Dear Rob,
The information you share is great, and I very much appreciate your taking time to inform me and the folks who visit here to learn about putting.
I talked with ProAim national sales director Greg Fudge for about an hour several weeks ago, to gain more insights into the ProAim trainer. He said he would be sending a pair for trial at the end of February, as I recall, but I haven't seen them yet.
Let me quote what I take to be the shank of your explanation, and try to clarify what you are saying:
"While the source for this grid comes from the ambient light sensor on the right lens, it presents this image as if both eyes are seeing it. By simply drawing lines on a pair of shop goggles you create a situation where you either have to draw lines on one or both lenses. You would not have one set of lines in the center of your vision path as with ProAim, which is a huge difference. A projected HUD (heads up display) style grid cannot be achieved via magic marker. You need the guidance grid in a position where you can see & focus on both the lines and your ball. This is the only way for you to make your own setup adjustments to the ball and improve your stroke."
I will have to wait to try out the ProAim system to verify my understanding of your comments, and will readdress this subject at that point. In the meantime, I understand that the projection of lines is only to the right eye on the screen at a distance from the eye lens of about 1 inch or so. I would like to know more about how the projection at that distance from the lens is kept in focus with the ball at another much greater distance (about 4 feet) when the human lens is capable of focusing its shape and the focal point of the images only at a single distance at a time. If there is an issue of adjusting the focus of the projection to make the lines appear AS IF they are at the same distance as the ball, such adjustment being needed for each individual golfer due to height of eyes above ball in setup and optical properties of that golfer's eyes, is that adjustment made for each golfer or are the glasses designed for a "one-size-fits-all" focus of the lines regardless of ball distance? My understanding of the technology is that the narrowness of the line and its sharpness is all that is at issue, to simulate "focus" on an object at any distance. The narrower or thinner the light line image, the more it appears to be "focused" at a distance. That is why the ProAim uses an "orange" line - to maximize the contrast of the edges of the line against the "green" backdrop of the grass surface. This contrast at the edge of the thin line is not really a matter of lens "focus" or accomodation.
I've studied the neuroscience of the eyes, vision, and the brain now for over 13 years, SOLELY for the purpose of understanding how the eyes and body are best used in putting. This is something quite different from what optometrists or opticians like Craig Farnsworth and others study, and is also vastly different from optical engineering. It's interesting that your optical engineers are from South Africa, since the national director of research for the Neuro-Optomertric Rehabilitation Association, Dr Selwyn Super, uses my putting research on vision to find much of the pertinent technical science for visual neuroscience he needs to serve the world's optometrists. I hope you don't view me merely as a golfing enthusiast, because my work on vision and putting is pretty far advanced. This sort of visual and movement neuroscience is not really what clinical optometrists are familiar with, as their training stays on the clinical aspects of normal function or dysfunction of the eyeball as a sensory organ, rather than as part of a cooperating system of organs and senses coordinated by brain function for spatial awareness and motion control.
Here is how I analyze what is actually happening with the optical image in the ProAim glasses, from the point of view of visual neuroscience.
As I understand human targeting, the role and proper use of the eyes is to instruct and help form the appropriate motion of the body to stroke the ball into the hole, or at least straight away from the putter face in the direction of the target. The actual visual image in and of itself is not the important part; instead, it is how the gaze direction out of the face organizes the brain's appreciation of space, the body orientation in space, the locations of objects around the body, and the manner in which the body needs to be moved to stroke a ball thru the surrounding space along the contours of the ground in the direction away from the body and ball to the target with appropriate touch or distance control. How does the optical image perform this function?
"Seeing" a railroad track type image is only the very beginning of how the body generates a stable, accurate stroke. I certainly agree with you that the ProAim optical image HELPS the body get the stroke done properly, but the image itself is not really accomplishing this job. Instead, the orientation of the gaze (straight out of the face, and in the case of the ProAim, between the horizontal lines) serves to eliminate a biomechanical flaw in "looking" from ball to target along a line, and the railroad-track image sensitizes the brain to the orientation of the skull and neck to the intended line of the putt. With this orientation of the body to the intended line of the putt, it would be a serious mistake to conclude that the job of generating the motion is now complete, and that all the golfer needs to do is "stroke the ball straight down the railroad track" as the Butch Harmon video implies. That's not really how hand-eye coordination for movement works. The optical image as used in the ProAim glasses is a good start on getting the gaze and skull line used well, but it's just a start. The real learning comes from understanding the use of the gaze and the skull line for targeting and motion, on the course.
