Hi Geoff,

First of all, Happy New-year! I wish you all the best in the next year, (especially with your putting of course). I do have some new questions though, and they all hang together around this main question:

1) During the last 5-10 seconds before you stroke and the moment that you stroke, what exactly should you look at in what order and what should you think about, or imagine/visualize?

I know this is a very complicated question, which can be addressed in different ways.

To make it a little bit clearer, I’ll mention some of the issues I am uncertain about. These issues are just coming from a brainstorm session I did about things I don’t understand. I know it’s sometimes pretty vague, so let me know I you want me to structure my questions more.

UNCERTAINTIES

1) What is best?

Thinking about the exact target/spot DURING THE STROKE or to think about the ball following the line?

And what about the spot on the ball where you want to hit it. Can you make yourself looking at this point subconsciously so that you can actually think about something else, like the target or the line?

Cohn and Winters address this issue, but are very vague about it. They say (page 131):

“most players watch the ball during the stroke, but also retain the ball-target orientation and/or sight their line with peripheral vision”.

I think they are addressing more or less the same problem, but do it very vague. Why do they say AND/OR?? What exactly is the ball-target orientation? What part of the line do they sight with peripheral vision. How does this change for longer putts? Etc. Etc. Etc.

2) Another question I have also comes from reading their book. Should your eyes focus on the hole, a spot near the hole, or an intermediate spot on your line? How about using that imaginary spot for downhill/uphill putts (or putts that break)?

3) What is the correct order in which to look at things during the last 5-10 seconds?

4) Should I envision the entire line the ball is going to take

5) Should I look at the line from ball to hole or vice versa?

6) How does this all change for long putts?

7) To what specific part of the ball should I look at? I look at a dimple on the right side (viewed from above, for a right handed player). Is this correct?

Thanks in advance for your time and effort.

Greetings from The Netherlands

Bastiaan van Slobbe

Dear Bastiaan,

Thank you for asking this tremendously important question, especially in light of the recent articles highlighting vision so prominently. I think the proper role or function of vision in putting in pretty misunderstood, and this misguided emphasis on vision hurts most golfers.

Let me start with a few key observations and then respond to each of your questions.

The fundamental character of golf is action, not information gathering. In putting, the action is three-staged:

1. [Reading the Putt]

First, the action is simulating the roll of a successful putt over the actual green surface into the cup in the mind so that the best-chance startline and the speed are comprehended accurately,

2. [Aiming Putter and Body]

Then the action shifts to orienting the body setup to the startline for a straight stroke,

3. [Making a Straight Stroke with Good Touch]

And then the action is executing the stroke movement with good touch or distance control.

The routine integrates these three fundamental phases into a unified, flowing, single action of "the putt" in a way that respects and enhances innate brain-body processes of targeting (perceptual processes) and stroking (movement processes).

The first phase (reading line and speed) is targeting with the effect of stroke movement in mind (how the ball will roll). The second phase (aiming putter face and body in setup to line) is moving and positioning the putter and body in response to continuing targeting, so it is a blend of perception and motion. The final phase (stroking straight with good touch) is pure movement, beyond targeting, made out of the setup position with the targeting in control of touch at a non-conscious level.

Once the path is accurately imagined with the "read," and the setup to the startline is adopted with the putter face aimed squarely down the startline, the only missing variable is touch. But touch is simply the length of the backstroke in a stroke executed with consistent tempo. And this aspect of the action is set non-consciously as a result of targeting in the first and second phases.

The role or function of the eyes is to assist the body in its process of learning to feel "aimed." The body is position and posture and forthcoming movement on the green in relation to the ball, putt line, target, cup, and stroke. The eyes obviously have a role in "reading" the putt and this role is pretty straightforward and is the normal way people think about the eyes and vision. But in getting the putter and then body setup in the second stage of action, the role of the eyes is entirely subordinate to the movement and positioning of the body as it uses targeting motions to square up to the imagined startline of the putt, aim the face down this line, and square the body to this face and putter-as-aimed for purposes of the ensuing straight stroke movement in the final stage of "the putt." And in the final stage, making a straight stroke with the putter-as-aimed with good touch, the eyes have next to no role, apart from not hurting and mildly helping the body make the motion correctly.

