50 Words or Less
The GEM Golf Swing Trainer is a simple trainer that promises too much. Not enough feedback to be highly effective.
Introduction
GEM is an acronym for “Golf’s Essential Move.” This simple-looking trainer purports to teach you how to “release the club properly every time” – the titular essential move. Is this the key to improving your ball striking? Can you really double your greens in regulation with this trainer? Let’s find out.
Set Up & Ease of Use
After unboxing the GEM Golf Swing Trainer, you’ll find the club attachment, three rods, the weighted ball, and a carrying bag. There’s also an instruction card with all the information you need to get started.
Attaching the GEM to your club is simple enough and only takes a minute. The parts are well made and screw together easily. The purpose of the GEM is also easy to understand once you’ve glanced over the instruction card. In sum, the GEM Golf Swing Trainer is easy to set up and straight forward to use.
For those that want more instruction, there are videos on the GEM website HERE. The first three videos – totaling two minutes – just introduce the parts of the trainer. The next three – five minutes total – offer the most value, explaining the use of each different rod. The final series of videos shows the GEM in use during lessons.
Effectiveness
In a nutshell, the GEM Golf Swing Trainer attaches a weight to the grip that helps you feel the club moving into a toe-up position early in the backswing, squaring into impact, and going toe-up again early in the follow through. You can dial the strength of this sensation up or down by changing the length of the rod. The shortest rod is meant to be installed in the opposite direction (without the weighted ball) to act purely as a visual cue.
Let’s cut right to the quick: the major problem is that the feedback the GEM provides is not strong enough. Even with the longer rod, I was not compelled to put the club into the “correct” positions. And as for the visual feedback, that’s already provided by the club face, so the GEM is not significantly beneficial.
Before moving on, I’m going to do one of my favorite things: call out bulls*** promises from training aids.
“Creates a correct wrist hinge.” Nonsense, I can do all kinds of things with my wrists and still get the toe-up. Also, what is “correct”?
“Improves the initial key movement.” Again, I can get this club into toe-up in at least six different ways. Some are – at least for me – much better than others, but the GEM does not distinguish between them.
“Eradicates tension.” I can count on one hand the number of golfers who I’ve seen swinging a training aid that look tension-free. Training aids, almost definitionally, ask golfers to focus on making a change. This creates tension, it doesn’t relieve it.
There are several more, but I’ll finish with my favorite: “Double your greens in regulation.” Really? So a 9-handicap who is currently hitting 8 GIR is going to magically go to 16 and become a +5 with the GEM? The 25-handicap who is hitting 3 GIR will jump to 6 and cut his handicap in half? I’ve seen some outrageous claims before but this is among the most outlandish.
Longevity
The GEM Golf Swing Trainer makes a lot of big claims, but the ones relating to longevity are accurate. It does fit onto any club, the whole kit fits easily into your bag, and you can use it anywhere. These are all major positives, particularly the ability to use it at home.
On the other side of the ledger, the GEM is not gamified in any way. And, as I outlined above, I don’t find it to be effective. This nets out to below average longevity.
Value
The GEM Golf Swing Trainer retails through their website for $140. I’ve pegged the average training aid price at $100 for a long time, but I probably need to make some adjustments for inflation, so this is around average.
For $140, the GEM does not feel like a lot – it’s a small box with just a few parts. It’s also a unitasker, unlike a trainer such as the Kavooa Pro [review HERE]. Most importantly, I don’t find it to be very effective. It does come with a 30 day money back guarantee, which is a positive, but doesn’t make this an overall strong value for me.
Conclusion
I’m personally bummed that I didn’t like the GEM Golf Swing Trainer more. The move that it tries to teach is one that I need in my golf swing, so I was hopeful that it would be a winner. Unfortunately, the feedback it provides isn’t strong enough to earn it regular use or a recommendation from me.
Visit GEM Golf Swing Trainer HERE
He founded Plugged In Golf in 2013 with the goal of helping all golfers play better and enjoy the game more.
Matt lives in the northwest suburbs of Chicago with his wife and two daughters.
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7 Comments
Might try the prosendr aid some day…I’ve found it to be quite good. Also costs 170$ but I like it enough to stomach the cost
Matt, great honest review!. I really value your reviews on things so even though I probably wouldn’t have been interested in this anyway, your opinions really put the icing on the cake. How can they make it ridiculous claim such as doubling my greens in regulation. I can tell you, if I played a round with Butch, Harmon, Hank Haney & Tiger Woods, I would not double my greens in regulation.
Matt, Thanks so much for calling B.S. on this training aid. I considered this on a couple occasions, but it didn’t pass my smell test. It seemed too fishy for me. I’m long past the training aids, for the most part. I’m embarrassed at the junk I bought 25-30 years ago. 😅
Matt, you’ve never made me laugh.
But you sure did today!
I’m glad…?
:)
-Matt
Matt good honest review. I purchased the GEM and agree with your review. Keep the training aid reviews coming.
Stu
I know, nearly 10 months late to the party, and, although I certainly agree that the claims are likely overblown, I would note that it is more like a 5 handicap, maybe 6, that is hitting 8 greens a round, according to what I can find on arccos.
From my side, I find tremendous feedback. Your swing must be near perfect to not feel the “wiggle” that shows up at the bottom of the swing if you do not release the club in a particular way. The release patter that seems to be promoted is certainly better than the release pattern I had.
I think this aid was designed for people like me. I simply did not “feel” how bad my swing pattern was. So, I used to find myself miles left half the time, which is just not a way to play golf and have fun. This aid has eliminated most of that, although I am still learning to release better.
Thanks Gem!