THE STRYPER STORY
I built Stryper because I needed it myself.
For the first 48 years of my life I hated golf. Now I spend far too much time thinking about it.
Stryper came out of the thing that kept driving me nuts about the game: being told what to change, understanding it perfectly in a lesson, then getting to the range on my own and wondering where the hell that position was.
I’m Corbs. I invented SwingMate and StanceMate to turn some of those instructions into physical references I could see, set, measure and come back to.
HOW IT STARTED
For the first 48 years of my life I hated golf.
Mainly because I was just so very bad at it. I played plenty of sport and had been relatively successful at most of it. Golf was different. It made absolutely no sense to me that a stationary ball could be so difficult to hit properly.
Then COVID hit. In Australia, golf was one of the few forms of exercise we were allowed to keep doing, so a good mate and I — both mad keen surfers — started playing the Tanawha Par 3 on the Sunshine Coast when the waves weren’t pumping.
Within a couple of weeks we were walking that hilly little course every few days in the Queensland heat. As restrictions eased, you could have a beer on the deck afterwards. Kookaburras would land beside you. Every now and then a kangaroo would skip down the first fairway. Somewhere along the way the wider experience started to win me over.
I also realised something fairly obvious: I never really hated golf. I hated being bad at something and not improving as quickly as I wanted.
Fast forward a few years: hundreds of rounds, dozens of lessons, three sets of clubs, thousands of YouTube videos and far less surfing. Chasing white balls several days a week. Chasing golfing Nirvana. Totally hooked.
THE PROBLEM BETWEEN MY EARS
I’m an overthinker. Golf is not an ideal hobby for that.
I need to know WHY stuff works. My mates give me grief for it constantly. I’d be on a surf trip to Indo and paddle in every hour to change fins because I was convinced another setup might squeeze a little more out of the waves.
I’m the same with motorbikes, cars, gadgets, things I build in the shed — and now golf. I like experimenting, measuring what changed and keeping the things that actually make an improvement.
That mindset can help when you practise. On the course it can be a total curse. At some point you need to stop thinking about twelve swing positions and just hit the bloody ball.
That became a big part of the Stryper idea for me: do the thinking and measuring in practice, build a reference you can repeat, then get out of your own way when you play.
Of course, when the wheels fall off I still end up back on YouTube. You know it’s bad for you, but you just can’t help yourself, can you?
WHY STRYPER EXISTS
Built from lessons, not instead of them.
I’ve worked with two really good golf pros here on the Sunshine Coast, Marcus McPherson and John Wright. The way they teach makes sense to me.
Lessons with John using gate drills were where the seed for SwingMate really started. StanceMate grew from the same problem in setup, including Marcus being a zealot for getting your feet and ball position organised every single time you address the ball.
A good coach can see your swing, work out what matters and give you the change to make. The bit I struggled with was recreating that change when the coach was no longer standing beside me.
That is the gap I built Stryper to help with. StanceMate gives setup a measurable reference. SwingMate gives movement a visible reference. They do not diagnose every swing fault and they do not make the swing for you. They give you something physical to practise against and something you can return to next time.
Measure it. Improve it. Trust it.
TWO YEARS LATER
From a 21 handicap to 14 — and I still feel like there is heaps more to come.
I’ve now been using my own products for about two years. In that time my handicap has come in from 21 to 14. I’m regularly shooting in the 80s now, and often in the low 80s.
Recently I shot my best nine holes: three-over gross. On the three holes where I dropped a shot, the putts that didn’t fall finished close enough to tap in. I’ve also won our monthly B-grade medal several times.
I’m not pretending a training aid gets all the credit for that. I’ve had lessons, I practise, I play a lot and I’m getting better at actually managing my way around a golf course. But Stryper has become the framework I keep coming back to when I want to make a setup or movement change measurable instead of just hoping I can remember the feel.
The part I’m enjoying most is that I still feel like there is heaps more improvement in me.
21 → 14
My handicap after two years using my own Stryper products.
Regularly in the 80s
And often in the low 80s now.
+3 gross for 9
My best nine-hole score so far. The three putts that didn't fall finished close enough to tap in.
Several B-grade medals
Multiple monthly B-grade medal wins — and I still feel like there is heaps more improvement to come.
FROM CORBS
Now get out there and stripe it!
Creating Stryper started as a way to solve my own practice problem. Two years on, I still use the products myself and I’m still learning what works for my golf.
If you are serious about improving, I still reckon good coaching matters. Then give yourself a way to reproduce the setup or movement when you are practising on your own. That is what I wanted Stryper to do.
Thanks for reading this far and humouring me. I hope Stryper makes your practice a little less guessy, a lot more repeatable and — most importantly — more useful when you actually get out on the course.
Corbs
CEO (Chief Eagle Officer)