Fix your rushed downswing forever! Discover the 3-drill system for a smooth golf swing with perfect golf swing rhythm using proven golf downswing drills that eliminate shanks, thins, and inconsistent contact. Get Your FREE Golf Breakthrough Playbook https://app.gohighlevel.com/v2/preview/yk8b24qhouv14gnanFkb?notrack=true
📍Work with Darren:
🏌️♂️ In-person (https://e.cps.golf/HollyRidgeLessonbook)
📱 Online through the Skillest app (https://skillest.com/coach/darrenfalkgolf)
🔔 Subscribe to Break 90 Golf for weekly tips and drills to shoot lower scores:
👉 @darrenfalkgolfcoaching
0:00 – ⚠️ The death move: rushing from the top causes every bad shot
0:30 – 🎯 Where speed should really happen (not where you think!)
1:55 – 🔊 The whoosh test: listening for speed in the wrong place
4:12 – 🏁 Drill #1: Head start drill for building backswing momentum
5:48 – ⏸️ Drill #2: Pause at the top (Hideki Matsuyama & Cameron Young style)
8:09 – 🪂 Drill #3: The drop/fall feeling for gradual speed buildup
13:29 – 🏌️ On-course application with pressure and stress
This comprehensive smooth golf swing tutorial reveals why saying “swing slower” destroys distance and why the real problem is speed placement, not speed itself. Learn the critical difference between maxing out at the top (wrong) versus building speed gradually into impact (correct). Master three progressive golf downswing drills: the head start drill for momentum, the pause drill for sequencing, and the drop drill for gradual acceleration that creates effortless golf swing rhythm.
What You’ll Learn:
-Why clubhead speed matters at the ball, not at the top—and how rushing destroys this fundamental principle
-The whoosh test using an upside-down club to hear where your maximum speed occurs in your swing
-Why taking the club back too slowly causes your brain to rush the downswing and throw your hands at it
-Head start drill technique: starting with the club ahead of the ball to build natural smooth golf swing momentum
-How pros like Hideki Matsuyama and Cameron Young use a pronounced pause for better sequencing
-Why coming to a complete stop at the top makes it easier to start everything together instead of pulling with your arms
-The drop/fall feeling: maintaining wrist angles while letting arms drop creates gradual speed buildup
-Justin Rose’s downswing secret: falling into the lead foot (like a baseball pitcher) rather than forcing rotation
-Why light grip pressure and minimal tension prevent the club from passing your hands too quickly
-The gradual car acceleration analogy: 70, 80, 90, 95, 100 mph versus slamming the gas pedal from zero
-Critical checkpoints for golf downswing drills: complete your backswing, start everything together, feel the first move as deliberately slow
-How proper rhythm creates perfect balance at the finish—the ultimate sign your golf swing rhythm is correct
#SmoothGolfSwing #GolfSwingRhythm #GolfDownswingDrills
Golfers, do you struggle with rushing your down swing? Swinging the club so fast from the top, jerking it, leading to shanks, fins, fat shots, slices, hooks, everything. Well, today we’re going to look at why that is happening in your golf swing. And I’m going to show you three drills that going to help you fix that death move of swinging too quickly, swinging the club too fast in the top. We’re going to get you swinging with better rhythm. We’re going to get you to break 90. So, stick around. You’re not going to want to miss this one. Okay, golfers. So, the first thing that we need to understand is it’s not just so easy as saying swing slower. If we swing slower, we’re just going to get a ball that goes a shorter distance. I don’t know about you, I don’t want any part of that. Okay. But we do have to understand is where do I need to have the speed in my golf swing? Okay. If you look at club head speed, where is it actually measured? It’s actually measured at the golf ball. Some cases just before, just after depending on the system you’re using. But what really matters is where our speed is down here at the golf ball. Okay? Now, what happens when we get too quick, okay? Or we feel like we rush from the top of the swing is that we try to slam on the gas pedal or try to put the speed up here in this first part of my golf swing. Okay? And that’s the wrong spot. And that’s the feeling we have of getting out of rhythm, getting too quick, rushing the down swing. Any way you want to spin it, any word you want to use, that’s what you’re feeling. Okay. What the best players do is they make sure that the most speed for them is occurring somewhere over here just before the golf ball. Okay. Really want obviously the most speed to be right here. But in reality, the club’s actually decelerating once we get down to this point. Okay. For the golfers that are rushing or swinging too quickly, the problem is is that they’re trying to move the club too fast from the start of the back swing. So, as a simple little drill, okay, to get an understanding of where this needs to be, first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to take the golf club and we’re just going to hold it on the club head end. This end. Okay, I’m going to hold the club a little bit above the ground because I want to hit the ground with it. And I want you to listen to the sound that’s being made. So, I’m going to hit a couple here. Just do a couple swings normal. And listen to this sort of whoosh sound. Okay. All right. And notice where I start to hear it. I start to hear it somewhere over here. Okay. I’m hearing it more after the golf ball. For the golfer that’s swinging too quick, you’re going to start to hear it up here. It’s going to sound like this. Hey. Okay. So, it’s the same sound, but listen to where it’s happening. If it’s happening and I’m maxing out back here, by the time I get the golf ball, I’m going to be too slow. Right? So, that’s what you’re feeling. All right? I want to make sure that we don’t think, “Okay, I just swing slower and everything will be better.” No, that’s not what I want you to do. We just need to learn how to get