Dear Del,
You may have an advantage in golf, from being left-handed. I take it you're left-handed but don't play right-handed. Those golfers seem to have an even better advantage!
Some general resources for lefties can be found at The National Association of Left-handed Golfers (NALG),
http://www.nalg.org. Here's an interesting comment from the fine Australian golf instructor, David Wright:
http://www.lag.com.au/questions/learn63.htm. And Christopher Duke translates right-hander golf tips into tips for left-handers:
http://home.cinci.rr.com/lefthandedgolf/ If you need to locate left-handed equipment, just try searching for "left-handed golf" at
http://www.google.com.
Jack Nicklaus apparently writes left-handed but plays right-handed. So does a friend of mine who is a scratch golfer. The combination seems to be left-handed in general, but plays golf right-handed, and is left-eye dominant.
Even if you're left-handed, that doesn't necessarily mean you're also left-eye dominant. So, check that as follows: hold both arms out level in front of you with your two thumbs together like a gunsight. Sight with both eyes open at a distant target such as a light pole or house chimney or tree trunk. Then close the right eye. Does the target remain in the gunsight? If so, you are left-eye dominant. If it jumps out of the gunsight, start over, resight the target with both eyes, and then close the left eye. Does the target remain in the gunsight, or jump to the side? If it stays put, you're right-eye dominant. If it jumps for both eyes, you're not doing the check correctly.
If you are left-handed and also left-eye dominant, then golf is about the same mechanically for you as for right-side dominant golfers. This is also the case with putting. Your "rear" eye will be behind the ball, so you will be comfortable in a classic setup, and will not require or desire the sort of setup adjustment a "front" eye golfer like Nicklaus prefers (head cocked behind the ball to get the "front" eye positioned for a "better look down the line" or perhaps a bit "open" stance). You can use a standard shoulderframe "pendulum" stroke. This setup results in Nicklaus relying upon a push stroke powered mainly with the right hand (which seems to be his dominant hand for golf), with right wrist set and kept in a precocked posture.
Even so, being left-handed usually means your left hand dominates over the right hand. This can be a very positive thing if you keep it in check in a very specific way. Usually, golfer who are right-handed believe that the right hand "should" control the putting stroke, but actually this is confused. You need to separate the 3 issues of (1) powering the stroke, (2) aiming the stroke-in-motion, and (3) manipulating the putterhead during the stroke. I'll discuss each issue first from the point of view of general principles, and then apply these to a left-handed golfer's putting.
First issue (power): Almost no one today advocates powering the stroke with the hands and wrists (even Billy Casper, the king of the wrist-only putting style, has now opted for a shoulder style), although many still claim the best stroke is an arms-and-shoulder stroke, so they think the forearms should alter in the stroke. The tell-tale sign is change of elbow angle in the stroke. There is no arm action unless the elbows fold inward on the backstroke (and this is the only way the elbows can fold, by the way.) A variant is to keep the elbows set in position and move the arms but the shoulderframe stays still. this is actually powered by the shoulder muscles, and not really the arm muscles, but it is also not the same as a true pendulum-like shoulderframe rocking (which keeps the shoulder joint set and moves the upper torso and hence shoulderframe with muscles in the lower-back abdomen region tugging on the pelvis. The arms-shoulders advocates are describing a stroke that includes a mixture of shoulder and shoulderframe, without much if any elbow alteration.
Essentially, then, the power choices are (1) forearm muscles moving hands by altering the wrists angles (handsy stroke), (2) arm muscles on the elbow folding the elbows going back and then and then unfolding them coming into impact (arm stroke), (3) shoulder joints moving arms and hands back in a set relation without wrists or elbows changing, usually combined with a modest rocking of the shoulderframe (arms-shoulder stroke), (4) a rocking back and through of the shoulderframe with shoulder joints, elbows, and wrists all set in a stable relation (true pendulum-like stroke), or (5) some variable combination of these. For my money, the simplest, most consistent, and most accurate is the pendulum stroke, and the worst is the handsy stroke.
Even the arm-powering unfortunately encourages hand and wrist action, and makes keeping a truly straight stroke path needlessly difficult. And the extra subtlety introduced in timing the speed of the putterhead at impact by including the arm-movement variable also makes your distance control (somewhat uselessly referred to as "touch" and "feel") considerably worse than it could otherwise be. In short, "dead-hands" are better for simplicity, consistentcy, aim control, and distance control. And this really encompasses "dead-arms" too. That's what makes the pendulum stroke superior.
