Slo mo swing repetitions. Your experience

[naval2006]

I came across an article this weekend about slow motion drills and repetition of the swing and different sections of the swing to help ingrain a correct motion, or feel the different parts of your body throughout the swing in practice and also in competition. 
 

I assume part of it is what Justin Rose does in his preshot routine. But I had never heard about it before and I’m curious about it. 

 

I’d love it you shared your experiences with this type of practice like when you use it, what your routine is and if it has really had a positive impact in your game. Thanks. 

[Hawkeye77]

I don't do it as much as I should.  Trusting and/or checking I'm making the right "little" move or doing the "small" drill correctly is essential. There is no place to hide.

[getitdaily]

Slow motion drills in different sections of the swing....100% yes. I call them slow micro motions. 

 

The term "slow swings" gets tossed around this forum as a way to improve. Now, not sure if the folks who say slow swings really mean slow drills in different sections of the swing or it they really mean slow full swings. 

 

I use exaggerated slow micro motions to make changes. My changes are specific and only for a specific section of a swing. I dont try to make a change to the takeaway and make a full slow swing. I do a slow drill from p1 to p3 then reset to p1, do the slow drill again, then reset, do it again, then reset and make a full swing at normal pace. 

 

I rarely slow motion the downswing past about p5. The only work I really do there is exaggerating a feel of rotation.  But get to p4.5 good and then it's just complete speed.

[mshills]

Slow drills of certain movements, yes, sometimes slowed down to the point of barely moving. It’s a great way to start to re-train away from a flawed movement.

 

Slow motion full swings, never. Can’t see the use in that. 

[TheDeanAbides]

Like the other guys, really. I do, however, see great value in slower swings whilst implementing changes. Slower being, say, 50% of your normal speed. 

[golferdude54]

There's multiple videos on Youtube of Ben Hogan demonstrating the slow motion full swing drill at different times in his life. He wouldn't show it so often if he didn't think it was so important. 

[mshills]

7 minutes ago, golferdude54 said:

There's multiple videos on Youtube of Ben Hogan demonstrating the slow motion full swing drill at different times in his life. He wouldn't show it so often if he didn't think it was so important. 

That is great. Ben Hogan did a lot of things that worked rather well for Ben Hogan. 
 

I am not Ben Hogan. 

[Canada8888]

Yes I use slow motion swings to explore new movement patterns.

 

My mind needs to learn that is is safe for my body to move in this new way.

 

otherwise it will just continue to move the way it did and no learning will be possible.

[GoGoErky]

2 hours ago, naval2006 said:

I came across an article this weekend about slow motion drills and repetition of the swing and different sections of the swing to help ingrain a correct motion, or feel the different parts of your body throughout the swing in practice and also in competition. 
 

I assume part of it is what Justin Rose does in his preshot routine. But I had never heard about it before and I’m curious about it. 

 

I’d love it you shared your experiences with this type of practice like when you use it, what your routine is and if it has really had a positive impact in your game. Thanks. 

@MonteScheinblum @Iac555 and I talk about slow motion swings all the time. They are necessary to train a new motor pattern. The slow motion movements are pet of the closed loop motor pattern. They help engrain new movement patterns til that movement pattern becomes a natural movement which is known as open looped motor pattern 

 

 

[joedizzy1978]

Slower swing work is best served to change the backswing.  It can be effective in transition and downswing if you have an understanding of what forces are involved and how the club will respond to them.....without this understanding, youll likely do more harm than good. 

[MK7Golf21]

I work on changes by hitting balls at slower speed into my net to really get a feel for it and take video to confirm what I'm doing. If I can't do it at slow speed, then not much chance of it happening doing it fast. Once I have it down somewhat on video, I then ramp up the speed into my net to see if anything changes. After that, I take it to the range and see how it does with real ball flight.

 

I used to go directly to the range when working on changes but buying buckets of balls to work on changes got expensive that way and ball flight can get in the way.

[MidwestHacker]

Slow motion drill movements to get your body used to that motor pattern is an effective way to change your golf swing. Work on one new movement pattern at a time. Work on it without a ball for a while (I have been doing it 30 mins a day for 3-5 days), then move to drilling the move slow motion several times then hitting a foam ball (have a "target" to hit, but the outcome doesnt matter), then move to drilling the move slow motion several times then hitting a real ball while trying to implement the new movement. Video all steps and use it to confirm you're doing the movement properly each time. 

