I'm writing to Golf.com, which is basically Golf Magazine, to see if anyone there has ever heard about a golf technique which I hope I can claim as my discovery.   I would like to ask Golf Digest too, but they don't make it easy enough to send in a question; I can't find a way to do it.  

"Dear Golf. Com

I would like to know if anyone has heard of the procedure described below. Can you pose the following question to your experts and knowledgeable associates?  

The question is:

Have you ever heard of a procedure in which the distance from the hips to the hands at address is kept the same for all clubs?

This distance is measured between the lower belly and the little finger of the left hand, for right handed players. Although the actual distance should be optimized for each player, a typical distance might be around eight inches, which could be measured by a hand with the fingers spread out. The club should be held in the air in address position, just off the ground, so as to keep the wrist angles the same for each club (this regards the angle between the club and the arms as seen down the line).  As usual, the further the hands are from the hips, the more the torso must lean forward and the further from the ball the feet are placed. With a fixed hands to hips distance, the torso must lean more as the club gets shorter. If the hips to hands gap is successfully kept the same for all club lengths, then the torso, arms, and club will have the same geometrical relations to each other, not only at address, but during the swing as well. Because the arms and club are tilting with the torso, so is the swingplane.  So the arms, club, and swingplane stay in the same relation to the torso, regardless of which club is used. This simplifies the golf swing in the upper body.  It helps for sidehill lies as well, where the effect is especially apparent.

Do you know of anyone who tried this, advocated this, or mentioned this? 

End of message to Golf.com.

Working against the pull

I played today. It wasn't a disaster like last time. I was toying with the idea of bending over more to perhaps reduce my pulling occurances, but I watched Anna Soranstam's swing on YouTube and decided that if she can hit so straight at her torso angle, which is similar to mine, then I should keep mine and look for another way to fight the pulling. So I double- checked my swingplane by doing the "Downswing Exercise" and felt (but didn't see) that I should be a little flatter at the top. Flatter would make it easier to avoid that pulling. Tentatively I say it seems to be working. The shots seemed to be better all around. The correction toward flatter is very minor though. Some days later I realized that my pulling is simply turning back to the ball too much on the downswing. The cure for this is unfortunately to just not do it. You have to back off on the body turning force and let the arms do their job. For me there two ways to do this. One is just hitting some slow swing shots correctly and then ramping up the downswing speed gradually until the problem reappears, then backing off a little. The other method is to do the downswing portion of the Downswing Exercise faster and faster, while getting it right.  A variation mentioned in an earlier post is such a slow backswing that the top position is virtually static.

Arcane putting points

I noticed today that it makes quite a difference how much the head is turned up or down as to where the ball gets positioned for putting.  I moved my head up and down with the club hanging like a plumb under my eye, and was surprised to see how much the clubhead moved away and toward the feet.  Since the ball is positioned by this method, it means that the head must always be held with the same eye position.  I can do this by lining up the edge of my glasses with my knees.  This also has the advantage of making me look through my glasses at the same point, which is a very good idea because these strong near sighted glasses of mine make everything look curved, with the curve varying in degree and direction a lot between the upper and lower points on the lenses.

If you have very good muscle memory perhaps you wouldn't have to use all this lining up work.  Unfortunately I don't have it so I need everything I can do set up the same everytime.

I should note that you can't use the distance between the feet and the ball as a measure unless you can always balance yourself the same way, in regards to the proportion of weight placed between the heel and the ball of the foot.  Moving toward more weight to the ball, for example, makes the ball further from the feet.

