First there was Wii Fit, now it’s time to slim down your golf handicap thanks to the perfect game-improvement partnership: the Nintendo Wii and the world’s best-known golf coach, David Leadbetter.
And the product will go on sale exclusively via PGA golf professionals and golf retailers.
Using the unique, user-friendly interface that has made the Wii a global hit in millions of households, golf lessons are about to take a huge leap forward when the most advanced home golf product in history goes on sale in the UK next month.
With features and functionality which improve on those offered by golf simulators costing thousands, Data Design Interactive’s new ‘My Personal Golf Trainer’ will be released in March 2010, taking the Nintendo Wii well beyond games and transforming it into a training device.
The Wii’s enormous popularity will bring more people into the sport, and it removes the intimidation factor that some beginners – particularly female and younger golfers – experience at first with golf lessons. And if golfers use their Wii for a few minutes each day to perfect their swing, their handicaps are sure to tumble.
Over two hundred PGA golf professionals sampled the product in last month’s PGA Merchandise Show, in Orlando, USA, and the reaction from the pros was unanimously positive.
“We were thrilled with the response we’ve had from PGA professionals,” said Stewart Green, CEO of the swing trainer’s publishers Data Design Interactive. “Every single PGA pro who sampled it, felt it would encourage more people to take a golf lesson. We hope the wide-reaching popularity of the Wii, and David Leadbetter’s fantastic reputation, will bring golf into tens of thousands of new households across the UK.
“We believe this will be a highly attractive new sales opportunity for golf retailers nationwide.”
In a world-first, and featuring advice and personalised feedback from the world’s #1 golf instructor, David Leadbetter, ‘My Personal Golf Trainer with IMG Academies and David Leadbetter’ uses the Wii Balance Board and the Wii MotionPlusTM Controller to analyse the full golf swing in 3D space.
Following Leadbetter’s best-selling ‘7 Steps to a Better Golf Swing’ principles, ‘My Personal Golf Trainer’ offers instructional videos and suggests drills for each of the seven basic components of a golf swing: grip, posture, alignment, ball position, coil, swing shape, and tempo.
Golfers can improve their swing step-by-step in easy stages, following on-screen instructions, and can then graduate from training mode to the practice range, and finally onto a full 18-hole golf game where the golfer can choose to receive feedback from Leadbetter, including suggested drills for improvement, after each shot played.
The ultra-sensitive, gyroscopically-controlled Wii MotionPlus controller, introduced in June 2009, enables ‘My Personal Golf Trainer’ to become the first home golf product to record and analyze a full golf swing from address to backswing, impact to follow through, in three dimensions and over time – all on a home TV screen.
Golfers can compare their own golf swing with an ‘ideal’ swing, to identify areas for improvement. With 3D replays golfers can view their swing from any angle for detailed analysis. ‘My Personal Golf Trainer’ then goes further and provides step-by-step corrective drills, guiding the golfer through a simple interactive process. It also provides complete analysis of clubhead speed, angle and force through the entire swing process, and includes weight transfer, swing plane and tempo information.
The result is practice with a purpose, and the opportunity to work on the golf swing in a convenient home environment – either before, during or after a series of golf lessons with a PGA professional – enabling the golfer to build a repeatable, reliable and instinctive golf swing.
“Good golf is built around feel, and a few minutes at home with the Wii is a great way of being able to maintain the perfect feel, and to allow yourself to learn to swing consistently,” said David Leadbetter.
“What you get from ‘My Personal Golf Trainer’, more than anything else, is my feedback – so you know instantaneously when you are doing it right or wrong. It gives you the opportunity to repeat a movement consistently, and with tailored feedback you’ll learn a repeating motion which, hopefully, you’ll be able to take out on the golf course successfully.”
To date, a few golf training devices have been available for the home, but have only given basic feedback limited to just the impact portion of a swing. ‘My Personal Golf Trainer’ takes the golfer through the entire golf swing, and produces analysis comparable with full-size golf simulator installations costing thousands of pounds, way beyond the reach of most golfers.
Stewart Green, CEO of Data Design Interactive, said: “David Leadbetter is recognised as the #1 instructor in golf, and his instructional DVDs are perennial top sellers. We are delighted that this incredible new product features Leadbetter’s world-class personal golf instruction. We hope that it will redefine the way that millions of golfers around the globe will think about their golf swing.
“We also expect it to encourage more golfers to seek golf lessons with their local PGA professional, and they will find that ‘My Personal Golf Trainer’ is the ideal product to refine the swing thoughts that their pro has given them, after the golf lesson.
“The new ‘My Personal Golf Trainer’ for Wii enables golfers to move from passively watching an instructional DVD, to actively swinging a ‘club’ and receiving personalized feedback with suggested drills from David Leadbetter himself – all from the comfort of home, for less than £100.”
‘My Personal Golf Trainer’ will be available in March 2010 for purchase online, and from April 2010 at golf retailers throughout the UK with a suggested retail price of £99.
To learn more about Data Design Interactive and its ‘My Personal Trainer’ series, visit www.mypersonalgolftrainer.com.