Accessory Review: Swing Reminders

I was recently contacted by Scott Jesse, president of Swing Reminders, Inc. and given the opportunity to try out his product, called Swing Reminders. Scott is the Head Golf Professional at Turquoise Valley Golf Course in Naco, Arizona.

As most of us know, swing thoughts are an important part of the golf swing. Keeping out the mental clutter is critical to remaining focused on a single swing thought. Keeping focused on a single swing thought is sometimes easier said than done, however, as our minds tend to wander.

According to Scott:

For years I carried a small piece of paper in my right pocket when playing golf. I would write a swing thought or two on the paper. Something to keep me thinking about simple swing thoughts, instead of letting my head go nuts and think about too many things. Every time I would reach in my pocket to get a tee or a ball marker, I would feel the paper and pull it out to give me another little reminder.

Out of a sound sleep Scott awoke and hatched out the concept of Swing Reminders. In his words, “Swing Reminders is a simple system of hardwood tokens and accompanying tips booklet to help you focus on the aspects of the game you want to improve.”

There are 25 tokens, about the size of a poker chip, each with a different swing thought printed on each side. When you identify your swing thought for the day, simply drop that token in your pocket and head out for the round. Your swing thought will be right there with you for the entire round. Every time you reach into your pocket to get a ball or tee or to mark your ball on the green, you can refer to the token for reinforcement.

The Good

The presence of the token really does help reinforce a particular swing thought. I found that when I reach in to my pocket and feel the token in there, I don’t necessarily even need to pull it out and look at it because I’ve already associated it with a particular thought for the day. In my case, “TEMPO TEMPO TEMPO”.
The tokens are an attractive hardwood and feel very smooth and are quite light so that carrying one in one in a front pocket is comfortable, and if fact it’s hard to notice that it’s there until you reach in for a ball or tee.
The tokens do perfect double duty as ball markers. Every time you mark your ball, you see the reminder.
There is a one-year limited warranty on Swing Reminders.
Swing Reminders comes with a tip booklet giving information on each swing thought, helping you to understand the significance of each.

The Bad

While I have had no trouble with durability, I wonder if molded plastic would not be more durable over the long term. I do like the feel and the light weight of the wood tokens, though.
While there are 50 individual thoughts in each set of Swing Reminders, someone somewhere is bound to have a swing thought in mind that isn’t included. It seems to include all the ones that came to my mind, but be aware that there’s a small chance that an unusual swing thought might not be there.

Conclusion

Swing Reminders is a cool product that serves a big need in the mental game of golf. Keeping a focused swing thought or even just a thought for the round isn’t easy with all the things we need to think about and the problem is compounded during pauses in play when we might find our minds wandering.

Swing Reminders definitely does what it claims. If you’re a player that struggles with keeping focused on a swing thought, I think this product will help you. I know I’ll be keeping the “TEMPO TEMPO TEMPO” reminder token in my pocket every time I hit the links.

Swing Reminders retails for $16.99. For more information, visit the Swing Reminders website.