Golf Tips » March 1999: Swinging Smooth

How many times have you gone out and played the front nine well, and then, suddenly your swing seems to disappear and you play the back nine poorly. sometimes the opposite happens – you play the front so poorly that you have thoughts of giving up the game and then -like magic- you play great on the back nine. Well, the key is rhythm or “pace”.

After playing the front nine well, you start “trying too hard” with your swing and you lose your rhythm and play poorly. Exactly the opposite happens when you play the front nine poorly. You feel a little depressed, you stop focusing so much on the mechanics of the swing and all of a sudden your swing feels smoother and you’re hitting the ball well.

How do we maintain this rhythm all the time ?

Here at the Phil Ritson – Mel Sole Golf School, we teach the use of something called a “Clear Key”. This is a word or a phrase you say to yourself during the swing to help you keep the same pace throughout.

There are two important facets of the clear key.

1. The clear key must be non golf related – this helps you from thinking mechanics during the swing – a no-no during a round.

2. The clear key must match the rhythm of your swing. If you have a fast pace like a Lanny Watkins, John Daly or Arnold Palmer, you need a short quick clear key. However, if you have a slower swing like an Ernie Els or Freddie Couples, then you need a longer phrase.

Let me give you an example:

Here are four pictures of myself showing how the clear key fits in with the rhythm of my swing.  My clear key is “Geronimo” I say it three times during the swing.

Geronimo

Geronimo

Geron

nimo.

As you can see from this sequence – the first Geromino takes me half way back, the second takes me to the top of my backswing and impact occurs on the “Ron” of the third Geronimo. If I am saying my “Geronimos” at the same pace each time, and my impact point occurs on the “ron” every time, I have accomplished the perfect pace for my swing.

You obviously need to find your own “Clear Key”, experiment with various words and phrases until you come up with the one that matches the pace of your swing.

Try this and you will develop a consistent rhythm and produce better scores!