Putting Video

[B-Con]

I've been working on getting a consistent putting stroke this winter, since it's been almost the only thing I can practice. I filmed my stroke from directly behind my swing so I could get an idea of what it looked like from behind since my only view is from the top. I figured I'd post the video here in case anyone else has some feedback.

The video is focused on just the club and ball, I don't think you even see me in any part of it. It's not as useful for critique as if I'd filmed my actual self making the stroke, but originally it was for me and I just wanted to watch the club move and how it hit the ball. Here's the video, any feedback is welcome.



A couple questions:

1) My stroke is intended to be straight-back and straight-through but it has a hint of gating, specifically at the extreme of the back and forward swing when the toe gets rotated out/in a bit. This is still considered a square swing, right? The rotation is caused by the fact that the shaft is rotating about my shoulders, which are not directly over the ball.

2) What surprised me was that the ball seems to pop up a bit on impact. Is the ball supposed to pop up like that? I know the putter has a bit of loft to help get the ball out of the small rut it's sitting in, but should it be that noticeable? Does that contribute to the dreaded skidding of the ball? I realized the putter was just barely above the ground on impact, should I be hitting a little higher on the ball? (If the YouTube quality doesn't make this obvious. I couldn't find a good way to preserve quality.)

A couple misc. comments:

*) I'm putting harder than necessary to get the ball into the cup intentionally, I wanted to hit slightly harder putts to emphasize everything that happened during a normal putt.

*) The second putt has an improper backswing that looks somewhat gate-style. I didn't rotate my shoulders correctly.

*) On the fifth stroke I paused at the apex of the backswing to emphasize the position the putter is in at the apex. As a result of breaking the fluid swing, I didn't hit the ball perfectly on center. I still made it, but yes, the ball did roll down the strip at a slight angle.

*) The camera makes it look like I'm just barely lining up the putter a couple millimeters off the center of the ball. I think this is just an illusion created by the camera angle, because when I look straight down at the putter lined up with the ball it looks as centered as possible. Regardless, I'll be watching that as I continue to practice.

*) If you noticed, the balls are monogrammed with "B-Con". It's my universal moniker, so my family chose it for my personalized golf balls for my birthday. (I can't bring myself to risk losing them, so they've stayed at home thus far.)

*) Sorry I couldn't get better video quality.

[spc lewis]

hope this helps. A little putting tip I found the other day which helped my putting greatly is to take the club away less than the follow through. So shorter backswing than your follow through. I practiced this yesterday for awhile and when i played on the full swing simulators last night I had 28 putts for 18 holes. now this is skewd by a few factors but my lag putting was spot on. dont know if this will help but maybe give it a try. Ill see if i can find the video i watched

[spc lewis]

here is that video I found. let me know if this helps. I have only just started to do this and I am by no means in a real position to be giving advice but it seems to work.

[Zeph]

I prefer it the other way around, well, not all the way, but part of it. I like taking a long backswing and use the distance to the ball to adjust the speed of the putt. With a short backswing I have to accelerate the club through the swing, giving me less speed control. I don't want to hit it too loose, but by lagging the club instead of accelerating, I hit my long putts much better.

It feels like a stab with a short backswing, losing the rhythm and flow of the stroke. Of course, as close as the guy on the video is, I won't take a long backswing, I adjust it on different distances.

[SSJLaletas]

I guess theres two methodologies about it, I starte practicing my putting stroke to get better putting this winter. I was averaging 36 putts in a round which is not that great, found that I like using a shorter backswing and a longer forward swing on my own, also found a couple of other things that helped, found out that my eyes were following the putter head during the stroke I stopped and focused on the ball and that helped a ton too.

[B-Con]

From my practicing, I've developed a fondness for a slight acceleration through impact. I think it help me control the distance better. As well, I've taken to standing with my eyes directly over the contact point between the putter head and the ball so that on impact my peripheral vision is lined up straight down the line of the stroke and the stroke feel like just pushing the ball along that path. Keeping my head down through the stroke also helps, because if I lift my head to follow the ball I have a tendency to pull the stroke because my body tends to follow my head, causing a slight bias to aim a little extra left on impact.