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Putting stroke thoughts

February 22 2006 at 1:20 PM
SteveB 
from IP address 65.95.160.94

In the full golf swing it is recommended that "swing thoughts" are kept to a minimum so that automatic swing actions are not impinged.

Should one apply this same approach to putting ... and if so how many "putt thoughts" are reasonable given the putting stroke is so slow?

Should "putt thoughts" be sequential in anticipation of events?

 
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Minimalist Psychology

February 22 2006, 8:36 PM 

Once you commit to the idea of aiming the putter face at a target and putting straight at it, the thought process is essentially: pick a good target, aim well, and forget it. Once the putter face is aimed, the only two aspects at issue remaining are the stroke and the distance. The distance is due to instincts and so is non-thought. The stroke, the more it becomes learned and trusted, becomes the same action every time. In my experience, the making of the stroke for a given aim and an instinctive distance control boils down to simply: "put a good stroke on the ball" or "make a beautiful stroke" or "roll it straight" or "make solid contact" and similar simple thoughts right before pulling the trigger. Even these thoughts tend to evaporate over time. It's just what you know you need to do.

So I guess I'm not big on swing thoughts. Swing thoughts seem to be about learning, and not about performing. They may be about bandaiding a problem or fixing a flaw, but once you have a good stroke and instinctive distance control, there's not much point in having any thoughts at all -- swing or otherwise.

Geoff Mangum
Putting Coach and Theorist
PuttingZone
http://puttingzone.com
Golf's most advanced putting instruction -- You're either in the PuttingZone, or you're not.

 
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