How I gained 15 yards of distance in one week — but there’s a catch

Welcome to Play Smart, a game improvement column and podcast from editor Luke Kerr-Dineen to help you play smarter, better golf.

There’s a pretty steady stream of golf training aids moving through the market. Most appear on my doorstep at some point along the way. But it’s a markedly shorter list of training aids that have stood the test of time. Aids that remain popular, year after year, both because they’re respected by teachers and used by students to actually improve.

The SwingFan is one of them.

Power SwingFan

$129.99

The Power SwingFan is one of the easiest and most effective products for increasing distance and control available anywhere because it produces maximum resistance at impact. Pick up this golf swing fan trainer and you’ll be on your way to a better swing technique, longer drives & lower scores. The Power SwingFan works using air resistance. The four-finned design produces maximum resistance right as you swing through impact. Unlike weighted clubs – YOU do the work! Because the Power SwingFan golf swing speed resistance trainer stands up by itself, it is much more likely to be used than stuck in a closet. It looks so inviting when you see it that it begs to be swung. Regarding how much, how hard and how often, think of it just like lifting weights. Swing it to exhaustion every couple of days. Since this golf swing power trainer has the benefit of increasing strength, you want to break down your muscles and allow them to rebuild. You can swing very aggressively and a typical workout routine might be to start with 2 sets of 25 reps swinging at about 70% effort. After a week build to 3 sets of 30 reps and you can start firing harder through impact. We also suggest swinging left handed for a set so you don’t overbuild one side of your body. The Power SwingFan has two primary sizes men’s and ladies (junior available too) with the ladies fins being a little narrower. The ladies’ model is suitable for anyone over 5 feet tall and provides is used by some men who want more speed training than strength training.

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Developed by GOLF Hall of Fame Teacher Gary Wiren, the SwingFan has a golf grip attached to a shaft with propeller fans. It’s a speed training aid that’s lower tech than many current products, like The Stack, but in many ways it does what it says on the tin. As you swing it you’ll feel resistance, which helps build your golf muscles, and teaches you to release the club faster.

Feeling like my swing was getting slower earlier this summer, I decided to conduct a little experiment. I would swing the SwingFan 500 times over the course of one week to see if I could get my swing faster, well, faster.

You can watch the full video about to see me go through the process, but in a nutshell, it worked! Better than I thought, actually. In the space of one week, I gained 7 mph of ball speed, which equated to an average of 15 yards.

But it wasn’t all great news. Let’s break it down.

The good news

The less good news

Regardless, it was a trade worth making. You can listen to me talk about the experiment in the 12 minute podcast below, and can subscribe to the Play Smart podcast on Apple here, or on Spotify here.