Dear Carl,
To reach an understanding of what the elbow might or might not do in the stroke, it is necessary first to get a good grasp on handsiness. Sometimes, handsiness causes the elbow to get into the stroke in an unhelpful way, and sometimes the elbows changing orientation during the stroke causes handsiness. So, handsiness first, and then elbowsiness.
The sources of handsiness are a) habits and b) biomechanics and c) imperfect understanding of what else to do. Fortunately, the "cure" for handsiness ("reduction", really, as much as possible) is fairly simple and straightforward -- move the shoulder frame (and especially the lead shoulder socket) up in the forward part of the stroke from the bottom of the stroke arc and afterwards and let this lead shoulder socket moving up "pull up" or "lag up" the the lead arm, wrist, hand, and putter head all as a coordinated unit. This is a different habit with good biomechanics that effectively supplants handsiness.
Unfortunately, just saying this doesn't really capture excatly what needs to happen to prevent handsiness. So let me go a little deeper into the habits and biomechanics involved.
The basic habit is the reach-and-grasp action that is the fundamental use of the arm and hand. This is what we do whenever we pick up a object or reach out to control an object. As the arm extends out in space away from the body (by virtue of shoulder joint and elbow changing), we are targeting an end-point of the reach in terms of distance-and-direction but also in terms of the shaping of the hand as it fits the fingers to the position of holding the object. In a world of right-handers, door handles are typically to the left so the person opens the door reaching across the abdomen from right to left shaping and orienting the hand. The forearm rolls the hand thumb-left or counterclockwise as seen from the elbow as the reach progresses towards the door knob or handle, especially if the handle is a lever type. The turn of the door knob is clockwise typically, so the presetting of the hand counterclockwise with the counterclockwise rolling of the forearm is the usual "habit" we rely upon daily for this sort of task, as this pre-positions the hand and forearm to turn the handle and push open the door to the inside and back right. Another common habit is the handshake of two people facing each other. In a right-handed world, each person reaches from right to left acroos the body's midline to grasp the other's hand midway between the two people. This involves some extension and rolling of the forearm to set the hand in the correct position and orientation to grasp the other person's hand. A third common habit is folding the arms. In a right-handed world, typically the person reaches across the torso with the right hand and places the thumb behind the left upper arm and the fingers lay down outside the upper arm just above the left elbow, and the left forearm then (nearly simultaneously but really a little later) comes up to rest beneath the right forearm and the thumb-fingers arrangement finds the right upper arm and hooks into place. Again, the right hand is moved across the torso and the forearm is rolling counterclockwise or rolling "shut" or "closed."
This basic reach-and-grasp action is deliberately taken advantage of in most full-swing teaching, as the hand "releases" thru impact in some fashion -- at least as taught by many people. I believe this action in the full swing is related strictly to power, and is inappropriate and hurtful in the putting stroke, where power is really only a matter of tempo.
This brings us to the biomechanics. In the full swing, the arms go further than the shoulder frame, both back and thru. The club is "extended" back as the shoulders turn and then the lead upper arm comes a little across the upper chest as the back upper arm is kept fairly close to the upper chest by that arm's elbow folding and staying near the side instead of "chicken winging" away from the side. Then in the downswing and follow-thru, the arms again outrace the shoulder frame, hopefully coordinated momentarily at impact, but headed towards a finish not unlike the top of the backstroke but reversed. True, the shoulderframe powers the arms, but the arms also act somewhat like a "flail" as the full swing pivots back and thru. This arms-reaching-across-torso business is the biomechanics that adds to the habitual motions of normal human conduct and independently encourages the forearm rolling and hands changing orientation. If the forearm extend across the chest, the shoulder socket is changing so that the upper arm moves everything below it and usually the upper arm will roll the elbow and forearm inward toward the torso in this move; if the hand is also "reaching" to a position, the elbow will roll and extend the forearm more this same way to get the hand where it wants to go. This can all be felt or noticed by watching how this recah across the torso has the lead-side elbow sort of dragging and rolling across or just off the lead side of the abdomen.
