Rick Wright's Putting T-Bar

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http://www.wrightputtingdynamics.com or http://www.wrightputtingdynamics.com/the-putting-t-bar.html

http://shop.wrightputtingdynamics.com/The-Putting-T-Bar-with-Balance-Rod-practice-aid-tbar.htm if you want to buy.

The T-Bar is two things:

• A device that attaches beneath your putter grip which places a bar across your shoulders.
• A two-piece rod that has markings equally spaced apart from the middle so you can practice a matching back- and through-swing (among other things).

A video, from two views:

Years ago Rick was going to send me one of these and it was lost in the mail or never sent or something. I never got it.

I wasn't too disappointed as I didn't think it would be a particularly useful training aid. I generally prefer a putting stroke with a bit more freedom of movement - a little bit in both the elbows and a bit more in the wrists. Good putters have soft wrists that can compensate at the last minute for a putting stroke that would otherwise be too strong or weak (distance control).

But… a lot of that was based on what I understood that good putters do. For example, I didn't need this training aid because I was a good putter: I already used my shoulders, elbows, and wrists properly. This training aid "limited" me by removing the little bit of elbows and wrists from my stroke. It felt rigid, forced, and too structured for a free-flowing, artistic, "feely" putting stroke.

Turns out, though… some people don't even use their shoulders properly. They're unable to rock their shoulders back and forth properly to  provide the general path of the putter, to use the "big muscles" to provide the overall shape of their stroke and to use the wrists/elbows to provide a little of the more subtle motions important to touch.

For these people (at least one or two of them are on my college golf team…), the T-Bar provides an immediate help. These golfers often have a stroke guided primarily by the wrists and/or elbows. They often take the putter too far outside on the backswing, or roll it well inside on a strong arc… their follow-throughs often result in poor contact with a variable face angle. For these golfers, the T-Bar is great at providing them the structure, and feel, of a good putting stroke.

I like to use the T-Bar in two ways:

• As you see in the video of me up above: with the T-Bar square resting against the student's chest/collarbones.
• With the T-Bar an inch or so away from the student's collarbones.

The former trains the general feeling, the second confirms that the student can "do it" without being forced to do it: if the T-Bar stays an inch or two away from the golfer's chest with the center in front of his sternum, he's done it properly. If the ends get closer to or farther from the golfer's chest, he's doing something wrong.

In the video above I hit four putts from down the line. The first goes in from 16 feet. The second I didn't re-align and misses right. The third hits a ball in the cup and bounces over the hole. The fourth goes in as it was hit slower. You'll notice my shoulders working pretty well along their plane, and the putter working in an arc. Because I can't twist the putter open or closed, it stays square "to the path" the entire time. Which is why, if I line up the putts as I do the first, third, and fourth… they go in.

The latter four videos are from face-on (actually a bit behind face-on, as my ball position is not that far forward). After the third putt I "goof around" to show you how you can do things incorrectly and what would happen to the T-Bar. Simply put, it moves relative to your chest.

Now, you can still make bad strokes with the T-Bar. Toward the end of the goofing around portion, I turn my shoulders very horizontally. Similarly, you can still become a good putter while not using your shoulders as the T-Bar wants you to do, too (though I'd think the odds would go down quite a bit).

I'm here to answer questions you might have and/or film anything else you might want to see.

P.S. Given the shat is vertical at impact with a ball position normally a little forward of center, the impact and launch conditions will generally not be ideal: too much positive loft, not quite enough shaft lean, etc. This is one of the things the wrists can help you do to putt well (controlling delivered loft). So, while using the T-Bar, you'll hit putts with a bit too much loft and possibly a little backspin. Just wanted to add that bit…