Dean Reinmuth thinks a new training aid will be sweet music to golfers looking to improve their swing mechanics.
Best known as Phil Mickelson’s former coach and one of Golf Channel’s featured instructors, Reinmuth says too many golfers get hung up on positions in the golf swing instead of feeling the correct motion.
“A thought is not a feeling. Golf is played with feeling,” Reinmuth said during a recent demonstration of the Swing Coach Club at Tustin Ranch Golf Course. “You take certain thoughts in a sequence of order and create a feeling from them, like notes in music create a song.”
Reinmuth touts the Swing Coach Club as a way for golfers to learn why they’re hitting sour notes – and shots – in their swing.
“I don’t endorse products that don’t work or aren’t fundamentally sound in helping golfers who invest their money in them,” Reinmuth said about his first foray in the swing aid market. “Ben Hogan said the ultimate judge of the golf swing is the ball itself. That’s the concept behind the Swing Coach Club. It’s based on Hogan’s fundamental of the downswing motion of the side-armed throw, like a shortstop in baseball throwing to first base.”
That side-armed motion is contrary to what most golfers do in their swings.
“Most golfers want to ‘hit’ the ball. Now we’re back at that thought process. That’s not the key to a good golf swing,” Reinmuth said. “What makes the pros so much different than the average golfer is they think swing and then feel swing. They accelerate smoothly, and the ball gets in the way.”
The Swing Coach Club features a driver-shaped head with a cradle in the face that holds the ball in place. When swung, the force of acceleration releases the ball from the cradle toward the target.
“If you have a casting swing or a swing that surges too early – that means you’re too quick – the ball comes out low and to the right,” Reinmuth said. “If you swing outside in, like most golfers I see, you’ll release it too late and the ball goes way out to the left.”
But when the proper dynamics of tempo, arc and acceleration are in place, the ball travels straight and high.
Designed with the length of a 7-iron, the Swing Coach Club also has a spacer in the cradle that holds the ball. With a longer spacer, the ball is held in the tips of the cradle prongs and comes out with less force, making it ideal for short game shots. Used on a driving range, the swing types are designed for the ball to travel from 10 to 100 yards, and special balls are available for use in the yard or confined areas.
There’s also a Swing Accelerator Marker – SAM – that can be placed on the ground, in front of where the ball would be in a golfer’s stance.
“With the Swing Coach Club the golfer is not contacting the ground, so the brain doesn’t have a reference point of when acceleration should occur. The marker shows the golfer where the speed needs to take place,” Reinmuth said. “The marker is placed a little forward of where the ball on the ground would be because you want to accelerate forward and not downward.”
To support improvement, the Swing Coach Club website features a coach’s corner hosted by Reinmuth and other instructors.
“I’ll be doing webinars and answering questions on a regular basis,” Reinmuth said. “The whole point is to help people learn more correctly and quicker without trying to make it overnight, which doesn’t happen. Correct practice is really the whole key to improving.”
And those sessions should include shutting off, or down, the thinking part of hitting the ball so, when on the course, the swing is more instinctual than forced.
“The majority of golfers make the mistake of using training thoughts when they try to play,” he said. “No, use feelings when you play. … If you make a good move or swing, the ball goes to the target. That’s how playing better golf happens.”
