The Railer is another entry in the war of the stroke paths. The folks who make it write this:
The putting motion in golf has a distinct path that it follows. One of the biggest misconceptions is that this path is a straight backward and straight forward motion. On shorter putts it may certainly seem to be the case, but you will notice that as you make a longer putting stroke the putter's path naturally makes an arc. Take your putter and run it along a wall at home making a longer stroke. Try to keep the putter against the wall the whole time. Feels pretty odd doesn't it? That's because straight back and straight through is not the correct putting motion. It's unnatural and uncomfortable, and requires manipulation of the forearms to work. This takes way too much timing in your stroke, and demands too much practice to ever become even remotely consistent. The putting stroke has to have an arc. Much like the golf swing makes a tilted circle, so to does the putting stroke, but since the putting stroke is not nearly as long as a full swing in golf, only a piece of the circle is necessary (i.e. the arc of the putting stroke).
The arc, also known as the path, moves in toward the golfer on the backstroke, returns to its origin, and then moves in toward the golfer on the follow through.
This is typically referred to as inside-square-to-inside. This motion holds true for full swings, chipping, and putting. "The Railer" takes care of all the complexities for you. You just have to move your putter. "The Railer" keeps you locked into the inside-square- to-inside path. "The Railer" is the easiest way for you to train your muscle memory and transfer what you learn into your own putting stroke.
The second arc a putting motion makes is a bit simpler. This arc is the pendulum motion every golfer has heard about at some point or another. This is another motion that "The Railer" takes care of for you. The pendulum motion is the reaction the putter has to your moving the putter back and forth. This motion causes the putter to rise up off the ground on the way back, return to its origin, and rise up off the ground on the way forward. The most common analogy for this is the motion a grandfather clock makes. "The Railer" will instantly let you know if your putting stoke is to low to the ground, or lifts up too fast. Our linear ball bearing is designed to show you your flaws as well as train you to do better.
This passage indicates that these folks don't really understand what the body is doing, and so don't know how to make a straight stroke OR the stroke that the Railer aid makes. Please look again at the passage above and you'll see nothing at all about how the body moves, and the only description is how the putter head moves. The putter head doesn't move -- the body moves and the body motion moves the putter head.
The Railer "makes" the putterhead move a certain way:
You can see that the ring at the back of the putter head slides along the bent rod. So the apparatus "makes" the putter head move in a pattern, regardless of what the human body is doing, so long as the body is sort of running the putter head's ring along the rod. This is not the best way to learn HOW to make a motion with the body. There is a myriad of muscle combinations and postural combinations that will accomplish this, and there is nothing much being learned about timing in the stroke and how motion and movement is timed in relation to posture and patterns of muscle use.
And much more importantly, a good putting stroke that rolls the ball consistently straight is NOT about the shape of the path anyway -- it's about how the body moves the putter thru the critical impact zone. When the people who use the Railer learn how the body moves the putter straight thru the impact zone with consistency and accuracy so the GOLFER can do it on command and understands what moves where when and how, I hope someone will call me.
In the absence of this knowledge of HOW the BODY is best moved thru the impact zone, and only then what this might mean for the shape of the stroke path, the GOLFER is simply moving a ring on a bent rod. Does the Railer inform the GOLFER how to move the shoulders, hands, arms, or what-have-you so that the ring will slide on the rod easily and without dragging or bumping?
What I say is that it HELPS to make a mostly straight-back backstroke, and it really isn't hard to do, and doesn't feel odd, or involve any hand manipulation -- and now I say that people who think it does are not knowledgeable of what the body really does in a straight-back stroke or how to make one. Even though it helps the forward stroke to make a reasonably straight back-stroke, a straight backstroke is not necessary to the making of a straight forward stroke. What is required for a straight forward stroke THRU THE CRITICAL IMPACT AREA is real simple -- even dumb -- just hold still at the top.
Let me be explicit. Hold still at the base of the neck, where the shoulder frame is balanced, from the time the top of the backstroke is achieved until the putterhead swings thru the impact area. You put the putter back a bit (advisedly, with the shoulder frame moving all as a unit) and then the whole shebang swings freely down under the neck. If you really, really, really don't use your hands or arms at all coming down while keeping the pivot at the base of the neck stationary while the shoulder frame turns beneath it, there is nothing else to do -- the putter squares up and sends the ball straight. The pivot itself makes the putterhead square up and move straight thru the ball. Try it.
Once you start MAKING a stroke path purposefully coming down and thru the impact zone, you need to know HOW so that the putterhead stays square and online thru the impact area. If someone tells you to purposefully move the putter on an arc around your feet, I would seriously question that. The ball itself does not roll in an arc around your feet, but instead rolls on a line a certain distance out from your feet at address that runs parallel to your feet. As the ball travels farther and farther along this line, it moves farther and farther away from the center of your stance. So, thru the critical impact area, it's probably a good idea to move the putterhead down that same line, farther and farther away from the feet, at least a few inches, don't you think?
This is not odd or difficult to do as a motion and does not feel weird or unnatural and is only a matter of moving a certain way over a span of 6-8 inches, tops. People who say that the putter shouldn't be moved in a straight line couldn't tell you how to do it if asked, so why do they believe they know it's difficult or unnatural. Now, the folks at the Railer at least admit that making a straight stroke on a short putt is not difficult. OK, fine. But just because they feel the putter NEEDS to swing inside on the way back (it doesn't), that does not mean the putter needs to keep swinging on an arc around the feet the whole time.
Deliberately swinging the putter to the inside on the way back and then deliberately swinging the putter to the inside on the way forward is just not smart. The only time the putter is square is at one and only one spot and instant in the stroke, and at all other times, the putter is NOT square or moving square. The putter and ball remain in contact for a brief time, but it is not as brief as an instant.
The very best putters in history don't do what the Railer folk suggest. Bobby Locke drew his putter STRAIGHT along a closed line made by his closed stance, hooding the putter with a counterclockwise wrist action to keep the aim of the putter the same during the backstroke. He then would freeze his wrists at the top of the backstroke and move the putter forward into impact, straight up thru the ball, and down the line. Ben Crenshaw draws the putter to the inside going back and then delivers the putter up thru impact and down the line for a minimum distance before allowing it to fall back to the inside. So does Phil Mickelson. Loren Roberst "feels" that the putter is being moved by his body closing as it goes to the top of the backstroke, and he "feels" as if it uncloses back to square at the bottom and and then opens after the bottom into the follow-thru, but in fact he just rocks his shoulders in a vertical plane and the hands and arms DO nothing. In all cases (and others), the golfers are extending briefly the span over which the putter is sqaure and moving square thru the impact zone. This is most emphatically NOT swinging the putter on an arc to the inside thru impact.
It's simple: hold still at the top of the body at the base of the neck and let the putter swing thru the impact area, rising once it passes the center of the stroke (the bottom of the stroke), and don't pull the stroke to the inside until the putterhead has made it a few inches past the ball. This last bit means: let the lead shoulder socket rock UP directly away from whatever is below it (usually, the balls of the lead foot) as the putterhead moves past the bottom of the stroke. This keeps the putter face moving square and online until well after the putter-ball contact during impact has concluded.
It's not about shaping the stroke path. So it's not about one path being right and one wrong. It's about HOW to move the body while the putter head swings thru the impact zone. Hold still at the top while the lead shoulder rocks up from the foot, and then don't sweat it.
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
Geoff Mangum's PuttingZone
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