ALL of this armsiness, elbowsiness, and handsiness is unnecessary and hurtful in the putting stroke, and can be avoided by disallowing the arms to outrace the shoulder frame, and instead relying solely upon the turning of the shoulder frame as a unit to power the putting stroke with tempo.
To make this happen correctly with the shoulder frame movement, interlace the fingers of both hands across your sternum and then extend both arms straight out horizontally above the floor so that the center of your chest aims into the two hands. Now turn the upper body as far to the right as you can WITHOUT letting the hands get ahead (further to the right) of where the chest is pointing. If you are like most people, after about 45 degrees of turning the hands start to creep ahead of the shoulders. The faster you make this move, the more evident the loss of shoulderframe-arms-hands coordination becomes. If you make the motion with a slow even tempo and keep the upper torso relaxed, the "shape" of the triangle of shoulderframe, arms, and hands stays intact much better for a longer turn to the side.
Now, with the body bent forward in a putting address posture but with the hands together with fingers interlaced hanging down beneath the chin, make the same shoulderframe turn to the right WITHOUT allowing the left elbow to drag across the abdomen. Don't extend the left arm going back -- just send the left shoulder socket down to push the whole left arm down and back. The trouble comes when the shoulderframe ceases up and slows or stops but the arms and hands keep moving. To reduce this trouble, the fundamental point is to think of and to plan on and to actually move solely the lead shoulder socket down and back in the takeaway, instead of pulling the putter head back with the hands and arms, and thereafter to keep the tempo nice and even and smooth and relaxed so as not to encourage the arms and hands to get ahead of the shoulderframe, and to KEEP the shoulder socket headed down and back until the desired top-of-backstroke position is reached. Similarly, coming forward, DON'T HURRY the downstroke, as this speeds the hands ahead, and DON'T LIFT the putter with the elbows flexing -- just leave the hands hanging and keep the hands, forearms, and elbows all "quiet." This makes the stroke motion very simple looking and feeling, with only the lead shoulder socket moving or being moved. The side muscles in the abdomen pull the shoulderframe down and back, so the rest of the body is very quiet except that the lower body has some reactivity in it to keep balance and quietness.
In well over 90% of all putting strokes required by golf course situations, the backstroke does not exceed the comfort zone of 45 degrees, so the challenge of armsiness and handsiness arises most often in connection with strokes that are too quick or that go past this comfort zone.
As you power the shoulderframe with the relaxed tempo to push the lower tip of the triangle (putter head) back to the top of backstroke position by sending the lead corner of the triangle (lead shoulder socket) down and back, the arms should not rotate, the elbow should not flex, the upper arm pit should not change shape, and the hands and wrists should remain inert and unchanging in reference to the forearms, the putter handle, and the torso as it turns. In this manner, whatever way the shoulder socket moves, the putter face will reflect the socket in an amplified way. If the shoulder socket moves in a vertical plane, so will the putter face -- keeping it square and online at all times -- so long as you disallow changes in the triangle shape. Keep the focus on the lead shoulder socket moving in space correctly with good tempo, and the arms and hands will take care of themselves correctly simply by keeping nothing changing.
My key thoughts are often something like: my hands are nothing but gloves filled with sand -- heavy and inert; my shoulder socket is a ball on the end of a diving board and Jackie Gleason is about to do a leisurely swan dive off the end sending the tip of the board way down in a slow deep bending and then smoothly and powerfully straight up without hurry.
