Hi Geoff,
first I want to thank you once more for your work, I cannot believe how much your tips&tecnique can help to achieve a good putting ability; I want to congratulate with you for your vaste knowledge about all section of putting. I have some phisics knowledge and was not totally conviced by some aspect of Pelz theories; I believe Geoff's answers are more more explicit and near to phisic's laws than other theories I've founded, so compliments.

hey guys, I don't take any money for this

For the technical question I'd like to ask you something about backstroke lenght:
I'm putting better everyday following your tips about tempo and freefall stroke and precisely I'm learning fastly to "stone cold putt" and the results are very very encouraging. At first the idea seemed to me something not natural, impossible to control and bla bla bla but after some days of practice everything is changed into somethnig like a second nature to me, sincerely. I know you thing that some days is not enough to achieving a good control of a new putting techinque but I assure you the results are incredible, yes incredible also for me. Just for example I was having a putting match play on a vaste practice green with some tiers and brakes and for the final two holes we decided to put from side to side, around 30 yards uphill and downill. My two first putt stopped at less than three feet to the hole...
This considered I've found that for very long putts in order to putt with a freefall pendulum I have to take the putter back very much, almost parallel to the ground at the finish of backstroke. I can make still a good impact beeing stable with body and head but i want to know if you think that for longer putts is better to apply a little force in the stroke instead of letting the putter fall by the action of gravity.

Another time and it is still not enough I want to thank for your work. I hope I'll visit you for a time toghether soon

Dear Francesco,

Thanks for the very kind words -- I too hope we can meet and work together soon!

The trick to putting by "instinct" is to allow the backstroke to go to its full length back, without hurrying and without stopping the stroke from completing its way to the top of the backstroke. Once this is done, even if it is way back, the trick becomes to make sure you don't rush the downstroke. The impact must always happen as a result of gravity acceleration, or else you are changing your tempo. If impact happens early, the ball will likely go past the hole quite a way. (Sometimes, though, when your arms and hands tighten, you can quicken the total tempo but the ball goes short, because the increase in tension causes the stroke to speed up at first but then slow down just before impact, so the putterhead at impact is actually slower than it would be with a free-flowing fall and gravitational acceleration.)

The way I handle this is to use the phrase "one potato ... two." While the putter is going back to complete the backstroke (whatever that might be in length), I think or say "one potato." The putterhead coasts to a stop at the top of the backstroke on the "to" syllable. If you are shortening the backstroke, your putterhead will stop before you finish saying the "to" of "potato." (A short backstroke will change your tempo and probably your tension in your arms and hands too, so the ball will sometimes be short and sometimes long.) Once the putterhead starts dropping, don't rush it down. In my phrase, the pause of "..." is relaxing to let the putterhead drop naturally with gravity's own tempo (which is always the same as long as you don't interfere with it). As the full stroke has three phases (... 1)put the putterhead back to the top of the backstroke, 2) relax and drop the putterhead into the impact zone, and 3) right when the putterhead reaches the middle of the body, start the lifting of the lead shoulder to lag the lead arm and hand upward thru impact), my "don't rush" rule means don't do anything to the putterhead while it is dropping until it has dropped at least 1/2 or 2/3 the way to the bottom of the stroke. By watching when the putterhead first reaches the bottom, you can then time the lifting of the lead shoulder. The fundamental timing point is that impact needs to happen right on "two" in the phrase.

Since these gargantuan, super-long putts are fairly rare on most golf courses, the problem doesn't come up too often. but when it does, you still need to emphasize tempo instead of stroke length. Targeting with your practiced tempo in mind will instinctively set the backstroke without you getting involved. If the length of the stroke makes you feel like you ought to or had better get involved, because you don't feel comfortable or are afraid the stroke feels too long, then I would suggest you learn not to pay attention to that concern and instead focus on a) making a full backstroke, however long, and b) making sure impact happens on "two" without having to accelerate the putterhead with your muscles. You can get this system down pretty well by breathing in during the backsrtoke, and then exhaling into impact at "two."

If your concerns about backstroke length make you alter the backstroke to a shorter stroke, you will cause a hitch in your stroke that will throw your timing off and your body will not be clear about just how fast the putterhead needs to be moving at impact. The brain knows very very well the relationship between backstroke length and putterhead speed at impact, but it can't tell you about it in midstroke. So if you alter your stroke length (and thus also the tempo) in mid-stroke, you mess up the system and are back to just guessing.

So, no I don't advise a different stroke or tempo for very long putts. Just make sure the impact is still on "two" after a free fall. usually, the real long backstroke makes a lot of golfers feel like they can't get the putterhead back to solid contact with the ball, but this is more a body posture and movement problem than a stroke length and timing problem. This discomfort or unease about making solid contact often is what the golfer is really worried about. For that, you need to practice not allowing the hands to get farther from the body going back to the top of a very long backstroke. I imaging a sheet of plywood or glass leaning into my stomach area so that the butts of my hands are resting on this plane, and stay in contact with it going back and thru. Then when the hands fall back towards impact, there is less worry about making solid contact.

A related problem is a very long backstroke may cause the golfer's pivot in the base of the neck to wander back with the arms. This movement out of pattern also causes fears about solid contact, and golfers want a shorter stroke to avoid the problem. The real answer is to stabilize the lower body for the wider stroke, possibly with a slightly wider stance, and focus on letting the stroke occur as it must without shifting the pivot back. Then when the hands drop towards impact, the pivot is right where it started, just above a spot directly behind the ball, above the bottom of the stroke. As the shoulderframe drops down back to level and the hands and putterhead reach the bottom of the stroke right below this pivot, that is the time for "two" and to start the lifting of the lead shoulder thru the ball.

I hope this is fairly clear.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
The PuttingZone.com
http://puttingzone.com
Golf's most advanced and comprehensive putting instruction.

Over 45,000 visits monthly and growing strong.

Thanks a lot for the quick answer.
I didn't tell you in the last post but what have really changed my lag putting is just that "one potato, two". At the beginning i was not using it being sure to have the ability to keep the tempo choosen. That was right when I was on practice green but when on the course I was not able to keep my stroke in fine tempo.
At the first try with the "magic formula" i've noticed drastic improvement in distance control and the more intersting was that everytime I feel, just after impact, that I've applied a little extra-force to the putt, not letting it fall by gravity, the result is without a chance...long!
Thanks a lot, I'll keep you informed