Start Line Overview

WEBVTT

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Welcome back, golfers.

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So hopefully you've been experimenting with the overall shape of your swing.

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In this class, we're going to dig into the first of the big skills, which is

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looking

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at start line.

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Now start line could be broken down into two main goals.

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One is alignment or the ability to see where we want to hit the ball, because

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when we're

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bent over and at this funny angle, sometimes just getting aligned can be a

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challenge.

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And then the second skill is what does it take to roll the ball end over end.

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So if I can get aligned, roll the ball end over end on that line that I

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intended, then

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it comes down to speed control and reading green.

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So we're going to, in this section, all the videos are going to have a slant

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towards being

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able to control start line or one of these two skills.

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Okay, golfers.

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So in this section, every drill is going to, or every video is going to be

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related to

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start line.

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Some of the big picture items that control start line, as I mentioned in the

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overview

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video, the main influence for start line is clubface.

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So if I get lined up, if I get my alignment down where I want it to, then my

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main goal

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is to be able to make a stroke where the putter face is not going to change

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very much compared

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to the path.

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So what I mean by that is this is a putter that is having very little or having

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no face

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rotation compared to the path where this would be a putter that would have face

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rotation

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compared to the path.

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If I have more of this face rotation compared to the path, then that's going to

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induce an

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element of timing.

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So not that the putting stroke is without timing, but our goal is to minimize

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it.

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So in order to do that, we're trying to lock out some of the things that would

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rotate the

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putter.

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The big things that would rotate the putter, well, A, if my putting alignment

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is way off.

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So if I got set up with my shoulders, way closed or too much tilt this way,

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that can

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make it harder to control the putter face.

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Secondly, the main things that are going to twist the club are going to be

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either wrist

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motion.

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So forearm movements going this way, creating a whole lot of lag or scoop.

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So wrist movements going this way can alter the putting face angle, as well as

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rotation

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of the shoulders.

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So those are the big ones from the arms, from the body, the main thing would be

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having too

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much hip turn or hip rotation, kind of like this, because what that will tend

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to do is

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that will tend to create some lag, which would tend to cause the face to get

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open.

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And then I have to balance that out by having some sort of rapid closing from

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the forearms.

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So if we can build some consistency in our grip so that our wrists have less of

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a tendency

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to want to twist the club, and we can build some connection in our shoulders so

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that our

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shoulders have less of a tendency to twist the club, you'll find that that

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helps control

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start line dramatically.

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We'll also talk about kind of the arm consistency.

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So you could straighten your arms without twisting it, but that would cause you

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to hit

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the ball kind of earlier in the arc if the arm is straightening, then I'm

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hitting before

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the low point, and that lag would tend to open up that club face.

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Alternatively, if I straighten this one and I bent this one, which would have

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more of a

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scoop effect, I'm going to tend to close the face.

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So arm consistency and arm connection can be a huge help for working on your

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start line.

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So we're going to have a couple of different kinds of drills in this section.

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We'll have ones where we purely just work on some type of station for working

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on start

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line, whether that's a ruler, a string, a chalk line.

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When I would go to tour events and look around the putting green, that was the

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one place

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where more often than not, everybody was using some type of feedback to really

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dial in their

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face control to a high level.

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I've heard a couple of different numbers, but I'll use one of them more

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aggressive.

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I've heard that on measurement wise, tour pros, the goal is to get the putter

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face within

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about four tenths of a degree to your intended start line.

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At one degree off, you would tend to miss a straight ten footer.

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So half a degree or four tenths of a degree gives you the ability to make

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pretty much

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anything inside at least outside of ten feet or so if it was a straight putt.

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That seems to be the tour standard that we're going for, but for some of us,

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the goal might

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be just to eliminate three putts, which means we need to make our short putts,

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which means

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we probably need to get that at least less than a degree.

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Keep in mind, the overall shape is the engine is going to be coming more from

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the shoulder

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movement, not from the wrist movement because if the wrist tend to move, then

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the putter

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face rotates and that's really hard to control.

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So every putting robot that I've ever seen basically locks the grip in some

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type of vice.

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So in the grip video, we will talk about pressure points and how to control the

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putter face

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so that it doesn't rotate.

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That's a huge, that's one of the biggest factors is learning how to take the

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wrist or quiet

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the wrist down so that you have a lot more putter, a lot less putter face

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twisting and

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a lot more start line control.

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So as a general, what we'll see in this section, we're trying to build a stable

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suspension

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point with no grip twists.

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So that's getting this whole pizza shape with quiet legs, quiet wrists, limited

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arm

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changing kind of like this, and basically dominating the stroke more with the

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movement

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of your shoulder blades, your shoulder muscles, not so much hands or hips.

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We're kind of trying to isolate the engine of your putting stroke more into

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this upper

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trunk area.

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So with analyzing your start line, we're going to look at it from a couple

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different

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vantage points.

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So if we're looking at the face on video, again, I've got this kind of little

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checklist

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that we're looking for.

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If we took him back to set up, you would see that his arm structure looks about

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the same.

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The spacing between the arms hasn't changed much.

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The spacing this way, the arms haven't really rotated.

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The space between the wrist and the grip has stayed the same, and his lower

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body has stayed

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pretty much the same.