the speed in the correct spot. Okay? So, the first issue that I see with this is that it’s happening actually before we even get the club into the back swing. I’ll see golfers standing over the golf ball. They get kind of frozen. They’re thinking too much maybe about their body mechanics and they’ll tell themselves, “Okay, just slow down.” And they start going back really slow. And then before they know it, their brain thinks they’re all the way into their back swing from a time standpoint. But notice I didn’t turn my shoulders much. And I also didn’t really use much wrist hinge. Okay. So, I take it back really slow. And then from there, I think I got to put some speed in this somehow. And we end up doing something like this. Swinging over the top, throwing my hands at it, but doing something in an effort to try to create more speed. Okay. So, the problem with that is again, we need in the back swing to build up some momentum and carry that momentum into the golf ball, right? So, the first drill that we’re going to do that addresses that in the back swing is going to be with what we call a little head start drill. So, I’m going to set up to the golf ball here. I’m going to set up just to the side. I’m not going to hit the ball just yet. And I’m going to start with my golf club in front of the ball like this. I like it right where about both arms are straight. Left arm and club’s in a straight line. Okay. This is going to be my starting point for this drill. From here, I’m going to just This is going to allow me to have some momentum and make it a lot easier for me to really complete that back swing. Okay, so again, I’m starting from here. Swing back. Okay, do that again. Starting from here, swing back. Okay, that’s the feeling I want to have. If I go back too slowly, trying to be too careful, I’m not going to complete my back swing. my brain’s gonna kick in and tell me I have to try to move that club faster and I’m gonna move it too fast too soon. Okay, so we’ll try this with the ball now. It might be difficult obviously not used to starting it from used to starting it behind the ball but we’re going to try it. So we’re going to start from right here. Swing it back. Okay. Okay. And again, just notice the rhythm, okay, of that swing. It didn’t have any jerkiness to it, right? I wasn’t pulling it down, okay? And that’s because I built some momentum in my back swing. Okay, so that’s going to be the first drill. Starting with the golf club ahead of the ball, feeling the momentum, bringing you all the way back to a complete back swing, and then just maintaining that momentum on the follow through. Okay, the second drill is going to be really starting to get now into the start down, and that is going to be a pause drill at the top of the swing. So, it’s going to be just as implies. So, I’m going to go ahead and take my swing. I’m going to bring it back to the top, and I’m actually just going to have a brief pause, maybe a second or two, and then I’m going to start my down swing. Okay? You’ll actually see a lot of pros that actually have a similar motion. Hideki Matsyama used to have quite a bit of a pause. Cameron Young, who just had a phenomenal RDER Cup, has a pretty pronounced pause at the top of his golf swing. All right? So, this is something that you might actually want to play with. Up to you. But again, here I am bringing it back. And by coming to a stop completely, it’s going to be that much easier for my body, arms, and club to start moving to together. When I get too quick or when I rush, the tendencies are for the arms to pull too much and pull across or for the hands to move too much and throw that club past me too soon. Okay, that’s usually what we’re feeling. So, this drill makes it a lot easier when I come to that stop to get everything to be sequenced better going into the down swing. Okay. So, let’s try that one out. So, set up to my golf ball here. Going to swing it back, pause, then go on through. Okay. Didn’t hit that one too clean, but that’s okay. I’m not worried too much about my contact when I do these drills. It’s more of just the feeling and the motion and the rhythm that I’m trying to create. All right. So, do that one again. Come back. Make sure I get my full back swing. Come to the top. Pause. All right. And notice how I am just gradually building momentum into the golf ball. That’s the goal. When I come to a complete stop, it makes it easier. It’s going to be very hard for me to just slam on the gas pedal from there. I’m going to have to be a little bit more gradual. And that’s where I like this drill. That’s what it’s sort of teaching you. gradual buildup of momentum rather than just trying to slam on the gas pedal right from the very beginning. Okay, so the last drill that we’re going to do is really going to be kind of geared uh really towards the moment of truth and that’s right at impact. Right? And as I mentioned before, where we want the speed to occur in our swing is not up here at the top is actually going to be down here getting closer to the golf ball. So I’m really just thinking in terms of like a driving a car. Let’s say I’m 70 miles right here. I’m going 80, 85, 90, 95, 100, and so on. I just want to have that gradual buildup of speed rather than just slamming on the gas pedal right from the very beginning. That’s the feeling that you’re struggling with when you get on the golf course and everything gets out of whack. Right? So, what we’re going to do here is we’re going to take it back. And now from here, I’m just gonna be very conscious of really feeling that I’m just sort of dropping my arms. But the key here is I’m still maintaining my wrist angles. Okay? So, if I was just to hold my arms straight out in front of me, okay, and I just completely let the tension out, right? There’s some pretty good speed in just the dropping of the arms, right? That’s kind of what I’m feeling here. Now, things we have to be careful of doing this drill. One is we got to make sure the weight is moving forward because we’re not using our body as