Rhythm is the most important component to improve your golf swing. When PGA Tour professionals have a good day, they say had good tempo. When the PGA Tour professionals have a bad day, they say they struggled to find their rhythm. If you have good rhythm, the swing becomes automatic.
What is a good rhythm? The best rhythm is measured as the time it takes for the club to start moving away from the ball in the back swing and return back to the ball on the down swing. This time period should be approximately one second in duration. When they measured the rhythm of professional golfers, they found that the time period varied from 0.9 seconds to 1.3 seconds depending on the person being measured. Each professional had their own rhythm and was very consistent in using their rhythm. Each professional golfer had a rhythm that took about one second. The book, Tour Tempo, discusses this in detail Tour Tempo on Amazon.
How to you find your personal rhythm? It is easy. Start by snapping your fingers at a rhythm of one second between snaps. Try going a little bit slower and then a little bit faster until you settle on a rhythm that you feel is just right, not too fast and not too slow. You should feel that you can maintain this rhythm for an extended period without thinking. That is your personal rhythm.
How does your finger snapping relate to the golf swing? Start snapping your fingers at your rhythm and the first snap is the start of the back swing and the second snap of your fingers is when the club hits the ball. About 80% of the time of your rhythm is taken up by the back swing and the remaining 20% of the time is used for the transition and the down swing.
It takes patience to develop a good rhythm. Patience is needed at the end of the back swing before the start of the down swing. There should be a one-tenth second pause at the end of the back swing before the start of the down swing. This pause will feel like a one-half second pause, but in reality it will only be a one-tenth second pause. This pause is where the most energy is created for an efficient down swing. This increase of energy is felt in a slight increase of the stretch felt throughout the body. It requires patience to feel this increase in energy. My blog post, Patience in the Golf Swing, describes how to create an automatic pause. If the pause is not felt, the down swing will not be rhythmic.
When you are having a good day, you are using your rhythm. When you are having a bad day, your rhythm is just a little bit off. In the 2012 US Women’s Open, the winner Na Yeon Choi had a couple of bad swings that cost her some shots. She said she got back to playing well by deciding to focus on her rhythm. Knowing your rhythm and focusing on your rhythm can help you improve your swing.