Dear Geoff,
You mentioned you thought my posture was like a private in the Army standing at attention - (good posture has the head riding high above a balanced torso with the chest a little "proud" with shoulders back in line with the ears and the back itself sort of "ram-rod" straight.

My technique actually feels like the letter 'C'. The back (from the tailbone to the base of the neck)is curved so that an osteopath would have a fit if they saw it. The neck itself is parallel to the ground so I can get chin and forehead at the same height (like you prescribe). So... to the flat back... imagine you are looking at my address position directly in front of me - so that if I were to lift my head straight up you would see both of my eyes. Or to put it another way you are on the other side of the target line in a mirror image to myself. Now... if you look at my shoulders imagine my shoulders are a curved wooden coathanger with the hook sticking up from base of the neck. With my arms in a relaxed state the coathanger has quite a pronounced curve. The flat back is changing no other part of the setup except the coathanger. The flat back is lifting the arm sockets so the 'curved' coathanger becomes 'straight.'

Hope this is more clear.

P.S. Some days I think I'll just switch to a broomstick and be done with it.

Cheers,
Tigersimmo



TIGERSIMMO

Dear Tigersimmo,

That's definitely clearer. I will work on that and see what I think.

My immediate impression is that you are using the top-of-the-back muscles to pull the scapulae (shoulder blades) towards each other in a taut configuration. I don't think I can accomplish this postural configuration without some tightness creeping into my upper arms, especially the back of the upper arms, and some tightness across the front chest's pectoral muscles.

My second main impression is this does not appear to alter the linearity of the two shoulder sockets, being in a line parallel to the putt line in a square setup. The shoulders are just as parallel in a line when drooping as they are when the back is flattened out as you describe.

Tightness in general is a defensive posturing, as in readying the body to receive a blow or to repel an assault. In putting, tightness usually functions to block out some undesireable motion. To the extent a relaxed-body movement allows or permits or encourages unwanted motion in the putting stroke, this tightness can serve a purpose. My effort is to find keys to permitting a relaxed-body stroke that does not encourage unwanted motions.

So let's keep at it -- we seem to be onto something, focusing on a problem from different directions.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
Geoff Mangum's PuttingZone
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