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In this concept video, we're going to talk about tempo and rhythm.

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So tempo and rhythm, I think, are something that can be used to your advantage

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and they're

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words that are going to get thrown around a lot.

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When you're playing with people, they're going to tell you, "Oh, you got quick

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on that one,"

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or you decelerated, those are kind of words of rhythm and timing.

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And I always talk about that there are two key components.

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You have to know the right movements to do and you have to do them in the right

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timing

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and order.

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So tempo and sequencing can be a great thing for you to use on the course to

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train these

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movements how to work together.

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We're very -- one of my favorite biomechanics books talks about how tempo and

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sequencing

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are often synonymous.

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Basically, when you feel slow, it tends to mean that your body is moving more

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than your

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arms and hands.

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When you feel fast, it's going to tend to mean that kind of your extremities

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are moving

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more.

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So what tends to happen is golfers who will have one of two extreme feelings.

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They will either tend to feel like they get quick or they'll feel like they de

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celerated.

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In my opinion, both of those are going to come from sequencing problems, which

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is basically

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you're going to be moving the wrong part of your body at the wrong time.

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Secondly, what that means is I get to the top of my swing and I'm going to move

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my arms

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first and then have to compensate with my body.

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Or in a short game shot, I'm going to move my body first, create all the speed

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and then

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have to kind of almost slow down and stall things.

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So the quick is usually the upper body goes first in the full swing and then

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the deceleration

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is usually this stall pattern feeling from my lower body going too fast too

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soon.

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Now one other piece is this rhythm, which is basically I could have the perfect

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sequencing,

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but instead of going one, two, three, four, it could go one, two, three, four.

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And that would tend to, from someone watching, even though the sequencing is

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right, the tempo

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may look okay, the rhythm is not quite going to be there.

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So what I like to think about with the rhythm piece is more the speed of the

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movements.

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So there's two key components to having a swing that looks like Ernie Ells.

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When you have the right movements happening in the right sequencing and at

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about the right

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speeds for your body, you're going to look like you're moving in slow motion

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yet hit

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the ball really, really far.

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So there was a great book called Tor Tempo, where they basically looked at

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video and analyzed

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golfers and they pretty much found that Tor golfers have this pattern of three

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to one backswing

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to downswing.

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And amateurs would tend to have slower patterns, not faster, but actually

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slower patterns where

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their backswing would almost be, all right, I'm trying to control the club

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going here

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and then oh yeah, I have to be an athlete and now I'm going to speed things up.

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So using this kind of feeling of rhythm will help integrate all these movements

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that you're

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putting together and it's a great way for controlling distance.

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I find that golfers who do not have very good sequencing do not have this kind

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of good spacing

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of their sequencing, they tend to have trouble hitting half shots and they tend

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to have trouble

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with kind of distance control, especially with the distance wedges.

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So you'll notice that I talk about a lot in the short game, using tempo as a

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way to kind

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of gauge your distance.

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I think that you can do it with the full swing as well.

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It's just a little bit, let's say less critical because you're almost always

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going about the

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same speed and distance and so your brain can be pretty good at figuring out

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one pattern

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to use.

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So in summary, the two major pieces are going to be the speed of the movement

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that you're

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making as well as the sequencing of the movements that you're making.

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So when you're on the course, thinking tempo thoughts are really great at

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helping you play

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where mechanical thoughts may affect your sequencing because you're focusing so

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much

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on the specific movement.

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I'll give you one quick example that a lot of players end up facing.

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So let's say that I have kind of a cast pattern or an upper body dominant swing

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, so I tend

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to feel very quick from the top because my arms are moving quickly.

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So now I'm going to try and work on a little bit more of a lower body driven

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transition.

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I may notice on the range that when I do that, I feel like there's more time

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before I extend

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my arms, so therefore things are moving slowly.

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So instead of thinking of the direction and how I want to use my hips on the

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course, it

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may be more beneficial for playing for you to actually think about this, okay,

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I'm going

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to move slowly and if I move slowly, I'll do the right movements.

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So it's a great bridge from working on mechanics to working on playing and I

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think that you

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can use it to your advantage, especially if you're a beginner and especially

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around the

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greens.

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So that's just my take on tempo and rhythm.

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I think it's great to have, but by itself, I haven't seen a lot of golfers

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improve from

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just trying to work on the tempo and sequencing.

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I think of it more as kind of the icing on the cake that helps you take these

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good mechanics

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and become really consistent with it on the course.