I want to spend a minute to go over how golf instruction destroyed your putting. As a well-publicized cynic, larger cycles and seminal events predicate all my current thinking. “The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.” – Churchill
“Accelerate through the ball.” Do you ever wonder why so many people wave at their ball with huge follow throughs? We shouldn’t be surprised that our distance and club face control is erratic today. The mental and physical tension created by implying such control-is-our-goal is ludicrous.
“Take your wrists out of your stroke.” Again, distracting us from impact by recommending we control another part of our body ruined putting worldwide. Instructors cite green speeds as rationalization for their bad advice and our putting culprit when no material improvement occurs. Contrarily, I proved years ago that a wrist stroke works on greens of ANY speed and is VERY “LINE ACCURATE”. Why? I’ll get to that later.
“You/he got the YIPS”. Often blamed on the use of our wrists, the “YIPS” was and is a malady without causality. The YIPS are essentially the PTSD of putting and are nothing more than the brain trying to do something that doesn’t make sense to our soul. Trying to control what is natural is our cause. Further, we allowed instructors throughout modern history to make us doubt our natural instincts under the premise that we can’t do it on our own. LIES!
“Your follow through should be as long as your back swing.” Feeding off the “Acceleration” theme, follow through ideas like this one put golfers squarely in their own heads. Unfortunately, instructors convinced us, once again, that if we could control our bodies (distracting us from truth) we could improve our putting. I’ll get to the truth in a second.
The truth is this. The less we move, the more precise we will be. For example, there is a reason those little three-foot slap-ins at the end of a hole work so well without reading a green. Heel-shafted small-headed putters were the standard seventy years ago. Do you ever wonder if that was just a coincidence?
Do you ever wonder why MOI, rubber inserts and fast greens are all the rage today? All of those technological “Improvements” make putting on fast greens an absolute nightmare for the average golfer. Your golf ball EXPLODES off your cushy putter face today. And here is the thing… that was always the plan.
Every golf and instructional technology is designed to BREAK YOUR GAME INTO A THOUSAND PIECES and make you a prisoner of your own mind. Do you NOT feel overloaded with tips and advice about how to move by not moving and the personalities advising you!? Well, at least instruction charlatans are making a good living and getting famous on your account, huh?
There is only one truth in putting…. Our maximum club head speed should be AT contact – not before, not after. In fact, all other instructions are part and parcel of our only putting truth. Without advocating movement, I will tell you that once you become aware of your peak speed, your putting stroke and results will migrate toward your own ideal and free you of your mind forever.
You and I are responsible for terrible things like Hank Haney. If we are to redeem our spirits and souls, we must stop the madness, exit the instructional merry-go-round, and get back to basics. Set-up, Swing, Strike, and Learn. Fortunately, we have some time.
John Wright – Founder
The Open Stance Academy
If Putting Wins, Why Worry About Full-Swing Set-Up?
“A Lie Can Travel Half Way Around The World While The Truth Is Still Putting On Its Shoes.”
Psychology of Open Stance Golfers