People who have little appreciation for the neuroscience of action, as well as a limited exposure to elite putting technique / expertise, tend to misunderstand the role of vision in the second and third stages. Statements like "have a steady gaze aimed at the back of the ball" right before and during the execution of the stroke, all fancied up with the aura of "science," make golfers believe that there is more being done with vision at this point than really is the case. The important neuroscience at this point is proprioceptive and movement-oriented, not visual -- that is, "feel" and not "sight.". The main function of the eyes and vision now is not to harm the important processes, and there is very very little that vision contributes in a positive way to making a straight stroke with good touch.

Let me respond to your separate questions, and hopefull this will become clearer.

Q:"1) During the last 5-10 seconds before you stroke and the moment that you stroke, what exactly should you look at in what order and what should you think about, or imagine/visualize?'

RESPONSE: This is the final parts of the setup action leading into the stroke. These final 5-10 seconds are when the golfer has aimed the face of the putter and adopted his beside-the-ball position. he is looking one last time down the line to the "target," to make sure he really "feels" the putter face is accurately aimed, that his body is "squarely" setup for a straight stroke with that aim, and that he has a good sense of speed for rolling the ball into the cup with good touch. Picking the target to aim at based on the imagined "read" and aiming the putter's face after sighting from behind the ball have already been done. The golfer is transitioning from vision to body movement. He checks the face visually to make sure it looks and feels aimed where intended; he checks his setup in relation to the putter as thus aimed for purposes of feeling whether he can make a straight stroke rolling the ball straight away from the face as aimed; and he refreshes his sense of distance.

What is he looking at? First, the way the face aims thru the center of the ball. He has done this already in setting up to the face aim as established from sighting behind the ball, but now he does it again, this time to make sure he "sees" the line he has established for the forthcoming stroke by the face aim thru the ball. The golfer assesses the perpendicularity of the face and the line off the face thru the center of the ball, to make sure he knows where the face is actually aimed. This line thru and away from the ball out of the face is what the golfer now wants to follow with his vision to see where it ends up.

The golfer now assesses whether the eye line across his skull matches the line away from the face, and he assesses whether his gaze is aimed straight out of his face. (This step becomes a lot easier and with little or no thought as it is practiced.) This is the beginning position (eye line matches face-aim line and gaze straight) for accurately turning the line of sight out of a fixed straight gaze by simply turning the head to move the gaze.

The golfer then turns the head and monitors the turn with feeling and vision to make sure the head turn is progressing so the line of sight stays moving in a straight line along the ground, wherever it is going. If the line of sight ends up at the preselected "target" straight away from the way the putter face is actually aimed, then this process has successfully confirmed that the face is aimed squarely at the target. (In a breaking putt, for example, the "target" would be a spot to the side of the hole.)

From the target, the golfer keeps the head still with the same orientation to the target but shifts his gaze to the spot on the lip where the ball should enter the cup. From there he retraces the last segment of the curve of the putt (emphasized during the reading of the putt) backwards out of the hole in reverse realtime visualization with eye muscles only and follows this curve as it merges back into a straight line back to the ball. At this point, the golfer resumes the fixed-gaze head turn and retraces the line back to the putter face by keeping the gaze straight and re-turning the head. The golfer watches to see that the line of sight comes back into the face in a perpendicular way, just as it left to move to the target.

(This head turn with fixed gaze to the target is done while imagining the roll of a perfect-speed putt to the target. Doing this gives the body feel-knowledge in terms of the angle of neck turn and the pacing of the turn that calibrates the brain for making a stroke with good touch. That is, this checking of the face aim combines with the timing to establish the backstroke length of the forthcoming putt. This happens totally without thought and depends only on a persistent background sense of green speed and some accuracy of imagination is visualizing the perfect putt's realtime roll along the path to the target.)