By making this sort of shoulder move with the gut to the top of the backstroke and then not hurrying down and moving from the bottom of the stroke casually up to a finish, the whole is much more like a slow slap of the rear hand's open palm back and then straight up at the sky, and a slap of the lead hand's backside back and then up at the sky. In the action, the hands are moved by the shoulder at a constant distance back from the line of the putt and the path of the putter head, and the hands neither get closer to this line or farther away at any time from start to finish. At the extremities of the stroke on both the back and forward sides, the hands are effectively extended away from the feet, as the putt line constantly gets farther back or forward away from the center of the stance, the same as the baseboard of a wall would do if you were making strokes along the baseboard of the wall. This extension away from the feet will habitually call into action the extrending and rolling of the arms and hands to make the extension complete, and that will send the putt off line by changing the putter face out of square and possibly changing the path of the sweetspot off line as well. This converts the putting action more towards a reaching across the body to shake the hand of someone standing down the putt line toward the target and across the line. So the trick is to use the shoulder turn to NOT to shake hands down the line but to lift the back of the lead hand in a slapping straight up at the sky, with the hand staying on that constant distance back from the putt line. Move the hand solely with the shoulder lifting the arm, hand, and putter as a unit.
And don't let the pivot of the torso and shoulderframe (top of sternum, base of neck, where the clavicles meet to join the shoulders together) chase after the putter head back or thru, but the shoulderframe "rolls" beneath the pivot making the pivot rotate but not wander. This is especially critical in the forward stroke -- keep the pivot from chasing past the bottom of the stroke by allowing the shoulderframe lifting to raise the putter face on an ascending arc from the bottom of the stroke into the back of the ball. The hands stay as fully away from the shoulders as they always stay, the elbows do no lifting of the hands, the pivot stays stable in elevation and space although rotating in place, and the lead shoulder lifting up and back fires the putter face up and thru the back of the ball and casts the putter face square down the line.
Now, addressing your action:
You say your rear elbow rolls "open" and you miss to the outside. I can't be sure without seeing your setup and checking your eye dominance. It is possible you are right-handed but left-eye dominant like Jack Nicklaus and have something akin to an open setup and a right-elbow piston or push stroke. If that's the case, it sounds like you either are not setting up with feet and shoulders open to accommodate the push-type elbow action or are not open quite enough. If this is NOT your situation, and you are right-handed and right-eye dominant, and are missing right with the right elbow extending a little open in the thru-stroke, then you are either
1) hansy in the stroke action in a bad way, or
2) are setting up a little closed with your feet or shoulders or both, or
3) have a loop in your stroke path from ball back too much inside and then out to the right thru impact.
To get rid of this, you need to be sure you square up well at address, think of and then move solely the lead shoulder socket to power the triangle back and thru, and get the shoulder socket moving more vertically straight down at the balls of the lead foot to start and then vertically up and away from the balls of the feet thru impact. Bringing the putter back inside too much in the backstroke is from handsiness in pulling the putter back or from moving the triangle with a lead shoulder socket moving too much on a tilted path instead of a vertical path. A flawed backstroke is not fatal so long as the shoulder socket moves vertically up thru impact correctly at a time when the hands are keeping the putter face square to the address direction -- the ball will still roll straight even if the sweetspot is missed a little toeish or heelish. But of course it's better if the backstroke does not cause a problem to solve.
Pushing the lead socket straight down at the feet while the hands move along a path that stays a constant distance back from the putt line accomplishes a straight backstroke. letting the putter head coast to the top of the backstroke and then start down on its own under gravity prevents you from hurrying the hands down into impact. Keep the hands quiet. And the shoulderframe coming down is simply a relaxing of the gut that sent it back up to begin with. The shoulderframe really does not get back into action until the shoulders have fallen back naturally to level, when the putter head reaches the bottom of the stroke arc, and then the shoulderframe simply "catches" the falling putter / triangle and moves it upward to a coasting finish at the top of the thru-stroke. Basically, once the top of the backstroke is attained, the stroke down and thru just happens by itself, with a gentle finishing-off lifting when the shoulderframe levels out at the bottom. It is just like a child in a swing, giving the child a gentle push right at the bottom to keep the momentum up equal to that coming down. That's the role of tempo in powering the shoulderframe action.
I could go on indefinitely, but I hope this is a positive note to end on.
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
Geoff Mangum's PuttingZone
Golf's most advanced and comprehensive putting instruction.
Over 740,000 visits and growing strong ...
518 Woodlawn Ave
Greensboro NC 27401
336.230.0612 home
336.402.1602 cell
