Eric Cogorno here with Performance Golf Zone.
In today's video, we're going to talk about how to stop rushing the downswing.
I want to talk about tempo, what that means, how you guys can fix your rushing the downswing,
why that's causing you guys all problems.
So, when we're talking about rushing the downswing, or tempo and sequence here, I see that pop
up most often with golfers specifically from the top of the backswing to the downswing
portion.
Now, obviously, there's a lot of different great golfers who swing at different tempos.
This video is not meant to say that you all need to swing very slow, or very fast, or
somewhere in the middle.
I think, oftentimes, I see people play their best golf sort of swinging and playing at
a tempo that they naturally go.
Like me, I'm a little bit more of a faster talker, faster paced person.
I would swing a little bit with a quicker tempo.
Someone who's more sort of la-di-da-di might swing a little bit longer and slower.
Like a Freddy Couples is a good example of a guy who's sort of more relaxed, hanging
out, and he's sort of a long, slow tempo, versus, say, a Nick Price who might be really
short and quick, and just walks and talks faster, like a Lee Trevino type of player.
So, I would say, go with what your normal everyday motion is, but within that quick
or slow tempo, there's still sort of acceleration, there's still, what's the timing from the
top of the backswing to impact.
And, by far, the biggest issue that I run into is, when you get up to the top of the
backswing, a lot of you guys and gals are wanting to rush your arms and hands down in
front of you, most specifically.
Very rarely do I run into problems where someone's body moves too fast.
In fact, I can't remember the last time that I was working with someone and I said, "Hey,
man, hang on a minute.
Your body's opening too quick," or, "You're rotating too much."
Well, no.
That would put you in line with the best golfers in the world who rotate their body the fastest.
The issue, more so, is trying to get the arms and hands down.
The tension that you have, really gripping the club tight, and trying to pull the club
down in front of you would be a bad recipe for like 99.9% of you golfers here.
So, what would we like to have happen?
Well, from the top of my swing, I would love it if you guys had more of a feel where your
torso, your body - hips, upper body, chest - would rotate to the target and start your
rotation pieces even before you start pulling the club down.
Now, in reality, if we were to measure a good player, they get up to the top, there's some
pressure moving into their left foot before they even finish their arms going back.
We're talking literal stuff here.
They're moving towards their left, and then they're rotating.
They're starting to rotate their body before their arms and hands are coming down in front.
You don't see any good golfers, at the top, go like this, and their arms are here, and
then they start turning.
That doesn't make sense.
It's your body first, arms second.
That's the main takeaway here.
I'd like you to hit some shots and play with this first and experiment with it.
I'm telling you, you don't have to worry about, "Well, Eric, if I keep my arms up and I turn,
I'm going to be stuck behind me."
No, no.
No, you're not.
You can open your body.
You can turn as much as you want with your torso and leave your arms and hands back.
It's going to create more speed and compression.
So, again, from the top of the backswing, arms and hands are up at the top.
Feel like they stay there, or at minimum, they start working downward after you've already
shifted and started turning.
So, I feel like my body is moving towards the target and opening, and my arms and hands
are almost staying back there at the top.
My brain knows I need to hit a golf ball.
It's going to get my arms and hands down in front of me.
I don't need to be worrying about thinking about that.
So, I'm going to go ahead and do an example of what we consider a good one.
This is me feeling, and you'll see this is a feel versus a real, like everything else,
this is me feeling like my hands stay at the top as I start to turn coming down.
So, my body's going to turn with my arms still up, and that's my feel for that, and I struck
that nicely.
What I don't want to have happen is, go to the top, and feel like I'm trying to pull
my arms and hands down fast, before I start my turn pieces.
So, that would look a little bit more like this.
This is feeling my arms starting down, yanking my arms down first from the top.
And I can still hit that somewhat solid, but the compression, I feel, and the speed component,
is not even close to that first model.
Now, when you do that solid and you do that, the idea here is, I'm going to go up to the
top, and sort of constantly, my hands and my arms are going to feel like they're to
the right of or behind my body as I'm going.
The opposite of that would be me pulling my arms and hands down and getting my hands sort
of in front of or to the left of my body.
I want them to be back here, to the right of you, and sort of stay to the right the
whole time as you turn.
That's going to get us the sequencing that we want.
It's going to affect the downswing, swing direction.
It's going to affect your ball speed.
You're going to hit the ball a lot better.
So, here again, leaving my hands up at the top, arms are to the right of my body, and
that creates the speed and the rotation pieces that I want.
Especially, everyone watching this who wants to get their body more open, everyone wants
to get your body more open, how do we do that?
Well, it's a sequence and a timing piece.
If you go to the top and imagine it's a race between your arms and hands and your body,
which one can get to the ball sooner?
Well, if I go to the top and I rush my hands and arms down, I don't give myself any time
to get my body open.
We've all seen really good golfers, from down the line, have a look like this at impact,
where their body's dramatically open, somewhere in here.
Well, how could I possibly do that if my hands are all the way down here before I start turning?
I couldn't.
It's a timing thing.
I want to give my body every advantage that I have, and for me to do that, I'd say, "Okay,
let me keep my arms back here."
I'm going to kind of hold them back, let my body get open.
Now I can win that race quite easily.
So, one more time from the top, leaving my arms and hands up, turning my body, not rushing,
and I struck that one pretty nicely as well.
And, for me, when I do it and I do it really well, I feel like my arms and hands are at
the top, and I almost do nothing with them.
It's pure turn from there, from the top.
Obviously, I'm moving them during the downswing, but I'm not consciously trying to pull the
shaft down.
I'm not trying to pull it forward.
I'm just leaving my arms and hands up there, and I'm opening my body.
One more time with a good one here, hands stay up to the right of my body as I turn.
That's another one that felt solid.
So, avoid the rushing from the top.
Avoid the pulling down from the top with the arms.
You want to get your body open.
To do that, you need to leave your arms and hands back.
Don't rush it so much, but at the same time, find a tempo that works for you.
If you're a quicker person, go a little quicker.
If you're slower, take your time.
Let the body win the race during the downswing.
That's the main point here.
So, hope that that all makes sense.
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