Cameron McCormick, background, and Jordan Spieth in January at the Tournament of Champions.
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Amateurs, Cam McCormick says, start too quickly. It gets worse. Their transition is too fast too.
And from there, it’s over.
“Here is the No. 1 swing killer I see from most amateur players,” he said.
Grisly, though catchy.
McCormick, you may remember, is Jordan Spieth’s coach, but of late, he’s been also coaching me and you. Scroll through his Instagram and Twitter feeds, and there’s a treasure trove of tips. And earlier this week on a post, he had gotten to his point quickly with the above quote. Those statements are notable. He continued.
“The start of the swing becomes very quick,” he said. “The transition becomes very quick.”
In short, tempo is key. And McCormick had two fixes.
“I’m going to give you two tips that are going to help you smooth out your tempo, help you hit more solid shots and more accurate shots,” he began on the video.
“The first is using your breath to time the swing to. On the backswing, I want you to hear yourself breathe in. On the downswing, I want you to hear yourself breathe out. Time the breath back and down. Long breaths through the strike. That’s going to help you develop much smoother tempo.”
We’ll pause here for you to give it a go. On the video, McCormick took a deep inhale on the backswing. On the downswing, he blew out. There was more.
“Should that not work, let’s say too difficult, then we can use words,” McCormick said on the video. “On the backswing, I want you to say ‘back.’ On the downswing, I want you to say ‘strike.’
“Now, here’s the difference. On the backswing, I want you to say ‘back’ throughout the entire duration of the swing. ‘Back.’ Impact is when I want you to say ‘strike.’”
We’ll pause again for you to try. On the video, McCormick drew out the word “back” through the backswing and downward move — “baaaaaaack.” At impact, he quickly said “strike.”
“One of those things,” McCormick said, “that’s going to help you develop better tempo in your swing, help you strike the ball more solid and help you hit more accurate shots. Give it a try.”
Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.
