Dear Kermit,
Yes, I do. But I don't explain it the same way.
It's not that the upper arms should be "kept" close to the upper torso, but rather that the arms not be used at all. This may not seem like a big difference, but in the first case the brain is maintaining arm tension at some steady level but the focus on what the brain is actually moving is not real clear, whereas in the second case there is no focus of attention on the arms at all and the setup muscle tone is steady but not a matter of awareness and the brain's focus is on the lead shoulder and moving the shoulder down and back to shove the triangle (set arms, hands, and putter kept together with steady muscle tone as a unit) back from the ball at the start of the stroke.
Body movement is always a matter of muscles altering joint angles. The joint ABOVE ("proximal" or closer in to the core of the body, instead of "distal") the body segment being moved is the joint angle that gets altered. BELOW the changing joint, body segment that are inactive move as a unit.
The hand is more proximal than the fingers, so changing the finger joints moves the finger segments distal to the joint but leaves the proximal parts of the fingers and hands unmoved. The wrist is more proximal than the hand, so changing only the wrist angle moves the hand (and the fingers as a unit). The elbow is more proximal than the forearm, so changing only the elbow moves the forearm (and the wrist and the hand and fingers as a unit). The shoulder is more proximal than the upper arm, and changing only the shoulder angle (armpit opening or closing) moves the upper arm (and the elbow and forearm and wrist and hand and fingers as a unit).
The upper torso sits atop the hips, and the muscles of the upper torso wrap spirally down onto the pelvis, hips, and thighs. Changing the relationship of the upper torso to the lower torso (twisting, sidebend, forward bend, etc.) moves the shoulder frame (and the upper arms, elbows, forearms, wrists, hands, and fingers as a unit). In a shoulder stroke, only the shoulder frame is moved by the muscles of the stomach, abdomen, lower back area where the top is connected to the bottom. The ONLY muscles used are these. The shoulder muscles per se, and all other muscles of body segments outward from the shoulders, are simply set steady with a beginning mUscle tone and then forgotten. When the brain focuses on the lead shoulder as a body part, and plans to move it down and back, the brain activates the muscles on the lead side that tug the rib cage down at the lead pelvis / hip in a folding that dips the shoulder and rocks the shoulder frame beneath the base of the neck. The down stroke is a combination of first relaxing the muscles in the lead-side abdomen that have pulled the lead shoulder low, followed by a lifting of the lead shoulder by virtue of the rear-side abdomen muscles tugging the rib cage down at the rear-side pelvis / hip. This rocks the lead shoulder back upward on the same path. The relaxation allows the shoulder frame to fall back to level, and then the rear-side bending lifts the lead shoulder higher in afinishing action of rocking the shoulder frame up past level.
Arm movement is the enemy to accuracy in this sort of stroke. Arm movement may consist in the arm pits opening / closing back during the stroke -- in which case the arms are outracing the shoulder frame and the putter head moves along an arc albeit the putter face stays square to the path of the putter head -- or in the elbows rolling the forearms open and back shut during the stroke -- in which case the putter face fans open and shut and moves the putter face out of square with the putter head's path. The first sort of armsiness takes the putter head and putter face out of square to the target line; the second does that too and also takes the putter face out of square to the putter head path as well, exacerbating the problem. None of this armsiness involves changing the wrists, and independent handsiness can only make matter even worse.
Thus "keeping" the upper arms close to the chest really means moving only the shoulder frame as a unit, with the by-product that the armpits don't open and close back. The end result is that in order to COORDINATE the shoulder frame with the "unit" of the unchanging "triangle" (arms, hands, putter) so that the putter face simply REMAINS square at least to the path of the putter head without the need to use arms or hands, the ONLY muscles used are those of the gut area. When the shoulder frame moves in COORDINATION with the triangle as a unit, the putter aim remains matching the line across the shoulders throughout the stroke, especially at the extremities of the backstroke and forward stroke. If the top edge of the putter face were connected by a thin metal band to the shoulder frame at the base of the neck, the metal band would meet the line of the shoulder frame perpendicularly, and would STAY that way all during the movement of the shoulder frame. When others speak of the handle of the putter being "kept" pointing into the stomach or sternum, or something like that, they would be better off thinking about keeping the putter FACE square with the line of the shoulders. The way to "do" this is to NOT move the arms and hands during the stroke, and the way to "do" that is to focus only on moving the shoulder frame beneath the pivot of the base of the neck and to FORGET about the arms and hands. Focus if you must on the relationship between the shoulders and the putter FACE. This makes accurate putting a matter of not moving the base of the neck off position and letting the shoulder frame rock down and back and then forward and up beneath the stable pivot, with a start in the lead-side gut, a relaxation, and then a finish with the rear-side gut.
Here are some examples of good finishes of the stroke, in which armsiness is kept out by dint of the arm pits remaining the same throughout the stroke.
Ben Crenshaw, 1987 Masters
Ernie Els, 2003 Sony Open
Phil Mickelson, 2004 Masters
Chris Riley, October 2002
Payne Stewart, 1987 Masters
Retief Goosen, July 2004
Cameron Beckman, April 2004
Robert Gamez, 2004
Here are some examples of the arm pits opeing in the follow-thru of an armsy stroke:
Peter Jacobsen, illustrating how armsiness tends to separate the lead arm from the rear arm in an uncoordinated "feel" stroke.
Sergio Gacia, June 2001, illustrating how the rear arm is coming across the gut a little more than it should.
Aaron Baddeley, March 2003, illustrating exactly the same degree of armsiness as Sergio.
Davis Love, the same -- note slight pointing of putter face to inside.
