Dear Tim,
There are several aspects to getting the takeaway nice and smooth. The first is the setup. The hanging down of the arms and hands in a relaxed way ought to get the "play" out of the elbows, even if there is a wee bit of angle outward of the forearm at the last. If the elbows in the setup retain a substantial "crook" in them, then this crook tends to straighten in the backstroke without your being aware of it, and this lengthening of the system from pivot (neck area) out to bottom of putter can create stubs and keep the putter too low. So first setup with the arms hanging in a very nice, somewhat heavy fashion that gets most of the crook out of the elbows naturally.
Second, the pivot in the base of the neck needs to remain pretty much where it starts at address during the stroke progression. The tendency is for the base of the neck to follow the arms back and thru. Just a little wandering like this is hurtful -- no more than an inch is pretty serious. The consequence of keeping the pivot stabilized during the stroke is that the putterhead must rise on a slight arc vertically going back and going thru. The only way the putter would not rise is if a) the stroke path describes a perfect circle around the center of the feet, or b) the putting triangle from pivot to sole of putter is lengthening going back and lengthening going thru. So let the vertical rising occur naturally. How much does the putter rise off the ground? This depends on the length of the triangle from pivot to sole. A typical length is 4.5 feet. If you dropped a tape measure from the base of the neck to the ball, this is typically 54 inches for a 6-foot male with a 35-inch putter, so there is a 19-inch space between the butt of the putter handle and the base of the neck. This being the case, a stroke path that traveled completely around the body, not just the normal crescent shape of a stroke, would form a circle with a diameter of 9 feet and a circumference of about 28 feet. So if you focus only on the section of that circle right near the ball, about 2 feet on either side of the ball, the "rising" of the putterhead off the ground is not really that much. As a test of this, play the putter in the eact middle of your stance but play the ball a full 6 inches in front of the putter; forget this big gap and simply make a straight stroke with the putter rising naturally -- you will see that the putterface still makes good contact with the ball, albeit a little lower than the vertical middle of the face. When you play the ball a mere 2 inches ahead of the middle of your stance, the putter rises hardly any at all over that very short section of the arc. In fact, if the ball is played in the exact middle of the stance, the impact point on the face ought to be about exactly midway from bottom of face to top of face, whereas if you play the ball 2 inches forward and hit the back of the ball after the putterface rises a little, the impact point on the face is only about 1/16th to 1/8th inch lower than the midway point. And in fact, this is where most pros usually impact the ball on their putterface -- just below the midline.
Third, if you treat the triangle of arms, hands, and putter as a unit and move the whole unit back with a pushing of the lead shoulder so that the triangle curls beneath the fixed pivot, your takeaway will be straight and smooth. This is because thinking about the shoulder as the part of the body that will push the whole back is a superior way to start the stroke than using the hands. The tendency of the hands is to start the stroke with a wrist change, as that is how the hands move. The wrist change can go in several different directions back away from the ball, and a common direction takes the putterhead away from your feet across the start line of the putt. This takeaway of the hands creates a loop in the stroke path that is difficult to recover from. In contrast, pushing the shoulder at the start keeps the putterhead moving back either straight or slightly to the inside, and it is practically impossible to start the stroke back with the shoulders inadvertantly sending the putterhead away from your feet. but remember to keep the pivot stable when you use the shoulder this way. It's easier to keep the pivot still when the hands alone start the stroke, but that's not a good plan. Instead, practice dropping the lead shoulder down and back beneath a stable pivot, and keep the hands inactive.
Fourth, one of the best rules for stroke consistentcy is to set one grip pressure at the outset and then don't allow that pressure to change during the progress of the stroke. This is not quite the same as saying to keep the left wrist from breaking down -- that's a separate issue, and one I don't believe is a concern for people using a shoulder-powered pendulum stroke with relaxzed arms and hands (left wrist breakdown is a hand-powered problem only). I like a total grip pressure in the vicinity of 2-3 on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being as hard as I can squeeze. Sort of a nice handshake grip, noticeably firmer than a flaccid handshake but not at all agressively firm - just nice and firm. This idea about the stroke helps keep the hands from getting active, either in powering the stroke or in guiding the path -- either of which hurts the accuracy and consistency of the movement pattern. Fixing the grip pressure in effect forces you to power the stroke with something other than the hands, especially at the takeaway where lots of trouble can occur.
Fifth, rhythm in the takeaway can be gained by thinking of your tempo just before starting the stroke. My tempo is something like "one potato ... two," with "one potato" being the takeaway to the top of the backstroke in approximately the same pace or timing that the full down-and-thru stroke will take. The "... two" is the transition to the downstroke to impact (only), which is about 1/2 a second for me. The actual timing from top of backstroke to top of follow-thru is about 1 full second, which is near to the natural gravity tempo of the putter alone, without me speeding it up any with my muscles. So I know my tempo ahead of time, and think of it before I start the stroke. This gives me a sense of the total backstroke and then I just do it.
Finally, playing ther ball forward can cause a little difficulty if not attended to. I guess it helps to realize that the putter is lowest and closest to the ground right in the middle of the stance. This means that if you play the ball forward AND move the putter up to behind the ball (not everyone finds it necessary to close this gap), the very first inch or two going back has the putter sole actually going a little lower towards the ground to get back to the middle of the stance and the bottom of the stroke. Because of this, it is important to register the bottom of the stroke at setup by starting the setup right in the middle of the stance, getting the hands low enough onto the handle that the putter is not stuck down into the ground at this lowest point (I have a tip about called "Bounce the Putter to Locate the Ground" about setting this length at address --
http://puttingzone.com/MyTips/bounce.html). This sets the sole of the putter at the end of relaxed hanging arms but with the sole of the putter just resting on the tips of the grass blades, not pushing the grass down to the surface. Then when you move the putter forward to behind the ball, don't lower the putter, but keep the pivot elevation the same and don't stretch the arms or hands down any -- just move the putter forward even if it rises 1/6th an inch highger than it is at the middle of the stance. This way, when the putter starts back, it will also start slightly down until it gets to the middle of the stance, but this downward motion won't cause any problems.
So, hang the arms and hands in a "heavy" relaxed way to get rid of excess play in the elbows; don't stick the putter down but rest it to begin with on tops of the grass baleds in the middle of the stance before moving it up to the ball; keep the pivot in the base of the neck stable during the stroke and allow the natural but mild rising of the putterhead back and thru without worrying about this over the 3-4 feet right at the ball; start the shoulder rock to move the whole triangle back as a unit; keep the hands inert with a stable grip pressure; and think of the tempo and total stroke pattern right before pulling the trigger.
A drill you can do is to set three ball down in a line separated by a foot or so each. Setup to putt a ball at one end of the line away from the other two. Start the stroke with the lead shoulder dropping down and back, with the result that the back of the putter travels back into the middle ball and "putts" it straight back to contact the third ball and knock it also straight along the line.
Let me know if this addresses your difficulties.
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
The PuttingZone.com
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