Aiming for the slope

WEBVTT

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So in this video we're going to discuss aiming for your slope.

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So you've been working on trying to feel the slope, now we have to know how to

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aim for that.

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So when you're feeling your slope you're trying to get a number, is it a one, a

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two,

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a three, a four.

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There's two different ways that you can use that information.

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Both of them require a little bit of intuition, but we can either use math or

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use a formula

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or we can use our fingers as a kind of a reference for the number of degrees.

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So the advantage to the fingers is it's pretty simple.

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If you feel a one you're going to hold up one finger.

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If you feel a two, two fingers, three, three fingers, four, four fingers.

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So if you feel one of the easy numbers then it's just a matter of standing in

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the right

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place and holding your arm at the right distance.

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Now I think that that takes a little bit of calibration, so if you are going to

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use this

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method I recommend that you get that calibrated by working with an aim point

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instructor.

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But in general a slow green you're going to be holding the arm far away and

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then a faster

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green you're going to be holding it close.

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Where that fits depends a little bit on the particular speed that you're

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playing.

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As a general rule somewhere in kind of the 45 as a starting point is not a bad

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place

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to start.

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If you're using the math version then what I have set up here is Jeff Magnum

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has a formula

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that he used that I think is pretty close.

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I think it struggles a little bit when you start getting into four fives and

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kind of the

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higher numbers.

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But for one, two, three I think it works really well which is basically on a 10

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-stimp green

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for every percent that you feel you're going to move your aim up the slope half

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an inch

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for each foot.

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So this putt I'm five feet away I'm going to move my aim spot 2.5 inches above

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the middle

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of the hole.

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The neat thing about that is as I move further and further back it works pretty

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well that

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it just moves in a linear fashion so I kind of double it as I move on.

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Now one way that you can knowing that the hole is about four and a quarter

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inches 2.5

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is just outside the edge.

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So if I'm using the finger version I have to calibrate where to stand and that

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varies

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a little bit depending on the length of the putt.

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On the short putts I'm going to stand with my feet pretty close to even with

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the golf

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wall and then on longer putts so outside of say seven feet or so I'm going to

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stand about

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a foot and a half back.

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But that can vary a lot depending on your individual measurements and finger

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thickness

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and things like that.

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So again I highly recommend if you're going to use this method work with an

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instructor

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who knows what they're doing with it.

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Okay so I've got these stations set up I've double checked that I'm pretty

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close to a

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one percent slope by using a level at each or in between so kind of checking

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the slope

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in between where I'm going to be hitting the putts and where I'm set up.

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So now we can test my reads and see how well we did.

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Alright so as a demo I've got a couple golf ball set up so if I was going to

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check this

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with the fingers I would hold it off the middle of the couple on the short put

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ts and

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the outside edge on the longer putts so middle of the cup that fills up the

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space between

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the tee and in the middle of the hole.

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And now I can confirm my aim by closing my non-dominant eye and checking where

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the line

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on the golf ball is aimed and it's aimed at the tee.

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So now if I imagine the string where I just commit to rolling the ball end over

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end hopefully

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starting it at that line going to curve in nicely.

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So now we're at 10 feet so now I've got to stand further away from the golf

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ball so again

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about a foot and a half or so and I'm going to use more the edge of the hole

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and that

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fills up the space between the tee and the edge of the hole not the middle of

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the hole.

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But now it's the same process I'm going to try and roll the ball end over end

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almost

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imagining that string no longer thinking about line because I've taken care of

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that.

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And two for two going for the stuffed animal on the 15 footer.

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All right so I can double check so if we go to 18 inches behind that fills up

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the space

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already did the math so from 15 feet that third tee is about seven and a half

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inches

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from the center of the hole because that's 15 divided by two.

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If this was a two percent slope then it would be double that.

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So with the math you get used to kind of especially if you do some type of

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ladder training like

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this you get used to around the zone of where the golf ball is or sorry where

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the target

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will be and then you can use some of your intuition to adjust it.

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All right so 15 footer speed and line have to match up, let's see how well we

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can do.

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Push that a little bit but maybe hit it soft, oh just caught the edge there.

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So again got me in the right ballpark you can see the line wasn't as good as

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the first

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two rolling end over end just pushed it slightly pushed it enough that it didn

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't come down.

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But this gives you the two different ways either using the math and the formula

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that

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we got on the screen or using your finger alignments either way it's going to

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take some

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practice and some calibration but if you're going to go the feet version then

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once you

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have your slope you have to figure out the aim this is the two best ways that I

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know

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about doing it.

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All right so I wanted to do one more real world example so this one I'm about a

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two

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here and then it starts to become 2.4, 2.7 almost the three there so I have the

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first

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T right here is for the math at two from this distance and then this one would

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be two from

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that distance so I aimed it in between those because it's just a little bit

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higher and

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then the third one this is two and this is three and I aimed it not quite to

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the three

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but pretty close so oftentimes I'll pick slopes that aren't truly flat so it's

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not a two the

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entire ladder to help my students kind of work through some of this intuition

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of looking

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where the two would be look where the three and kind of figure out what looks

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about right

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where's the ball going across the hole.

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So now we'll see how well we can do see if we can win the prize for hitting all

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three.

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So that was the one I was the most confident in it was the shortest and B it

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was the easiest

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slope in between it was the two.

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So now this one is just a little bit higher than the two and I started it at

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the two and

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it rolled just low so now this one we're going to aim pretty close to that

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three and now the

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more break the more speed becomes a factor kind of push that one but I left the

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second

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ball here so I could have another chance that wasn't a great stroke and oft

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entimes this helps

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you when you're practicing these kind of in between putts it gets you

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comfortable that

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was a good stroke I think I aimed that a little bit low what I was going to say

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is it gets

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you a little bit more comfortable with not being fully committed because you're

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like

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it's kind of in between those so then it forces you to get committed to hitting

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a good stroke.

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So I wanted to demonstrate more the real world where on the first one it was

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pretty close

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to a one the whole way this has a little bit of fluctuations in so I can use

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this to really

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practice my ability to feel and pick a confident aim point and then go ahead

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and roll the putt

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as best I can on the line that I picked.