A focus on the handle pointing into the stomach is not as good as focusing on the face of the putter in relation to the shoulders. Here is Spike McRoy keeping the handle pointed into his stomach:
Spike McRoy, May 2004
His form here is a little armsy like Garcia, and his head is too tilted up out of the putt. But the point now is that keeping the handle aligned into the stomach does not address what happens with the putter face. Most golfers allow some forearm rotation thru impact or some wristiness in search of elusive "feel," and this ends up aiming the putter face inside in the follow-thru, with obvious danger of pulling the putt. Instead, if the putter FACE is kept coordinated with the shoulders, the putter FACE will stay square to the shoulder line into the follow-thru and the putter face will not end up aiming inside.
Note ther aim of the putter face down the line in Crenshaw and Mickelson above. Here is the usual golfer's follow-thru aim of the putter face:
Allowing this end-aim of the putter is mostly armsiness. Once the arms start "outracing" the shoulder frame, the arms will naturally swing to the inside of the body, as they are tethered to the shoulder frame. This inward tether-ball swinging of the arms is what closes the putter face and renders feel" strokes so time-critical. Note in the above photo that the rear arm is in the SAME form position as that of Garcia and Baddeley above. To permit this extra independent armsiness in the stroke while also keeping the putter face from closing is quite a "feel" trick, and usually involves some subtle wrist redirection thru impact or some subtle etending of the rear arm down the line more than it naturally wants to go.
Keeping the putter face coordinated with the shoulders would also keep the golfer's face in line with the top edge of the putter face if the head is allowed to roll with the shoulder frame. Here is Fredrik Jacobsen, who does just this:
Fredrik Jacobsen, May 2004
Not only is his putter HANDLE aiming into his stomach, but the line up his sternum thru the line of his nose matches the top edge of the putter FACE at the end of the stroke, and the putter FACE is not aimed to the inside as in the "bad" example above. This only happens by a "no arms" shoulders-only stroke. If the golfer keeps his face aimed into the ground as at the beginning, not allowing the head to roll with the shoulders, but nonetheless keeping the putter face coordinated with the shoulder frame, the result is the same: the putter face moves square with the path of the putter head set by the shoulder action and the putter face does not aim to the inside of the path. Johnny Miller in 1973 illustrates this:
Johnny Miller, 1973, who often painted a white dot on the top of his putter handle to help coordinate the stroke motion.
Setting a steady (relatively light and comfortable and natural) muscle tone in the triangle and then focusing on ONLY rolling the shoulder frame beneath the base of the nack, back and then forward with a relaxation plus a lift past level, keeps the putter face square. Keeping the base of the neck stable in height and location (left-right and forward-backward) above the ground, vertically in plane with the exact bottom of the stroke arc where the putter sole is closest to the ground, is what redelivers the square putter face to its initial aim. Moving the shoulder frame in a vertical plane beneath the base of the neck is what aligns the path of the putter head with the target line, and thus eliminates any inside-square-inside curving of the putter head thru the impact area, so the putter face approaches the ball from the exact bottom of the arc along the target line only and remains square to the target line as it rises slightly into the back of the ball and continues past impact straight down the line.
You could move the shoulder frame in a plane tilted out to the ground, along the same line as the putter shaft, for example, but this delivers the putter into impact either slightly before the exact bottom of the arc when the putter is moving inside-to-out and descending -- which is a push -- or right at the exact bottom of the stroke arc when it is square to the target, or slightly later when the putter face is moving outside-to-inside and slightly upward -- which is a pull. The vertical action of the shoulder frame makes ball position ahead of the bottom of the arc essentially irrelevant.
The challenge of learning to use only the gut miscles to move only the shoulder frame and hence the triangle as a unit is to keep it relaxed. When the arms separate from the chest in an armsy stroke, the putter head gets a swing with a bigger amplitude going back and there is also a second lever involved so that the swinging down has more sense of snap thru the impact area. In contrast, moving the shoulder frame only feels at first more restricted and less graceful and powerful. But it's not. In order to get the right size of stroke going back with the shoulder frame only doing the moving, you have to 'drive" the lead shoulder deeper down and back, tugged deeper by the lead-side gut muscles. Then the relaxation back down from the top of the backstroke comes with an anticipation in the gut how to keep the shoulder frame moving smoothly up once the shoulders drop back to level, so its a timing thing.
The best part of the "shoulder frame only" stroke is the wealth of cues for the timing, their predictability and repetitious nature. One of the biggest reasons this sort of stroke is better than an armsy stroke is the absence of reliance on nebulous "feel" to get the timing right coming into impact. The shoulder stroke certainly is not less delicate for touch or distance control when properly learned (it is at first, while learning), but it is almost entirely a simple matter of counting instead of a matter of recapturing or recreating a subtle internal "feel" for each putt. And the only significant muscle impulse in the shoulder stroke occurs only as the putter is falling past the bottom of the arc and natiurally rising along its own path into the ball, in order to continue the putter head along its self-established path up thru impact and down the line. In contrast, the armsy stroke has an opening of the rear arm pit as the arms outrace the shoulder frame going back by a certain independent pace, and coming forward the golfer is concerned with the muscle action that will retrace the armsiness by reclosing the arm pit with good timing but then also continuing thru and past impact with the lead arm pit opening in a symmetric pace and degree as the rear arm pit had opened, or else the putt is blocked to the outside or pulled to the inside.
Everything in the armsy stroke makes ball position and timing of the muscle "feel" critical. A "shoulder frame only" stroke is just a count, and even then the count is not as critical and ball position can vary from right at the bottom of the arc to as much as 4-5 inches forward without any effect on the line and very little effect on the solidity of impact and distance. The count only becomes critical if the ball is crowded right against the bottom of the arc instead of an inch or two forward of the bottom.
So, yes, the upper arms remain near the chest, but that is not the focus of attention for the stroke.
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
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