Improve Golf Swing Tempo (Video) - by Pete Styles
Improve Golf Swing Tempo (Video) - by Pete Styles

So let’s look at rhythm and tempo and how they can affect your golf swing. You’ll often see when you look at the PGA Tour players and the guys that you see on the TV, they have really good rhythm, smooth tempo. But it’s not always the same. You’ll see some players that have a faster golf swing, some players that have much slower swings. One thing you’ll often see is the consistency that whether they’re swinging a pitching wedge, or a driver, the tempo throughout their golf swing is often remaining consistent, and that’s the key for you to play more successful golf. So whether you’re a fast golf swing or a slow golf swing, don’t worry about changing the tempo. Just keep it really consistent.

One thing we like to see is that the back swing is half the speed of an accelerating and much faster downswing. So half the speed coming back, double the speed coming down and I really like this exercise here without a golf ball, take a golf club and spin it over so it’s upside down. Just swing the butt end of the golf club. And as you swing this, it will make a little swoosh noise. You don’t want to hear a swoosh coming back and then you do want to hear a swoosh coming down. That’s the feeling, the accelerating the golf club towards the ball and into impact.

So, nice set-up, slowly coming back, quickly coming down and hopefully you can hear that swoosh when you do that. Half speed going back, double speed coming down. And that should give you the feeling of nicely attacking the golf ball on the way down. One thing I really want you to be careful for, particularly when you’re swinging the driver, is don’t presume that a faster backswing equates to a faster downswing. We often see guys are really trying to kill the ball with a driver. They go twice the speed on the way back, therefore struggle to change direction consistently and really lose control of the club at coming into the ball, so even with your bigger clubs, swing with the same tempo that you swing maybe with a pitching wedge. Half speed coming back, double speed coming down and hopefully that way, your tempo will help improve your consistency.

 2012-02-29

So let’s look at rhythm and tempo and how they can affect your golf swing. You’ll often see when you look at the PGA Tour players and the guys that you see on the TV, they have really good rhythm, smooth tempo. But it’s not always the same. You’ll see some players that have a faster golf swing, some players that have much slower swings. One thing you’ll often see is the consistency that whether they’re swinging a pitching wedge, or a driver, the tempo throughout their golf swing is often remaining consistent, and that’s the key for you to play more successful golf. So whether you’re a fast golf swing or a slow golf swing, don’t worry about changing the tempo. Just keep it really consistent.

One thing we like to see is that the back swing is half the speed of an accelerating and much faster downswing. So half the speed coming back, double the speed coming down and I really like this exercise here without a golf ball, take a golf club and spin it over so it’s upside down. Just swing the butt end of the golf club. And as you swing this, it will make a little swoosh noise. You don’t want to hear a swoosh coming back and then you do want to hear a swoosh coming down. That’s the feeling, the accelerating the golf club towards the ball and into impact.

So, nice set-up, slowly coming back, quickly coming down and hopefully you can hear that swoosh when you do that. Half speed going back, double speed coming down. And that should give you the feeling of nicely attacking the golf ball on the way down. One thing I really want you to be careful for, particularly when you’re swinging the driver, is don’t presume that a faster backswing equates to a faster downswing. We often see guys are really trying to kill the ball with a driver. They go twice the speed on the way back, therefore struggle to change direction consistently and really lose control of the club at coming into the ball, so even with your bigger clubs, swing with the same tempo that you swing maybe with a pitching wedge. Half speed coming back, double speed coming down and hopefully that way, your tempo will help improve your consistency.