Review: Sonic Golf Swing Training System

[rlheiman]

Sonic Golf Swing Training System

The sounds of your swing

What does your swing sound like?  A click, a whoosh, a grunt, even an expletive from time to time?  Wouldn’t it be great if your swing sounded like music and you could even adjust that sound to improve your swing?  Well a Dr. Robert Grober of Yale decided to create a training aid that would allow the golfer to hear and learn about their swing.  The science behind the system is based on the pendulum motion of the swing.

The Sonic Swing aid solo system arrived in the mail in a mini brief case well packaged.  Inside there are a number of components that go into the system.  The two main parts are the receiver; about the size of an old cassette tape Walkman and the club insert which is about the size of grip.  Also included was a nice pair of Sony headphones, a screwdriver for battery replacement, an instructional DVD, three sonic grips, a belt clip, and some extra insert tape.

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After watching the DVD on installation and use, I was ready to tackle the project.  I found a spare 8-iron I had in the shop and started on the regrip so I could install the Sonic Golf pride grip.  It was basically a regular Golf Pride Tour Velvet grip with a removable end cap.  It was easy to install like any grip, it just took a little more care because of the end cap which need to be positioned just so, in order for the insert to fit into the butt end of the club properly.  This is one time that going light on the grip fluid and tape works much better. 

Once the new grip is installed in your club you are ready to go to the range for practice.  The sensor slides into the butt end of the club through the removable end cap.  It is about the same length as the grip.  The blue plastic sensor is slid into the shaft after it has been taped up with some of the included tape for a snug secure fit.  Just add a couple of wraps or take a few off for the perfect fit.   The sensor has an o-ring type seal so that it fits securely into the grip.  It sticks out about two inches from the end of the club.  That end part houses the power button and two channel buttons, up or down.  The system has 10 channels allowing for multiple users at one range or for the single user to avoid interference with some outside signal.

The receiver can then be put in your pocket or clipped to your belt, whichever you find more comfortable.  Make sure the channels are the same, insert some headphones, adjust volume and start swinging.  Suddenly the sounds of an orchestra match your swings, faster they get louder and higher pitched, take a pause they pause, and when in motion the sound also has a sense of motion to it.  This is one of those training aids where you get to use real clubs and hit real golf balls, which to me is always nice to have real life like scenarios for training. 

The Sonic Training system is awesome for teaching rhythm and where your swing speed is at the max, at the ball, before or after impact.  I also found that after hitting with the Sonic Training aid my rhythm was better on the course.  I felt much more comfortable with my swing playing after I had hit with the sound of the swing in my head.

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I think that if you are willing to spend the $399 for this system that you will get the most out of it with a swing coach or a least a lesson to go with it.  If your posture, grip, set-up or even some swing mechanics are off, all the rhythm training in the world will not solve that.  But if you already have a good mechanical swing, but your rhythm gets a little quick from time to time or even slow, this will be excellent for you.  I think an even better use is for the teaching pro.  This will be a great tool to teach your students proper rhythm along with proper mechanics.  The teaching model comes with two receivers, one for the teacher and one for the student.  The only real problem with this method is that the student wouldn’t be allowed to use their own clubs, unless you did a re-grip of one of their clubs, which could get expensive to regrip a club for every student.

It did what it said and it worked, but I found two little items that weren’t quite perfect about my unit.  The club insert rattled a little, not in the club, but the plastic buttons rattled on impact and even during the swing a little.  Rubber buttons would have been better, and the unit stuck out a little far from the butt end of the club, which made me a bit uncomfortable.  It felt like I was choking up so far on the club and didn’t leave much space between the body and the club.  I think with just a little engineering work both could be fixed quickly and easily in order to make this a rock solid unit.  In my multiple range sessions I didn’t have any interference issues or reception of signal issues no matter where I put the receiver on my body.

This unit is being used by Vijay Singh with great success and has also been highlighted on the Hank Haney project with Charles Barkley who clearly has rhythm issues in his swing.  I think the target audience of this product is not the weekend hack, but the mid to low handicap attempting to make that jump to the next level in their game.

I will throw it out that if Sonic golf can create version 2 of this product, I would love to see it as an iPhone app or an attachment to the iPod Nano (kind of like the Nike + system).  This might allow you to change the sounds, include music into the training and even offer some tracking capabilities.  This would be the ultimate rhythm training aid.  This is in no way a knock on version 1, it is very solid and does exactly what it promises, but it might appeal to a wider audience if it could be used as an iPod accessory.

I had fun turning my golf club into a lightsaber sounding training tool.  It helped my rhythm.  I especially worked on that pause at the top.  I really enjoyed the sound of my swing.  I found that the more I listened to the sound and concentrated on rhythm, the better my mechanics and most importantly the better my results were. 

For more information: www.sonicgolf.com

Ryan Heiman
Independent Golf Reviews
golfdiscussions.com