The Slow-Motion Golf Swing

A few weeks ago I wrote that while Ernie Els looks like he swings the club slowly, he actually swings it pretty fast. I said that you should swing at the pace that is comfortable for you, which is probably slower.

Now I’m going to ask you to slow your swing down even more, so slow that it’s barely a golf swing. Why? To use it as a drill to improve your swing like few other drills can.

Here’s what I want you to do. Go to the range and take out your driver. No golf ball is needed. I would guess it takes one second and change for you to swing the club from takeaway back to impact. Instead, take four seconds to do this. Four whole seconds from takeaway to impact. That's REALLY slow. No cheating, either. Count if you have to. Slow.

Make sure it's your true golf swing, using the 3:1 rhythm that I harp on. Let the club come though the impact area faster, like it normally does. Except in this drill it will come through at maybe 25 mph and not 90 mph.

Swing like it's a super slow-motion video of your regular swing. Everything is the same at every point except the actual speed.

Here's the payoff. You will find that by swinging so slowly, little flaws in your swing become big flaws. Now you notice them. Now the things that get your swing out of whack stick out like a sore thumb. You'll feel what's right, too, don't get me wrong.

Keep swinging slowly while ironing out the parts that don't feel right and adding them on to the parts that do feel right. You don't need anyone to tell which parts are which. You'll know.

When everything feels right with the super-slo mo swing, you can gradually (and I mean GRADUALLY, not all at once) step it up to full speed, still being aware of all the things you're doing right.

When you get to normal speed, you can STILL feel all the things you're doing right because you trained your mind to notice them. What happens as you speed up, though, is all these parts blend in so you are left with the feeling of one entire right-feeling swing movement, from takeaway to finish.

This unified swing feeling will keep your mind from getting stuck on detailed swing thoughts when you play, which only make things worse.

I’ve been doing this drill for a few months now, and really like how it’s training my mind and my swing. If I were you, I'd try it.