Struggling with Tempo, Quick from the Top - Advice?

[darom86]

Been struggling with tempo.  Get quick from the top of the backswing, which causes my body sequence to get all messed up, including shutting down any lower body rotation.  Happens on the course (mostly with driver and tee shots), also on the range.  Maybe mental?  How can I improve the transition so its nice and smooth?  Make exaggerated swings feeling like Camilo?  I also read Fred Couples when he felt he was getting quick, tried to make the first part of his backswing quicker and the second part of his backswing to the top slower.  How do people improve tempo and transition dynamics?

[glk]

Buy tour tempo app.    Get an orange whip.   Take lessons with a good instructor.

[Long_Left]

I struggle with this as well... I gave in to full blown golf improvement during COVID and came to realize that my tempo was (and still can be) garbage. Two things I do that have helped me. 1) during range time, I use the "Total Game" (Tour Tempo) app on my phone to get loose and feel fluid. It is surprisingly effective once you overcome the urge to be "perfect." and 2) on the course when I get quick with a shot or two I have to stop and "reset" with a couple of full practice swings. This mainly happens to me when I'm in between clubs on irons or hitting a shorter than driver club from the tee and trying to go after it. The mental failure of that is obvious in retrosepct but hard to control in real time for me. Removing concern for the result of the shot allows me to free up and quit steering or hitting at the ball and just swing the club.

[MonteScheinblum]

Stop thinking of it as tempo.  Thinking slower tempo basically never works.  Think of it as being in rhythm.  Freddie’s tempo is actually quite fast, as is Els, but they’re rhythm is world class. 

[cwilk]

This may be unique to me, but when I'm getting quick I think/feel like I keep my rear/right heel against the ground a little longer in the transition. It helps smooth my swing/transition out.

[TourSpoon]

I get that quick transition feeling when I don't properly rotate my pelvis. The restricted hip throws me all out of whack into a compensation move of trying to catch up. My best rhythm starts with a proper pelvic turn and a feeling that my back is facing the target a little longer. Its hard to describe but the swing feels more patient but results in more clubhead speed through the ball. Through my interaction (video analysis and supporting videos on the website) with @MonteScheinblum, I determined that my restricted right hip was the biggest thing holding me back. When I do it correctly, distance and direction is spot on. When I freeze up, it alternates from block boy to duck hunter.  

[darom86]

1 hour ago, glk said:

Buy tour tempo app.    Get an orange whip.   Take lessons with a good instructor.

I have an OW, love it and swing it often.  How do you get it to translate to the course?

[darom86]

I will look into the TT app.  I would also add that my quickness from the top is more likely to occur when I am feeling a little stiff in the back or not as loose as I'd like to get.

[getitdaily]

Get tour tempo and use it religiously. 

[darom86]

Is the TT app worth the $25 bucks?  Do I need anything else?  To those recommending the TT app, how do you use it, what is your routine with it?  Really appreciate the input.

[b.mattay]

Personally, I find starting to recenter sooner and getting the transition to be "longer" is beneficial.

[glk]

32 minutes ago, darom86 said:

I have an OW, love it and swing it often.  How do you get it to translate to the course?

Orange whip is great to loosen up, for path, and rhythm.    Sucks for face control so have to be careful to not overuse without hitting real shots - like air swings without a ball so no consequence.      Take to range, swing it  a few times then hit a few balls, repeat.

[glk]

18 minutes ago, darom86 said:

Is the TT app worth the $25 bucks?  Do I need anything else?  To those recommending the TT app, how do you use it, what is your routine with it?  Really appreciate the input.

Yes. It comes with video instructions.   

[getitdaily]

1 hour ago, darom86 said:

Is the TT app worth the $25 bucks?  Do I need anything else?  To those recommending the TT app, how do you use it, what is your routine with it?  Really appreciate the input.

100% yes. Just turn it on when you hit balls. Start your swing on the first beep, stop your transition on the 2nd beep, hit the ball on the 3rd beep. Play with the 21/7, 24/8, and 27/9 tempos to see which fits you best. 

 

I am a 24/8 guy but I'll use the 21/7 to ingrain a shorter backswing feel, then go back to the 24/8 to slow things down while keeping the swing length the same. 

 

I use it so much that I "play" the beeps to myself when I play. As soon as I have my yardage and grab my club, I start the beeps in my head. Helps me get a target, approach the ball, then start my swing all in the same rhythm. I basically train my brain to do all movements in that 24/8 tempo/rhythm as soon as I grab the club from the bag. The swing becomes an after thought. 