While it's true that putting can be done accurately in many different forms of movement, such as a handsy stroke versus a shoulder stroke versus even something exotic like a "hip putt," my focus is on simplifying and optimizing putting for the sake of consistency and accuracy and the least "mental baggage" possible. because of this, it is not sufficient to leave the matter of stroke movement as if virtually accomplished by the optical image itself. Accuracy in throwing darts, shooting basketball freethrows, or target shooting with the rifle is not so much an issue of "seeing" as it is using the line of sight and its focal point as a way to stabilize the body orientation to the target is space, so that the brain can accurately and consistently use that body orientation and poisition to generate the right movement.
Perhaps it would be helpful if I'm a little blunt about this, with my comments intended solely in a constructive way to help you with your effort. When you really isolate the important FUNCTIONAL aspects of the ProAim imagery in terms of how the training device assists the golfer in the orientation of the gaze, skull, and neck to the intended putt line for the purpose of making the accurate stroke motion, those functional aspects really do not require more than two pieces of tape across a pair of "glasses" or goggles. Let's get specific.
First, to get the gaze straight out of the face, it is necessary to position the glasses on the face so that the same spot of glass is always opposite the dominant eye pupil when the golfer directs the dominant eyeball perpendicularly out of the plane of the face. This is the definition of a straight gaze, and any gaze other than a straight gaze such as a gaze directed somewhat down the nose out of the face -- when used with a head turn rotating about a fixed axis -- will generate problems in appreciating the true target location that no golfer needs to have. The two horizontal lines on the ProAim glasses define the horizontal dimension but not the vertical dimension needed to define the one spot of glass that the straight-out gaze needs to pass thru. The horizontal lines alone may direct the gaze straight out, or upward, or downward a little, depending on the golfer's face and how the glasses fit the face. That is, just putting the ProAim glasses on is not quite sufficient. The first matter of concern is to direct the eyes straight out of the face, and then and only then to put the ProAim on and then adjust the glasses on the face up or down until the middle of the two horizontal lines is the same as the way the gaze is directed. If you just put the glasses on, it is a little hit-or-miss whether the setting of the two light lines is guiding the gaze straight out of the face or at some other, non-optimal angle out of the face. Granted, there is only a narrow range of variation due to the common design of the human head, but in principles the gaze needs to be set independently of the ProAim glasses, and it is problematic to let just putting the goggles on have responsibility for this important point.
Second, the vertical line of the optical image may or may not correspond with any given golfer's individual straight-out gaze. There is some variation in how human heads and faces and eyes are put together. While in general most human eyes are "about" 2.25 inches apart pupil to pupil, this is not always the case. Other putting glasses incorporate the possibility of adjusting the vertical line or one like it left or right across the field of view, so that the features of the imagery of the glasses is brought into coincidence with the correct setting of the eyeball gaze in the head. The dog (body) wags the tail (glasses), and not the other way around. Even so, I don't have much concern for the vertical line misdirecting the eyeball a little left or right of straight out of the face, because this really doesn't cause problems in teaching the body where the target is located and how to move the body to stroke the ball straight at the target.
Third, the really, really important function of the railroad-track image is not to "show" the golfer where the target is located, or "show" the golfer the putt line, or even "show" the golfer where to move the putter for a good stroke. Instead, the main function of the parallel horizontal lines is to orient the skull and neck (and hence the rest of the body) to the intended line so that the body understands that a straight stroke is what is called for from this setup orientation. What I call the "skull line" is the set of body cues in the head and neck that defines a certain orientation of the visual field of one eye or the fields of two eyes or the integrated "cyclopean" field of vision to the external world such that a specific direction in space is defined. The brain in keeping track of body parts as separately oriented in space has to track the individual "degrees of freedom" in the body system. If you want to reach to the right and pick up a paper weight off the table, your brain needs to track the eyeballs shifting right to "spot" the weight and its shape and locate the position the hands will assume in gripping the weight securely, and also needs to track the neck turn that reorients the head and face a little less "looking" right while the eyeballs go farther than the head turn. In daily experience, this "look" to spot the object is performed and then abandoned as the head and eyes move on to the next subject of interest even before the brain starts moving the right arm and hand in a reaching out to the object. The point is that the COMBINATION of eyeball motion and head/neck motion is tracked in order for the body to assess the starting position of the arm and hand in relation to the object before the brain can accurately coordinate the hands and the eyes to successfully move the hand appropriately. In golf, in accordance with the principle of simplifying and optimizing the targeting and movement processes