Putting: Elbow impacts and looped strokes

I was on the putting green this morning and noticed a few things.   I have been trying to take the club straight back and I wish it would do that automatically, but it just doesn't always happen, so today I decided to let the head go whatever way it wants. The result was better putts. That makes sense. Concentrating on the direction of the takeaway does something bad to the stroke. It was more important to get the club speed right and the one piece swing intact. So the idea now is to keep the practice of the takeaway, and probably many other aspects, as a special exercise, and not worry about it during putting that is supposed to get the ball in the hole. Concerning the takeaway problem, I am proposing that it has mostly to do with the natural plumbed position of the arms and putter.  The putter and arms "want" to hang further from the body, in accordance with the laws of gravity, as I discovered by relaxing the muscles that hold them in the address position.  The arms and club swing outward if I let them.  Without a club in the hands the arms swing out even further!  What this means is that I must have muscle tensions holding both arms at a certain distance from the body.  The problem is especially evident when the arm-putter system goes from putter sitting on the ground to putter held off the ground at the beginning of the stroke. When the putter is resting on the ground, it's not holding my arms down much, so the muscles must do the job on their own. When I pick up the club it pulls the arms down, which means that I have to use less force to hold down my arms. In the transition from the first state to the second state, I have to control the easing of tension on the muscles that hold the arms down. Smoothly decreasing the muscle tension is I believe more difficult than smoothly increasing the muscle tension. Anyway, the result is that I ease the tension too much and the club swings outward instead of going straight back on the backstroke. Solution: Pick the club off the ground for a short moment before starting the backswing, thus allowing the muscles time to adjust to a static position with the full weight of the club held in the hands. Then start the backswing.

I have been trying to use my Long's Putting Stroke with the elbows in close, but have had some problems with it. The right elbow is the problem. It is not naturally close like the left. When it slides on the torso during the stroke it seems like a bumpy ride, and around the time of impact it seems to run into the belly. Maybe it even causes me to pull a putt.   I can't remember how exactly but it came to pass that I found a way to solve this problem.  I did it by adding about an inch to my putter's length, which moved my arms up and moved the right elbow out of contact with the torso. Now the forearm instead of the elbow brushes the belly. I don't yet understand the geometry but the sliding is smoother and without a clash with the belly that would close the clubface. Problem solved.  

 

A new way to open or close the putter clubface unintentionally

Unfortunately I have found a new way to pull and push a putt without breaking any of the rules of my putting stroke.   The shoulders are not rising or falling in relation to the rib cage, the elbow angles and wrists are fixed, and the body is steady.  What else could it be?   Unfortunately the arms can still move so that the club face opens or closes.  To see this, stand upright with the forearms horizontal and the upper arms vertical, with the elbows a few inches from the torso, and the hands together, with or without a club.  Now rotate the arms and hands together, without changing the elbow or wrist angles or raising or lowering the shoulders.  There is the tendency to do this with the shoulders coming along in the move, rising and falling, but it can be done without shoulder movement too.  It is another way to open or close the club face.  Too bad.  This undesirable movement can usually be avoided but I would rather not have to think or worry about it, and suffer it unexpectedly, since it strikes usually at the worst moment.  

I remember I had the same problem with my old stroke and the solution there can be used now.  The elbows are moved in to the torso until they almost touch the torso, and if the putter length is right and the belly is the right size and the clothing is not in the way, the elbows slide just over the body surface, keeping them from doing the movement described above, and keeping the club face square.  I'll try it tomorrow and even try it with my old stroke, so as to compare the old and new strokes.

So here I am the next day.  I have tried these strokes and come to the conclusion that the close elbows works on Long's putting stroke, and you can do it on the typical upright putting stroke, but it is not so easy on the latter.  When standing above the 90 degree torso-to-club shaft angle, that is, the typical stance, the elbows can be kept close to the body only if the forward elbow bends during the stroke.  On the backswing it has to straighten so that the hands and club can follow the proper arc.  Without straightening, the hands and club would have to come inside the proper arc, and virtually nobody putts that way because the putter would tend to swing out and cause heeled putts.  So the elbow must be straightened a little and then rebent on the forward swing.  This is hard to do right.  If the elbow is not rebent enough on the forward swing, the putter scrapes the ground; rebent too much and the ball is hit thin or topped.  It is especially a problem on long putts.  But Ben Crenshaw seems to putt this way.  That works for him, but he is more coordinated than I am.  I'm looking for a more foolproof way to make the stroke.  Most golfers don't keep their elbows close, do stand relatively upright, do raise and lower the shoulders in relation to the rib cage, and do take their chances.  I'll have none of that.  It is the worst of all combinations.  So my next putts will be made with my new putting stroke with the addition of the elbows kept in close to the body.  If it works properly it will then be added to the Long's Putting Stroke on the the Long Golf website. 

How can I make a good backswing?

