If you asked any number of golfers what the #1 fault they would like to fix in their golf swing, a very large majority will most likely say, "my slice." For a right hander, a slice would be a ball that ends up way right of your target. Lots of things can cause a slice, but one of the main causes of a slice would be a golf swing that follows an outside-to-in path. This path will most likely cause the clubface to come across the golf ball in a right-to-left fashion that imparts lots of sideways spin on the ball. You want this sideways spin as much as you want a fast downhill putt. The result is a ball flight that may start out straight but then proceeds to go out of bounds to the right.

Of course, there are plenty of other reasons why your golf ball may slice. A too-weak grip would be one (for right handers, this would mean that your left hand would be rotated to the left of the centerline of the club grip). Another reason may be that you are applying too much pressure on the club, which means that the clubface never squares up at impact. Another reason for your slice might be that your clubface may be lined up properly to the target but your feet are lined up to the left of the target. If your slice is caused by any of the above, don't buy the Inside Approach - it won't help you.

BUT, if your swing is outside-to-in, then keep reading and decide if you want to give this trainer a try.

Performance
Golf Digest has the Inside Approach as its #1 golf swing trainer. The product claims to help the golfer fix an outside-to-inside golf swing and it will help you with that - pretty much guaranteed. The Inside Approach is easy to set-up, easy to use, gives immediate feedback, and packs away easily once you're done using it.

To use this trainer, you put your golf ball beneath a cushioned pole that is positioned about 4 to 5 inches off the ground. The goal is to hit the ball without hitting the cushioned pole. If you swing from the outside-in, you will hit the cushioned pole and that's the feedback that indicates what you just did was wrong. And if you can consistently strike a ball positioned beneath the Inside Approach, congratulations, you've fixed your outside-to-in swing.

And don't worry about hurting your clubs if you hit the cushioned pole - the pole is heavily padded and will break away easily if you hit it so swing away! It's this immediate feedback that makes this trainer so effective. It doesn't take long to fix your swing with this trainer. Of course, retention is a whole different animal altogether.

The Inside Approach also claims to help with chipping and a swing that is TOO inside-to-out. It will help here too but not as easily as with an outside-to-in swing. I consider these two gravy.

Value
A major complaint I have about this product is its cost. You can get it for $60 now but until recently, this thing was over $100. Even at $60, the product has a heavy mark up. The website itself (www.insideapproach.com) lists all the replacement parts and the total to build a complete Inside Approach is $25 (naturally, the website won't sell you all the parts together). You know they're not losing money with those parts so they'll make whatever profit they have there and then tack on another $35 to get a net, a box, and a very bad instruction video. I'm a die-hard capitalist but this just seems like a little bit much, especially for a product that has no R&D component to it. Ahhhh, what we do to improve our golf game.

I briefly mentioned the video that came along with this trainier. The video is less than 10 minutes long, shows you how to assemble the trainer, shows how to line up the trainer and has Jack Nicklaus making a plug for the product. That's it. In my opinion, you can skip the video altogether and not miss much at all.

Conclusion
So is the Inside Approach a good buy? I would say it's a good golf swing trainer that delivers on its promise of fixing an outside-to-inside swing. But I take points away from it because it's too expensive for what you get. Maybe you can borrow your friend's.

Recommended: Yes