One of his tips was: start your downswing at the same speed as you began your backswing. This helps you avoid the tendency to rush the first move down, which will ruin any golf shot, and gives your hands, arms, club, and body plenty of time to work together.
Good tempo is very important to great golf and low scores. There are keys to achieving the smoothest swing possible. Remember to relax everything — hands, arms, and shoulders. Breathe deeply. Stay in balance.
That transition from backswing to downswing must be smooth. The tendency is to make too hard a move from the top. This will ruin any chance of a powerful, repeatable swing. Soft grip pressure will also help you make that smooth transition.
All great players have a 3:1 tempo.
This means their backswing is 3 times as long as their downswing. Regardless of if your swing speed is fast or slow, your tempo needs to match this 3:1 speed for full shots.
The best golf tip is ever is to master your tempo. So many players rush their swing on the way down or on the way back. This throws everything off and makes it difficult to shoot consistently low scores.
Even if your swing isn’t perfect, if your tempo is a consistent 3:1 speed, you will hit the ball in the middle of the club more often than not.
Many high-handicappers overlook the transition, which causes a rushed downswing. The pause may only be for a split second, but it is critical in allowing your lower body to fire on your downswing.
Many golfers are too steep during their downswing. The main cause of this is starting the downswing with the upper body instead of the lower body.
As a result, the downswing is rushed, and the angle of attack is inconsistent. Additionally, the lower body is not utilized, which can result in a loss of speed and power.
When taking practice swings, be sure to have a nice easy tempo and emphasize a pause at the top of your swing. This will allow you to fire your hips, generate power, and put your club into a shallower position.
Beginners sometimes think that the ball can be hit farther by swinging their arms faster, but this reduces the contribution that the back and shoulders can make, and the swing is denied power and direction. Similarly, if the downswing is rushed, the thigh muscles do not have time to work, and the tautness experienced at the top of the swing is dissipated.
Timing is the sequence in which different parts of the body move. Tempo is the pace at which all this movement takes place, and has a direct bearing on the timing of the swing.
You may be surprised to find that, by swinging at what feels to be three-quarters of your normal pace, you have hit the balls farther than straighter. On the other hand, a slightly faster tempo may reveal that your control of the clubface is now good enough for you to put a little more speed into the swing.
What women lack in strength, they can compensate for with good timing and tempo. I have played many pro-ams with men who are usually quite surprised just how far I can hit the ball, with seemingly little effort.
Love takes his big club and tries to swing in “slow motion” — the way sprinters practice at half speed — aiming first at a target only 100 yards away on the range. Then he goes for 150, 200, and so forth. The drill instills the proper timing and tempo so that when the full tee shot is hit, it is unhurried and brings the clubhead squarely to the ball along the proper swing path.
Realizing that many golfers often hurry the start of the downswing, and thus botch their shots in a variety of ways, Armour was looking for an image that would force them to move more slowly into the transition from backswing to downswing. Whether there is actually a “pause” or not, the idea is to wait for the lower body to start the downswing, rather than using the hands first and thus coming over the top.
What will help most is complete relaxation. Timing and rhythm can make up a lot in power. By all means, swing the club freely, both backward and forward, and avoid the tightening a short backswing must produce.
The actual tempo of your swing and the pace at which you accelerate the clubhead through the sand should feel pretty much the same every time. That’s a far more reliable method than trying to hit harder or softer from identical length swings.
Both the loss of hand control and the straying elbow are generally the result of (a) rushing the backswing and (b) not waiting for the downswing. Hand in glove with a rushed swing is a tendency to lunge at the ball — to drive it 15 miles. This causes you to leave your hips out of the shot entirely, so that it is the arms, and not the clubhead, that are swinging at the ball. My advice, then, is to practice coming back extra-slow — all in one piece… then unwind, keeping the right shoulder behind the shot, and let the clubhead come through the ball.
The reason he doesn’t hit the ball with his practice swing is simple: With his practice swing he doesn’t have to square his clubface on impact. He allows himself to swing freely. When there’s a golf ball in front of him, he knows — at least subconsciously — that he must square that clubface, and tension sets in, causing all sorts of faults.
Do this 4 times in a row. Don’t get impatient and speed up. Very slowly is the key.
A slow-motion swing develops the golf muscles, implants the correct club positions in your golfing brain — and doesn’t smash the chandelier.
The faster you swing the club through impact, the farther the ball goes. That’s a simple equation, but obtaining speed and power on the downswing is easier said than done. A problem almost every golfer encounters is rushing the downswing — letting loose with everything you have the moment the backswing is complete. When you do that, however, nothing works in proper sequence. The shoulders outrace the arms, the arms outrace the hands and the hands outrace the club. All that speed is expended too soon and the clubhead is actually losing speed as it strikes the ball, when it should be accelerating.
