This invention generally relates to golf swing training devices that improve a golfer's swing and train the golfer's muscles used in the golf swing.
The art has proposed many devices for golfers to practice to improve their swing. For example, a golfer may swing and strike a golf ball-sized object suspended from a flexible tether from one type of device, thereby allowing the golfer to practice and improve his or her technique in a confined space without having to use a driving range. However, the object being struck is the size and weight of a golf ball and, therefore, provides little muscle-building resistance.
Another type of practice device is a relatively large bag, known as an impact bag, that is filled with soft material, such as towels, and is placed against a stationary object, which resists movement of the bag. Such a device stops the practice swing at the point of impact so that the golfer can evaluate the club's and his or her body's positions at impact. The impact bag does not allow the golfer to complete a follow-through of the golf swing and/or to perform a muscle-building exercise by overcoming weight resistance as the club moves through impact into the follow-through.
The art has proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,974,389 a device that combines the swing practicing technique with muscle-building exercise. As advantageous as such a combined device is, however, the weight resistance is fixed. There is no adjustment of the weight resistance, or any accommodation to golfers of different ages and muscle strengths, or any feedback as to how hard the object or bag has been struck.