Putting - DO NOT Accelerate Through the Ball

[Ernest Jones]

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.

Seems to me I could make any stroke I want, accelerating, decelerating, Charles Barkley, whatever, and still hold my finish. Just saying...

[RandallT]

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.

Yah the segment was on nerves I think. He said that most amateurs have difficulty in pressure moments doing their normal routine. His caddy reassured him on big putts to remember he's done same stroke thousands of times before. The holding of follow through was to guard against the choke putt where you decel. It was just the specific wording he used that reminded me of this thread.

[Fourputt]

I make a smooth stroke on longer putts, but from about 6 feet and in I accelerate through impact.  I also make a rather exaggerated follow through, because I find that helps me to avoid decelerating the putter, and helps keep the face square through impact.  However, I don't hit down at impact.  My stroke is at least in the good range of Erik's graph for the point on the arc where I contact the ball.  I just continue the stroke so that the putter "chases" the ball down the line.  I rarely miss my target line or speed on those putts.

[geoffmangum]

In the PuttingZone there are dozens of innovations about all this "pendulum" stroke stuff, like: what causes the correct size backstroke; how to know the backstroke is big enough by its timing; how to validate the stroke size with a "butterfly" transition at the top of the backstroke; how to use a ballistic muscle action to time and size the stroke; how the brain coordinates tempo with stroke size and impact velocity and force; how to match up the backstroke timing tempo with the thrustroke timing and tempo; how to have the body display the correct size of the stroke on demand; how to know the forward stroke is naturally accelerating; the sole cause of putting too far by over speeding the thrustroke; the two causes of putts that are too weak and short; why the mind interferes with a natural stroke sizing and timing; how to avoid the mind interfering with the right stroke; how changes in tempo change sizing; how rhythm allows golfers to use different tempos; why the natural free-fall downstroke tempo is the best and most accurate tempo for sizing strokes; using imaginary defining of a pace to sharpen up distance control, and much more.

[Phil McGleno]

So lemme get this straight- -You post a big infomercial for your stuff on someone elses forum and expect that to be cool -You expect people to read your wall of text -you expect people to do ALL those things ??? -All for putting which is easy to do compared to other stuff and not very important compared to other stuff

[Grndslmhttr3]

I'd like to see these dozens of innovations in the form of a numbered list

[BrandelChamblee]

Great post.

[ilikefishes]

I can't believe we have Chamblee on this board.

[billchao]

So lemme get this straight- -You post a big infomercial for your stuff on someone elses forum and expect that to be cool [b]-You expect people to read your wall of text[/b] -you expect people to do ALL those things ??? -All for putting which is easy to do compared to other stuff and not very important compared to other stuff

I quit at the wall of text. Seriously, basic English composition, please.

[Ernest Jones]

In the PuttingZone there are dozens of innovations about all this "pendulum" stroke stuff, like: what causes the correct size backstroke; how to know the backstroke is big enough by its timing; how to validate the stroke size with a "butterfly" transition at the top of the backstroke; how to use a ballistic muscle action to time and size the stroke; how the brain coordinates tempo with stroke size and impact velocity and force; how to match up the backstroke timing tempo with the thrustroke timing and tempo; how to have the body display the correct size of the stroke on demand; how to know the forward stroke is naturally accelerating; the sole cause of putting too far by over speeding the thrustroke; the two causes of putts that are too weak and short; why the mind interferes with a natural stroke sizing and timing; how to avoid the mind interfering with the right stroke; how changes in tempo change sizing; how rhythm allows golfers to use different tempos; why the natural free-fall downstroke tempo is the best and most accurate tempo for sizing strokes; using imaginary defining of a pace to sharpen up distance control, and much more.

That's all sounds a helluva lot more complicated than just using your natural athletic ability, but maybe that's just me.

[Lihu]

Great post.

Welcome to this site, and please don't read any of the stuff we wrote about you. We didn't mean any of it! We were too busy slugging down

[Ernest Jones]

Pretty sure the real Brandel Chamblee posted a here a few years back. Or he forgot about that and created another account.

[Clubchucker]

Pretty sure the real Brandel Chamblee posted a here a few years back. Or he forgot about that and created another account.

Pretty sure it's the real Brandel since he just mentioned Erik and the site by name on Golf Central (and this thread).

[iacas]

Pretty sure it's the real Brandel since he just mentioned Erik and the site by name on Golf Central (and this thread).

Seems that way.

Two posts in this thread to which I'd point people:

1) http://thesandtrap.com/t/74295/putting-do-not-accelerate-through-the-ball#post_985295

2) http://thesandtrap.com/t/74295/putting-do-not-accelerate-through-the-ball/162#post_1040098

[Phil McGleno]

Wow just saw @ @BrandelChamblee mention you and this thread on GolfCentral.-Sweet. Kudos-good job.

[trickyputt]

I like him. He is not an idiot.

[mvmac]

For those that haven't seen it

[joe1365]

I also like Chamblee and joined this site because he mentioned it.  I'm an older guy and have seen many putting styles come and go.  Both he and Duval mentioned the piston style of Jack, and Jack was pretty good.  They also talked about the concept of releasing the putter head, and I'm not sure if those are compatible with the "drop" stroke. Frankly the science was a bit much for me.   I've always thought putting was more art than science, as I have had long streaks of good putting using various styles over the years, including cross handed.  Trevino preached moving the ball back towards the middle of the stance, which stands in direct opposition to what I've been reading here, and Lee was pretty good.  Every really good putter I've played with is rythmic, and that seems to be one constant among various styles.