As the line of sight arrives back at the ball, the golfer wants to "feel" the putter face's aim straight thru the ball. This means that the sweetspot of the putter face will be moved in a line straight thru the center of the ball along the line the face is now aimed. So the golfer looks at and feels this line thru the ball, starting at the back dimple on the equator closest to the putter face and extending thru the center of the ball and out the opposite front dimple on the equator that is closest to the target. As the eyes stop moving, the feeling of this aim is a matter of visiting your body to feel if all systems are go for the stroke necessarily implied by the ball-putter face relationship (aim) - do the posture and tension feel correct for the stroke to come, are you aware of how the motion will be started, with which body part moving how? This all happens subconsciously in a flash (or two).

Then the golfer stops moving the head. The gaze may have shifted about a little to get the correct feel of what is straight down the line and out the face of the putter, but now the gaze stops moving. It has to stop with the line of sight pointed somewhere, and the back of the ball is certainly one possibility. But the fundamental point is that the gaze should stop soemwhere along the line of the putt near the ball. You could look at the front dimple, a spot on the line in front of the ball, the center of the ball, the back dimple of the ball, a spot on the ground between the putter face and the ball, or the sweetspot of the putter (and probably other spots on the line near the ball). I personally like to look at a small blade of grass on the line right in front of the edge of the putter face between the face and the back of the ball. I identify this spot as the place for the (down)stroke motion to transition from perfectly flat and vertical at the bottom of the stroke to an upward finishing stroke. But that's because the bottom of my stroke is directly in front of my putter face. This is a little unusual, as this plus forward ball position makes a gap between my putter face and the back of the ball. I think this gap is a wonder way to emphasize the line and the body motion of the stroke, as compared to moving the putter head forward to the back of the ball and thus past the bottom of the stroke.

When gazing down at this blade of grass, the golfer does not think of anything at all, except perhaps to make a good straight stroke with good tempo.

Q:"1) What is best? "

"Thinking about the exact target/spot DURING THE STROKE or to think about the ball following the line?"

RESPONSE: Neither. Don't think about the target or the line; just think about making a straight stroke with good tempo. Keep the sweetspot moving on line simply by the shoulder movement and keep the face square to the target simply by keeping the hands '"dead."

Q:"And what about the spot on the ball where you want to hit it. Can you make yourself look at this point subconsciously so that you can actually think about something else, like the target or the line?"

RESPONSE: Yes, you can look at the back of the ball or another spot on the line, but you don't have to think about that or about anything else.

Q: "Cohn and Winters address this issue, but are very vague about it. They say (page 131):

“most players watch the ball during the stroke, but also retain the ball-target orientation and/or sight their line with peripheral vision”.

"I think they are addressing more or less the same problem, but do it very vague. Why do they say AND/OR?? What exactly is the ball-target orientation? What part of the line do they sight with peripheral vision. How does this change for longer putts? Etc. Etc. Etc."

RESPONSE: The "ball-target orientation" is the feeling that you are aimed square at the target with putter face and body and are set to make a straight stroke. I don't believe golfers should sight the line with peripheral vision. Doing so is diciding attention in a way that leads to peeking and head and eye motion during the stroke, which leads to poor stroke motions.

Q: "2) Another question I have also comes from reading their book. Should your eyes focus on the hole, a spot near the hole, or an intermediate spot on your line? How about using that imaginary spot for downhill/uphill putts (or putts that break)? "

RESPONSE: a spot on the ball or on the line near the ball in front or behind.

Q: "3) What is the correct order in which to look at things during the last 5-10 seconds?"

RESPONSE: ball and putter face; line; target; hole; curve backwards out of hole until it transitions to a straight line back into the ball; ball and putter face; spot of grass; sweetspot in downstroke arriving at spot of grass; spot of grass after putter head passes into impact.

Q: "4) Should I envision the entire line the ball is going to take?"

RESPONSE: Yes, but only during reading the putt and when retracing the path backwards out of the hole, but not when executing the stroke.

Q: "5) Should I look at the line from ball to hole or vice versa?"

RESPONSE: Yes, but be careful how the "looking" movement is performed in terms of gaze and head turn.

