Thanks for your continual insight, but I am still confused and blocked. While I appreciate a single style/stroke is not right for everyone, I am trying to find one for myself that works, that is comfortable and repeatable, that is the simplest it can be for me.
I have tried the vertical stroke and it just didn't work for me, in fact, I think it is what lead the downfall of my stroke a few years back by making me into a very mechanical, stroke conscious putter. When I went back to more of arc in the stroke, it felt more natural and comfortable to me, but by then I was so conscious of what I was doing, I lost much of my natural ability. And I can't seem to get myself into a position of an UNRESTRICTED stroke. By that I mean my body [stomach] seems to get in the way of my stroke unless I have my elbows out, causing the arms to hang away from my body. I was reading an article you wrote under - One Slow Putt Fits All Tempos, in which you state "However, a putting stroke is not really a pendulum, because there really isn't a single "arm" suspended from a single pivot as with a pendulum; instead, you have more of a three-piece triangle (arms and putter) connected to a shoulder frame and the shoulder frame rocks back and through by virtue of torso rotation, hopefully staying on plane with the center of this system more or less stationary." Here you are talking about the torso rotation which is where I get stuck. My view is that I should be able to attach the upper part of my arms to the sides and turn the torso to make the stroke, ie everything sort of locked together, but then when I do, it gets restricted and elbow gets stuck in the stomach area.
Well as chance would have it, I was at the practice green today, talking to one of the young talented pros and asking him about what he did and explained to him what my problem was. After a few minutes of discussion he had me set up, and after he did, he put a club shaft across my shoulders, stating that they were rounded and well in front of my chest. In other words if you looked down from the sky, you would notice a concaved arc from one shoulder point to the other, with the chest not even touching the shaft [which is even more unusual since I have a fairly large chest.]. He states that by setting up in this way, I am restricting my turn and that the shoulders should both be back, with the shaft hitting the chest first, or at the very least hitting all three points at the same time [I had about a 2” gap in mine]. He further stated that this is also true of the full swing in that it will also be restricted in turning in the shoulders are not back.
I practiced by standing straight and ensuring my shoulders were back [not that hard or unnatural], and then bent at the waist. Now this was a struggle as it obviously felt unnatural since I had been doing it the other way for so long, plus I think the muscles in the back between the shoulder blades are very weak. Now I have read a lot on both the golf swing and putting, and have been around golf a long time, but I have never heard even a single reference to this, not even on your site.
Have you run into this before and if so, what are your thoughts.