Today's discoveries.

I played today.  It wasn't a disaster like last time.  I was toying with the idea of bending over more to perhaps reduce my pulling occurances, but I watched Anna Soranstam's swing on YouTube and decided that if she can hit so straight at her torso angle, which is similar to mine, then I should keep mine and look for another way to fight the pulling.  So I double- checked my swingplane by doing the "Downswing Exercise" and felt (but didn't see) that I should be a little flatter at the top.  Flatter would make it easier to avoid that pulling.  Tentatively I say it seems to be working.  The shots seemed to be better all around.  The correction toward flatter is very minor though.  Some days later I realized that my pulling is simply turning back to the ball too much on the downswing.  The cure for this is unfortunately to just not do it.  You have to back off on the body turning force and let the arms do their job.  For me there two ways to do this.  One is just hitting some slow swing shots correctly and then ramping up the downswing speed gradually until the problem reappears, then backing off a little.  The other method is to do the downswing portion of the Downswing Exercise faster and faster, while getting it right.

There have been at least two ongoing problems.  My shorts irons lack distance, solidity, and accuracy.  That doesn't leave much.  But I got a lead on it, or even more.  I have been having trouble making a good backswing.  In fact my whole swing problem is mainly with the backswing, not being able to do one consistently, and not having one that creates the right top position.  I'm trying to create a top position on the backswing that matches the top position created by the Downswing Exercise.  I love the top position created by the Downswing Exercise.  I don't believe it is any more difficult to produce than any other top position.  Of course the top position is not just a position, it's also a momentary tension array.  

The ongoing problem with the backswing is that it is so difficult to do the same way twice.  The "backswing" in the Downswing Exercise is so easy, consistent and apparantly good (dare I say near perfect?), while the real backswing sucks and can't produce what the Downswing Exercise models.  But I still believe I can make the backswing more consistently create the top position dictated by the Downswing exercise.  I like the top position created by the Downswing Exercise because it is a really nice way to start the downswing, and, it is always the same, and, it leads into the downswing I like, the one that I get from the Exercise.  If there is no way to do this, then I am lost as to what to do next.  I could try to modify the Returnswing part of the Downswing Exercise.  In fact I am working on something with that now, which I will report later, but it won't necessarily create a more accessable top position.   So I have to try to figure how, why and where the real backswing is falling short of the ideal.

Today I found two things that help the actual backswing.  The elusive desired takeaway experienced on occasion, where the hands seem to have a life of their own and the clubhead is felt delicately in the hands, and the wrist is bent immediately although gradually, was part of my attempt today.  I really would like to be able to start the backswing with a very smooth arm-shoulder-club movement that causes an immediate reaction in the torso and legs.  Sorenstam has the legs and torso move noticably first, but I would rather have them act together.  So I tried a slower and more exactly directed takeaway.    There is the danger that the body doesn't adequately follow and support.   And one can train certain reactions.  So I worked on the takeaway that has the correct line and starts with the clubhead floating above the ground.  It felt good.  But does it work?  Well it gives a nice relaxed takeaway.  Too speedy and it's doesn't happen.  Anyway, it led to a pretty good position at the top, but, something wasn't quite right.  When I was working on a nine iron, I found that the right shoulder wasn't winding up or going back far enough.  You might expect this from a hand-centered takeaway.  Then I made sure the shoulder got turned to tight position.  This helped.  It put the hands into a better position.  But I was bothered by the fact that Downswing Exercise top position got the right shoulder into position without any special effort or tension.  How could I do that with the actual backswing?  At this point I don't know.  Now while I'm writing this I can do it; I can use either the Downswing Exercise or an actual backswing and get the same position.  But I'm half drunk on two beers: a 0,5 liter Diebels Alt and an Erdinger wheat beer.  So I have to go check it again....yes it seems to work.  But I think I noticed that the right shoulder might not want to go back enough.  I guess I'll have to wait until later to figure it out.  Anyway, the result on the course of winding up the right shoulder was encouraging, but I'm still going to see if I can get the same result some other way, so as to duplicate the Downswing Exercise.  

