Dear Graham,
I hear what you are saying, and agree with this or that, but the whole notion of "confidence" is pretty confused. Let me try to separate out these ideas.
You write:
"There are a lot of good posts in here about the putting stroke, but I believe that the mental aspect of putting is the most important factor."
No one (and certaily not I) am saying that the putting stroke is all there is. Whether the "mental factor" is the most important factor for golfers in general is debatable. In my experience, the mental factor practically evaporates the more you master the skills of putting, because you don't have a lot of doubt about what works best or how to do it or what to expect. There aren't a lot of surprises to a golfer who has mastered putting. Neither is there a lot of self-doubt. Confidence? Who needs it?
Knowing what is your best way of putting and why that is the case is a "mental factor" -- perhaps not a "psychological" factor, but still "mental."
You write:
"There are countless ways of getting the ball in the hole, and who is to say what is the best method."
With all due respect, I am, for one. And I'm very "confident" that you would agree with this claim if you ever asked me to teach you. A person can learn a lot worth sharing in the course of putting daily two to five hours for 16 years straight plus studying what others say about it. Most of what I teach even veteran pros and golf instructors have never heard before, but none of my students have ever said I was not right on track. Perhaps they are just being polite, but the improvement in their putting after a lesson with me (despite decades of trying this or that) tells the story quite well.
Personally, I believe the idea that there are a myriad of ways to putt, and that whatever works best for a given golfer is the best he could do, is only partially true. For MOST golfers, what seems to work best for them is not even close to as good as they could putt if they quit using weird techniques (odd grips, for example) and instead learned a few things that MUST happen for the ball to roll straight at the target with good speed. For elite golfers, a few guys putt extremely well with weird technique (a little bit, not a lot), and they personally probably couldn't get a lot better by changing to sounder technique -- they would go back before they got better and getting better would take a while and then the improvement would not be that great. There are only five or six golfers on the PGA Tour in this category. Most elite golfers are not anywhere near their potential for great putting. Sergio Garcia is the main example of the golfer who takes the "anything I do is okay" approach. Frankly, Sergio needs to learn what works and then learn how to perform what works, because he's not close to that now. Hardly any elite pro golfers know how to aim the putter or how to make a straight stroke without compensations of face angle or path, and nearly ALL of them would score better if they learned these skills.
"What works best" is not a matter of individual preference. Firstly, it's physics. Secondly, it's human biomechanics. Thirdly, it's human brain-body processes operating the biomechanics with good physics resulting. Unless you are a freak of some sort, all golfers share these three fundamental realities about equally (everyone has two eyes, two arms, two legs, two hands, one putter, one ball, and the same green). Putting is not really individual or idiosyncratic except in small doses due to a particular person's ignorance or inability to perform what actually works best.
You write:
"I know that when I'm not putting my best, I start thinking (too much) about technical manipulations to the stroke."
That would not be good. The upshot of what I teach is how to putt your best by knowing how to putt instinctively, without thinking, as a matter of program.
You write:
"When I am putting well, I address the ball and know it is going in, not thinking of the stroke at all. If only I could stay confident 100% of the time."
Not thinking of the stroke and knowing the ball is going in are two separate things. Not thinking of the stroke does not cause confidence. Confidence, may, however, result in not thinking about the stroke -- but not necessarily. The real question is how do you know the ball is going in the hole. Some people pretend or hope the ball will go in the hole. This sort of "confidence" is not far from self-delusion. The good putters believe the ball is going in the hole because they know they usually can get it done, so they believe that whatever they usually do will work this time. These golfers don't really understand what they do that works well, but "trust" (hope) it will work this time. The great putters really expect the ball will go in the hole, because they know how to get it done and also know that they can and will do what is required. They don't "know" the ball will go in, though, as they have realistic expectations and are not fond of deluding themselves. When the putt for some reason actually misses, these golfers are often surprised, because they did what they knew would work, but then they don't take it personally unless they were sloppy with their technique in getting the job done as best they know how. These golfers never really know what wll happen, but they expect their best to be as good as they can give, and they also know that their best usually works, and they understand why it works and why their technique is the way it is.
Can you think about the stroke AND be confident? Sure, if you know what works best and how to do it. Lots of great putters do that -- they make sure their body is doing what they know works best.
Confidence is the co-dependent enabler of fear in golf. If you fear the game, you need confidence. If you master the game, you don't fear it and you don't need confidence to play -- you just play and do your best, the way you are convinced it needs to be done, one stroke at a time.
Thinking about technique in the sense you describe it is, to me, having fearful doubts about the outcome AND about WHAT TO DO with technique. "Confidence" is simply the absence of this sort of doubt, worry, second-guessing. You can get there either by self-delusion or by earning the security of knowing what you are doing is the best you should be doing. Golfers who get "confidence" by happenstance or by self-delusion, instead of by knowing what works best and knowing how to give their best, are no where near as good as they can be. They are at best streaky with technique and with results. There is no doubt about technique to a golfer who feels he has mastered putting. As Jane Crafter on the LPGA has said, "Competence makes its own confidence."
Take a look at this article on
confidence.
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
Geoff Mangum's PuttingZone
http://puttingzone.com
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