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Swinging harder on course?

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F.N.G

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I feel as I am guilty of this and cannot seem to stop. When Im on the range nice smooth swings great contact going where i want them. Out on the course another story, I feel like I speed up my tempo and try to clober the ball. More so the drive but irons as well. Seems the longer I wait between shots the faster my tempo gets as I start getting upset about pace of play. Does anyone have any mental tips or stuff to think about to stop doing this. I tried taking a extra club and just pulling some off of it but I either hit it hard and fly the green by a club or i decelerate and skull or lay sod over it. PLEASE HELP!!! :alien2:
 
I don't know how you hit balls at the range as far as speedy type "boom, boom ,boom ,boom" non stop or do you take your time. Perhaps learn how to take your time at the range too.

One saying in golf that is so true is = "less is more"
That doesn't mean to barley swing but just to relax and also things at the range are very different because they don't count. don't concentrate on the ball but just the swing. Try swinging the club back and forth a few times consecutively to get a tempo going but don't change it when you actually hit the ball.

There are so many things and golf is hard. I've done everything for tempo from singing a song to whiile swinging to singing the firggin abc's like a kindergartener lol but it whatever works. Wihtout tempo ther is not telling what a swing can do. Anything and everything can break down
 
Stop going to the range......:beauty:
 
Go to the range and only hit half distance full swing shots. Or stop going to the range. Get a bet going with your playing partner. If you don't hold your finish, you owe him $2.
 
I'm just the opposite. I swing harder on the range than on the course. I screw it up every single time I try to put something extra into it on the course.
 
I'm guilty of trying to hit any club to a number, which leads to me making a longer faster swing(tempo) and bad results.

You have to force yourself to consciously slow down on the course, exaggerate that slow back swing then just release. Trust me the ball will go the distance it needs to for the club in hand.

Don't club up and take some off, take the right club make a full turn/coil. Commit to the line and shot what happens after you hit the ball happens.
When the course slows down, no need to be in a rush your not going anywhere anyway, slow down play at that pace. It's tough to do and I struggle terribly with it.


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When you're at the range play out a whole round of golf in your mind. Meaning, warm up, then hit driver like it's the first hole, put it away and wait at least a minute (to simulate the time it takes to get to your ball) and pull out what club you usually hit next, then hit and so on. Remember you only get one shot at a time on the course so if you duff one, move on to what club is next.

At the range it's easy to have the mentality that you have as many shots as you want and it is reassuring to know you have a bucketful sitting there so there is no pressure with the first shot and hopefully over time this can help get the mental aspect that you only have one attempt so you slow down, take your time and do it right on the course.

The only other thing is to hit 100's to 1000's of shots to where it becomes automatic.

As far as slow play goes, if it's super slow it's hard to get a rhythm going no matter who you are. Hope this helps if you try it.
 
Alternatively, if you know you're going to swing hard on the course, practice that at the range.
 
I do this a lot. I think it's natural instinct. Your brain thinks to hit the ball far you have to swing hard. Most of golf is counter intuitive. Hit down to make the ball go up etc.
 
And sometimes you need to put a little extra heat on the ball. You're in between two clubs. A PW is too long. An easy PW might bounce off because you don't have the room, and you don't want to leave a really long putt due to pin placement so you're challenging the hole. A hard GW will stick.

Or you three putted the hole and you're putting some extra heat on the driver.
 
Trying to swing 'looser' rather than 'slower' has always worked better for me. I guess I think of it as a much more appealing adjustment to make.
 
F.N.G said:
I feel as I am guilty of this and cannot seem to stop. When Im on the range nice smooth swings great contact going where i want them. Out on the course another story, I feel like I speed up my tempo and try to clober the ball. More so the drive but irons as well. Seems the longer I wait between shots the faster my tempo gets as I start getting upset about pace of play. Does anyone have any mental tips or stuff to think about to stop doing this. I tried taking a extra club and just pulling some off of it but I either hit it hard and fly the green by a club or i decelerate and skull or lay sod over it. PLEASE HELP!!! :alien2:
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Try grooving a pre-shot routine both on the range and on the course. Start with taking aim at the target, aligning yourself, setting up the proper address, and then dry swings before address and pulling the trigger Do that on every shot, both on the range and the course, including half-shots and chips.

This will get you into your natural tempo. Never deviate from the routine, just so you give yourself time to find your tempo. Even the pros have that routine.

For slow play, after target acquisition and distance, take your mind off the shot first. Do small talk, grab a snack, anything to keep your mind off the shot. When it's time to hit, that's when you go back to the zone and begin your pre - shot routine.
 
PetuniaSprinkle said:
Trying to swing 'looser' rather than 'slower' has always worked better for me. I guess I think of it as a much more appealing adjustment to make.
Click to expand...

I think a lot of people often confuse tempo with swinging slow vs swinging loose and fluid. I think some will swing too slow to a fault. And also one can swing slow but still have poor tempo. One does need some swing speed imo in order to hit the ball (relatively speaking) a respectful distance with his clubs. I think a good tempo is one of the hardest things to maintain shot after shot (at least for me). And imo a club could be swung at different speeds by the same person yet a good tempo can still exist at the different speeds. I think "slow" is too often confused with good tempo.
 
