Putting - DO NOT Accelerate Through the Ball

[Golfingdad]

But here's another simpler reason. This may be, for some, the ultimate explanation/reason. Here's an acceleration profile. There's no ball, it's just a person's putting stroke.

Timing is important. There's some timing in every stroke, whether you're accelerating or not. There's timing in the baseball lob and the car thing too.

If your timing can vary as much as those segments (maybe that's a tenth of a second or something), with impact occurring somewhere in between those two lines, the question becomes this: do you have more consistent speed between lines A or B?

Clearly your speed is more consistent between B.

Well again they are, but many won't feel like they are. The point is to have a curve that maximizes your margin of error:

That's the same graph, re-done to show the "timing" required to be within the same "one block" speed. "One block" might represent 1 MPH, or maybe a ball with +/- 3 feet of distance control.

In fact, I take back what I said above: this image, more than any other, demonstrates my point. I probably should have included it in the first post. I'll add a link to it now, though.

Even as somebody who has understood the concept from the very first post of this thread, I agree that these two graphs are, BY FAR, the easiest to understand.  Well done.

And I also agree they should have been in the OP.

Sadly, though, I imagine you'll still find people to disagree with the concept.

[Ernest Jones]

Even as somebody who has understood the concept from the very first post of this thread, I agree that these two graphs are, BY FAR, the easiest to understand.  Well done.

And I also agree they should have been in the OP.

Sadly, though, I imagine you'll still find people to disagree with the concept.

Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.

[iacas]

One of these things (or two) is not like the other…

[saevel25]

One of these things (or two) is not like the other…

The Sand Trap busting myths one at a time!!

[zipazoid]

I have a friend, a PGA pro, who is an excellent ball-striker, but is, at best, an average putter. His name is Buzz, and we always joke that he shoots a "Buzz 71' - 16 greens in regulation with 35 putts.

He thinks I'm a great putter. I'm not, but he believes I am better than him, and whenever we get together he tells me, 'Just hit some putts. Let me see that stroke.'

Buzz's main problem, as I see it, and I think Erik's graphs represented, is that Buzz's backswing on longer putts is too short, and he tries to accelerate into the ball too much - almost like a 'pushing' motion with the putter into the ball. I tell him, repeatedly, to just lengthen the backswing. Picture Crenshaw. Then just keep the pace of the backswing & forward-swing the same rhythm. Maybe the forward swing is a touch faster than the forward-swing, but I've always tried to match the speed consistency of each; don't 'accelerate into' the ball...I think that just introduces the twitchy muscles of the wrists too much.

[iacas]

I will add this, and it's in the vein of helping people, not to point anything "bad" out: of the 12 people (virtually all of whom have read this thread) I tested on the SAM PuttLab on Saturday, roughly two had "good" acceleration profiles. Some had quite a LARGE jump in speed after impact.

As much as you may feel that you're making a good length backswing, it's probably still too short. Try this: make a three-foot backswing but only try to hit the ball eight feet. That feeling of "slowing down" gravity is almost the feeling you'll need to have when you make a swing. Most of you are still "hitting" and accelerating at and then after the golf ball/impact.

[CarlSpackler]

I will add this, and it's in the vein of helping people, not to point anything "bad" out: of the 12 people (virtually all of whom have read this thread) I tested on the SAM PuttLab on Saturday, roughly two had "good" acceleration profiles. Some had quite a LARGE jump in speed after impact.

As much as you may feel that you're making a good length backswing, it's probably still too short. Try this: make a three-foot backswing but only try to hit the ball eight feet. That feeling of "slowing down" gravity is almost the feeling you'll need to have when you make a swing. Most of you are still "hitting" and accelerating at and then after the golf ball/impact.

I loved the SAM PuttLab. That has to be the coolest thing ever. I would highly recommend it to everyone.

[tjr5259]

I love seeing the science behind golf swings and putting strokes.  It helps me understand why the golf swing is the way it is.

Thanks

[Lihu]

The Sand Trap busting myths one at a time!!

Golf Myth Busters?

Well, I have to say there are quite a few myths surrounding this sport.

[trickyputt]

I cant read the greens well enough to suit me. There has to be some myths in the esoteric art of green reading.

[iacas]

I cant read the greens well enough to suit me. There has to be some myths in the esoteric art of green reading.

Not really the topic here. Take an AimPoint class. Green reading is relatively easy to figure out.

[trickyputt]

Lol he said easy

[cipher]

Lol he said easy

It is.

[Lihu]

Not really the topic here.

Take an AimPoint class. Green reading is relatively easy to figure out.

Lol he said easy

It is.

Amazing, really.

I only took the micro condensed Aimpoint Express during the Erie outing, and it works extremely well. I'm making some outrageous putts lately and definitely planning on taking the regular Aimpoint sometime this winter or spring.

It works.

[Ernest Jones]

Amazing, really. I only took the micro condensed Aimpoint Express during the Erie outing, and it works extremely well. I'm making some outrageous putts lately and definitely planning on taking the regular Aimpoint sometime this winter or spring. It works.

Amen. I took midpoint and express and I'm a Jedi with a putter now and I NEVER practice.

[Lihu]

Amen. I took midpoint and express and I'm a Jedi with a putter now and I NEVER practice.

I can't wait until I take these classes as well.

[RandallT]

Add Chris DiMarco to the list of people advocating accelerating the putter through the ball. He said today on Morning Drive that you should hold your finish on a putt that you are nervous about, because that ensures you will accelerate through the ball.

[Golfingdad]

Add Chris DiMarco to the list of people advocating accelerating the putter through the ball. He said today on Morning Drive that you should hold your finish on a putt that you are nervous about, because that ensures you will accelerate through the ball.

I don't get too bent out of shape over this kind of advice, because I think it's a reaction to a specific problem that is all to common amongst crappy putters; the short, quick stab at the ball with no follow through.

Erik has proven very well that you shouldn't accelerate through the hitting area, but it's just as bad, and perhaps even worse to be drastically decelerating through the hitting area as well.  Further, Erik's advice is about gaining better speed control, which I think is a lot more important on longer putts.  I say this because before I started improving through the advice in this thread, my weakness wasn't so much missing short and medium putts, but rather missing longer putts badly enough that I caused 3 putts too often.  I was always decent on speed control on shorter putts.  And since he mentions "putts you are nervous about," I take that to mean makable ones, so I think that advice is going to help a lot more people than it's going to hurt.

It's not perfectly ideal wording, but it's not horrible ... IMO.