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All of the movement is happening here in his rib cage as it rotates back and

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forth.

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So from this, we get a good view of the suspension point.

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That helps us figure out how much arm extension and action is happening.

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If we look at it in real speed, we can see the acceleration rate.

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The only problem with too fast acceleration from a face control perspective is

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if you

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create a lot of lag and the grip leads, then that tends to open the club face.

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Or if you get a lot of acceleration by releasing the putter, then that will

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tend to close the

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face.

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So if you have fast acceleration that usually will cause either pushes or pulls

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depending

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on if that acceleration is happening more from the body or more from the hands.

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And then lastly from this view, we can get a little bit of a look of putter

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face twisting.

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So if you're just looking at one view, this can be used or it's helpful even

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for looking

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at the putter face twisting.

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I think it's easiest to see the putter face twisting from either the other two

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views the

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down the line or the overhead.

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Okay so now when we're looking at the overhead view, having some references on

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the ground

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because you're not going to be able to see where the hole is and you're not

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going to

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have any environment as far as kind of dialing in where that putter started.

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So having a stick on the ground can be really helpful.

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If the putter shaft moves in a straight line, then what we will see is the put

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ter head will

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arc just slightly in on both sides and the putter face will have a very slight

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twisting

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open in the backswing and closing on the downswing.

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But that is not from independent wrist action.

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That is simply the geometry of the suspension point and the putter coming up

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and rotating

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on the angle around that suspension point.

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This is the best way for looking at your face and path relationship, just use

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some type

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of feedback like stick on the ground or alignment stick in between so you know

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where the ball

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started and where the target or intended start line was.

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So from the down the line, we can look at the stability of the body.

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So we can look at the alignment of the shoulders kind of more over the mid feet

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, a little bit

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of flex in the knees, but most of the movement or a lot of the movement

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happening from bending

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at the hips because we want to have the arms having some amount of bend in it.

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So I usually demonstrate if your arms are totally straight, then it's really

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easy for

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them to have some rotation.

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So you're going to tend to have a little bit more face rotation where if my

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arms are bent,

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it's a lot easier to keep the wrist and the forearms in the same alignment.

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I'll have a little bit more sensitivity to controlling that shoulder rotation.

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But if my arms are bent, then if I bend just from the knees, it's really hard

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to get the

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putter all the way down to the ground.

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So then if I've got set up in this position, I have to bend all the way down to

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the ground

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more from using the hips.

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The more that I've bent over, the less that the putter is going to arc and the

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more that

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I'm going to be kind of having the, it's easier to have the club in line with

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my forearms.

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So in general, I would say majority of amateurs tend to bend down more from the

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knees, have

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the arms too straight, and then have to work around the body instead of being

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able to just

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rotate the big muscles like Steve Stryker would demonstrate here.

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So we've got shoulder alignment, forearm alignment, club roughly in line with

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those forearms and

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those forearms roughly parallel to the target or the intended start line, I

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should say.

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So you want to watch for having too much rotation, either this way or that way,

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I would prefer

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to have the forearms a little bit closed if I had to pick.

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But ideally, we're getting them pretty close to your intended start line.

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From the stroke perspective, if I want to look at the putter face rotation, I

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can again

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either use the line on the ball or I can use a stick on the ground and you can

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look at

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how much the putter face is rotating on both sides.

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Typically, you'll have some type of pattern of either rotate and then cut

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across or rotate

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or oftentimes a common one as it goes outside and then you kind of hold the put

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ter face

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open and hit a little kind of fade and then there's a bunch of rotation

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afterward.

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That's a common amateur pattern that creates a lot of speed control issues.

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We'll come back to that one in a later video.

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But this is a great vantage point for looking at your alignment, which is going

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to have

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a big impact on our overall start line ability.

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As I mentioned, we'll dig into kind of formulating your putting plan in the

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last section, what's

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a good putting practice look like.

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But I do like having some type of stroke calibration at the beginning of your

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putting practice,

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so whether it's using a string or a ruler or a chalk line and then some of the

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big areas

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or the big drills for locking in or controlling your start line improve or

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include things

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that quiet the wrist, so we have a couple different options there, things that

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get the

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engine happening more from your shoulders and your upper core, we have a bunch

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of options

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there and then things that create lower body stability.

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When you're going through analyzing your video to figure out which ones you

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need and then

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pick the drills from that section that will help with the movement pattern that

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you've

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identified on the video.

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Okay, quick summary.

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We've got our three putting skills of starting the ball online, controlling the

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speed and

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reading the green.

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I like to start with start line.

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Can I roll a ball end over end?

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Secondly, in order to do that, I need to build a stroke where I have very

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little face

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rotation, which comes from independent wrist movement or too much body rotation

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.

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We're trying to get that pizza shape with very little twisting of the putter

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face as

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it's traveling along the crust.

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In the next class, we'll dig into what it takes to cover speed control or

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distance, which

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is arguably the hardest skill to train and therefore it's one of the bigger

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differentiators

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between different skill levels.

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Amateurs typically have a hard time controlling speed and if you want to be a

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really good

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putter, you have to get pretty precise at being able to control the distance

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the ball

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is going to roll.

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We will discuss that in the next class.