The Importance of finding your tempo

I was trying out some irons at a demo day and frankly was struggling.  Perhaps I was inadvertently speeding up my swing to gain a little more distance from the dead range balls, or that I felt uncomfortable hitting balls under the watchful eye of a manufacturer salesman/fitter.  Finally, he said, "your swing is all about tempo."  I relaxed and went to my "loose and long" easy swing and began hitting the ball well with my familiar slight draw.

I wonder how much better the quality of one' swing/ball flight would be if we stop trying to swing like our buddy or the guy that just bombed it on the Tee before us and just "swing my swing"!

I'm convinced that everyone has their own distinct tempo and that when we groove (of course with proper technique) to that tempo, we will see our very best results?

I think tempo involves more than speed.  It is all about the pace, pause (if any) and follow through of a swing to maximize the coordination and power of our core engine for better ball flight and distance.

How about you? What importance do you put on tempo in your own game?

A few years ago I went to the Safeway Classic in Portland and did nothing more all day than absorb the players' rhythm and ease with which the ladies swung.

The next day I played and shot a 78 by imitating the feeling that I took away for the tournament, and it was easy.

Much of what I would learn from a 25-year-old PGA player's swing is how to hurt myself.