The key is to train your golf tempo through drills and training aids. You should measure your swing tempo and find the right 3:1 ratio for your golf swing. Many people record their swings, but fail to ever measure their tempo.
Do you ever have those days when everything feels in sync on the golf course?
Those days where the golf ball hits the center of the club face and flies in the direction you intended?
Chances are on those days that your tempo was very good. You felt like you were swinging in sequence and everything worked out well.
However, for many golfers this doesn’t happen frequently enough. Too many golfers do not spend enough working on tempo and instead try to hit all of these complicated positions.
Below, I will dive into three things you can start doing today to help you swing with better tempo and have more days where your start line is controlled and you have enough speed to play the course.
Update: 3 years after finding Tour Tempo, I have increased my driver swing speed from 98 to 108mph. I give credit to two main events: learning about SuperSpeed Golf and improving my tempo to a 21:7 ratio. This mean my backswing was a bit shorter and a big quicker. The swing speed increased as I made this improvement!
How To Improve Tempo In Golf?
For many golfers, they know how far they hit the ball, how fast they swing and many other finer details of the swing, but if you were to ask them what their swing tempo is, they would more than likely have now clue.
Some important topics for today:
- How do you measure your tempo in golf?
- How to improve your tempo in golf?
- Why tempo is important in golf?
How Do You Measure Your Tempo in Golf?
I would like to introduce you to Tour Tempo and John Novosel. In studying film of the greatest golfers to ever play the game, John discovered that the timing of the swing was many times a 3:1 ratio when talking about frames per second.
For example, some golfers might swing at a 27:9 ratio backswing to downswing, while others are measured at 24:8, 21:7 or even as fast as 18:6. The commonality among these numbers is they are all 3:1 ratios.
Tiger Woods during his early dominance of the Masters in 1997 was at a 27:9 ratio. He spent most of his career at 24:8.
Ricky Fowler on the other hand is as fast as 18:6.
What is your swing tempo?
The best way to measure your swing tempo is through the Tour Tempo Frame Counter. Simply download the app, set up your smartphone in the side view and record a swing.
You will then use this app to mark the start, top and impact position of your golf swing and it will give you your tempo ratio.
It doesn’t matter if you are 27:9, 24:8 or 21:7, but the goal is to get to one of those ratios. If you are at 35:11, your swing is too slow on the backswing. The more speed you can pick up on your backswing, generally the more speed you will create on the downswing.
When I first tried out the frame counter, I was around 25:10 swing tempo. After much work with another app I have now reached the 21:7 ratio. My swing not only looks better, but it also produces better results.
I found that I often wasted movements at the top of the swing and wasn’t efficient with the movement.I would highly recommend checking out this app and downloading to get a baseline recording of your swing tempo.
How To Improve Your Tempo in Golf
Three essential keys:
- Eliminate too many swing thoughts
- Use the tour tempo app
- Train for speed
The key is to practice. You can sit around all day and watch Freddie Couples swing and you aren’t going to all of a sudden start swinging like Freddie Couples.
#1 Eliminate Too Many Swing Thoughts
When the mind is full of swing throughs or trying to hit too many positions, you will start to slow down as you are focused on positions instead of hitting the ball or keeping a well sequenced swing.
Nothing pains me more than to watch a high handicap golfer stand over the ball and almost freeze as they prepare to hit the shot. The number of swing thoughts going through that golfers head helps produce the miserable shot that often results.
#2 Use The Tour Tempo App
I would highly recommend utilizing the Tour Tempo App and investing in a great app that can be used on any smartphone. The brilliance in that app is that they are time tones at 18:6, 21:7, 24:8 and 27:9.
After you have measured your swing, go ahead and pick out what tone might be best for you. You will start your swing when you hear the first tone, start your downswing in the second tone and then try to get to impact by the third tone.
When you utilize this app you will see that your mind is free from swing thoughts as your focus becomes hitting the golf shot. You are able to train for the tempo that will help you produce the best, most consistent swing over time.
Many golfers can pick up significant distance by using this app. This is due to the fact that many amateurs swing way too slow on the backswing. This may be a result of the occasional instruction we hear about taking a slow backswing.
This simply takes away distance and can lead to inconsistent ball contact as the tempo won’t be in the 3:1 ratio.
#3 Train For Speed
There are three fundamentals to the golf swing:
- Be able to control the low point of your swing.
- Control the start line and curve of your golf ball.
- Have enough speed to play the course.
Training for tempo can help all three.
To maximize your tempo and your overall distance, I would highly recommend training for speed through OverSpeed Training. The SuperSpeed Golf System is fantastic for adding 5-8% increase in swing speed as early as the first session. In order to swing at a good temp and have enough speed, we must train to do this.
The best way to hit the ball further is to practice swinging fast. Keeping your tempo in place will be essential but utilizing the 21:7 or 18:6 ratio will help speed you up and keep you on tempo during your golf swing.
My own personal experience is that I was able to take my swing speed from 98-101 up to between 105-109 miles per hour. This increase has resulted in increased distance and a better tempo which has led me to more consistent golf scores.
Speed is dominant in the game and combining tempo training with speed training might be exactly what you need in your game! Stop wasting your time trying to get better by hitting all of the different positions in golf.
Both the tempo training and the speed training will help improve your mechanics, resulting in a more consistent golf swing that has some speed!
Keep the game simple and work to swing at the right tempo with enough speed and your swing will improve mechanically!
Why Tempo Is Important in Golf
Tempo helps us be consistent. If one time we swing slow and the next time we swing fast, the inconsistent ball striking and loss of distance of the inability to hit the carry distance you need on an approach shot can be difficult. Tempo keeps us in sequence and ensures we have enough speed to play the course.
It can’t just be one major coincidence that the best golfers have a 3:1 ratio in their swing. The most amazing part is that they are all different paces, but at the end of the day, they share the same 3:1 ratio tempo.
I have sat around and watched PGA Tour events on television and use my frame counter app to check those playing the best that weekend. Sure enough, they have a 3:1 ratio on full swings and the 2:1 ratio in the wedge game. It is amazing on accurate this is from week to week on the PGA Tour.
How To Improve Tour Tempo in Golf: Next Steps
Highly consider the two app mentioned above along with the SuperSpeed Golf System. A simple golf net and golf mat can help you practice throughout the season at home and during those dreaded winter months in parts of the country.
Take action with your game and train to get better. Sitting around doing nothing will only lead to slower swings, inconsistent tempo and poor scores. In order to get better, we must train to improve. Both the Tour Tempo Training and the SuperSpeed Training don’t take a ton of time, but they are worth doing at least every other day.