So how do you power a pendulum stroke? The short answer is you don't. Gravity powers the stroke, depending solely on the length of your backstroke and you willingness NOT to interfere with the free-falling action of gravity in the downstroke. Any tension at all in the arms or hands or or shoulders or back-abdomen in the downstroke reduces distance, when you try for a free-fall stroke. Hence the sage advice to "let the putterhead do the work." The backstroke length is set solely by targeting in your brain's basic understanding of green speed for that occasion and your body-putter shape and weights (which you know well without bothering about it). Consciously, all you really want to do is focus on the location of the target and let that inform your athletic ability to roll the ball all the way into the hole across this particular green surface. The resulting distance control is about as good as it can get, is always at the same level of consistency, does not exhibit streakiness, and completely frees your concentration for sinking putts of almost any length without anxiety about three-putting.
Those golfers who persist in believing that the dominant hand ought to power the stroke, and cling to the old rubrics "accelerate through the ball" and "never up, never in" are really missing out.
Application: The reason I go on at length about this is because left-handed golfers are tempted by conventional lore in an acute way to use poor technique. If the left-hander is truly left-hand dominant, then he is tempted to power the stroke with the left hand AND to guide the stroke with the left hand. For everyone, the left hand is mostly controlled by the right hemisphere of the brain, and for almost everyone the right hemipshere is a bit better for spatial awareness and control. But in some left-handers, while the right hemisphere operates the left hand, the left hemisphere is better at space. Characteristically, the right hemisphere has more capability for assessing spatial relations, including direction, distance, contour, and relations between two or more objects in space. This tends to make the left hand a bit more accurate in guiding the putterhead in the stroke in a straight line and at the target. This is one reason the left-hand-low or cross-hand style works pretty well for right-handed golfers. In my approach, you really don't want either of your "dead-hands" to take a lead for power or guidance.
However, if you don't consciously attend to the situation, you are likely to give the lead to the left hand for BOTH power and guidance. This is definitely a bad idea, for a couple of different reasons. These two aspects of movement conflict with each other and getting the combination correct is a lot harder than not having the problem to start with. Also, in those rare instances where the lefty has space awareness dominating from the left hemisphere, the right hand could well be a bit morer astute at making a straight stroke and one that is moving through the ball at the target.
So, a left-hander who is tempted by the conventional lore to "accelerate through the ball" and to rely upon the dominant hand is headed for streakiness. It's easy to see only the good streaks, so it's also easy to get comfortably deluded with this style. I would say be careful about anything other than "dead hands" for power and aiming of the stroke path. The pendulum stroke is completely sufficient for power without any positive accelerating through impact and balanced "dead hands" are least disruptive of the stroke pattern than active hands or arms muscles. But if one or the other hand is allowed to control the line of the movement, let it be the one opposite your handedness. That's most often the hand better for a straight stroke. Deemphasizing powering the stroke in favor of allowing some line control is a good tradeoff, but you really ought to go whole hog to "dead hands" for both power and line.
Second issue: Many golfers who subscribe to the "touch" and feel" camp of putting essentially rely upon some form of "guiding" the putterhead during the downstroke. In many ways, this reduces the importance of the backstroke so much that they don't really mind weird stroke paths and odd acceleration patterns and the occasional cut stroke. They believe this is working well for them, but if you chart their pertformance daily, you will see they have a wide variability in their misses (long short and wide). The total scatter pattern is simply not noticed, because they want to believe they have good touch and feel, even if they admit it sort of comes and goes, and they can't explain that. If they are missing a lot of putts, they just bemoan the fact that their touch and feel is off that day for some inexplicable reason. Consequently, they tell themselves NO ONE can explain that! Well, it's real simple: if you're real honest and pay close attention and pursue the matter, it comes and goes because "touch" and "feel" is an excuse for inconsistent technique, or worse, a general lack of a coherent technique. And that in a nutshell explains the inconsistency.
People who advocate "accelerate through the ball," "touch and feel," "you really need sensitive fingers for the delicate work of putting," "whatever style works for you is best," "putting is completely individual and no one can teach it" and so forth, simply are not correct. Everyone putts with two eyes, two arms, muscles and joints, a ball, a putter, and on the same sorts of greens, and their brains and body work pretty much alike in terms of neurophysiology and biomechanics. There is a great deal more in common between all golfers in putting than is usually admitted.