Just now I stood up from the computer and took my wedge and swung it to see what I could see, and what I got was a new little backswing that might work to duplicate the Downswing Exercise.  It seems a little like a flip of the club up into the top position.  I will have to try it tomorrow, as I don't have a place to hit at night.  This might be the backswing that doesn't throw my skinny body out of position.  

So what is the essence of the top position of the Downswing Exercise?  As I do it, I notice the coasting into the top position, and the easy control it offers.  What happened as well was the unconscious initiation of the "hybrid exercise," the one that combines the Downswing Exercise and Backswing Exercise into one quick sequence that can be repeated.  Here's how it goes: Returnswing (from the followthrough to the top), down to address, backswing, downswing and followthrough, and repeat.  It felt like I was creating the same top position with both the backswing and the Returnswing.  That would be great if it happens-- tomorrow!

I also worked on back straightness today.  Straighter, that is.  I don't know how much it helped, but it has helped before, and it remains a good idea.

Some days later I'm still working on the same backswing problem.  What seems to work in practice now is to make a very very slow backswing so that I can correct my balance and position at each point along the way back.  This creates a near static position at the top which is usually hard to start down from, but it is good practice for starting down too, because I am forced to apply force gradually, at least for now, and I am learning to move the whole body as required for the downswing after I start down, not before.   This I hope will allow me to use different tempos or make tempo changes accidentally or on purpose without destroying the swing.   It's good against pulling too.  Lastly, I haven't given up on the Hybrid Exercise.  It could still be the trick that works.  I just haven't used it much, I now realize, and should give it more time and effort.

Update (December 1, 2009):  Since this post was posted I have made a change to the backswing that seems to solve the above problems.  My torso was leaning toward target as the backswing was made, putting me into a difficult position to start the downswing without making the above mistakes. I had to change my swing and my swing theory (see Long's Swing System) in order to correct this.  I had assumed that it was good to keep the head in one location on the backswing,  It could turn but not go left or right or up or down.  This was good in that it was easy to check and control.  The problem with this is that the torso must lean to target if the head stays in one location, because the head is mounted forward on the torso.  The new theory is that the torso stays centered on the backswing and the head moves to wherever it must.  This made the backswing easier to start, reduced or eliminated pulling and coming over the top on the downswing, made it easier to avoid premature hand release, improved the timing of the body parts to each other, and reduced the depth of my divots.  All of these improvements stemmed from one seemingly small change.  I believe the common golf theory tries to achieve the same thing by saying to shift weight to the trailing leg on the backswing.  The problem with this directive is that the amount of shift is undefined, and too much or too little shift is a distinct possibility.  Ok, it feels like a weight shift to the trailing leg, but how big should it be?  By stating that the torso should remain centered whilst it turns, we have the goal exactly stated and all that is needed is a way to check the torso location.  One way to do that is to take a stance in front of a wall, without a club, and with the forehead almost touching the wall.  Then note a spot on the wall directly opposite your nose.  Now make a backswing with a 90 degree shoulder turn, and then adjust the position of the middle of your shoulder until it is directly under the spot on the wall.  At the same time make sure that your hips have turned without moving right or left.  How does this position feel?  It felt great to me.  Try it and tell me.

Trying to regain a semblence of physical coordination

Yesterday my putting stroke and the rest of my game became uncontrollable.  The swings and strokes were wild.  It seemed as if my physical coordination had gotten suddenly worse.  I don't know why this has happened.  I have been feeling tired at various times during the day and wondering if I should make an appointment with my doctor.  But I wasn't feeling tired when I played golf yesterday.

Today I went on the practice green to see what I could do to salvage a putting stroke.  The stroke was still bad.  All the stupid mistakes that everyone wants to avoid were happening left and right.  I couldn't keep my arms, shoulders, hands, and club as one piece.  I turned toward the hole before impact.  I hit short and long.  I opened and closed the clubface.  Worst of all, the stroke just didn't want to move squarely and smoothly like I had come to expect.  I worked on it for about an hour and managed to regain some it.  Here's what I remember doing.

