One of the biggest breakthroughs for many golfers is realizing that real improvement starts before they ever take the club back. In nearly every lesson I teach, I find myself explaining the importance of a good address position and making tweaks to the setup. After all, a solid foundation at address sets everything else in motion.
In fact, I often find that once they’re in the right position, the ball flight improves almost instantly — without ever changing their swing.
But here’s the real challenge: maintaining that setup once the lesson ends. That’s why I encourage all my students to build a feedback loop into every practice session.
What is a feedback loop?
A feedback loop is a simple, consistent way to check your work, catch small errors, and reinforce the right habits. It helps you monitor your setup and swing in real time, so you can fix issues before they turn into bad habits. Over time, this leads to better performance and more lasting improvement.
Why feedback loops matter
When I’m working with Tour players, most of our technical focus is on what we can control — starting with the setup. We use a clear, repeatable checklist to make sure everything is dialed in before the club even moves.
For everyday golfers, though, that kind of structured feedback isn’t always available. You don’t always have a coach watching you on the range or the day before a big round.
That’s why creating your own feedback loop system so important, and recently, I found a tool that can help.
It’s called the Why Golf Alignment Mirror, and I have to admit, when I first found it my interest was piqued. I wondered, could a training aid like this actually give players the kind of real-time feedback they need, without a coach standing beside them?
So, I decided to try it out with one of my students — a developmental tour player who’s about seven hours away from me in Hilton Head.
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Since he lives so far away, we usually rely on remote sessions to stay connected between in-person visits. And one of his recurring issues was getting “crossed up” in his setup — hips and knees too closed, shoulders too open. Without someone there to spot it, the problem would quietly creep back in.
As soon as we placed the mirror on the ground, the impact was immediate. He could see — and more importantly, feel — exactly where his body was in space. No verbal cues needed. It gave him the ability to self-correct in real time, turning his setup into a feedback loop he could rely on.
The result? Better ball flight, and a setup he could repeat with confidence.
What makes this mirror so effective?
The mirror’s convex shape provides a wide-angle, full-field view of your setup. So you’re not limited to checking just one part of your posture. With this training aid, you can see everything. Plus, it has gridlines on the mirror that make it easy to evaluate stance width, ball position, and body alignment all at once.
And because it gives you instant visual feedback, your eyes begin to recognize what “right” looks like, and your body starts to memorize how it feels. That’s where true habit-building begins.
After our first session, my student went home and ordered the mirror for himself. In every online session we’ve had since, it’s been a staple in his setup routine. And his alignment? Consistent, clean, and repeatable.
If you’re looking to take ownership of your swing, build a reliable practice routine, and make lasting improvements — this is the kind of feedback loop that can actually move the needle.