I like to start the downswing by shifting my weight easily back to my left side, and then letting my arms “fall” downward in front of my chest. I don’t want my shoulders unwinding so fast that they get way ahead of my arms. By giving my arms a little head start, they work in concert with my shoulders to create a real package of power coming into the ball. That good timing allows me to hit the ball a mile, and I don’t have to try very hard to do it.
When good players talk about “getting too quick,” they’re almost always talking bout the first move down from the top of the backswing. The beginning of the downswing can’t be rushed. You want your swing to gather speed gradually, so that everything works in sequence and the clubhead reaches its maximum speed at impact. If you start down suddenly, all your speed and power are gone bye the time you reach impact. Your timing and mechanics are shot, too.
Remember, there can only be one fast moment in the swing, and it had better be when the club strikes the ball.
Remember, the chain of events occurs slowly at first. If you rush, you’ll likely unwind your shoulders too soon and perform the dreaded “over the top” move, where the club is delivered into the ball on an out-to-in path. That means a loss of power and, more than likely, a big slice to the right.
One swing problem I have to monitor constantly is not letting my arms lag too far behind my upper body on the downswing. Because my hips and shoulders unwind so quickly, they sometimes outrace my arms. The result is that I drag the clubhead into the ball from far inside the target line, forcing me to rotate my hands furiously to share the clubface at impact. If I don’t rotate the hands enough I push the ball to the right; if I rotate them too much I hit a big hook. This makes for an inconsistent ball flight.
I recommend that you hit no more than a dozen drives. Getting carried away with this club is easy. And when you go overboard, your swing can get a little quick. Remember: You’re only warming up. Focus on your rhythm and timing — not on the ball.
The tempo of your swing is usually governed and dictated by your temperament and personality. If you have a fast, upbeat personality, you will struggle to slow your swing down with any great permanency.
You should never try to manipulate or force tempo. Tempo is built into your system, psyche and physical make-up. If you continually focus on achieving a “one-two” rhythm when you practice, the correct swing tempo will follow. This is why good technique followed by rhythm must be your priority.
One swing thought served Jack Nicklaus better than any other: complete the backswing. It is imperative that you do not rush the backswing or downswing when you are under pressure or seeking a few extra yards. Remember, timing is everything.
Initiates good timing by preventing a fast backswing.
The speed of the swing is regulated and set the moment the backswing starts, and the clubhead must never be muscled into the backswing with such speed that positions do not have time to coordinate. Timing and balance, not speed or strength, are the essence of good coordination.
A fast backswing is the bane of the game, usually preventing the very things a golfer strives for, such as control, consistency, accuracy, and distance, by not giving positions time to coordinate. The old hustler’s slogan “Give me a man with a fast backswing and a fat wallet” is not to be taken lightly.
Whenever Mickelson feels the rhythm on his driving go awry, he immediately heads to a greenside bunker.
“You wouldn’t think there’d be a correlation, but when you hit a bunker shot, there’s no ‘hit.’ You have to swing the club and let the club do the work through the sand. You have to swing it fluid. You can’t try to power it, or give it a little extra hit at impact, because you won’t hit it well. So you keep this rhythm, this rhythmic swing from the bunker. It carries over to your driving.”
So Dad started hitting 5i, and he had to hit them real smooth and really easy, and he said it just hit him. That’s how you get your rhythm back is hitting them real slow.
Your grandpa would have told your dad to swing a 6i 30%, and then 50%, and then 75%. And then he’d make him hit a driver 100y, and then 125y, and then 150y. I want you to do that for a month.
The thing I always did that was very bad was I got too quick. I got anxious, and when I was talking to my father, that was the 1st thing he always made me think about: getting my rhythm. Slowing down and being deliberate when I was hitting the shots, particularly in stress situations where the pressure was on and I needed to pull off a good shot.
Every time you practice, hit a few casual 5i. Then pick up your power clubs and try to capture the same pace. The power will come from the longer shaft and arc and not from additional effort.
I think the most important thing is that people get anxious. Just slow down.
The central and operative culprit in a slump: the tempo of your golf swing.
Why so hard? No one ever hit the ball with their backswing. It’s just foreplay. Slow down your backswing.
You should be able to feel the weight of the clubhead throughout your entire swing. There’s no way you can do it if you swing too fast.
Tempo is the place where the discussion needs to start. In other words, no matter how slowly and deliberately you are swinging, you’re not swinging anywhere near as slowly and deliberately as you think you’re swinging.
- In the tighter matches, you seem to put yourself in a frame of mind that allows you to focus and slow everything down.
- All I do is stay in my same routine. Even though I have certain putts that are bigger than others, you never see me out of rhythm, I always stay the same pace, do everything the same.