Dear David,
First, thanks for writing and for the compliment. Please feel free to ask me anything that concerns you anytime.
The thing about visual perception of a target is that it needs to be joined with the way the body gets ready to act with respect to the target. Let me explain.
In basketball, facing the target in a jump shot is what allows the torso and arms to move into the correct position for the action of shooting the ball into the target -- assessing the launch angle for release and the energy to cover the distance. For the "skyhook" shot of Kareen Abdul Jabbar, however, the head is turned over the left shoulder somewhat, just enough to get the nose out of the way so the right eye gets the basket in its field of view, and the body prepares the plane of the shoulderframe for the right-handed hoisting action of shooting the hook shot (there is a dropping of the left shoulder as the right shoulder rises and the arm comes overhead for the release).
In putting, the body's action in the conventional technique is fundamentally about impacting the ball squarely, and only secondarily about "sending the ball towards the target." (The latter part should be taken care of by putt reading and putter placement in the setup.) When you look down, your vision typically takes in about 5-6 feet in front and behind the ball of reasonably distinct peripheral vision, and this is where the action is confined. That's why "keep the head still," "don't peak," and "spot putting" are such tried-and-true tips for putting action.
In the sidesaddle technique, square impact is assumed to happen naturally without the need for visual monitoring, at least after some considerable practice. Hence, the eyes face forward, and presumably this allows the same sort of targeting perceptual process used in basketball foul shooting. I don't really think this is a good analogy for putting because of the use of the putter as a tool extending out from the body moving a ball not in contact with the hands. While it's true that orienting the body face-forward to a target probably enlists some sharp and useful precision in identifying the line from ball to target accurately, this is true in conventional putting but is used in sighting from behind the ball, not from the setup position and during the stroke itself. There is no reason to suppose that putters using the conventional technique cannot aim the putterface as accurately as sidesaddle putters -- they just do it in a different manner, but both use the face-forward orientation at different points in the routine.
I'm familiar with George Low's comments, and they are fairly typical of others' comments on this topic. The real difference is not in some vague "sensing" where the hole is, but in the positioning of the sensory organs and understanding what difference that makes to the action of the putt.
When you look down at the ball on a 5-foot putt, your fields of vision of the two eyes are not the same, and only partially overlap. The left eye from about 4 feet up off the ground looking at the ball can see about 70 degrees off to the left about 6 feet (including the hole) and about 2 feet off to the right behind the ball. The right eye from this position can see about 6 feet off to the right behind the ball, and about 2 feet off to the left in front of the ball. Roughly. The nose blocks the left eye's view to the right, and the right eye's view to the left. The region of overlap, 2 feet either side of the ball, is where BOTH eyes see the same part of space, and it is ONLY in the overlap that human vision has two-eyed stereoscopic vision with good depth perception. In the regions where only one or the other eye but not both has a view of space, the vision is one-eyed or monocular, as if you had only one eye or were blind in the other eye. So these regions of spatial vision are categorically different.
Another difference comes from our "spotlight" of central vision, where focus is sharp and clear. This spotlight is a lot smaller and tighter than most people realize, especially when we are paying attention to object detail inside this area. Because of this, looking at the ball and looking at the target are fundamentally different sorts of experiences. Even so, the open stance "look" in Low's style is only part of the routine. He is again looking down when he makes the action of the stroke (even if he leaves his shoulders open). Sure, you can "see" the target better when both eyes have a view of the target, but this does not require an open stance when making the stroke, too, or even just to get the target in view of both eyes. The conventional square-stance golfer turns his head to get the nose clear and to look at the target with stereoscopic vision also. But when he makes the stroke, his shoulders are square and so are his feet.
You should note that if the feet are open but the shoulders are square, then there is really no difference in the head positioning from a completely square stance and a shoulders-square but feet-open stance, in terms of head positioning when looking at the target. As far as the head is concerned, only the shoulder orientation matters, and not the orientation of the feet. An open-shoulder stance, however, does have different head positioning and movement patterns looking from the ball to the target.
The real difference is between 1) having an open-shoulder stance and looking at the target or lokking back to the ball but leaving the shoulders open WHEN you make the stroke versus 2) opening the shoulders to look to the target and then re-squaring the shoulders to look back at the ball before making the stroke out of a square-shoulder stance. So what is this real difference? The important differences here are 1) the shoulder orientation and how that affects the accuracy and consistency of the stroke, 2) not watching the stroke's impact for accuracy, and 3) not turning back from the target to see the "line" from ball to target before making the stroke.
Conventional wisdom is that the stroke path naturally follows the shoulder orientation, so a square shoulder setup at the time the stroke is executed is preferred even if the feet are open. You really can't get the position necessary for the sort of "face the target" look meant by Low without opening the shoulders to get it, so "open" in this sense means both open feet and open shoulders. If the shoulders are open, ther needs to be something artificial about the stroke path movement, and there is. It's a push action powered by the right hand. Low teaches right-hand control AND he teaches planting the right elbow near the right hip throughout the stroke action. This allows the left elbow to head away from the hip down the line in the push action. This artificial action is what deals with the openess of the shoulders. In my view, just exactly "where" the left elbow needs to go is not too clear in this technique, and the path is not plainly indicated and supported by other body positions serving as cues -- such as the squareness of the feet and line across the toes paralleling the putt's startline and this toe line showing you where the left elbow needs to head. Sure, a "master" can get it down after twenty or thirty years of steady putting, but even then, I'd rather have twenty or thirty years of experience with a square setup of feet and shoulders and all the other helpful cues that come with that under my belt.