Q: "6) How does this all change for long putts?"

RESPONSE: It doesn't change at all for long putts. In fact, since there is more neck-turn angle and the hole appears to be a smaller visual object, there is reason to argue that long putts start out with more precise input for the targeting perceptual processes.

Q: "7) To what specific part of the ball should I look at? I look at a dimple on the right side (viewed from above, for a right handed player). Is this correct?"

RESPONSE: That's ok. It's also OK to look at another spot on the ball or grass that is on the line and near the ball, whether slightly in front or behind.

All of the above is a rather explicit, point-by-point description of what I think is a good way to use the body and vision in putting. But laying it all out explicitly like this should not lead you to think this is "paralysis by analysis." There are just a couple of things to learn, one of which is the fundamental approach to putting as "body action." Another is how the gaze has to be unchanging and straight for accurate perceptions. Another is to use the final check at setup for the dual purposes of checking that your aim feel right and of building in the correct neck-angle and pace of turn used for the touch system.

And probably the biggest on, contrary to a lot of existing putting lore, once you are happy that the putter face and body are aimed at a target selected in your read, you really want to KILL vision completely, get out of targeting mode, and go completely into stroke mode. At this point, you could close your eyes and pull the trigger with good tempo and an empty brain. About all a fixed and still gaze contributes at this point is a mildly useful visual stillness that helps make sure the body movement stays on track. Too abrupt a movement, and the visual scene might shimmer. Twist the torso out of square, and the scene at your feet shifts.

What I say is that once you are satisfied with the putter face aim and your feet are "happy" (thus signalling that the body from eyes to feet has settled into the square setup to the putter face aim, then it's time to stare blankly at one spot, live in the still scene at your feet, think of nothing at all except perhaps making a straight stroke with good tempo, and start the stroke.

Let me know what needs better clarification.

Cheers!

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

Over 555,000 visits and growing strong ...

Dear Geoff,

After thoroughly reading your answers to my questions about vision, I do have a follow-up question.

You say: RESPONSE: During the stroke, you shouldn't think about the target or the line; just think about making a straight stroke with good tempo.

This is highly in contrast with for example Rottela, how says that you should think about your target, during the execution. (He says something like: your mind responds to a target.)

I can also recall that Tiger was trained by his dad to envision the hole, or the ball going into the hole.

Doesn't thinking about the target help the subconscious, by giving more specific instruction to your brain?

Gr

Bastiaan van Slobbe

Dear Bastiaan,

The term "reacting" to the target is very vague. Whenever I see a golfer or golf guru using this term, without clarifying explanation, I assume the person does not know a great deal about how the brain actually functions. It's just another unfortunate example of sloppy "jargon" masquerading as some sort of technical knowledge, when in fact there is none. It's unfortunate because golfers innocently and eagerly attach themselves to this sort of terminology and then become vested in beliefs in chimera without substance.

A reader of Aldous Huxley's books "The Doors of Perception" and "Heaven and Hell" are familiar with the fact that the brain "reacts" to the full perceptual panolply of the world sensorium. Whatever the senses detect, the brain reacts to the detection. On the conscious level, however, the brain screens or filters OUT practically all of the available signals from the environment, and allows into consciousness only those few signals that are relevant to our survival. Otherwise, we would all be as mad as a schizophrenic Hatter, and would collapse into a fetal lump of incoherent twitching and babbling.

The filtering system is partly neurophysiological and partly a matter of conscious attentiveness. Most filtering occurs on a non-conscious level with the neurochemistry that affects the thalamus in the core of the brain. The thalamus is the gateway of sensory experience to the cortical areas of the brain. The thalamus is a product of evolutionary selective development that functions to enahnce survival. We typically only notice what matters.

The conscious attention system of the brain can affect the "gating" functions of the thalamus and boost the signals of specific sorts of perceptions. For example, when holding a coin in the palm, the brain recognizes round metal of an official sort. But if the brain decides to examine the writing on the coin in closer detail, the visual features of the design become prominent in consciousness. So attentiveness to environmental cues is mostly an on-going non-conscious matter and partly a conscious matter of directed attention.