I hit almost all short putts, starting at three feet and moving outward, then repeating.  I often hit from the same spot over and over, from below the hole so as to take some unevenness out of the green.  I had to practice not looking at the hole too soon.  I had to straighten my back.  I had to practice the shoulder move in standing position with the putter shaft horizontal to make sure I was doing it right, then bend down to putting position to establish it.  I had to swing back and forth a lot to get the one-piece arms-shoulders-putter arrangement working, during which I tensed the arms and hands to lock them into one piece.  This created a feeling of one-piece movement even if it was somewhat artificial.  Perhaps I had been too loose and relaxed in the muscles there.  I also had to make sure the torso turning didn't quit before the stroke was finished.  I tried to lock the shoulders to the torso to eliminate "up and down" shoulder movement, and that helped for a while.  

Gradually I was able to start repeating swings and sinking putts, but not as well as I had come to expect.  I just have to practice again and see what happens.

Checking the pros putting strokes

I was watching the British Open (now called "The Open") today and was interested in how far some of the players lean over for putting, as that is the key ingredient in my new putting stroke.  I was surprised to see a large number, maybe 30%, who lean over quite far and whose shoulders do not noticably move toward or away from the head, another critical feature of the stroke.  That does not mean they are bent over far enough or getting the correct shoulder movement though, for the simple reason that I don't know if it's possible to see this movement accurately.  In addition, it is possible to have the prescribed shoulder movement, without bending over far enough,  and still not be doing the stroke. In this case, the shoulders move in a different plane than the putter and arms, the clubface is open during the backswing and closed during the followthrough, and the elbows have to bend and unbend a little to allow the two planes to be different.  This elbow movement is difficult to control.  And I just can't see it on TV.  

All I can say for sure is that the angle to which these players were bending over was not quite as far as mine.  So I don't think they got the benefits of the stroke.   If the stroke is done right, the shoulders, elbows, hands and putter move all in one piece without the shoulders getting lifted off or pressed down into the rib cage.  Rather, the shoulders just slide on top of the rib cage.  The muscles that pull the shoulders down toward the rib cage or raise them off the rib cage toward the head are very difficult to control, for me anyway, so I benefitted from eliminating the movement completely. To try this yourself, you can bend over further and further until the one-piece shoulder-arm-putter movement occurs without the undesirable shoulder movement.  This new movement keeps the face square to the swing plane at all times and allows more concentration on putter speed.

The new putting stroke

I have a new putting stroke. It is not brand new, as in "never used before," but hardly anyone has heard of it. And hardly anyone uses it. This could not have anything to do with its effectiveness though. It works great. But it is slightly uncomfortable, which goes against the common grain and against the golf tradition of using a relaxed address position. But Jack Nicklaus seemed to be using it, which certainly gives it some credibility.  I haven't seen any players using it today in the big tournaments that I watch on TV.  

When I look at old movies of golf news, the players of old were mostly putting with wrist bending and very little shoulder movement.  Today almost everyone uses unbending wrists and lots of shoulder movement, presumably to remove the directional inaccuracies of wrist bending.  But what they have done is replace one source of error with another.  The shoulder movement done the common way is very difficult to control and introduces a lot of directional error. 

When I watch Sergio Garcia play so many good shots on TV, I think how unfortunate it is that I can't teach him this simple putting stroke that would solve his putting problems and make it possible for him to beat Mr. Woods and the others. And not only Sergio. Michelson comes to mind. I like both players. Both have had putting problems. Michelson used to miss too many short putts. And there are of course other good players who could improve their chances of winning if only they could sink a few more putts. One per round would be enough.  

I don't think anyone on tour is using this technique. There is a player from England who uses something like it, it seems, but I have not seen a motion picture of his stroke, so I don't know for sure. His teacher promotes this putting stroke, but the instruction is slightly different from what I say, and there is no explanation of why it works.

This new stroke is not difficult to do right. That's the whole point of it. It's easy. All a player has to do is change the setup a little, which causes a new and simplified shoulder movement. It is a simplification. Once accomplished, the player will discover a big gain in directional accuracy. Especially under pressure.  

So do you want to know what this stroke is? Do you want to learn to use it yourself? If so, you need only go to my website and study it there. There is no registration or sign up. Just go to Long Golf and follow the link to "Long's Putting Stroke" in the box "New Golf Techniques" near the top of the page.  Or just go directly there with this link, Long's Putting Stroke.  And please let me know if you try it.  Or what it brings to mind.