much. We’ve got to make sure the weight’s forward to begin with. And the second thing, as I already mentioned, is we’ve got to make sure that we’ve got some wrist angles. Okay, this is similar to a video I did a little while back um using Justin Rose’s down swing. We’ll link that here if you want to check that out. That’s kind of a similar um uh version of what we’re going to do here. So, again, taking it back to the top, full back swing. Then from here, I really am just being conscious and aware of this club dropping or falling. Okay, notice from here I got my wrist angle set. And then also from the other viewpoint how the club is staying more inside me. It is not a turning of my shoulders and a throwing out of the club. All right, that’s going to lead to a lot of issues as well, too. Okay. So, I take it back here and all I’m going to be conscious of is feeling that first move of my down swing feeling very, very slow. I’m not unwinding my body very much. I’m maintaining my wrist angles and I’m really just feeling more of like a falling on the down swing. Right? I like to think about it as a pitcher in baseball. They’re not necessarily, I don’t think, driving or pushing off the mound as they are falling into their lead foot, which is allowing them then to propel their arm. Okay, that’s the feeling I’m having here. It’s more of a falling feeling to start the down swing. Okay, so let’s hit a few. So, here’s my setup. Okay, again, I’m going to do not going to pause on this one here. I’m just going to be very conscious of that first foot or two being deliberately very very slow. That’s going to feel to me like it’s the slowest part of my swing. Okay, so let’s try that out. [Music] Okay, felt pretty good there. All right, so now if I were to combine this with the pause drill, swing it back to the top, stopping. And now again, my first move is just going to feel dropping, slowing. I’m probably going to feel very, very little tension in my arms and my wrist. If I start to feel like I’m clenching that club, that’s going to have a tendency to pull the club out or get the club to pass my hands too quickly. Okay? So, I’m really feeling very, very light. I don’t necessarily like a light grip pressure, but I think whatever pressure you’re holding the club with, it just needs to stay constant. So, that’s what we’re going to feel here. So, bring it back to the top. Come to a stop. And again, that first move for me, I’m just going to deliberately feel very, very slow. Okay, that would felt really good. And it went out there pretty good distance with what really probably was a pretty slow swing. But again, notice just the rhythm of which I swung that club with. Okay, do that one again. Swing it back. Just being focused on that first start of the golf uh down swing. Being very, very slow. So, make sure I get a full back swing. Right. Notice how good my balance gets too when we get that. All right. But again, if you notice, where am I putting the most speed in the golf swing? It’s not happening up here. It’s happening down towards the golf ball. And when we get too quick, when we feel rushed, we’re trying to put the speed in the golf swing too quickly. All right. Now, again, we have to build up the speed in the back swing, we’ve got to make sure then we maintain it at the beginning of a down swing. Okay? Just that first foot or two, if that gets off, we’re in big trouble. Too too hard to um to get that back if we’ve lost it at that point in time. Okay? So again, it’s going to feel very, very conscious of that first move down. [Music] It probably looks nothing like Freddy Couples, but I do feel like him right now doing these drills. Okay, now again, where does this really come into play? Especially is when we get on to the golf course. It’s one thing to do it in the range, but we got on the golf course and we’ve got so many other things going on in our mind. If we got pressure, we got stress, we don’t know what’s going on. So, we get that’s something that’s easily forgotten. Okay. So, again, what do we need to be thinking about? One, we need to make sure that we complete our back swing. Okay. The first drill here, starting with this little head start drill, starting the club here, making sure that we get a nice full back swing. Okay, that’s the first thing. Second, we need to make sure either from the pause drill that we start everything together or just being aware of the first part of your down swing. It feeling very very slow. Okay, we go start slow so we can pick up speed down at the golf ball where it actually really matters. Okay, now it’s going to hit one. So, I’m on a golf course. Just being aware of making that first move. very very very slow. Feeling those hands just sort of dropping, maintaining my wrist angles. Okay, that’s what we’re searching for here. That’s going to keep us from rushing that down swing. Here we are. Pressure’s on now on the golf course, full back swing. Okay. And again, you really usually can tell when you finish find yourself really finishing good balance. Okay, feeling like you’re getting pulled to that finish position. That’s a good sign that your rhythm, everything is moving along the way it should. Thank you everybody for watching this video. I hope you found it helpful. If you have not already done so, please make sure that you like this video and also if you’re not already, please make sure you subscribe to this channel. That will help me out continue to put content, but it also will let you know when a new video gets released. If you would like to work with me, we can do so in person at Holly Ridge Golf Club on Cape Cod or we can do so online uh via the Skills app. And you’ll see links to both of those in the description below. If there’s anything you would like to see in future videos, please don’t hesitate. Mention it in the comments and I’ll be sure to feature it in in future videos. As always, thank you for joining me and look forward to seeing you again next
3 Comments
Great stuff Darren!
Will try these drills out next time I practice!
Great video!