Many of my students come to a golf lesson with a desire to slow down the tempo of their swing. They want to back off their fast tempo in order to better control their swing, but they fear they will lose distance when this happens.  Some will lose distance but others will increase distance.  Why does that happen?

To find out what effect this will have on you, try the following tempo drill:  Hit some shots using your driver while swinging with a tempo to hit it the ball half the distance you normally would.  Go ahead and swing easy.  Take a full golf swing, just don’t try and hit the ball hard. What happens?  Some of you will hit the ball the same distance as your full swing or farther because the tempo is more even and controlled allowing you to contact the ball in the middle of the club face.

If this drill works for you then you have what we call a “transition” problem.  In other words your back swing may be too slow and as you swing the club forward you swing too fast on the downswing to make up for the lack of power generated on the backswing.

For those of you who have been told your swing is too long you will not be able to generate power or speed on the downswing.  This same drill will help you create a shorter backswing to help you hit the ball with the tempo and power you want.

See if this helps your golf swing.  You may want to try this on the golf course where you need to hit the ball straight.  Good luck!