Hey Geoff! How are you doing!?! I am currently living in New Jersey, but will be back down to Elon sometime this sporing. When I come down, I would love to set up a lesson. At any rate, I do have a few questions...

I religiously read through all of the written material that you gave me last time I saw you, and have been working very very hard on the things we talked about. However, I feel as though my speed control is the reason why I do not make more putts, particularly putts of any sort of length. It says in the written material that distance control is a byproduct of the rhythm of the stroke. Well, what is the best way to practice that? Indoors with a metronome, because that is all I can think of? Also, how often would you say rhythm specifically should be practiced? Those, along with any other helpful information you can give me on the topic will be MUCH appreciated!!! Thanks a lot Geoff! Can't wait to see you this spring!

Dear Chris,

The BEST tempo is the one deeply embedded in every human brain since the beginning of humans on earth -- gravity. That's the one you already know and don't really have to practice, so much as "notice." To notice the way gravity works, simply hold your arms out to the side and "notice" that they flop down against your sides automatically according to the physics of gravity on earth in exactly the same time, every time, regardless of how far out you hold the arms to start with. Gravity does this, not you, and gravity always works exactly the same way with your arms. Your job is to "notice" this amount of time and learn to like it consciously.

With a putter in both hands, it is slightly different. Start with sticking your left foot out to where the putter face sits, and make some sort of backstroke and then "notice" that gravity will deliver the putter head against your foot in the same amount of time every time, regardless of how far back you start the drop. Also notice that if you start the putter from the top of a backstroke that is, say, 11 inches back, the putter head will ALWAYS hit the foot with exactly the same force, velocity, "smack". If you hold it back to a larger top of backstroke (say, 18 inches), the putter head will smack the foot harder, but every time you start from this one top of backstroke, all the smacks on the foot are the same. You have to notice this also, and BELIEVE that when gravity does the downstroke for you, you will be extremely consistent.

With a putter in both hands and also allowing the stroke to proceed / swing past the bottom, standing in a normal stance without a foot extended out to the puttline, now the issue is whether you can "feel" the riding down of the putter as it swings freely in gravity. This means you have to "keep up" with the putter in the way your shoulder frame follows the falling / swinging putter head. When done correctly, the putter head always arrives at the middle / bottom of the stroke in exactly the same amount of time, every stroke, regardless of the size of the backstroke. The "smack" of the putter at the bottom changes with different-size backstrokes, but not the time the downstroke takes.

The trick to matching this up to a specific green and a specific distance putt and specific uphill-downhill effects is basically knowing how to TIME the backstroke. Gravity does the downstroke timing, but you have to do the backstroke timing so the instincts can pick the right "size" and therefore the only right "smack" that is required for the specific putt.

Your backstroke timing has to be matched up to your downstroke timing. In the case of any stroke timing, the backstroke is 2 times as long as the downstroke to impact, and the backstroke is the same timing as the total forward stroke from top of backstroke to top of follow thru. A backstroke timing is essentially a full stroke timing in reverse, just starting in the middle. If you held a putter in the left hand at the top of the follow-thru and a putter in the right hand at the middle of the setup, and started both putters back simultaneously so they both coasted to the top of the backstroke at the same moment (a "tie"), this is the correct backstroke timing. The left-hand putter simply does a pendulum free-fall swinging, but you actually start the right-hand putter back with something like a "toss and coast" action.

How the brain by instinct picks the right SIZE of the backstroke for a given putt is by your sense of green speed and your teaching your body where you are and how far off the target is located and then STICKING to your tempo timing. Uphill-dowhill issues are just adjustments of your sense of the speed of the green (uphill is "slower than usual / level ground" and downhill is "faster than usual / level ground"). Once these two factors are appreciated for a given putt, the golfer simply "starts" the putter back with a toss so that the putter coasts to a stop at the top of the backstroke at the end of the time (not before, not after). The time for a gravity stroke is twice the time it takes the arms to flop against the sides (about 1/2 second), so the backstroke timing needs to last 1 full second or thereabouts (my "one potato", a four-syllable verbal counting that coordinates the sense of timing with the cardiovascular system when speaking).

Golfers think they know better about touch (they don't), so they have a hard time "trusting" gravity instincts to pick a good backstroke and a correct "smack" that sends the ball just the right distance. So you HAVE TO TRY IT BEFORE YOU DECIDE WHAT YOU REALLY BELIEVE.

Set up on a fairly level surface for a putt somewhere between 15 and 20 feet. Assess the green speed. Take a look at the distance. Then aim the putter, close your eyes, and count "one potato" as you toss the putter back in a nice smooth backstroke that coasts to the top of the backstroke right when you finish saying the syllable "to" of "potato" and NOT BEFORE. Then let gravity handle the downstroke without adding to whatver happens. Then open your eyes. The ball SHOULD roll at least as far as the front lip of the cup and not much past it. And it will if you really do this.

Golfers really need to learn to leave the downstroke alone! let the brain's instincts pick the backstroke, and then the downstroke in gravity is the ONLY stroke timing that will actually be correct. The brain is simply that good at getting the backstroke right. The human brain has had years of personal practice and eons of human evolution to get this right, or the human species would go extinct.

A metronome is not the same timing as your body specifically. Just swing your arms and watch.

In addition, people don't really notice this gravity timing, and falsely think they consciously can count it correctly. You need to try to speak the count in the same way that the arms toss back and then flop /swing back to the sides or the bottom of the stroke. The toss back verbalization is "one potato" and lasts about 1 second. The downward flop / free-fall swinging timing is about 1/2 second. So the phrase "one potato [top of backstroke reached] ... [downswing] two [impact at bottom of stroke]" mimmicks what actually happens in gravity. Your practice is to get this timing in sync with gravity. Then you still have to believe it will be enough to roll the ball all the way to the target without any "help" in the downstroke from you. That takes some adjustment and some honest observation.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Coach and Theorist
PuttingZone.com
Golf's most advanced and comprehensive putting instruction.