The brain, then, reacts to the environment. And moreover, because of its high survival relevance, the brain really "reacts" almost always to CHANGE (or movement) in the environment.

If your brain were hooked to an EEG brainwave reading machine, the machine operator could "make" your brain "react" at will by presenting you with sounds, touches, sights, smells, and the like. If your brain were laying exposed on the operating table, the neurosurgeon could (and would) elicit reactions from your brain by probing certain areas to find out what is located where, so he doesn't cut into the wrong functional areas going after a tumor. He could, for example, make you "hear" your grandmother by touching a certain pocket of neurons, or make you "smell" an August rainshower, or make your lips curl in a "snarl." A great deal of our knowledge of brain structure and functional localization has been learned by just this sort of probing for reactions.

I've read everything I could find by Bob Rotella and I have never seen any evidence that he appreciates these aspects of brain function, and he never offers much of a real explanation, so I am puzzled by what he actually might mean by the phrase "the brain reacts to the target."

What I say is that learning putting skills requires learning how to generate and pay attention to "relevant cues" of perception in the putting setting so that the innate processes of the brain for targeting and stroke are respected and enhanced. In my experience, the relevant cues are ball - putter face squareness (and thus aim), green surface condition and contour, realtime imagination visually or kinesthetically of how the successful putt will roll across the surface into the hole and thus how it's path and energy pattern is shaped, a target near the hole for purposes of establishing a straight-line putt from ball to target that is well calculated with the energy of the putt to allow the proper break to occur, a targeting process that generates distance and hence touch signals, and a collection of body cues about position and state and motion for preparing to make and for executing the straight stroke with good touch necessarily implied by the ball-face aim and the distance-touch signals.

This is a time-sensitive staging of perceptions into movement. There is a time for a certain sort of visualization or mental imagery, and not just any time during the routine or action of the putt is suitable. I sense in the phrasings of your question that you may be talking about several different sorts of visualizations at different points in the putt routine.

What I believe most golfers seem to value is the "holding of a mental image" of the target in the conscious mind when the stroke is being executed. Or at least placing such an image in the mind at some point in the time-course of the routine. (I personally imagine that my left temple is an open barn loft door out of which my "inner eye" looks at the target.) The belief seems to be that this enhances the golfer's accurate sense of target location in terms of line and speed. I believe this is only partially true in a very limited sense.

Mental imagery is often touted as valuable in sports. But there are a host of unresolved issues concerning what sort of mental imagery, when and how, and to what effect in the skill. For example, many golfers think of a static "picture" of the hole and want this internal image in the mind when executing the putt. other golfers (e,g,, Jack Nicklaus) speak about a "movie" of the successful putt when visualizing the read or when standing at address waiting for the "inspiration" to pull the trigger. And it is well to remember that some people are mostly visual and others are mostly feel golfers on the green. The "feel" golfers sense the energy pattern of a putt or the "correctness" of their setup and aim in their body much more keenly than they sense a picture of the path or a movie of the ball rolling across the green.

At a deeper level, there is a significant issue of the relationship between a mental image and the execution of a motor skill. There is good neuroscience evidence that mental practice affects the same motor neurons involved in real movement execution of the skill, but there is also good evidence that mental events differ in some important ways from real events. Simply putt, having an image of the hole when standing over a putt does not mean you are aimed square to a good target or have an accurate appreciation of green speed and distance for good touch. I think it is necessary to focus separatley on line and touch.

A visualization that I have had pretty good results from I call "dwelling in the hole" or something like that. I commit to the hypnotic suggestion that the interior space of the cup is the only location I am aware of in the universe, something as if I were a diminutive person standing at the bottom of the well of the cup. But not just an image of any cup -- only an image of the specific cup I am putting into. In order to obtain the desired results of enhancing the brain's spatial localization of the target on the green, I have to think about being "there-here": "there" inside that specific cup over there in relation to my body's actual position, and "here" in the hypno-world of the image of the body inside the cup. The cup is "there" exactly, not nearer and not farther and not off to the side a bit, just "there," and that "there" is all there is in the universe, the only location, so I am obviously only "there-here."

