[jim_0068]

I like the speed stik for a few reasons:

1) awesome stretching tool before the round

2) used properly it will increase your swing speed and thus will increase your balls speed with the end result of you being longer

3) I feel that it teaches you how to really use your body efficiently. It really helps ingrain the feeling of what moves first (the hips) and what follows afterwords for a solid swing.

4) i believe in swinging it the opposite way (for me lefty). I haven't really been using it everyday like i should but i have seen quite an improvement on my average swing speed and my max swing speed. Usually the norm drives for me were in the 265-275 range with a awesome perfect poke about 285. Now my average drives are in the 275-280 range with my "perfect" poke in the 285-295 range.

Everytime i feel that my swing gets "lazy" i swing the speed stik a few times and it lets me know what i'm "not involving" in the swing. Once i get that "feel" again, i use it to produce "mechanics." Hmmm...where've i heard that one before ?

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However i will caution you that this device, used incorrectly, can produce throwaway. So if you're comfortable in your swing and don't have a big issue with throwaway i think its a great device. If you don't have the greatest swing and have some issues, it may not be good for you because you'll just be "ingraining those bad feels" and thus producing "bad mechanics."

So if i had to rank in order my 4 jim_0068 approved training aids they'd be:

1) tac-tic
2) plane laser
3) inside approach
4) speed stik

#1 and #2 are pretty much no brainers, they're not hard to learn how to use properly and i really don't think you'll "over-do" either one of them. However #3 and #4 need someone with a decent knowledge of the swing so you don't get "too inside" or as brian manzella says "over fix them" with the inside approach and regarding the speed stik, my reasons above.

For what its worth, when i started with the speed stik my average swing speed was in the 105-108 range with my max somewhere around the 112 range, which is very accurate launch monitor wise. After working with it i'd say for a few weeks (sparingly) i've increased my average swing speed to the 108-113 range and i reached a new personal best after 18 holes of golf today of 118-119 (hard to estimate the gauge). This isn't confirmed launch monitor yet, but i have seen the increase of distance on the course where it counts.

Jim