions on the driving range. I don’t believe that the Tour Tempo Micro Player alone is best for a beginner looking to improve at the game, for those people I don’t believe there is any substitute to finding a teaching professional to help you get started. But I firmly believe that golfers who have been playing a while and occasionally deal with their swing just being “off” or sometimes their game just doesn’t feel right would benefit greatly from this training aid. It’s not a long process either, it’s easy to use and will help you get that feel and tempo on track without much adjustment on your part.
The Tour Tempo Micro Player and Book set sells for $109.95. The Micro Player only (comes with instructional DVD) sells for $99.95 and both are available directly from www.tourtempo.com.