What this sort of visualization does in the brain is assist the transfer of spatial awareness of the target to the movement neurons for the stroke. The way this happens has been extensively explored by University of Minnesota neuroscientist A. Georgopoulos, in what he calls "population vector" selection. How it works is that the visual and physical sense of body and target location is developed in the parietal lobe's Intelligence Sector and then forwarded to the frontal cortex's War Room for movement planning. The parietal lobe draws a battle map and puts an X where the shot needs to go (distance and direction) and then sends this to the frontal lobe where the plan is put into action with troops orders. The frontal lobe calls for volunteers in the motor cortex to take the shot, and those who are already aiming in the general direction of X hear the call loudest and are the quickest to raise their hands to volunteer for the shot. One of the volunteers is selected, based mostly on his aiming in the general direction of X, and this volunteer takes the shot. On average, the volunteer chosen is actually aiming + or - 5 degrees of X over 90% of the time, so there are misses in the selection process.

The "dwelling in the hole" visualization is meant to boost the signal / contrast of the spatial awareness of the target, so the X is bigger and brighter and the call for volunteers more discriminating, weeding out more volunteers who are aimed slightly off target. The upshot is to increase the chances that the targeting process produces an accurate stroke, in terms of line and distance.

The brain "reacts" to this sort of imagery in a very specific way based on how the perceptions are transformed into movement.

Even so, I think this sort of imagery is really only good for touch and not all that good for line awareness. Line awareness is partly the actual curve path of the putt into the cup and a straight line from ball to some target location for purposes of making a straight stroke. The "dwelling in the hole" sort of visualization seems to help on sensing the last foot or so of the actual curve (so long as the sense of the energy of the ball at that segment of the path is also visualized), but doesn't help with the ball-to-target line or even target selection for this line. I'm working on other sorts of imagery for these purposes.

The static image of the hole during execution of the stroke seems more useful for distance and only slightly useful for line. Implicit in the image is the apparent size of the hole in the context of the surface of the green in perspective. The apparent sixe of the hole in the mental image is a distance cue from the visual system. The expanse of surface contour between your position and the hole that is also usually a part of such an image is only something of a line indicator, as the startline of the putt is surely within this expanse somewhere, as is the actual curve of the putt.

What I believe is actually happening is that the mind constructs this sort of static image of the hole on the green as a workstation for problem solving. To the extent that this image serves as the occasion for the body to get aimed accurately, the image is prompting the brain to "react" in this problem-solving process. I seriously doubt that many golfers are sufficiently aware of this phase of brain activity in relation to an internal image or use images consciously / explicitly in this way, although on the occasions when this sort of usage tacitly takes place, the golfer benefits.

In this sense, putting imagery is a little like art appreciation. If you don't engage your imaginative or critical faculties with the image hanging on the wall, you might as well be walking in a dark tunnel. And, when you do engage with a visual image, your emotional and intuitive "reaction" more often comes forth more potently when your critical "thinking" about the technical aspects of the art is disengaged. Then the deriving of meaning and value from the image is based on tacit or non-conscious critical problem-solving. If the problem posed is whether you are poised to make a successful putt in terms of line and distance, the image has a tacit usefulness as an internal image for engagement in a non-thinking way.

In other words, I think the real usefulness to most golfers of the static image of the hole when making the stroke is that it helps shut off thinking in favor of doing. In this vein, it is just a pretty swing "thought" functionally. You could just as easily think of a pink rose. Arnold Palmer used to think of his Big Toe when making the stroke.

Rather than say "picture the hole" in order to let the brain "react" to the target (meaning the "hole"), I would say either think of nothing at all or learn how images really promote useful reactions in the brain. For my money, the proper usage of images to enhance accurate and vivid perceptions of line and distance leading to accurate and successful stroke motions of a straight putt at a target with good touch is a pretty complex affair that requires considerable training and brain resources to employ with any significant effectiveness. For that reason, I personally cabin my mental imagery to a real-time visualization of the rolling of a successful putt to help me read the putt to start with and later to "see" and assess the correctness of my choice of straight-line target, or to get a deeper sense of the real spatial localization of the hole in reference to my body as an aid to touch and somewhat as an aid to line. These usages of mental resources I employ only in the earlier phases of the putting action (targeting and setup), and I keep my mental powder dry for the stroke itself by devoting all brain resources in executing the stroke to making a straight stroke with good tempo.

