Dear Geoff,

I have done a lot of Internet research on belly putting. There is a wealth of evidence that this approach can dramatically improve putting performance. Anyway, in experimenting with this approach, I have found "sternum" putting to be a superior approach to belly putting. I have cut a long putter so that its butt rests against my sternum while I take my normal (short putter) grip. I believe that it's superior to belly putting because the fulcrum of its pendulum motion is higher, allowing one to make an arm-and-shoulder stroke, taking the wrists out of the equation. The trick is adjusting putter length and lie so that the hands are below the shoulders and the eyes are over the ball. This approach is deadly inside of 15 feet and very easy to learn, since it emulates an excellent short putter stroke. I'd be interested in your thoughts on this approach. Take care.

Butch Dye

Dear Butch,

I pretty much agree with the notion that placing a mid-length putter in the sternum is better than placing it in the belly, because the sternum position seems more conducive to a shoulder-rock motion and less conducive to a hands-powered stroke. I don't know for sure, however, that this difference is attributable to hand position. Instead, I think the shoulder stroke actually moves the sternum, and the hand position is mostly irrelevant. When the handle is held against the sternum, the shoulder rock is a pretty natural manner of moving the putter. But when the handle is placed against the belly just at the waist, this part of the body does not get moved much at all by a shoulder rock, as the pelvis and hips are trying to stay still and this keeps the lower gut still, too, regardless of what is happening up top at the shoulders and upper torso.

I think that a good benefit of the mid-length putting style is that it CAN help get the hands down low and keep them there. In the conventional style, many many golfers have too much crook in their elbows, and this encourages changes in the shape of the triangle of arms-hands and putter, either by armsiness in the stroke or wristiness, or by the un-noticed lengthening of the arms or the lifting of the hands in the stroke. A setup with the mid-length putter that gets the hands low to start with KEEPS the hands low since the space between the hands and the body is fixed and unalterable by virtue of the handle resting up into the body. This is not the case with the conventional style, and the golfer needs to learn to keep the shape of the triangle the same in the stroke, without armsiness, handsiness, lengthening, or lifting.

When the mid-length putter is placed against the belly, the difficulty of moving it with a shoulder rock (because the belly wants to stay still with the hips) encourages the golfer to power the stroke with his hands (that is, with the wrists changing) plus a little armsiness (that is, with the arm pits opening and closing in the stroke). IF the golfer sets the hands low on the putter AND plants the handle low against the belly, this biomechanical combination does not allow much amplitude in the stroke for the hands-arms motion. A way the golfer gets more stroke amplitude is to raise the hands up the handle and let the elbows bend. Then, a higher hand action results in greater sweep of the putterhead. That's why golfers using the mid-length putter with the handle planted low in the belly have hands high on the handle and elbows bent.

Another way to manage this still-belly problem is to hang the back arm and hold the putter handle low with this hand only and keep the forward hand close to the point where the handle meets the belly. This setup allows something closer to a shoulder rock action to move the putterhead in a nice sweep, but it is also pretty close to a one-arm action instead of a two-shoulders rocking action.

So I agree that the belly putter can be used effectively in a manner that is very similar to a good conventional stroke. Fundamentally, the belly putter is not that different from a conventional putter. The more I think about it, the more I think the distinct way a belly putter offers some help is that it doesn't really keep the pivot stationary in space so much as it fixes the space between the hands and the pivot. Depending on what else the golfer does, this use of the belly putter MAY help reduce hadsiness, armsiness, lengthening, or lifting, but it's not guaranteed.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
The PuttingZone.com
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I agree with much of what Geoff says

Sternum putting is a good method, as it points the shaft at the axis of rotation of the shoulders. This is similar to a long putter and the method is also a wrist LESS method - Sternum putting is therefore really a version of long putting and is both better and worse:

Better because two hands hold the putter and the wavering that can happen with long putters is reduced
Worse because the better view of the upright long putter is lost

Belly putting is really a version of short putter teachnique - I have come to think of it a STABILISED wrist putting (unless one grips way down - NOT recommended)

Belly putting is probably better as it works better on long putts where the wristless methods above (sternum and long) require a BIG swing to gain enough momentum

Cheers Simon

PS my company owns sternumputter.com longputter.com and bellyputter.com so I guess we are interested in this area!