of the brain, the golfer really doesn't want or need eyeball motion. It makes accuracy less reliable and consistent in orienting the body to the target for purposes of action. Of the eyes and the head, it is more important to get the head oriented usefully to the target, since the head-neck is closer in order to the torso, which actually moves the limbs in the stroke. One can quite naturally learn how to orient the skull line to the intended putt and "square" to the way the putter face is aimed (presumably the same) by learning the "skull line" and how the visual experience adds to the understanding of the orientation of the skull line. Ultimately, the golfer has to play golf without the ProAim, so isn't this the objective - to use the ProAim so that the golfer can reliably and consistently set the head to the line of the intended putt correctly for a straight stroke? The notion of "optical imprinting" mentioned in your website explanation of how the ProAim imagery goes about attaining this training objective is a little vague in terms of neuroscience. What is really happening is that the optical railroad track image is teaching the golfer to sense a line across the skull that crosses each pupil, with the ball on this skull line visually and with the skull line matching the intended line of the putt and square to the putter face. You should note that the "skull line" is a collection of ever-present and unchangeable features of the structure of the skull itself (tops of ears, temples, outside corners of eye sockets, inside corners of eye sockets, and bridge of nose), and this line may or may not be the same as the line connecting the two pupils of the eyeballs. The line across the two pupils only coincides with this skull line when and only when the gaze is aimed straight out of the face. So the railroad track image needs to teach the golfer visually the line that connects the tops of the ears, the temple, the corners of the eye sockets and the bridge of the nose, so the golfer in play can align the skull and face to the intended line of the putt and the putter face. The ProAim glaases do a pretty good job of fulfilling this training function, but not really by "showing" the golfer the line of the putt. A better way to use the glasses would be to train setting the skull to a string line, chalk line, or line on the floor, with the optics and then without the optics, EXPLICITLY teaching the golfer about the skull and how to set the skull (and gaze) to the putt line and putter. Once this is done, the golfer's head and neck "naturally" square the shoulder frame to the intended line, and the shoulder frame then works downward in the body to remove twists in the abdomen so that the hips are also square and this works further down the body thru the knees and ankles to square the alignment of the feet.
Once the gaze is directed straight out of the face thru the single spot of the glasses or the single piece of the visual field of the dominant eye, and once the skull line squares the head and neck and shoulders down to the feet so that a straight stroke motion is the one that the golfer SHOULD call upon to roll the ball straight away from the putter face, then the railroad tracks further help the golfer assess whether the direction the putter face is aimed is accurately the direction to the target. If the target is located withint the field of vision of the eyes looking down at the ball from a height of about 4 to 4.5 feet high -- a field oif vision that extends towards the target with reasonably clear focus only out to about 4-5 feet to the side, then both the ball and the target will apear visually in between the two horizontal lines. Great, the putter face is accurately aimed. But if the target is beyond the range and does not fit within the periphery when looking down at the ball, it becomes necessary to move the eyeballs, the head/neck, or both to the side to bring the target into view. If the golfer wants to avoid complication and problems and keep the targeting simple and accurate, he needs to keep the eyeballs unmoiving and gazing straight ahead, and turn only the head-neck in a "regular" way. That is, the axis of head rotation is stable in space, rotating but not otherwise shifting in space, especially by moving the top of the head backward. The head needs to 'roll" like a roll of toilet paper on the roller of the holder, or like the axis of a Ferris Wheel or Tilt-a-Whirl. Doing this while wearing the ProAim glasses means that the two parallel horizontal lines of the image are rolled targetward and stay in plane. That is, the leading targetside points of the lines are moved thru space in a direction that is precisely followed by every other point of the same line. In simpler words, the two lines don't get askew the original orientation during the head turn. What the ProAim galsses OUGHT to train is how the gaze-head system needs to be worked for this to happen. It's pretty simply, really -- aim the gaze straight out of the face at the ball, turn the head about the axis of rotation, don't shift the eyeballs but keep them still.
These FUNCTIONAL aspects of using the eyes to help make the stroke motion require only 1) that the gaze be aimed straight out of the face, 2) that the golfer appreciate the skull line and how it needs to match the intended putt line as indictaed by the aim of the face, and 3) that the head turn needs to be regular. A business card held just beneath the pupil of the dominant eye does 2) and 3) in the same functional way that the ProAim glasses does. Setting the gaze straight out (1) is only sort of done by the ProAim, whereas the business card actually connects the corners of the eye sockets and the bridge of the nose while PREVENTING the eyeballs from gazing down off straight out, so from a training standpoint the business card gimmick seems superior to the ProAim glasses. The ProAim compared to the business card for the head-turn function don't significantly differ.