Another issue arises with this business of "reacting" to the target. The underlying idea seems to be that this "reacting" SOMEHOW controls the stroke, so that even if you are setup crooked or have the putter face aimed askew or are not especially skilled at making the ball roll where the putter face is aimed, the "reacting" of the brain will sort out the problems SOMEHOW and you will "instinctively" roll the ball into the hole. There is no doubt that indifferent putters occasionally get some better results this way, but that is mostly because they are indifferent putters and it doesn't take a lot of extra help to get better results on occasion. The issue for me is whether, over the long haul, considering putting performance over a year or more in all rounds on all greens facing every different putt, a golfer will get better results going for the spark of improvement over a base of flawed indifferent procedures or whether he will get better results by seeking a reliable technique that rolls the ball where he aims the putter plus learning how to aim the putter and how to develop reliable touch. If (like me) you believe in the second approach, mental imagery during the execution of the stroke doesn't add much of a positive sort for the movement itself and mostly helps block out energy-wasting thinking that draws brain resources away from more vital movement processes.

In reality, if you putt where the putter is aimed, knowing where the target is is simply a matter of looking at your feet to see where the putter face tells you it is. Then you putt straight, with good touch. In contrast, if you are hoping for some targeting help at the last from an internal image, the implicit idea is that you are fine with the idea that you are not aimed accurately or that a successful putt may require some sort of odd stroke. Not me, brother! If I aim the putter face, I want to aim it accurately at a good target. Once I've settled the aim of the face, why in the world would I accept putting the ball anywhere other than straight at the target. If I putt straight and miss, I will certainly get a lot better in my aiming and picking targets and reading putts quickly. If I putt crooked and miss, I'll never know whether my targeting was any good and I'll never get better results.

The touch comes from previous targeting. This sense of touch also does not need to be refreshed by some internal image at the last, as some gurus seem to beleive. By the time you are finished reading the putt and setting up, and are looking down at the ball before pulling the trigger, you have "targeted" the distance of the putt and the green's speed and contour probably more than six separate times. The last look before pulling the trigger takes place only a few seconds at most before executing the stroke. The relevant cues to distance are only partially visual and the really big cues are proprioceptive and kinesthetic, from turning the head and neck towards the target, from walking or pacing off the putt, from walking behind the ball and facing the target with your body, and so forth -- MOVEMENTS plus vision, not VISION in the abstract as the sole or even dominant gatherer of relevant cues for touch. These cues last plenty long so that a frantic last-minute refreshing is totally unnecessary and is almost always the pure product of pointless self-generated anxiety.

And these cues function primarily thru the good offices of the cerebellum. The cerebellum is more about the body, balance, and smooth coordinated movement than it is about vision. Static images of an object or location in space don't help the cerebellum's functioning in putting very much in comparison to a movement-based body-targeting and a sense of rhythm or tempo.

And finally, the "react to the target" advice usually comes along with the advice to dart the eyes to the target once or twice just before pulling the trigger so the brain can "react." I hope I have been sufficiently specific and convincing that this sort of quick-look saccadic use of the eyes is not as good as a fixed-gaze smooth-pursuit turning of the head to generate body knowledge for touch and square movement in the stroke. The movements of such a look are poor guides to location and encourage a poor sense of tempo and touch, and really are just not necessary at all!

