Golf Swing Simulator - Can it Improve Your Golf Swing?

Golf Swing Simulator - Can it Improve Your Golf Swing?

Can a golf swing simulator improve your golf swing? You may have seen these devices in your golf club, or your local golf shop. It is a sensor and camera equipped booth, with a screen which simulates a golf course. You hit the golf ball in the golf swing simulator, and it captures details of your golf swing technique. The device then simulates the path your golf ball travels, right down to any slices or hooks. More sophisticated simulators will even replicate many famous golf courses, even allowing you to play 18 holes on the Old Course at St Andrews.

The manufacturers of these golf swing simulators claim that their devices can help to analyze your swing, detecting mistakes in your golf swing technique and helping to improve your golf swing. In theory, that is...

In practice, the technology has a long way to go. For example, most golf simulators cannot properly capture the spin your swing imparts to the golf ball. The spin has a great impact on the games of good players - Tiger Woods uses Nike's One Platinum golf balls which give less distance but more spin control. The simulators also cannot fully simulate wind and weather conditions, and the effect of terrain on the behavior of the golf ball.

Many simulators tend to over-estimate the distance of your drive. While this may be good for golf club salesmen to persuade you to buy their golf clubs, it does not help your game. Sadly, there is still no substitute for actually hitting the ball on the golf course. For the moment, they are just very expensive toys, setting you back $10,000 to $30,000.

With this kind of cash, you are better off hiring a human golf swing trainer, or taking additional lessons from a golf school. An accredited golf pro can quickly pinpoint mistakes in your golf swing technique, suggesting exercises to help you fix your worst problems.

One argument for using an indoor golf swing simulator is for practice during bad weather. On the surface, this is a compelling argument. However, golfers who have actually used these devices find that it damages their game. When they play in the simulator too much, they adapt to the imperfect model of the golf course in the simulation. They tend to hit the balls harder than they should, losing control of the balls on the real golf course. They find that the swing which works in the simulator causes them to slice or hook on the real fairways. Their golf swing technique suffers.

Instead of wasting time in the golf simulator, you should spend the time practicing your swing. Get a golf mat and net and swing your clubs at the ball. A good quality mat and net costs $200 on Amazon. Three dozen of the longest distance golf balls only cost $37 secondhand. If you do not have enough room to practice your driver indoors, practice your putting and short game instead. Even 5 or 10 minutes spent on stretching exercises or doing some weight training with a simple barbell will do more to improve your golf swing. Any of these methods is cheap, yet more effective than a simulator.

Whether or not you use a golf swing simulator, you need more practise on the real golf course to improve your golf.