4 Best Training Aids to Hit a Fade: $15-$295

I spent three years hitting the ball straight. Then I played a course with a dogleg right and a back-left pin tucked behind a bunker, and I had no answer. Straight wasn’t a shot. It was a default. I couldn’t aim at the trouble and let the ball curve away from it.

The golf industry sells a thousand products for fixing a ball that curves too much, and almost nothing for a golfer who wants to make it curve on purpose. Search “fade trainer” and you get one YouTube video and an empty search result. The mid-handicapper who wants to add a controlled fade is on their own.

You’re not. A fade is two things: a club path that travels slightly left, and a face that’s open to that path. If you can see those two things, you can learn to hit a fade on command. The best first tool costs about $15.

The Two Knobs That Make a Fade

A fade is not a complicated shot. It’s two numbers. TrackMan figured this out years ago: the ball starts where the face points, then curves away from the path. Want a fade? Point the face a touch right of your target, and swing the path a touch left of the face. Face open to path equals a left-to-right curve.

That’s the whole shot. Every training aid for a fade either shows you the path, shows you the face, or measures the difference between the two. Everything else is noise, and those tools start at $15.

The Four Tools That Teach Them

1. Alignment Sticks: Best Overall ($15-$30)

Alignment sticks are the fade trainer you already own. Set one stick on your target line, then set a second stick angled a few degrees left of it. That second stick is your path. Swing along it. There’s no arguing with a stick on the ground: you either swing along it or you don’t.

What works: a pair of fiberglass sticks runs about $15 for a generic set or $30 for SuperStroke’s. They show you a leftward path in three dimensions, and that visual is the foundation of the whole fade. I keep a pair in my bag and set them up before every range session now. The full list of what you can do with them is worth its own post.

What doesn’t: sticks only show path. They say nothing about the face. You can swing perfectly along a leftward path with a closed face and hit a dead pull that never curves. Path is half the fade, and sticks only cover that half.

Best for: everyone. Start here. Fifteen dollars and ten minutes on the range will tell you whether your path is the problem or your face is.

2. Tour Striker Educator: Best for Face Control ($57)

The Educator is the face half of the equation. It’s a lightweight club with a flat face you can read at impact. For a fade you want a hold-off release: the clubface stays open through the hit instead of rolling over. The Educator shows you the moment you roll your wrists closed.

What works: at $57 it’s the cheapest honest feedback you’ll get on face angle. The flat face points exactly where the face is pointing the instant you’d strike the ball, so you practice holding it open a degree or two through impact. That hold-off release is the fade’s secret, and this is the cheapest way to train it.

What doesn’t: it’s light, so it doesn’t feel like your real club, and it gives you zero data. It’s a feel tool, not a measurement tool. You’ll still want to confirm the result with real balls or a launch monitor.

Best for: the golfer whose fade turns into a straight pull or a hook because the wrists roll over. If your curve dies because your hands release early, this is your fix.

3. PlaneMate 2.0: Best for Grooving the Path ($147)

The PlaneMate clips a resistance band to your club and your belt, then physically pulls you into a swing path. It’s famous as a draw trainer, but flip the setup and the band resists the inside move, holding you on the leftward path a fade needs. I covered it in depth when it first came out.

What works: resistance doesn’t argue. It pulls your hands where they should go, and you feel it the second you fight it. Ten slow swings a day and the leftward path stops being a thought and becomes a feeling.

What doesn’t: it’s built for the opposite problem. The PlaneMate is marketed for the inside-out path that produces a draw, so using it for a fade means setting it up backwards and fighting the band’s natural pull. It also got more expensive this year, now running about $147 and up from the old $130.

Best for: the golfer who wants a physical groove instead of a visual cue. If you’ve watched videos for a year and your path still hasn’t moved, resistance is the answer.

4. HackMotion Core: Best for Data ($295)

HackMotion is a wrist sensor that measures face-to-path in degrees, live, on every swing. It tells you the exact number: face 2.4 degrees open to path, that’s a fade. Face 1.1 closed, that’s a draw. That precision is what a repeatable fade actually demands.

What works: no guessing. A fade lives or dies inside a two-degree window between a nice rightward curve and a dead pull or a ball that leaks into the right rough. HackMotion shows you that window on a screen while you swing. It’s the only tool here that measures the exact relationship the fade is built on. If you want the full breakdown of what the sensor does, I wrote a review.

What doesn’t: $295 for the Core is real money, and it’s only sold direct from HackMotion, not on Amazon. If you already have a feel for the fade, this is overkill. It’s a diagnostic tool for someone who wants the number, not the feeling.

Best for: the data-driven mid-handicapper who wants to know their face-to-path down to the degree. If you’d rather see “2.4 open” than “felt a little open,” this is your tool.

One More Thing: The String Rods Visual

There’s a neat visual aid called String Rods that instructor Shawn Clement uses to show the face-to-path relationship with two rods and some string. It’s a clean demonstration of exactly the two knobs above. The catch: as of writing I can’t find a reliable place to actually buy one, just the one video. If you want the visual, make it yourself with two alignment sticks and a length of string. Don’t chase the product; the sticks you already own do most of the job.

What I Would Actually Buy

Start with alignment sticks. Learn to set up a leftward path and swing along it. That’s the foundation, and it’s nearly free.

Then add the Tour Striker Educator. Now you can feel the face staying open through impact. Path plus face is the entire fade.

Only after those two click should you reach for the PlaneMate if your path won’t stick, or HackMotion if you want the exact number.

The honest total: about $72 for the two tools that actually teach the fade. Push to $147 or $295 only if the first two don’t land. Most people should stop at the sticks and the Educator. The fade is a feel you build, not a number you buy.

Where to Buy

• SuperStroke Alignment Sticks: $30 at Amazon (generic pairs run $15)
• Tour Striker Educator: about $57 at Amazon
• PlaneMate 2.0: about $147 at Amazon
• HackMotion Core: $295 (search Amazon; sold direct from HackMotion)

The Bottom Line

I hit my first intentional fade on a 7-iron into a back-right pin, and the ball did exactly what I’d aimed it to do: started at the flag, drifted right, died a foot from the cup. It wasn’t the equipment. It was knowing which knob to turn.

If you only remember one thing: a fade is a face held open against a path swung left. Learn to see the path, then learn to feel the face. Two $15 sticks get you most of the way there.