[ThinkingPlus]

2 hours ago, GoGoErky said:

@MonteScheinblum @Iac555 and I talk about slow motion swings all the time. They are necessary to train a new motor pattern. The slow motion movements are pet of the closed loop motor pattern. They help engrain new movement patterns til that movement pattern becomes a natural movement which is known as open looped motor pattern 

 

 

Mmmm, I am not a fan of open loop anything although I can see how you could characterize it that way. I tend to think of the slow motion swing as a low bandwidth closed loop motion and full speed as high bandwidth closed loop motion. That also points to one flaw in this approach which is certain dynamics of the system don't become apparent until you turn the gain up. Still might be beneficial to do low gain movements though.

[Simpsonia]

2 hours ago, ThinkingPlus said:

Mmmm, I am not a fan of open loop anything although I can see how you could characterize it that way. I tend to think of the slow motion swing as a low bandwidth closed loop motion and full speed as high bandwidth closed loop motion. That also points to one flaw in this approach which is certain dynamics of the system don't become apparent until you turn the gain up. Still might be beneficial to do low gain movements though.

 

I think this is an important piece to be cognitive of when doing slow motion swings (I like Tyler Ferrell's description as a Tai Chi swing, slow, intentional). Starting with slow but being able to dial up that gain in distinct steps to 20%, 40%, 60%+ etc starts to train those dynamics which you wouldn't get if you just did slow motion and full swing. Because at say 10%, you can't keep your wrists as loose as you might in the swing because the club might actually outrace your arms, but if you start dialing up at distinct intervals you can play around and start to feel the proper dynamics. Once you start feeling those dynamics, you can start to feel the different intentions that cause the desired (and undesired) patterns. I'm a huge fan of just going from delivery (p6ish) to lead leg parallel (just past impact, shaft parallel with lead leg) because it trains just how much "up" motion you need to prevent a rotation stall and get a proper release. 

Edited July 28 by Simpsonia

[Valtiel]

4 hours ago, Canada8888 said:

Yes I use slow motion swings to explore new movement patterns.

 

My mind needs to learn that is is safe for my body to move in this new way.

 

otherwise it will just continue to move the way it did and no learning will be possible.

 

3 hours ago, GoGoErky said:

@MonteScheinblum @Iac555 and I talk about slow motion swings all the time. They are necessary to train a new motor pattern. The slow motion movements are pet of the closed loop motor pattern. They help engrain new movement patterns til that movement pattern becomes a natural movement which is known as open looped motor pattern 

 

1 hour ago, MidwestHacker said:

Slow motion drill movements to get your body used to that motor pattern is an effective way to change your golf swing. Work on one new movement pattern at a time. 

Yeah the key IMO is to actually have the correct intention and to be actually consciously working on changing something *enabled* by moving more slowly. The slowing down component being necessary to break out of whatever framework you're trapped in when moving quickly. 

[jonsnow]

I think it's important to break up sessions of slow motion, partial swings with full swings at normal speed. First to see if what you are drilling is carrying over to a normal swing & second to be sure you are not training yourself to swing slowly. I've been guilty of hitting entire large buckets making slow motion swings from P3 to P8 & later realizing mostly what I had done was train myself to swing slowly...

[GoGoErky]

3 hours ago, ThinkingPlus said:

Mmmm, I am not a fan of open loop anything although I can see how you could characterize it that way. I tend to think of the slow motion swing as a low bandwidth closed loop motion and full speed as high bandwidth closed loop motion. That also points to one flaw in this approach which is certain dynamics of the system don't become apparent until you turn the gain up. Still might be beneficial to do low gain movements though.

The open loop and closed loop are the scientific/medical terms used when discussing movement patterns and changing them/creating new ones.

 

Correct. You start slow and build up speed. Just like when I’m training someone to fix a bad movement pattern on their squat or another exercise. We use slow reps though volume and then add weight and speed as the body allows.

 

When they can’t make the movement at a higher speed or weight then you drop back to where they can an build from there.

 

its the same with the golf swing. You start slow and work on a move. Progressively add speed til you can’t do the move correctly at that speed, then back down the speed and work on it again and build up. Rinse and repeat 

[ThinkingPlus]

1 hour ago, GoGoErky said:

The open loop and closed loop are the scientific/medical terms used when discussing movement patterns and changing them/creating new ones.