Not watching the stroke at impact seems unhelpful to me. I realize that stroke feelings can be more important that stroke visual monitoring, and that "natural" ergonomics in the movement pattern are valuable, and the sidesaddle and stroke-while-looking-at-the-target techniques rely on these. Even so, feelings are more elusive and shifting than visual experience of looking at the ball-putter relation, and the shoulder stroke is not at all bad in comparison ergonomically to sidesaddle action. So, on balance, I'd rather go for the consistency and accuracy of looking at the ball during the stroke. I KNOW where the target is when looking at the ball -- it straight out there where the putterface is aimed a certain distance away. (I stay open minded on this issue, and would like to see some good, convincing analysis and experimental results, so I can think about it in more depth.)
Not turning back from target to ball just before making the stroke deprives the golfer of some useful body-sense cues about how to make the stroke, both in terms of line and distance. Looking along the line as it runs back into the ball gives a very good way to orient the body for the stroke so the stroke sends the ball along that line. The looking back is a movement of the neck right above the shoulders, and this sensing of the neck movement teaches the shoulders where the stroke needs to go. The look along the line also amounts to a fresh dose of distance perception, as the vision scans this length of surface from target back to ball. Even if the golfer doesn't pay attention to the ground, the angle of turn of the neck from target back to ball corresponds very exactly with the distance between the two.
Part of the reason gazing at the target for 4 seconds helps is that it promotes a good dose of stereoscopic perception of the target by getting the head and eyes in a good position. You don't need open feet or open shoulders for this. The head is more upright and balanced as it usually is with the open-shoulder look, and this "feels" better versus the sideways / face-down look. Granted, the latter pattern takes getting used to, but the stereoscopic view is the same either way. But an open-shoulders stance does help visually in two specific contexts: 1) putts just past 2-3 feet, and 2) putting by a right-handed but left-eye-dominant golfer.
Because of the limited range of stereoscopic overlap when looking down at the ball, any putt that is short enough so that the hole is within view of both eyes when looking at the ball is categorically different from all other longer putts in which only the lead eye can see the target, but not the back eye, when looking down at the ball. (A third sort of putt is longer still, so that neither eye can see the target when looking at the ball.) For this middle category of putts, incorporating some open-stance look into your routine near in time to executing the stroke can be helpful. The alternative is to stick with the simple head turn from ball to target as usual. The difference is that the open-shoulder look has a more upright head position, and this is the "natural" attitude of the head, or moreso than looking sideways facing the ground. But this look is only a supplement to bolster perceptions, and not a substitute for accurately looking along the line from ball to target. The chief value seems to be in reminding you that when looking at the ball and making the stroke, you do NOT have stereoscopic vision of the target and neither should you then WANT it. That promotes a "peak," with head movement and shoulder opening during the action of the stroke, and hence a pull.
Jack Nicklaus is the poster boy for right-handed putters who are left-eye dominant. he stood a wee bit open and pushed his putts down the line with his right hand, a lot like Low counsels. In my teaching experience, I have had pretty good success suggesting that similar golfers try opening up their shoulders a bit. The idea here is that eye-dominance is really more body-side dominance in preparation for action / reaction to a target or object. Most left-eye dominant golfers have some left-handedness in them. This means that the left side of the body wants to control acting at the target, as in throwing a punch or a baseball. Having square shoulders works well enough for a right-handed golfer because he wants to pivot the torso from right to left in the stroke, bringing the right side into action. But for a left-handed golfer, the square stance can be a source of subconscious frustration and discomfort. The left side is already oriented so that it is past the target and cannot pivot towards it except backwards. So opening the stance and shoulders a little makes the golfer free to pivot towards the target left-to-right. Even if the golfer does not actually pivot his torso in making the stroke, his body positioning helps his targeting and his ability to react to the target. But it's still not really about vision -- it's about preparing the body in orientation to the target for the action of the stroke.
Boiling it all down, an open-shoulder "look" to the target has a more comfortable and normal uprightness in the head and eyes. This vertical dimension of "facing'" the target certainly "feels" more normal and makes you think you're getting "better" perceptions, but that's not really the case in terms of preparing the body for the action of the stroke. Such an open-shoulder "look" can be helpful on those mid-range putts in the 3- to 8-foot range as a supplement to the more usual pattern of looking, and can also be helpful to left-sided golfers putting right handed. But for longterm consistency and accuracy for other golfers and any putt, square shoulders during the stroke are best, at least this is what my experience tells me so far. So, using the open-shoulder look should come only before returning the shoulders to square and as a supplement to preparing a square-shoulder stroke action. If it doesn't help prepare the square-shoulder stroke while looking at the ball, I wouldn't pursue it.
I certainly would encourage you to try out these different techniques to see what seems to work best for you, and also to convince yourself what does not seem to promote longterm accuracy and consistency.
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
The PuttingZone.com
http://puttingzone.com
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