Surge here! Got another question from the blog. This is one from Ludwig. He says, “I really enjoy your mini-lessons. I find myself too jerky as I start my downswing and therefore miss the sweet spot quite often. This, I believe, costs me a lot of yardage with my long irons as well as my woods. Appreciate your comment. P.S. I'm 80 years old and started playing at 60. You would think by now I'd develop a better tempo.”
The only thing that could be causing a tempo problem is simply the fact that you're jumping at the ball as you said you're somewhat jerky. That would be jumping and moving forward. I think one of the number one causes of that is, if you're right handed, you'd be aiming to the right and you have to jerk or twist your shoulders or turn them out of the way quicker to be able to get your arms back in front of your body and swinging down the line. With that in mind, first and foremost I'd check your alignment.
The next thing I would start to focus on is that jerky to me implies the head, the upper torso is moving. That means your spine angle is moving. Make sure you have the proper shoulder tilt at address. If you're right handed, your left shoulder would be down so you've got a good tilt to your shoulders. From take away to the top of the backswing, and especially when you transition, work on maintaining your spine angle.
Another point that could help you is if you're turning your shoulders too much, and especially turning your hips too much, that would cause your forward knee to move inward and your back knee to straighten up. Keep your spine angle stable and still from take away to the top and in the transition. Concentrate on keeping your head very still.
I think these issues will help you. Make sure of your alignment. Mak sure your shoulders are tilted properly, your spine angle is slightly tilted, and your head is behind the ball at impact. If you do some shadow swinging, with the sun behind you, you can see your shoulder tilt, you can see your head position. You want to be able to swing from take away to top and back to impact and never see your head move.
If you work on that, you're going to get rid of the jerky transition and you're going to start hitting the ball much more solid and straight and that should really help you.
The Surge!