RE ".........I have been playing some regional amatuer events up here and have had great success by ignoring the "informality" in my legs and head movement and just letting the stroke flow. I think I was getting a little tight by locking everything up. The funny thing is that the more I let things flow the less I moved too." - James
Hi James and Geoff
James, A sound understanding of anatomy, physics, and other sciences is useful, but as you have identified the essence of putting is "letting the stroke flow". It is more useful to be comfortable and free, than "correct"
But for a moment lets consider what may be considered correct!
Is body movement a problem, a result, or a solution, or irrelevant?
I am sure Geoff would agree our collective understanding of putting has along way to go.
Consider the body movement "problem"
Can we agree 3 things here first:
1 putting is about reliability
2 simple methods are generally likely to be more reliable
3 natural is also generally more reliable
Conventional putting instruction seeks to turn and or tilt the upper body against the stationary lower body base, and hopes for a stable base. But this ignores anatomy - The body is not parts - it is a whole - we are ALL CONNECTED!
Any upper body movement will naturally lead to some movement of the lower body. To seek to restrain it is unnatural, and therfore inherently more unreliable.
As a post below mentions I am exploring body putting with a belly putter where the "motor" of the stroke is the same as normal - the upper body - but the body is allowed to turn freely. There is no effort to restrict, or indeed to exagerate, the lower body movement at all. It just happens as a result of being connected to the motor of the swing
I am very new to this body putting, and there is much to learn!
Re: Is body movement a problem ?, or merely a result?
July 14 2005, 2:59 PM
Hi Simon
"What ever gets you through the night......."
There is an interesting story in the book "My Afternoons with Mr. Hogan" about a day the author spent watching Ben Hogan work on his putting and chipping around the practice green at his old home course. This came at a time when Hogan was long past tournament play, but still working on his game and methods. To make a short story shorter--Hogan had left putting alone out of futility and moved over to chipping, something he did very, very well as a rule. Upon sinking his umpteenth chip a look came over his face and he rushed back to his putter and employing his chipping stroke promptly missed putts of all lenghts. With a knowing look of disgust on his face he returned to chipping and then soon after to the locker room.
Hogans momentary experiment is hardly conclusive. I thought you might find it funny though.