Golf Swing Tempo Tips – What Ratio & How To Control It

Golf Swing Tempo Tips – What Ratio & How To Control It

There are many aspects to a golf swing; from technique, power, control to tempo. All of these aspects are important, however tempo is often overlooked.

Tempo is what glues everything together, you could make the perfect swing, but if you tempo is out it will all come crumbling down.

Understanding tempo and working on it, is just as important as working on technique, power and control, as well as everything else.

I will help you understand what tempo is, how it affects your game and help you work on it.

 

Intro To Golf Swing Tempo With Your Personal Experience

Understanding what tempo is can help your game tremendously. Tempo is the ratio of your backswing to your downswing with regards to timing.

The perfect tempo is a ratio between 2:1 and 3:1, this all depends on if you are using a wedge, driver or putter, because naturally you will swing them at different speeds.

Having played golf for many years now, I have been able to produce a consistent swing, and like any golfer, beginner or professional, you will go through bad and good patches. Whenever I go through a bad patch, your first thought would be technique, but I focus on my tempo. Having a poor tempo can often throw your technique out, this is often the case with me.

A lot of players get caught up trying to fix their swing, when actually there is nothing wrong with it, all that’s wrong is their tempo becomes a little too fast or slow.

The next time you go through a bad patch, try focusing on your tempo, rather than trying to fix your swing.

 

How Does Tempo Affect Your Performance?

There are a number of things your tempo can affect, from your distance, accuracy, consistency and timing.

Because your swing will be out of sync it will affect your strike, which will in turn affect your distance and accuracy. Your body and club will be moving incorrectly, this will affect your consistency and timing.

 

How Can You Measure Tempo?

There are a few ways to measure tempo. The first way is through a device, the Garmin S60/S62 watch, Swing Click arm band and TaylorMade MATT System are just a few.

The other way is to have someone looking at your swing, or have a coach give you a lesson. What you would look for is the following; fast take away from address, when your backswing looks too fast compared to your downswing, your downswing starts before you finish your backswing.

It is very difficult to feel these things without outside help, like someone else looking or video footage. Whenever my swing gets too fast I tell myself “swing like Hideki Matsuyama”, if you don’t know what I mean click here to watch a video of his swing.

 

Where Does Swing Tempo Usually Go Wrong?

Your tempo most often than not goes wrong within the first few feet of your backswing. A fast or jerky takeaway will cause the rest of your swing to go out of sync.

Focusing on a smooth slow takeaway will help your tempo stay smooth and in sync.

Another place where your tempo can go wrong is the transition between your backswing and downswing, this is a crucial part of the swing. If done correctly, your body and club will fall into the right position to then transition to impact. If done incorrectly your body and club will be out of sync causing poor contact, which will affect distance and accuracy.

The best way to transition to your downswing from your backswing is to think ‘smooth’, if the transition is jerky or too slow it will throw your timing and synchronization out causing a poor swing.

 

Are Most People Too Fast In The Backswing?

Yes, the general cause for a poor tempo is a fast backswing. The reason for this is firstly, nerves or pressure.

Beginners become nervous when they play as they don’t have the correct technique yet, which causes them to worry what people think and they are scared of hitting a bad spot, this in fact happens to all levels of golfers in some way. They want to get their swing over and down with as soon as possible, this causes them to jerk their takeaway.

Secondly for better players it comes down to nerves and the urge to hit the ball further, speed and distance go together, so naturally swinging faster will make the ball go further, often players start to make their backswing faster subconsciously, this will cause a bad tempo.

 

Should I Slow Down My Downswing To Improve My Tempo?

Never, my most hated phrase on the course is “my swing is too fast, I’m going to slow down my downswing”.

When your tempo is out your downswing is the place that gets affected, it will look and feel like your downswing is the problem. However, it is caused by a fast or jerky takeaway and/or a transition that is too quick.

No one will ever tell Rory McIlroy or Dustin Johnson to slow down their downswings, but they might tell them to slow their tempo or backswing down.

Please never slow your downswing down, rather slow your backswing or transition, this will put you in the right position to swing as hard as you can on the downswing.

 

Is A Slow Backswing Always Better?

A slow backswing is always better than a fast backswing, it allows your body and club to get into sync easily, this will help you hit better golf shots.

Having said that, a backswing that is too slow is just as bad as a fast backswing. When your backswing is too slow, it has the same negative affect as a fast backswing. The best ratio to have is between 2:1 and 3:1.

