Now you can get personalized golf lessons from David Leadbetter from the privacy of your own home! Well, sort of. Coming to stores in October is a new game for the Nintendo Wii, “My Personal Golf Trainer with David Leadbetter.” The concept of the game is to learn Leadbetter’s 7 Steps to a Better Golf Swing.
The new Wii MotionPlus controller and Wii Balance Board combine to analyze and record every facet of your golf swing, including swing speed, weight transfer, and swing path. It will even play back “video” of what your swing looks like, giving pointers from Leadbetter on how to improve. The game will retail for $50, the MotionPlus controller is $25, and to get the Balance Board you have pony up $90 for the Wii Fit Bundle. But $165 sure beats the $1,000/hour that Leadbetter charges for in-person lessons!
All that being said, I find one minor flaw with this entire process: YOU’RE NOT SWINGING AN ACTUAL GOLF CLUB! How can you possibly analyze my swing speeds and other factors, when I’m holding a Wii controller in my hand and pretending it’s a driver? The weight of a golf club is much different than a video game controller (news flash), and therefore my indoor golf swing is only going to mildly resemble my real golf swing.
Granted, I’m sure that a lot of the tips that Leadbetter will give on the video game will be great tips that you can then take with you to the driving range. But if you’re trying to sharpen your golf game by spending time on your Nintendo, I think this can only create major issues. Your golf swing is all about muscle memory. The last thing you need, is to develop muscle memory with a Nintendo controller only to fail at replicating that on the golf course! Hmmm…I was striping 300 yard drives last night in my family room, I wonder why I’m slicing the ball out of bounds this morning?
Maybe I’m being too negative. I will say that I love playing Tiger Woods Golf on my Wii from time to time. But to think this game will improve anyone’s golf game is crazy. Please let me know what you think, and if you get a chance to play the game I would love to hear your feedback.
I recently reviewed PGA Tour 10 for the Wii (http://golfstinks.blogspot.com/2009/08/round-rained-out-tee-it-up-with-wii.html) and can appreciate being able to play this game when you can’t go to the course (e.g. it’s dark out, or when it’s raining, or too cold to play, etc.). But by no means does PGA Tour 10 help you with your REAL game! This is especially true because of your grip on the “Wii-Mote” (since it’s much thicker than a club’s grip and you have to hold a button to swing). The Common Golfer has a point – It will be interesting to see how this Leadbetter game tries to help you improve without an actual club. PGA Tour 10 is just for fun off the course. To try anything more real than that may be asking for trouble.
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