Acclerating through the ball is usually meant to imply activation of hand or arm muscles during the downstroke. Since the forearm muscles tug the hand tendons, forearm muscles alter the hand positions and grip pressure in such a stroke. This results in an ever-present tendency to twist the putterface out of its online orientation and to misjudge the stroke path for off-center hits and to rely upon the degree of muscle contraction for distance control rather than a stable tempo. None of this promotes good distance control or accurate line.
Application: With the left hand being dominant (for power if not for line), a lefty tends to let the right hand go along in a passive role just for the ride, with left forearm muscles unfolding the elbow in an effort to get the "pace" of a given putt correct. This makes for inconsistent tempo and a total stroke tempo that is about 25% faster or quicker than that used by pros. The trouble with a quick stroke is it hampers effective eye-hand coordination of moving the sweetspot on the correct line. This is in addition to the muscles activating the hands and fingers to twist the face out of square or jerk the sweetspot trajectory off the line (usually a cut stroke or pull). So, while a handsy stroke is not a good idea to start with, a lefty is sorely tempted to use it anyway and this degrades eye-hand coordination.
If you insist on using a hands- or arms-powered stroke, then at least don't harm your eye-hand coordination with too quick a stroke. The eyes need a certain slowness in the stroke in order to give optimal monitoring of the trajectory of the stroke back and through, while also maintaining focus on the impact point on the back of the ball and the sense of the start line and location of the hole or target. The "mental load" in this situation is pretty high, and a quick stroke is just not at all what the doctor ordered for accuracy.
Again, the answer is a stable, slow, smooth tempo for ALL putts, regardless of length, so that power comes solely from targeting and backstroke length and relaxed free-fall downstroke. This slow smoothness ALSO promotes excellent eye-hand coordination. But if you rely upon hands or arms muscles for power, then watch the speed or tempo of the stroke and keep it slow enough to let the eyes really help with the line.
Third issue (manipulation): Every once in a blue moon, you start a backstroke or a downstroke and notice (from body-sense or visually) that the stroke is out of whack (face twisted, trajectory wrong, too fast, something...) On these occasions, you need to make a correction mid-stroke. This is definitely the case with a bad downstroke, but with the backstroke you can sort of wash out the problem with a pause or easy transition at the top for regrouping. usually, the golfer will give this task to the dominant hand. But the left hand is a bit better at knowing the line and orientation to the target, so a right-handed golfer would be better served giving this task to the left hand instead. Also, the dominant hand is dominant because it does most of the hand-work every day. Most of this is "grasping" objects. The "grasp" movement invariably involves preshaping of the hand to take hold of the object, depending upon object distance, shape, orientation, and heaviness. So the dominant hand in an instinctive call to action usually involves the hands and fingers, too -- and this ain't good for putting. So, I teach that people should name their "front" (nondominant) hand to emphasize it a bit more, make it more conscious in your planning the stroke. (Mine is named Ned Stinck, or "N. Stinck.") If either hand gets active in the stroke, for corrective or other reasons, I want it to be Ned, the "front" hand, since this hand has a more vivid and accurate body-sense of the line and target and ball. This effectively gets the dominant hand out of the correcting business. I want to "trust" this mute, quiet hand for this really precise control, even though my dominant brain tells me (falsely) that the dominant hand can "handle it" and is "more experienced." The fact is the "front" hand can 'draw" a straighter line than the "rear" hand can "push" one.
So, that's pretty much it. Use "dead hands" if you can learn how, and in any event keep the "rear" hand out of power and guidance as much as you can. Let the left eye do the sighting from a classic setup position.
Hope this helps.
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
The PuttingZone
http://hometown.aol.com/puttmagic
Elite instruction, comprehensive resources.
PS-- Another little drill that helps you get a good pendulum stroke is for right-handers to putt left-handed. This exercise really concentrates focus on sticking with good technique in odd circumstances. If you can putt well using the opposite hand, it really boosts your reliance upon technique and your confidence goes up. (You need a symmetrical putter, like a Cash-in, Bullseye, Matzie, etc.) So, I'm sure it works as well for lefties, too. Try putting right-handed to make you a better left-handed putter. Also consider hitting full shots one way and putting the other way, like David Wright and Notah Begay. There are really no set ways.