Dear Al,
Here's one I've been working on for a while lately: "Crack the Pecan Under the Rocker".
If the shoulders are like one of the rockers on a rocking chair or a rocking horse, then the movement of the shoulders in a good stroke has certain characteristics worth noting. First, the line of the rocker stays the same, without twisting out of plane. Second, the middle of the rocker never wanders off the spot where it starts: even if it rises or arcs up and down above the spot, when it comes back to the ground, the middle of the rocker always lands on the same spot.
These characteristics suggest to me the following: Once the rocker has tilted left / lead-side down, the bottom of the rocker rises off the ground a bit. If someone were to slide a pecan sideways under the rocker at this spot, the downstroke or forward stroke would crack the nut with a solid rocking onto the nut as the bottom of the rocker returned to the same spot of ground beneath the nut.
When I make a good stroke, this image helps me focus on the very center of my putting body -- the shoulder frame at the base of the neck. I anticipate a little resistance to the continuation of the stroke right at the bottom, and keeping the stroke / rockers on track requires me to time the cracking of the nut precisely with a little working thru this resistance. Without this anticipation, the pecan might derail the path of the rockers and twist the rocker out of plane and allow the pecan to squirt sideways out from under the rocker. The combination of precisely anticipated timing of the cracking of the nut plus the anticipation of working thru the little resistance to keep the rocker on track despite the cracking action right at the bottom seems to make the stroke more accurate in timing and in form.
A few other ideas are:
Use the left arm as the single lever of concern during the motion. Forget about the right side. This makes the upstroke more definite and correct, without stalling or pulling in.
Hover the putter sole gently resting on top of the grass, not pressing it down -- this sets the body in a stillness and a readiness to start the stroke back fluidly, and this smooth start encourages leaving the putter alone in the downstroke. The take-back action then is solely a movement of the shoulder frame, and not a pulling or tugging back of the putter head with the hands. This shoulder-started action then encourages good relaxed timing coming forward.
Sweat the stroke only between the feet -- once the forward stroke passes the front foot, the motion doesn't matter and your choices about what the stroke should look and feel like beyond the stance are just selections, not crucial skills.
Before the stroke starts, visualize the aim of the putter face from behind the sweetspot trhu the front equator of the ball as far as the front foot, and keep this line segment in mind as the stroke progresses -- your putter head will need to sweep with a slight rising past the ball along this same line still square to the putt line, so make the motion happen with the lead shoulder's rising past the bottom of the stroke.
"Toss your putter head behind thee" -- when the stroke starts, the body generates an impulse that tosses the putter head back gently and then allows it to coast to a stop at the top of the backstroke. The problem is NOT using a second impulse on the way down from this momentary "pause" at the top (there really isn't one -- the transition in direction is instantaneous albeit too minute and slow to register as other than a pause). If you imagine that the beginning impulse is "cast behind thee," then there is no longer any evil spirit in you for a second impulse coming down -- the putter simply starts itself down as you witness the downstroke without participation.
To enhance knowing the exact bottom of the stroke, when the passive "riding" of the stroke's free-fall needs to transition into a mild voluntary movement to finish off the stroke form without altering the symmetrical timing, it helps to aim your face flat to the ground at the bottom of the stroke and know that only here will the bottom of the putter also flatten to the surface. Going forward, the putter will rise on a very mild angle to the flatness of the surface, and your job is to "let it" without helping it rise. You "let it rise" by holding the pivot still in space and making no use of your arms and only raise the lead shoulder gently to a nice form at the finish. This requires that any finishing movement in the stroke stay the heck out of the hands, arms, and elbows, and reside solely in the gut as a kinking of the gut sideays (rear ribcage's bottom headed at top of pelvis) keeps the lead shoulder out over top of the balls of the feet (in the same plane) and also continuing to rise in coordination with the putter head's finishing coast. Otherwise, the lead shoulder stalls out, the swinging arms flap with a quickened pace inward around the feet, and both the timing and the form of the stroke is spoiled.
"Drop the Potatoes" -- If you think of your hands as two large, heavy potatoes stuck on the ends of the bones of your arms, at the top of the backstroke, the potatoes get heavy, so just drop them STRAIGHT DOWN -- right at whatever spot on the ground is below them. The fact that the arms are connected via the shoulder frame makes a "triangle" hinged at the base of the neck. Dropping the potatoes swings the pointed end of the triangle down and under the neck, and the left arm shoves the left shoulder up out of the way. Whatever "tilt" the base of the triangle (line across shoulders) achieved at the top of the backstroke when you dropped the potatoes is the same tilt your shoulder line will need to achieve on the other side, at the top of the thru-stroke. The image of the heaviness of the hands (potatoes) helps this sense of "swinging" freely and relaxedly with sufficient uumph that the golfer really doesn't need to do much except "let the stroke go."
"Let it Grow, Let it Go" -- The backstroke is simply the beginning impulse, and thereafter a relaxation. It's like a shot of a spacewalking astronaut's jetpack. -- just a short burst of gas sends him coasting back to the open hatchway. Hence the word "let" -- after the stroke is started, the golfer does nothing going to the top of the backstroke. The force of the initial impulse is calibrated by the brain SO THAT the amount of time the stroke takes to coast to a stop is always the same -- about twice the time it takes for the stroke to fall back to the bottom of the stroke between the feet, and about the same as the total forward stroke from top of backstroke to top of follow-thru. The brain by instinct gets this starting impulse just right when you putt with the same tempo as always and have a sense of the green speed and distance. So, once the stroke heads back from the ball, the golfer's job is done as far as the backstroke is concerned. Relax. "Let" the backstroke grow to fruition. Coming down, if the golfer uses a gravity tempo, there is again nothing for the golfer to do. So at the "pause" at the top of the backstroke, do nothing. Relax again, or stay relaxed. "Let it." So at these two critical points in the stroke (starting back, starting down), the golfer simply thinks "Let it Grow" fully to the backstroke my instincts are trying to give me, and "Let it Go" from the top of the backstroke without attempting to influence or control the downstroke (which will make you short, usually). Added to the simple idea that a little finishing is required past the bottom of the stroke for a coasting rise to the top of the thru-stroke, this phrase "Let it Grow, Let it Go" is basically about PATIENCE and not overdoing the finishing action. So this phrase fits nicely with "Never Hurried, Never Worried."
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
Geoff Mangum's PuttingZone
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