Dear Geoff,

I've been practicing your ideal stroke including; "the "triangle" consists of two shoulders and the putter head, with this "upside down triangle" suspended on a pivot halfway between the two shoulders at the midpoint of the base of the triangle, then making a straight stroke means simply tipping the lead corner of the triangle down."

I find this is working very well but I'm also finding that as I make the stroke my head moves from side to side... in a sense the head is 'tipping' the opposite side of my body to where the putter head is.

I've read various articles and books that promote keeping the head still. Do you believe it's ok to allow a little play with the head?

Cheers

P.S. My pro friend has given me his perfectstroke trainer and it's amazing how one night of practice enlightens me to your technical anaylsis. It's one thing to read about the swing path/plane etc but when you see it with your own eyes it's amazing what you can really learn.

I never really understood the fact that when looking down at the ball - the putter head can move to the inside of the target line when resting the putter shaft against a string line/elevated shaft. Now I can see it in action.

It's interesting to compare his ideal stroke with yours... which is best for me?.. the jury's still out but my brain tells me to stay with the vertical plane man!

Cheers

TIGERSIMMO

Dear Tigersimmo,

Keeping the pivot at the base of the neck in the same space is more important than keeping the head itself still. The pivot is just the part of your collar bone where the two shoulders are connected together. There is a door-knob like joint there that can rotate. So when I say keep the pivot "in the same space" I don't really mean keep it still - I mean instead let it rotate but without shifting about.

This action at the base of the neck may or may not be accompanied with the head and eyes moving, too, from side to side. You CAN keep the head and eyes still if you want by "pointing the nose" and stabilizing the hips with a little lower limb tension (mostly the thighs). Many times, I find that I keep the head still by looking steadily at a grass blade between the back of the ball and the putter face at all times in the stroke. Sometimes, I keep the head still only on the back stroke and half of the downstroke. At impact and after, I emphasize moving the lead shoulder up and letting the right ribcage at its bottom move toward the right hip / pelvis. This gives me a half-and-half sort of head action -- half still and then going sideways back tilting in the thru-stroke. But even then, the base of the neck stays in the same place.

The PerfectStroke trains a specific tilted-plane stroke, if you go by the putter face markings. This is one of many, many possible tilt angles. But if you forget the face markings and just make strokes on the PerfectStroke trainer, you can move the shoulders in any plane you want, including the vertical plane. This is because the putter shaft, in resting along the rail, is not really constrained to move in a specific angle of tilt, so the putter shaft does not in turn constrain how the shoulders can move. If the putter shaft were held top and bottom by a high pair of rails and a lower pair of rails, the shoulders would not be able to move on any plane except the plane matching the angle of the shaft. But that's not the case, so the PerfectStroke trainer does not really teach a specific angle of tilt unless you use the face markings.

Cheers!

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

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Geoff,
You mentioned that with this device you can make a vertical stroke. Am I right in thinking that if I make a vertical stroke the putter shaft is touching the chrome rail at address then comes away from the chrome rail on the backstroke, comes back to the rail at impact then away again in the follow through?

Cheers
tigersimmo

TIGERSIMMO

Dear Tigersimmo,

No, the putter shaft will stay in contact with the rail at all times. The best way to see this is to position the putter shaft on the underside of the rail and make a stroke such that the shaft stays barely touching / gliding along the underside of the rail back and thru. This way, the rail is not supporting the shaft in a way that deceives you about the path.

You can also do this with a string line.

Cheers!

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

Over 615,000 visits and growing strong ...

518 Woodlawn Ave
Greensboro NC 27401
336.230.0612 home
336.402.1602 cell

Dear Geoff,
But isn't it my goal to keep the sweetspot of the putter head staying out over the line of the putt at all times? If I maintain contact with the shaft, the sweetspot moves away from the line on the backstroke, meets the line at impact, then goes away again for the follow through.

Cheers
tigersimmo

TIGERSIMMO

Dear Tigersimmo,

I'm not sure what our missing connection is, but if you rest a putter shaft on the far side of a rail parallel to your putt line and run the putter shaft back and forth along the rail, the putter sweetspot MUST by definition run in a straight line. The putter head may rise vertically off the ground going back and going forward, but the sweetspot does not ever come inside the line.

And, similarly, if you setup a putter with the shaft resting under a rail and touching it, and run the shaft left and right along the rail, the same is true.

The only way the putter sweetspot comes inside when running the shaft along a rail is when the arms or hands twist the face out of plane (and the hosel is not centered at the sweetspot). Moving the shoulders in a plane parallel to the putt line (either vertical or tilted) is about all there is to a straight stroke. When the plane of motion is tilted, the shoulders move not straight up and down but out a little too, and this action results in the putter head moving STRAIGHT but the rising of the putter head behind and in front of the bottom of the stroke describes a "smile" shape that is titled too. This makes the putter sweetspot "appear" to move inside the line of the putt, but only if you view the putter looking vertically down on the line of the putt. If your eyes were centered inside the tilted plane looking out to the ground, you would see the putter and its sweetspot remaining perfectly on line at all times.

So a vertical stroke action of the shoulders in a plane parallel to the putt line produces a straight movement of the putter head back and forth, albeit rising on either side of the bottom. With no twisting of hands or arms, the sweetspot stays on line and the face stays square. This is what happens when you run the putter shaft along a rail with a vertical stroke motion of the shoulders.

Cheers!

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

Over 615,000 visits and growing strong ...

518 Woodlawn Ave
Greensboro NC 27401
336.230.0612 home
336.402.1602 cell

Dear Geoff,
There seems to me to be a few possibilites as to where we, or I, am missing the point. It could be that;
1) The bar that the putter shaft is sitting on is five inches off the ground thus when the putter shaft (at an angle) slides away the sweetspot looks to move inside the line (as it stays in contact with the bar) but perhaps this is because

2) My eyes are directly over the line. I notice if place my eyes behind the grip and look down the shaft that the sweetspot does stay in line.

Sorry to go on and on with this but I feel it's a fundamental that I need to get right.

Cheers

TIGERSIMMO

Dear Tigersimmo,

This aspect of the thread is separately continued under the post by SJP isolating this issue. As stated there, I agree with you!

Cheers!

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

Over 620,000 visits and growing strong ...

518 Woodlawn Ave
Greensboro NC 27401
336.230.0612 home
336.402.1602 cell