 

Correct. You start slow and build up speed. Just like when I’m training someone to fix a bad movement pattern on their squat or another exercise. We use slow reps though volume and then add weight and speed as the body allows.

 

When they can’t make the movement at a higher speed or weight then you drop back to where they can an build from there.

 

its the same with the golf swing. You start slow and work on a move. Progressively add speed til you can’t do the move correctly at that speed, then back down the speed and work on it again and build up. Rinse and repeat 

Yes. While not having a degree in controls I did a little bit of control systems design, integration, and test at work. 

[bortass]

On 7/28/2025 at 7:01 AM, naval2006 said:

I came across an article this weekend about slow motion drills and repetition of the swing and different sections of the swing to help ingrain a correct motion, or feel the different parts of your body throughout the swing in practice and also in competition. 
 

I assume part of it is what Justin Rose does in his preshot routine. But I had never heard about it before and I’m curious about it. 

 

I’d love it you shared your experiences with this type of practice like when you use it, what your routine is and if it has really had a positive impact in your game. Thanks. 

It is awesome. I wish I had listened to people about this method five years ago but I was stubborn. Iacas gave me a drill that I started doing at the end of May. I do it in my office w/o a ball. I will work on it  a few minutes a day. I rarely get to the range to hit balls, maybe once every couple of weeks, so this drill work has been the driver for the change to my backswing.

 

Here is something I threw together a few weeks ago to help show the difference.

 

 

 

[naval2006]

11 minutes ago, bortass said:

It is awesome. I wish I had listened to people about this method five years ago but I was stubborn.

 

 

Stubborness is the mother fault of most golf swings

[DaveLeeNC]

14 minutes ago, naval2006 said:

Stubborness is the mother fault of most golf swings

 

Actually it isn't the source of swing faults - it is the caretaker/protector of swing faults (IMHO). 

 

dave

[me05501]

With respect to learning patterns the pro I've been working with says "the slower you go in practice the faster you'll be able to integrate the changes in your game...and vice versa."

 

I'm not sure if this is anecdotal or scientific fact or just his personal experience but there seems to be merit in it so far.

[ThinkingPlus]

Another challenge I see with slow motion work is getting too acclimated to swinging slowly. If it becomes too comfortable, then speeding back up becomes a challenge.  Easy to feel like the slower swings are your fast swings. 

[iacas]

5 minutes ago, ThinkingPlus said:

Another challenge I see with slow motion work is getting too acclimated to swinging slowly. If it becomes too comfortable, then speeding back up becomes a challenge.  Easy to feel like the slower swings are your fast swings. 

 

Can't say I see that very often. I'm sure there are some out there may struggle with that, but I typically see people able to generate more speed from better mechanics and sequencing.

[ThinkingPlus]

1 minute ago, iacas said:

 

Can't say I see that very often. I'm sure there are some out there may struggle with that, but I typically see people able to generate more speed from better mechanics and sequencing.

Agree that the new movement patterns can provide more efficiency.

[me05501]

19 minutes ago, ThinkingPlus said:

Another challenge I see with slow motion work is getting too acclimated to swinging slowly. If it becomes too comfortable, then speeding back up becomes a challenge.  Easy to feel like the slower swings are your fast swings. 

 

On the contrary, it takes a crazy level of discipline to stay in slow motion mode. The urge to speed things up is always there. 

[ThinkingPlus]

8 minutes ago, me05501 said:

 

On the contrary, it takes a crazy level of discipline to stay in slow motion mode. The urge to speed things up is always there. 

Apparently I'm odd. 

[jonsnow]

14 minutes ago, ThinkingPlus said:

Apparently I'm odd. 

Apparently we both are because I feel exactly the same.

[GoGoErky]

1 hour ago, me05501 said:

With respect to learning patterns the pro I've been working with says "the slower you go in practice the faster you'll be able to integrate the changes in your game...and vice versa."

 

I'm not sure if this is anecdotal or scientific fact or just his personal experience but there seems to be merit in it so far.

Scientific. It’s how the motor neurons work. Slower reps to engrain a new pattern, over time the new pattern becomes more natural, but the key is to still work on it even as it becomes more natural

[ShortGolfer]

Slow motion swings in the back yard to engrain a new pattern.  I use Callaway foam golf balls to insure the motions are correct.  I watch the flight of the foam balls across my back yard.  My back yard is convenient for a lot of short practice sessions all day.  Not enough room for fast swings, even with foam golf balls.

Edited July 29 by ShortGolfer