In general, I think too many amateurs confuse swinging harder with swinging faster. They are not the same thing
 
F.N.G said:
I feel as I am guilty of this and cannot seem to stop. When Im on the range nice smooth swings great contact going where i want them. Out on the course another story, I feel like I speed up my tempo and try to clober the ball. More so the drive but irons as well. Seems the longer I wait between shots the faster my tempo gets as I start getting upset about pace of play. Does anyone have any mental tips or stuff to think about to stop doing this. I tried taking a extra club and just pulling some off of it but I either hit it hard and fly the green by a club or i decelerate and skull or lay sod over it. PLEASE HELP!!! :alien2:
Click to expand...
Tiger, is that you???

I find myself doing this with my driver every now and then and end up with an ugly duck hook as a result. I have to remind myself that a smooth swing where I make good contact is the goal and gives much better results than trying to swing faster.
 
I can't help a ton bit I did see Jeff Sluman (Sr Tour Player), a few weeks back and he said a good thing to think when on the course is "Make every swing slower than the last". It's something I've been trying to do and it's been working well....
 
Stop, Look, Smell and Listen when you're out at the course when you're feeling jammed up and hard to focus on tempo. Just take a breather and check out of the situation for a moment. This should help with focusing. Also remember to drink and eat, I know lots of players use chewing gum as a pressure relief as well. Something to take your mind off of the moment when it gets too intense.

Also as others have mentioned, work on a pre-shot routine to keep yourself in the same pace and mode. Also helps to have a song you like with a good tempo to sing to when you're on the course. Keep your pace on the level with the cadence.
 
Tempo is something I battle on both the range and the course. I try to stay in my routine when on the course whether pace of play is fast or slow. If I feel like I am getting quick I take the club back more deliberately and have a tempo thought of one one thousand two. One=takeaway one thousand=Top of back swing and two=contact
 
I do the same thing.. Yesterday on the course I was slicing every drive, I do It cause people are watching me or I feel rushed. I wanted to come home and take that G30 and make a tomato stake out of it in the garden. This morning I went to the range, no one there, I was swinging easy, light grip, weight on the balls of my feet, and every drive was right down the middle. I forget to these things on the course
 
weedsnager said:
I do the same thing.. Yesterday on the course I was slicing every drive, I do It cause people are watching me or I feel rushed. I wanted to come home and take that G30 and make a tomato stake out of it in the garden. This morning I went to the range, no one there, I was swinging easy, light grip, weight on the balls of my feet, and every drive was right down the middle. I forget to these things on the course
Click to expand...

I don't think "balls of the feet" is really correct for the golf swing so much as it is to be balanced inside and on the arches. "Balls of the feet" is certainly an athletic stance in and for many athletic "ready" and able and reactions type of movements etc...But the golf swing imo isn't really an athletic reaction thing so much as it is a technical/mechanical thing. Perhaps this is why its sort of hard for many to obtain a good fluid tempo to begin with. Also why imo being athletic doesn't make one good at golf. It probably gives one a better feel for tempo which helps but still doesn't mean they will be good at golf. Just too many mechanical and technical things in addition to tempo that are required. Whether right, wrong ,or indifferent with any of that I am pretty sure its the mid foot arch area that obtains the best balance for the general golf swing.
 
I do this as well- I swing way too hard at the ball thinking I need to do this in order to get it "to the number".

Yesterday however my main focus was to carry out nice tempo and a full follow-through, especially on my takeaway...with the Irons / wedges I felt it was easier to do this - but with my driver I don't know why - I just keep swinging for the fences...

Resulted in great iron approaches and spinny wedges....my suggestion to first maybe try taking one club extra - mentally you know you have plenty of club in your hand and still make a full swing....
 
I rely on pre-shot routine to help me with tempo. If everything is the same, I won't feel the need to swing harder (I say harder, rather than faster, I do swing faster sometimes).

~Rock
 
I've had this really odd inversion. Early this year my tempo was too fast with my driver and I was long but wild. I was hitting my irons really well.

Fast forward to the last two months and all of a sudden my driver is going great guns. I've backed off and not hitting it as long (GG has my average down from 280 to 250-260) but I am right down the middle. I've been in the fairway 70-90% of the time on my rounds since early July and I am picking spots and hitting them. Today I hit driver onto a hole that I really shouldn't, a par 4 that narrows between a creek and hill as it approaches the green. I hit it 260 right in the middle of the fairway that was at most 15 yards wide. At the same time, my irons have deteriorated. I'm hitting some good ones but I am inconsistent and, except for a round here or there, don't really feel like I am hitting them as solidly as I should. And I am swinging too fast.

Making me think that I have to work on separating my driver swing from my iron swing. Oh well, I think it's time for a lesson or two to figure this out.
 
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I'm with the pre shot routine crowd, I always take at least two practice swings. I also focus more and ball striking and swing path and tempo seems to fall in line. Pick a blade of grass as your swing target sometimes and make sure you have a good path to it. Aim small, miss small. When I start missing regularly I'm swinging to hard, getting to steep, and swinging outside to in at the ball and slicing the ball 20 yards out of the fairway. It's ugly!
 
My golf instructor has me practicing with a metronome app on the cell phone. We set it to 50 beats per minute, when I'm on time with the beat I make nice clean smooth contact.
 
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