Why You Should Join The 'Maintenance Aid' Revolution

Getting better doesn’t have to be about making wholesale changes or implementing technical rebuilds that take months and usually send our scores backwards before we see any of the benefits.

Steady improvements while you still enjoy good golf through the playing season can come from a commitment to doing the simple things right – and ‘maintenance aids’ are designed to help you do exactly that.

There are loads of great products out there that enable you to maintain and hone your game, without making massive changes – and every player would benefit from finding and using one or more that keeps their set-up and technique on track and encourages good habits.

Joe and Dan extolled the virtues of these ‘maintenance aids’ in a recent episode of Kick Point: The Golf Gear Show, which you can watch above (from 33.49). They’ve seen and experienced the benefits first-hand, and they want you to join the revolution so you can too.

Joe was keen to highlight two that he’s particularly loving at the moment. The first one is the Visio Golf T-Line putting aid, which he tried after seeing Tommy Fleetwood using it in his preparation – and if the reigning FedEx Cup champion utilises it during tournament weeks, then that’s a pretty strong argument for giving it a go. It’s designed to improve your aim and start line by rolling the ball along a narrow piece of metal that’s 19.75 inches long.

Joe loves it: “I practise this at five to six feet. The benefits are two-fold. Obviously, you’re nailing your start line. If you can start the ball where you want to start the ball, then you’ve completed one of the components of being a good putter. The next two components are being able to read the green and hitting it at the pace you want to hit it at.

“You’re also training your eyes to what perfectly square alignment is, because the extended piece is pointing exactly where it’s supposed to be, and I can see perpendicular to that my clubface is exactly where I need it to be.

“People massively complicate putting but if you can just get the clubface pointing in the right place and get your start line sorted, then wow, you’ve got a headstart there.”

While setting up square and starting the ball on your target line are the two main benefits, Joe has also found it a really helpful training aid for when working on his speed.

“On those five or six-footers, I’m hitting three in a row and I’m not just hitting it at one pace. I’m hitting one to drop in the front edge, one to go in at medium pace, and one to whack off the back of the hole, so you’re really fine-tuning that pace.”

The other ‘maintenance aid’ that Joe has really committed to is the TRS Ball, which is designed to keep your arms connected to the body throughout the swing. It’s a blow-up ball that is held in place between your forearms and has some Velcro to help keep it in place while you swing. Just like the Visio T-Line, it’s a simple idea that really works.

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“It keeps everything beautifully on-plane. I’m not 100 percent yet, but the difference in my dispersion from six months ago is amazing. This is like a safety blanket for me now. If I hit a couple of wonky shots, I blow this up, strap it on, and hit five or six shots and I’m straight back to knowing what I’m doing. It’s so beneficial.”

Simplicity is the key when it comes to ‘maintenance aids’ and it doesn’t get much simpler than an alignment stick or golf club on the ground when you practice. Dan discovered the benefit of putting sticks down on your target and foot line to re-set things when he was really struggling with his swing.

“All I was doing there was using a set of plastic sticks that got me lined up in the right direction, and that’s allowed me to go and drill that at the range. That’s my version of your TRS ball now.”

Joe believes you should never hit balls on the range without something to reinforce correct alignment: “I do that as standard and I think that should just be common practice, every time you hit balls you’ve got to put something down to make sure you’re pointing in the right direction.

“Once you get the hang of that and feel comfortable pointing in the right direction, there might be stage two of that which gets your arms or release in the right place, or whatever. It can be an evolving thing. I’m at a place where I think I’ve settled on a couple of things that I’m going to commit to and go back to, come hell or highwater. That’s a nice comforting place to be in.”

The benefits of finding the right ‘maintenance aids’ that work for you and the things you’re refining in your game are clear to see. But there are a lot of golfers who don’t use any – even something they already have like clubs on the ground to help alignment.

We want to hear from you. If you don’t use anything like this, why not? If you do, what are you using, why are you using it, how long have you been using it for, and what kind of changes and results are you seeing?

Comment in the box below and Joe and Dan might read them out and share their thoughts in a future episode of Kick Point. Let the ‘maintenance aid’ revolution begin!