Drawing lines across a pair of goggles is not fucntionally better or worse than the ProAim glasses except perhaps for the sense of focus of the lines. The focus of the lines is not the functional aspect that makes the ProAim glaases a good training device. The focus of the lines compared to the ball focus strikes me as neat and fun, but not especially fucntional. And in any event, the issue can be addressed pretty effectively by just taping cheap goggles with non-transparent tape so the edge of the tape makes the bottom line of the railroad tack, and another line of tape above makes the top line of the railroad tracks, resulting in a very narrow horizontal "slit" across the cheap goggles. I've been using stuff like this for years, based on a deep understanding of brain fuctioning in targeting. Moreover, the placement of the "slit" can be personalized to the straight-out gaze of the specific individual, and the vertical line can be calibrated to the specific physiognomy of the golfer, and it only takes a $1 pair of work goggles and a little bit of black electrical tape. It takes about 2-3 minutes to make these goggles or to tape a pair of reading glasses or sunglasses.
So far so good. Now about making the stroke.
The body cues of body position and orientation are generated by the "square" setup facilitated functionally by the straight gaze and the skull line. This is the starting reference for how the brain decides to generate the right movement. Then accurate preceptions of target location (direction and distance) are generated by targeting from behind the ball plus aiming the putter face based on this behind-the-ball targeting, then by setting the body square to the putter face as aimed (same as the intended line of the putt), then by turning the head with a straight and fixed gaze to "ckeck" where the body's straight stroke is actually aimed. When these targeting processes all coincide, the face is aimed at the target and the body is setup for a straight stroke based on the putter face aim, and the body cues of square orientation assist moving the body with the consistent accuyrate straight stroke required. Hence, the brain uses static body positioning in square setup and adds to that accraute targeting of target location in relation to the body, to generate the muscle action that makes the straight stroke. In terms of distance control, the regular head turn with fixed gaze also happens to feed distance and tempo cues to the brain so that the backstroke is set instinctively based on a stable tempo and appreciation of green speed and uphill-downhill affects. It's a bonus.
Handsy golfers always have trouble with a straight stroke path, and the reason is they are trying to use parts of the body not well instructed by the above targeting and setup processes. These processes teach the shoulders where the target is located better than they teach the hands, for a number of reasons. One of the big reasons is that the head-neck sits atop the shoulders and the base of the neck is oriented the same as the shoulders in a good straight stroke. Another is that the hands are habitually used to move in many different directions and speeds and purposes, but the shoulder frame as a whole is meant for simple motion in directions constrained by the spine-hip system. A third is that the setting of the skull line to the putt line or putter face DIRECTLY sets the orientation of the shoulder frame in the same parallel plane of orientation, whereas the setting of the skull line is removed from "naturally" orienting the hands in space by the degrees of freedom in the elbows and hands on each side. For the same reason, golfers wanting a straight shoulder stroke, but who actually start the stroke by moving the hands instead of by moving the shoulders, also have trouble getting the stroke path straight. It's very simple: setup square and move the lead shoulder socket from level down-and-back to the top of the backstroke and then reverse this back to level and then go further up as far as the shoulder socket went down, all in a crescent shape motion of the socket so that the crescent lies in a single plane of motion, either vertical or tilted, that intersects the ground in a line that is the same as or parallels the intended line of the putt. The golfer needs to STOP thinking about moving the hands, as this sets off the wrong neurons in the motor cortex for a consistent and reliable stroke. Staring with the hands means CHANGING the angle of the elbows by closing the openess of the elbows and lifting the foreams away from the ball. To move the hands from one location to another, the forearms are moved by some other joint further up the chain, either the elbows or the shoulders or the torso as a whole. The usual way is to lift the forearms to move the hands back away from the ball, and the natural result is to cast the putter head out beyond the line of the putt going back -- a move that nearly always spoils the stroke. In contrast, by thinking of the lead socket, and "recruiting" those neurons in the motor cortex to move the socket down and back in the plane of motion, it is literally impossible to send the putter farther from the feet and the putter stays headed straight back simply as a consequence of the biomechanics of a parallel setup and a planar stroke action of the shoulder.
Frankly, the ProAim galsses don't have anything to do with this motion training, unless the teacher using them or the golfer personally understands the relationship between turning the head-neck towards the target correctly and how this neck motion effectively "teaches" the brain the correct plane of motion for square shoulders. This is an opportunity for you to IMPOVE and ENHANCE the ProAim glasses in a very significant way. I'll be glad to help you figure this out, if you ask.
