Three Ways To Find Your Golf Rhythm (Video) - by Pete Styles
Three Ways To Find Your Golf Rhythm (Video) - by Pete Styles

So if you’ve watched the start of this little mini-series and you've now established some really good balance in your game, the next consideration would be to top into that really good rhythm, that consistent rhythm, that nice tempo, up and down at the right tempo. And again, it’s one of those things that we see the best players in the world doing almost like they were born to do it.

So we go try and bring in some good rhythm into your game. So a couple of areas that we could look at to try and have really good rhythm. The first thing I'd like you to do is learn to count as you make a golf swing. And it’s not just one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. We actually count differently on the backswing and the downswing. So from a good address position, let me set up the golf ball here. We’re going to have a one and a two and then a three as the hit. So it’s one, two is the top, three is the hit on the way through. So as I set up there, we go one, two, three is the hit on the way through. And that should help me keep my balance, keep my rhythm and stop me getting too aggressive. I think for a lot of the golfers, they sort of have a one, and by the time they’ve got to two, they’ve already hit the golf ball. Or they might be the other way. They might be too slow coming back and then they rush the downswing so they have sort of a one, two, three, four, and it’s gone. So make sure you’ve got that sort of one, two, three nice, easy rhythmical thing and you can count it through as well. Now, to improve your rhythm and your timing, your balance to another degree, there is a drill that you can do where you're super, super slow. Really slow. But it’s slow both back and through. So we set up to the golf ball nicely and we just go really, really slow all the way through the swing and all the way down through the swing as well. Now, clearly if you were to do that, the ball wouldn’t go very far, the ball would only go maybe 20 yards, 30 yards or whatever. But it just changes that whole perception of rushing in a golf swing. A golf swing doesn’t have to be fast. So learn to do it super, super slow and that could help improve your rhythm. And one last little technique that might help as well is the idea of making some shorter shots. So here, I've got on to the driving range and my nearest flag is only 75 yards away and I’ve got a pitching wedge in hand. Now, a pitching wedge is the club that would generally go further than 75 yards. So pick a club that you think is going to go maybe sort of 100% and then the distance you picked out here is three quarters. So if my wedge goes 100 yards, the distance I’ve got here is three quarters of that yardage. Now, I’m going to learn to hit this club for that three-quarter distance. To do that, I still want to try and make it quite a full backswing but I’m just going to do everything in slow motion. Again, this is a drill. It’s not actually how it picks the ball normally. It’s just a drill but I’m going to set up nicely in a good position. I’m going to try and choke down on the club to make it a short rhythmical swing that isn’t going to hit the ball full distance. And as I do that, I’m super balanced, I’m really controlled and I can just deliver the club with a little bit more rhythm than someone that might be setting up the ball and smashing it, losing their balance, losing those – losing their rhythm. Use those three points to try and bring super rhythm back into your game. 2016-04-21

So if you’ve watched the start of this little mini-series and you've now established some really good balance in your game, the next consideration would be to top into that really good rhythm, that consistent rhythm, that nice tempo, up and down at the right tempo. And again, it’s one of those things that we see the best players in the world doing almost like they were born to do it.

So we go try and bring in some good rhythm into your game. So a couple of areas that we could look at to try and have really good rhythm. The first thing I'd like you to do is learn to count as you make a golf swing. And it’s not just one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. We actually count differently on the backswing and the downswing. So from a good address position, let me set up the golf ball here. We’re going to have a one and a two and then a three as the hit. So it’s one, two is the top, three is the hit on the way through. So as I set up there, we go one, two, three is the hit on the way through. And that should help me keep my balance, keep my rhythm and stop me getting too aggressive.

I think for a lot of the golfers, they sort of have a one, and by the time they’ve got to two, they’ve already hit the golf ball. Or they might be the other way. They might be too slow coming back and then they rush the downswing so they have sort of a one, two, three, four, and it’s gone. So make sure you’ve got that sort of one, two, three nice, easy rhythmical thing and you can count it through as well.

Now, to improve your rhythm and your timing, your balance to another degree, there is a drill that you can do where you're super, super slow. Really slow. But it’s slow both back and through. So we set up to the golf ball nicely and we just go really, really slow all the way through the swing and all the way down through the swing as well. Now, clearly if you were to do that, the ball wouldn’t go very far, the ball would only go maybe 20 yards, 30 yards or whatever. But it just changes that whole perception of rushing in a golf swing. A golf swing doesn’t have to be fast. So learn to do it super, super slow and that could help improve your rhythm. And one last little technique that might help as well is the idea of making some shorter shots. So here, I've got on to the driving range and my nearest flag is only 75 yards away and I’ve got a pitching wedge in hand.

Now, a pitching wedge is the club that would generally go further than 75 yards. So pick a club that you think is going to go maybe sort of 100% and then the distance you picked out here is three quarters. So if my wedge goes 100 yards, the distance I’ve got here is three quarters of that yardage. Now, I’m going to learn to hit this club for that three-quarter distance. To do that, I still want to try and make it quite a full backswing but I’m just going to do everything in slow motion. Again, this is a drill. It’s not actually how it picks the ball normally. It’s just a drill but I’m going to set up nicely in a good position. I’m going to try and choke down on the club to make it a short rhythmical swing that isn’t going to hit the ball full distance. And as I do that, I’m super balanced, I’m really controlled and I can just deliver the club with a little bit more rhythm than someone that might be setting up the ball and smashing it, losing their balance, losing those – losing their rhythm. Use those three points to try and bring super rhythm back into your game.