A few days ago I was lucky enough to receive a training aid from GEM. Golf’s Essential Move. I had absolutely no idea what to expect from the product because truth be told I hadn’t done much research, hadn’t been bombarded with ads, and none of my friends had been saying, hey… you need to look at GEM.
GEM Golf Training Aid
So I literally did not know anything about this product. The first thing I did was to look at the limited bit of instructions. Basically the GEM comes with a connector, 3 different sized rods and a ball. You have a nice storage pouch that can easily fit in your golf bag.
Who is into directions anyway? I grabbed my 9 iron. To get started, the connector fits about 1/2″ from the bottom of the grip with the thumb screws being on top. You then screw in a rod til it tightens into the bottom of the connector. I decided to use rod 1 which is the longest rod. Then follow that up with screwing the ball on to the end of the rod. I would say all told it took me about a minute and a half for the first go round.
Now I wasn’t quite sure what the intention of the product was for. So I better look at the directions just a little bit. Head on over to the GEM Golf website and take a look around. You’ll learn about the product and can take a look at some tutorial videos.
Start Using GEM
So what I needed to do is to take the club back to about waist high or what felt like waist high and then do a similar follow thru. I had to watch what I was doing because the first few times of swinging the club with the GEM training aid on, the ball end felt wobbly. Especially during the follow-thru.
But let’s backup a bit and see some of what I captured in a swing from an earlier session without GEM. Notice how the club is already behind me? This was typical of my open face rolling of the wrists. And all the while I really thought I had a tendency to an open clubface as I was winding around my body. I’m sure there must have been some compensation going on there.
So I practiced with GEM to get used to the different positions.
GEM Open Face
GEM Closed Face
GEM Toe Up
Ok. I quickly found the ball should be facing down and the rod as straight as you can get it on the backswing.
GEM is Teaching To Put Backswing on Plane
I kept making half swings and then I would alternate every now and then with a semi full swing. I was thinking to myself. Ok. I got it. I understand that my backswing is flat and that is not the way it should be. GEM is teaching me how to have more of an upright swing. Good enough. By videotaping myself and watching how rod 1 of GEM is pointing down during the backswing, for me it promotes more of an upright swing. I got it.
But that wasn’t the aha moment. I kept doing the half swings and the wobble that I initially felt with GEM was becoming less and less. After every 10 swings or so I would unscrew the rod and ball and hit a golf ball. I would put the rod and ball back into the connector and get some more reps in. I started to get some nice crisp shots.
It started to get easier to get the backswing looking pretty good. I then started to wonder if I should shallow the plane as I started the downswing? For now I just decided to not try to change what seemed to be working.
GEM Teaches You to Release
I admit I am not the brightest tool in the shed. So I was literally swinging my 9 iron over and over again with GEM. It finally hit me. In the follow thru the toe of the club was moving quickly from right to left. I could also see that in the video. My wrists must have been turning over. This is something that is foreign to me. This is what it must feel like when you fully release the golf club. Aha. It became more and more noticeable as I continued to swing GEM. I would then remove the rod and ball and hit a couple of 9 irons.
I took out the 7 iron and hooked up the connector with rod 1 and the ball. About 1 minute in total to do this. I took about 15 swings and could again feel the movement of the toe turning over in the follow thru. I then took off the rod and ball (leaving the connector still hooked up to the bottom of the grip) and hit a couple of shots. It started to feel like a better connection with the ball. I turned on the Bushnell Launch Pro and saw I was getting a few extra yards with the same swing.
I do have to say that you should keep light grip pressure. If you give a death grip, you won’t get the wrist cock and you won’t get a proper release.
GEM Training Aid with Driver
I went back to swinging the 9 iron and them moved on to driver. Again, changing out GEM literally takes a minute. I kept rod 1 with driver. At this point I wasn’t really sure when or how I was supposed to incorporate rod 2. When using GEM with my driver, it seems like I have a much steeper backswing. I would take 10 swings, remove the rod and ball while keeping the connector on the club and hit a ball or two. You can see me checking my position below but after swinging a number of times, it starts to become a natural feel.
By using GEM, the follow thru allows the toe to release on driver.
Now I am by no means notoriously long off the tee with driver. After a couple of bag mapping sessions I might average a little over 210 yards with carry off the tee. However, after using GEM for a single session with driver, I turned on the BLP and hit a fairly good one. This is 228 carry which rolls out to 241. I’ll take any increase in distance I can get.
The following day I repeated what I did above. A session with a 9 iron, 7 iron, a good set with a hybrid and then driver. I feel that by using GEM and taking a good 5 plus minutes to go through several clubs, it starts to ingrain the swing and movement of your arms, wrists, and body into the correct positions. Of course make sure to remove the rod and ball and hit a shot or two with each club before moving on to the next club.
GEM Rod 2
It should have made sense. Today I put rod 2 and the ball on my 9 iron and started to do the waist to waist swings. Rod 2 works just like rod 1 in that the rod and ball point down. It still has the good weight but I noticed less wobble with the combination of rod 2 and the ball. The best part is you can practically do a full practice swing when using rod 2. No No No don’t ever hit a ball using rod 1 or rod 2. I made my swings longer and longer as I practiced with GEM and rod 2. It doesn’t take very long until you get comfortable taking a full practice swing.
I noticed a nice release while using rod 2. The wobble was what I could call non-existent but I could still track the backswing and the best part for me is that I could still see the toe of the club release in the follow thru. I then removed the entire GEM Golf product and hit some 9 irons. I averaged about 132 carry (which used to be my 8 iron) but went after this one below… albeit a little offline.
I’ll say it again and I don’t think I’m speaking only for myself. The best part of using GEM is to learn proper release.
GEM Rod 3
Rod 3 is slightly different. You face the rod upwards instead of down and you will not be putting a ball on the rod. Good for the company (and for me) in that they don’t have threads on one end. Rod 3 works very well with wedges but you can just as well put rod 3 on other clubs as well. The premise is the same, except you want to be pointing straight up in the backswing and then up again with the follow thru.
The best thing about using rod 3 is that you can hit balls with it. So take your 10-15 practice swings as a warmup and then hit a couple of balls.
GEM Golf Has A Winner
Lets face it. The GEM golf training aid is simple. If you need hours and hours of instruction and multiple images and videos where you can stop each frame, this product probably isn’t for you. If you want to open up the box, read a few directions as I ended up doing and literally start Golf’s Essential Move within minutes… I mean minutes to a better golf swing, then look into GEM Golf.
I found that it not only immediately helped to put my backswing on a better plane but not very much long after, noticed the release of the clubhead which in turn can lead to increased clubhead speed.
This is not a one and done for me. That is the caveat. I played a round of golf and noticed some of my old shots started to groove back into my swing, especially near the tail end of the round. Was starting to wind my backswing around my body again. At least I noticed it but it was moreso in the results of my shots. I was playing alone so there was no embarrassment in pulling out GEM and taking a dozen swings. My backswing looked better, my release looked better and my shot making ability came back. Thank you GEM.
Because of its ease of use, I will continue to use GEM in practice sessions with the main goal of ingraining the movement into my everyday golf swing. Call it muscle memory or the space between your brain but I firmly believe that practice with this device will lead to good results. If you are interested in GEM, my recommendation is to head on over to GEM Golf.