[getitdaily]

58 minutes ago, glk said:

Orange whip is great to loosen up, for path, and rhythm.    Sucks for face control so have to be careful to not overuse without hitting real shots - like air swings without a ball so no consequence.      Take to range, swing it  a few times then hit a few balls, repeat.

I actually dumped my orange whip recently. I only used it for loosening up and 7i+6i combined works just as well. 

 

I felt like the orange whip got me a bit too long on the arm swing.

[glk]

1 hour ago, darom86 said:

Is the TT app worth the $25 bucks?  Do I need anything else?  To those recommending the TT app, how do you use it, what is your routine with it?  Really appreciate the input.

It has shortgame putting tones too.  Ratio is 2 to 1 instead of 3 to 1 full swing.

[darom86]

My understanding is that one of the purposes of the OW is to increase range of motion.  

[Pepperturbo]

Your brain is NOT in sync with what you are doing, making you anxious to hit the ball..  STOP it.  It's that simple. 

[naval2006]

I sympathise with you OP because this happens often and it’s awful. You must slow down when going to the course or the driving range and start working on finding your own rhythm.  It’s one of the key searches in golf, and it’s darn sneaky, too. 

 

Most important thing is not to despair because one gets too anxious, and try different things to find your rhythm. A lot of people have used the Tour Tempo. It didn’t work for me. But transition is one of the hardest segments to work on. I used to play a lot with a scratch kid and he’d always tell me on the days he was really sharp “I can’t make it more slowly”. He hit it like a mile but he had this feeling everything happened in super slow motion.   Golf can be startling.  I always try to find that feeling on fast and furious days.  And this is one of the few things I work on when I practice. 

Edited April 14, 2021 by naval2006

[Long_Left]

36 minutes ago, NotThatGuyorAmI? said:

If you are quick from the top, it may be because your backswing is too slow.

 

The vast majority of amateur backswings I see are too slow.

 

Tempo, rhythm, timing...all are exact words with precise meanings, used loosely (to put it mildly) in the golfing world with the result being confusion.

 

The golf swing is a discrete four dimensional object.  It has to be sequenced right within a discrete time period to work.

 

The heuristic is total duration of ca. 1 second, of which 3 parts are backswing and 1 part is downswing.  To get that, you’ve pretty much got to swing the club back pretty vigorously and quickly, compared to the slow efforts to get it back “into position” I see all the time in the range.  Ironically, swinging it back vigorously and quickly tend to put the club in the right positions, and perhaps even more ironically the ability to swing the club back vigorously and quickly requires proper body sequencing.

 

3 hours ago, getitdaily said:

100% yes. Just turn it on when you hit balls. Start your swing on the first beep, stop your transition on the 2nd beep, hit the ball on the 3rd beep. Play with the 21/7, 24/8, and 27/9 tempos to see which fits you best. 

 

I am a 24/8 guy but I'll use the 21/7 to ingrain a shorter backswing feel, then go back to the 24/8 to slow things down while keeping the swing length the same. 

 

I use it so much that I "play" the beeps to myself when I play. As soon as I have my yardage and grab my club, I start the beeps in my head. Helps me get a target, approach the ball, then start my swing all in the same rhythm. I basically train my brain to do all movements in that 24/8 tempo/rhythm as soon as I grab the club from the bag. The swing becomes an after thought. 

These two comments are spot on in my experience. When I first started using the Tour Tempo app I felt like I couldn't get the club back past my hips before the second beep, even on the "slowest" setting. I'm now all in on 21/7 and have made great strides in consistency. If you do decide to use the app, do the drills and exercises included, don't head straight to the range and start trying to use the timer tones, I speak from recent personal experience 🙂

[me05501]

I think we all fight this to some extent!

 

Focusing on getting my shoulder turn maxed out seems to help a lot. Once I get my lead shoulder behind the ball I feel like I'm synched up. 

 

Another little trick is focusing your eyes somewhere other than on the ball. For tee shots I like to focus on a spot an inch or two behind the ball. In front of the ball might work for someone else. The idea is to release your brain from thinking about hitting the ball and let it focus on swinging the club instead. 

[gentles]

Try some swings with your right thumb and forefinger on off the shaft (top hand and pinky/ring of bottom hand on the grip)

 

When I get fast I'm usually snatching from the top with the trail hand. 

[Tanner25]

Could getting quick at the top be a by product of getting quick at the start of the backswing? What are good fixes for that? 

[tomba51]

Here's a short video of Tiger and Butch Harmon with Peter Kessler on the Golf Channel demonstrating a drill that might help you. 

 

[Pepperturbo]

@tomba51Good Video, thanks. 

 

Excellent drill - I hate it too.  Harmon & Tiger say; what you feel and what you're doing are very seldom the same.  As a self-taught feel player I can attest to that.