On balance, the brain does not "react" to the target as some people say. The brain uses sense and movement to build up body-knowledge for aiming and putting straight with good touch. A system of putting that is built upon some supposed mysterious brain process of "reacting" is in reality an approach that devalues fundamental techniques and masks the really important relevant visual and physical cues from the golfer. If you want to be a good putter in streaks (while ignoring the long-term reality that you are indifferent most of the time), then "just react" to the target with a couple of quick looks before pulling the trigger. But if you want to reach the next level and strive to master putting, there are no mysterious brain processes to bail you out and there is only working with the normal functions of building accurate perceptions and movements. In that approach, once it's time to pull the trigger, you have aimed the face of the putter and setup for a straight stroke, so you KNOW exactly where the target and the hole are located and you also KNOW in your body what is the right stroke motion and tempo that gives the putt its best chance of sinking. So just shut up and putt, and the kids say!

Thanks a bunch for this follow-on question. As you can see, I appreciate the opportunity to get some of this aired out.

Cheers!

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

Over 555,000 visits and growing strong ...

Dear Geoff,

After reading your articles that deal with targeting, I do have another small question.
You say that in golf the action is three-staged, whereby stage 2 is:

"2. [Aiming Putter and Body]
Then the action shifts to orienting the body setup to the startline for a straight stroke."

I tried your method where a flat head and a straight gaze should lead towards the target, to find out whether you are or are not aligned correctly to the target.

But isn't it far more accurate to align your putter to a small target, that is lets say 2 feet away? I think I can consistently align myself very accurate to a target that close. And after trying your gaze-method, I find myself doubting the right line after a couple of feet already.

So maybe I should use them both?

kinds regards,

Bastiaan van Slobbe
The Netherlands

Dear Bastiaan,

Using the gaze and head turn takes some getting used to before you learn what it should look and feel like when done properly. It is not normal to use a straight, fixed gaze and focus on the field of view of one eye (for the aim spot) or the sense of the eye line across the skull (for head-eye orientation). And there seems to be a special problem right near the ball at the beginning of a scanning turn and at the end of the turn, in getting the line of the scan to match the startline of the putt and the putter face's aim. Basically, it takes some getting used to, but once you have the experience under your belt, I think it is hard to argue with the accuracy of the targeting movements.

On the question of using a closer target near the ball for alignment, I do recommend this as part of the sighting from behind the ball. Standing behind the ball, sighting down the line from eye to ball to target, the golfer ought to "anchor" his perceptions before he starts walking to the ball for setting up the putter and his body. One of several possible anchors is to pick out a spot on the ground just ahead of the ball, and place the putter head behind the ball so that the face aims thru the center of the ball at this spot. There are other anchors as well, including the back dimple on the ball.

I also suggest that using the shaft of your putter while standing behind the ball in the manner of a visual ruler or straight edge is a very reliable and accurate way to see the exact line along the ground from eye to ball to target. Just hold the shaft up in front of your dominant eye when looking to align ball and target, so that one edge of the shaft appears to connect the ball and target. Then scan along the edge of the shaft to see any blade of grass along the exact line on the ground from ball to target and select any "spot" of discolored grass that pleases you.

Using a closer spot to align the putter face is all well and good for aligning the putter, but it doesn't really help you align your body to the putter face as aimed. That's where the eye line across the skull and the straight-gaze head turn come in. The function of this head turn is not so much to aim the putter face, as it is to help align the body to the putter face as aimed, to sense distance for touch, and to check the putter face and body alignment to make sure all systems are "go" for pulling the trigger. The objective is to 1) pick a good target; 2) aim accurately from behind the ball at this target and anchor perceptions of the line; 3) approach the ball and aim the putter face at the target accurately; 4) set up the body square to the face as aimed (mostly starting with the eye line across the skull); 5) use a straight-gaze head turn to check body and putter face alignment and sense distance for touch; and 6) using your well-learned tempo and sense of green speed, putt straight with good touch.

The spot in front of the ball helps get you to 3), but doesn't play a big role after that. For putting straight, it may help your hand-eye coordination sense what is straight back from the ball to start the stroke and then sense how to move the putter face beyond impact with the ball so that the putter's sweet spot stays heading at and over the spot with the face still aimed square, to avoid pulling the putt. So the spot is definitely useful and can certainly be a valuable part of your putting routine.

Cheers!

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

Over 560,000 visits and growing strong ...

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