 

Pros And Cons Of Slowing The Backswing Down

There are always pros and cons to everything, let’s dive into some details.

 

Pros
• Better consistency
• Better timing
• It will improve your strike
• You will have more control over your backswing
• Your distance will improve
• All of the above will improve your scores and lower your handicap

 

Cons

Their aren’t really any cons to slowing down your backswing, however a few things may happen when you do

• You will initially struggle with your timing, as your body will have to adjust
• When slowing down your backswing, it is natural to slow it down too much, this is just as bad as a backswing that is too fast.

 

How Will Having The Right Swing Tempo Improve Your Game

Having the right tempo will improve your swing in more ways than one, your consistancing and strike will improve, because your body and club will move together more efficiently.

This will in turn improve your distance, your swing speed will naturally increase, this will also increase your distance. You will also be able to control your shots better. All of these aspects above will improve your game and therefore lower your handicap.

 

How Will Having The Wrong Swing Tempo Affect Your Game

When your tempo is wrong, either too fast or too slow, your body will be out of sync with your club. This will cause your distance, control, accuracy and timing to be affected.

 

5 Tips For Improving Your Swing Tempo

Below is a list of 5 tips that will improve your tempo.

Relaxing
Tension in your shoulders, jaw, neck, and arms will all cause increased tempo. When addressing the ball, relax your body. This will help you take the club back slower. Tension in your body causes you to jerk the club back.

Grip Pressure
One of the biggest causes of a poor tempo is your grip pressure, gripping the club too tightly will cause you to take the club back too fast, throwing off your tempo. Feel like you are holding an open tube of toothpaste when you grip the club, imagine swinging without allowing any toothpaste out. This is the correct grip pressure, out of 10, you would ideally like to be between 4 and 6.

Breathing
Many researches have shown that being able to control your breathing will lower your heart rate. This helps you relax and lower your nerves. Focusing on breathing is done by every PGA Tour player.

It helps them keep their heart rate down, and allows them to hit shots under pressure. When your heart rate increases, naturally your tempo increases, being able to control your breathing and heart rate, allows you to control your tempo when you are on the golf course.

Record your swing
Watching your swing gives you another perspective. Seeing your swing at full speed allows you to see what you are doing, sometimes what you feel and what you actually are doing is different. Watching your swing can help you identify if your tempo is out, or if you need to work on your technique.

Practice
Being aware of your tempo and working on it on your range is probably one of the only ways to improve it without a training aid. Some people don’t enjoy swing tempo training aids, as they are usually quite awkward to use.

I feel that consciously working on your tempo if it is too fast is the best way to improve. When you are hitting balls on the range, consciously take the club back slower than you normally do. At first your timing may be out because your body needs to adjust, but in no time your strike, shot shape, consistency and then distance will improve.

 

What Is The 1 – 2 – 3 Swing Tempo Ratio

This method is meant to be used on the practice range, not on the golf course. It is used to slow down your tempo.

How it works is in your head you count to 1 – 2 – 3. 1 being your backswing, 2 being a pause at the top on your swing and 3 indicating you to start your downswing.

How I like to think of it is like this: 1 (slowly back), 2 (pause), 3 (swing at your normal speed towards the ball). The 1 and 2 is to get your tempo right, and 3 is a trigger for you to start your downswing and hit the ball.

 

Should You Get A Lesson For Swing Tempo?

Yes, I always highly recommend going to see your local professional, if you feel like you are not sure on how to correct your tempo, your local pro will be able to help you within minutes.

I am all for going for golf lessons, it doesn’t mean you have to go on a weekly basis or even a monthly basis, but a ¼ year visit will never do you harm, and will keep your basics in check.

 

Best Swing Tempo Training Aid

The best training aid out there at the moment is called SwingClick. It is a device that straps to your left forearm. The strap has a small rod with a ball that slides up on down on it.

When you strap it in correctly, take your backswing, you have to wait for the ball to slide down the rod and click, once it clicks you start your downswing. If you start your downswing before it clicks you know your tempo is too fast.

Hit the link here, to find out more information about the SwingClick tempo device.

 

Conclusion

Tempo is an extremely important part of the golf swing. Most people work on their technique when they go through a bad patch. But your tempo could be the issue causing your bad shots.

Your tempo can affect your distance, control, consistency, strike and accuracy. You can see how all these things can very easily be associated with a swing fault.

My advice is; if you go through a bad patch, first check your tempo. Once your tempo is correct, if you are still swinging badly, then you can work on your swing. All too often I see golfers working on their swing, when actually there is nothing wrong.