Dear Dave,
The reason "you" don't feel comfortable with the backstroke length is because the "you" we are talking about is the conscious you. That's exactly the problem, and encouraging the conscious mind to be involved with the setting of the backstroke is the opposite of what makes it work the quickest and the surest.
The brain instinctively and non-consciously sets the backstroke FOR "YOU" if you have an appreciation of the green speed, a stable tempo, and a good physical procedure to teach the brain and body the distance of the putt. The whole trick is to experience this non-conscious process and to respect it and to realize that the conscious "you" can only HURT the effectiveness of the process. The process is the same one you use for everyday movements and targeting for normal tasks, so a) you have been using it for decades with great effect, and b) it is very accurate and reliable!
To experience this more, use
my "Core Putt" drill, which is one tempo and one backstroke length over and over from the same spot. All the balls need to end up at the same distance on any green speed. Doing this while NOT allowing the conscious mind to participate is the key. Just make the same size stroke, with the same tempo, and watch the results until you start to believe in the non-conscious process. We use it every day but because it's non-conscious, we don't notice it or understand it. Just do it and watch.
This "Core Putt" gives you the appreciation of green speed for that green that is one of the keys to touch. So graduate from this "Core Putt" that has no targeting and only one backstroke to the variable distances that require targeting from ball to end target. This variable touch system will generate exactly the right backstroke for the distance and the green speed, so long as you leave the non-conscious process alone and don't "try" to get the backstroke to a certain size with your conscious mind.
The targeting is the way you look with the neck turn from ball to target, to generate a neck angle and a pace of neck turn. The nerves in the neck feed this info straight to the cerebellum, which then generates the backstroke instinctively with the tempo you have. The neck angle is set by the distance from ball to target and is just like turning the dial on a dimmer switch -- the bigger the distance, the more the turn. The pace of the turn is that that comes from pretending to watch a perfectly putted ball roll with real speed across the surface, slow down, and then roll to a gentle stop right at the target distance.
I would definitely recommend getting used to this system and learning to trust it (respect the non-conscious process and stop interferring with the backstroke by conscious trying or worrying) before taking it to the course.
You need to know what happens when the ball rolls short and when it rolls long of the target. The ball may roll short if "you" fear the size of the backstroke and curtail it; if "you" fear the final backstroke has gotten too large and tighten up in the downstroke out of fear of the ball rolling too far; if "you" fear the gathering speed of the putter head in its gravity acceleration down from the backstroke and curtail the follow-thru and thus decelerate a little before impact. The ball will also roll short for technical reasons if you mishit it, or send it off bouncing or bounding.
The ONLY way the ball will roll long in the non-conscious process is if you SPEED up the tempo, which I call "gassing" the putt. This is because the cerebellum sets the backstroke, and once the backstroke size is set, there is a limit on how far gravity acceleration can send the ball. There is a single peak speed of the putter head at the bottom of the stroke that corresponds to EVERY backstroke length, and the specific peak speed that goes along with a specific backstroke will send the ball a set distance and NOT LONGER when you make solid contact with the tempo. Thus it is PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE to exceed the distance on a given green speed that goes along with a given backstroke size and your stable tempo. The only way the ball rolls long is if you exceed the tempo and gas the putt. That only happens if "you" fear the backstroke and downward smooth acceleration of gravity is insufficient and might roll the ball short.
This makes the learning process pretty easy for getting in touch with the non-conscious way it works -- just watch where your ball stops. If it stops short, blame your conscious fear of going long or poor contact. If it goes long, blame your fear of being short and your gassing the tempo. If the contact is solid, but the distance is wrong, blame "you" and your conscious intereference.
I find that experiencing the non-conscious control is helped along if you put all the emphasis on timing and form and NONE on feel. That is, don't try to feel a stroke made with good tempo -- instead, observe the timing. (A putitng roboto has NO feel, and only has timing and form.) Anyone's putter in gravity will always return by itself to the bottom of the stroke with the same timing for every backstroke, and the golfer needs to watch and learn what this timing is for him. Once you see this timing, you can "count" the tempo by saying "one potato ..." in the backstroke and then pausing and saying "two" as the putter falls to the bottom of the stroke in a smooth accelerating, free-flowing swing beneath your steady neck. The spacing of the words is the timing. Once you are able to speak the words the same way gravity moves the putter (same timing), you need to make the targeting look from ball to target and back, and then just start the backstroke and count. The putter will move back all the way to some backstroke, and "you" simply wait and learn what the backstroke is going to be as you count "one potato ..." The putter head will coast to a stop at the top of the backstroke based on whatever initial toss back from address your brain gives the stroke. Once the putter reaches the top of the backstroke, you just wait and do nothing as the putter starts to fall naturally from zero at the top to a peak speed swinging to the bottom and thru under your neck. STAY OUT OF IT! Just watch it. All you actually do is start the stroke into the backstroke. Your brain gives the starying action the right "toss" force so that the putter head coasts to the top of a backstroke that is remarkably appropriate for the distance and the green speed.
Thus "counting to two" in the right way is much better than trying to "feel" a backstroke for a given putt. The only feel that matters is the feel of gravity without interference when the putter freely falls in a swing beneath your neck.
The one complication in this is that the "triangle" of the body's shoulderframe and arms and hands and putter will naturally drop down from the top of the backstroke as a unit, but the triangle will not really flow smoothly up past impact at the bottom. he body tissues stall out the pendulum action once it heads upward past impact. You have to help this by clearing your lead shoulder up and out of the way once the triangle bottoms out, and to do so by preserving the timing of the stroke. There is no pulling of the putter up, but instead a casual getting the lead shoulder up out of the way as the triangle swing thru the impact zone.
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
Geoff Mangum's PuttingZone
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