Once the body is oriented to the putter face (setup square and in position to make a straight stroke motion), vision is useless or even hurtful. The brain has moved on in the sequence of events from vision to movement. The vertical line in the ProAim projection is useful at this point to "kill" vision, if you like, to prevent the visual processes from detracting from the more vital movement processes. Just look at the vertical line and don't move the eyes and don't think -- just move correctly. It may interest you to know that the brain functions by glucose metabolism, and the active areas of the brain are drawing and using limited glucose resources in the blood supply. When the eyes are active (or for that matter when the language "inner voice" or problem-solving parts of the brain are active) when it's time to make the stroke MOTION, this activity has two bad effects on the quality and accuracy of the motion. First, the extraneous brain activity drains precious glucose resoucres away from the parts of the brain used for the motion, and second, the activity of the inappropriate brain parts is forwarded around the brain and actually interferes with the motion like a sunstorm interfering with radio or television signals. The best use of the brain is to activate ONLY those parts of the brain involved in the motion. During the course of motor learning, the analytical and cognitive aspects of motor learning initial cloud the brain picture and show up as brain activity in the left brain and in the executive areas of the front brain, confusing the motion activity in the neuromuscular parts. Later, as the skill becomes better learned and trained and fluid, the brain activity quietens down and only the motion areas are active. Very simple and quiet. the basic principle is one of MINIMAL and APPROPRIATE brain activity for each of the different stages of the putt from targeting into stroke. So when the targeting is done, it's DONE, and the brain moves on to the stroke.
That said, there is still a limited role for the ProAim imagery to facilitate the shift from targeting to stroke. The vertical line in the display can help if the golfer wants to train holding the head still during the stroke. Holding the head still is really keeping the pivot of the stroke still (in the base of the neck). Holding the face and eyes still in the stroke is not really necessary for pivot management. Instead, holding the eyes and face still in the stroke serves to avoid distracting changes in the visual field or in the proprioceptive body-knowledge system or in the inner-ear balance system. The visual brain will "react" to motion in the visual field, no matter what the golfer wants to happen. This visual-brain activity by movement in the visual field does not help the stroke. When making the stroke, it is difficult enough to keep the motion of the shoulder frame pure and simple; any distractions from extraneous eye, face, or head motion is probably not good.
The way the vertical line helps stabilize the head and face during the stroke is that it serves to AMPLIFY change in the visual field. The brain has a system for maintaining visual gaze focused on a still object even if the head is turning away from the object, or conversely, keeping the gaze on a moving object by redirecting the gaze and head in different ways. This is called the Vestibulo-Ocular Response, or VOR. The VOR uses inner ear responses to head movement to shift the gaze, so the gaze shifts stay aimed at whatever object they were aimed at before the head motion. The whole point of the VOR is to prevent the mismatch in gaze and head motion from bothering you, so you ignore it and keep the gaze focused on the object as if there is no mismatching head or object movement going on. The VOR every day trains the golfer not to notice head motion. That's not a good thing -- to fail to notice that the head is moving in the stroke.
By placing a vertical line "virtually" between the eyeball and the object (ball or spot on ground), this projected line "moves" if the head moves. So the ball is still but the vertical line is moving -- and this alerts the golfer (contrary to the VOR) that the head is moving. In this fashion, the vertical line of the ProAim CAN be used to help keep the head still if the golfer wants that. I've been teaching a much simpler way to do this simply by pointing the face and fixing the gaze on a small piece of grass between the back of the ball and the putter face and keeping it there throughout the stroke. The ProAim glasses' horizontal lines might also help, in the case that the head motion during the stroke is a motion out of the plane of the stroke, so the horizontal lines appear the "skew" during the putt.
In general, the optical engineering of the ProAim is definitely helpful in training the proper use of the eyes and head in orienting to the putter face, and even to the target. But this help depends on FUNCTIONAL aspects of the design of the glasses that is not significantly different, and in some respects inferior to, taping up goggles to make a narrow horizontal slit. The training of the proper use of the eyes and body for simple, consistent, and accurate putting relies more on gaze direction and head orientation than it does for "seeing where to hit the ball."
I applaud the ProAim glasses and heartily recommend them to any golfer, whether amateur hack or putting maven on the PGA Tour, to help learn how to use the eyes in targeting and stroke motion. If you want my help to make the glasses as good as they can be for this part of training the brain and body, all you have to do is ask. There are a number of ways to tweak the actual design and to instruct golfers in the best use of the ProAim glasses that I could convey in private if you are interested. In the meantime, I really am looking forward to receiving a pair to check out. I will certainly keep an open mind in exploring the optical features for other training benefits or for functional features not herein identified and critiqued.
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
Geoff Mangum's PuttingZone
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