BREAKTHROUGH IN GOLF: PRACTICE ROUTINES

Practice Putting Routines - And A Putt's Break

It is very interesting that top pros study the golf practice routines of other top pros. But no book really spells it all out.

Annika Sorensteim once said she practiced a lot with Tiger, and keenly studied his putting and short game practice routines. But she did not say exactly what they were.

In Breakthough in Golf, found at Amazom.com, Chapter 8 outlines some winning putting routines.  Chapter 9 does the same for wedge play designed to get up and down from 100 yards out.

Chapter 8 demonstrates that practicing breaking putts acutally makes READING THE BREAK ON A PUTT IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Basketball player have known this practice pointer for years in developing foul free throws and 3 point shots, but golfers have yet to iron this understanding out.

HOW DO I GET UP AND DOWN FROM 100 YARDS CONSISTENTLY LIKE THE TOUR PROS DO?

The pros know hitting a pitching wedge or gap wedge within 2-4 feet of the cup for a one putt or gimme from 20-100 yards out reduces putts per round which is THE secret to taking your scoring capability to an entrely new level.  Top Pros know this and top elite amateurs playing at the national level know it too.

But the know how is equally available to the aspiring golfer if you look in the right place!

Go to www.Amazon.com and order your copy of BREAKTHROUGH IN GOLF.  Then watch Chapter 9 take your game to an entirely new level! 

Do you want to improve your golf game effectively and rapidly?

Visit Amazon.com, and obtain "Breakthrough in Golf"

https://www.a.com/d/9n9B4pC 

See also, www.breakthroughingolf.com

 IMPROVE YOUR GOLF GAME WITHOUT GIMMICKS

Go to Amazon.com and find out for yourself!  

https://www.a.co/d/8g2KLez

 WHY A SOLID PUTTING PRACTICE ROUTINE GROOVES THE ABILITY TO READ PUTTS

To capably read putts, it is imperative that you practice visualizing the break on various breaking putts in practice in order to "groove" your eyesight on breaking putts.  You have to see the ball break into the hole.  And the way to do that is watch 5-10 breaking putts in a row go in the hole!

So you build up your break reading skill by making 5-10 in a row.  Each different putt must be mastered.  So you have to make 5-10 left breaking putts, starting at 3 feet, and hopefully at 6 feet and if you really want to push the envelope at 9 feet!  The same routine has to be followed for a right breaking putt.

Making the "REPS" count on the practice putting green is how you learn to read the break on a putt in the first place.  Most golfers do not realize that - but pool players and basketball players understand the idea instinctively.  And quarterbacks too on various length of passes. And dartboard throwers.

THINK ABOUT IT! 

To learn more go to http://www.Amazon.com for "Breakthorugh in Golf" in the book section.

LEARN HOW TO READ A PUTT's BREAK!

Read Chapter 8 of Breakthrough in Golf at Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com.

 THE SECRET TO OUTSTANDING PUTTING

    Question:  Why can Steph Curry make 3 point basketball shots all day long, and a golfer cannot even consistently make a 3-4 foot putt?

    If you do not know the answer, give Chapter 8 of my golf instructional book, "Breakthrough in Golf", (available at Amazon books) a try, and discover the secret to becoming an outstanding putter!

    You will do this if you want to go from 36 putts per round to 28-30 putts per round!  You choose!

 THE ELLIOTT 

PRACTICE PUTTING ROUTINE

Do you want to dramatically improve your putting?  

Are you having 28-30 putts per round or more like 36-40 putts per round?

Do you know how to get to 28-30 putts per round?  Do not be in the dark any longer on the putting green!

There is a way to practice putting that will get you to 28-30 putts per round.  It is my method of putting practice. My method of putting practice will push you to drastically improve your ability to visualize the making of breaking putts and to read the break on putts, and it is learning by doing.

Give it a try!  My Elliott Putting Pracice Routine can be found in Chapter 8 of my instructional book, "BREAKTHROUGH IN GOLF" which can be obtained on Amazon for a very modest price.

Good luck!

Curtis Elliott

 PUTTING CALIBRATION PART 4:

In Part 3, I indicated to putt well you must (1) read the break to line the putt up before addressing the ball, and (2) must line up the putt correctly at address.

This part 4 is short. BUT the point of this Part 4 is crucial. In order to instill the right mind's eye of reading the putt break line, the secret is that you have to FIRST LINE UP PUTTS AT ADDRESS AND PRACTICE PUTTING THEM into the hole to build up your mind's eye!

WHY?  This  is the secret:  practicing lining up and putting along the correct break line with "made" breaking putts is a pre-condition or reinforcement of building up your line up or putt break reading skills when lining up the putt before putting!  

The best way and the only essential way to build up your break reading ability to get the line of the putt clear in your mind's eye is by actually making the putt in the first place.  Every single golfer of any putting ability will tell you that they have good days and bad days of "reading the line" on a putt.  Sometimes you see the line as clear as a bell, and some days it's just plain hard or evem impossible to get the line down and to "see" it before standing up to the putt.  But the way to improve how to "see" or read the break line is by the practice of making that putt and watching it break into the hole repetitively - that is what builds up your "seeing the line" before you line it up!!

This is why making EACH PUTT  5 TIMES IN A ROW AND WATCHING IT GO IN BUILDS UP YOUR ABILITY TO READ THE PUTT IN THE FIRST PLACE.

In part 5, I will explain why a full array of putts has to be grooved to improve putting confidence and to build up your skill in reading the break.

 PUTTING CALIBRATION - PART 3

In Parts 1 and 2, I explained how putting improvement is so much more than putting mechanics, which is the entire focus of the golf industry on the part of both instructors and players and the golf media.  This fanatical focus on mechanics is so far out of line, because once your basis putting mechanics are ironed out TO A REASONABLE DEGREE, the pathway to improved putting is then to shift focus on shot by shot and putt by putt practice - without thinking of mechanics.

In Part 2, I compared putting to a basketball player practicing and grooving 3 pointers.  That is fundamental to understanding the acquisitoin of the essential "feel" for putting, based on eyesight not only in reading a putt's break but in lining up and executing the putt.  The mind's eye has to have BOTH:  (1) THE LINE READ BEFORE THE PUTT AND (2) THE LINE UP OF THE PUTT AT ADDRESS.  

You cannot putt these two crucial components together until you understand how each one of these two parts is achieved and how they interact with one another..  

1.  HOW DO YOU ACHIEVE MIND'S EYE CALIBRATION IN READYING PUTTS?  The answer is likely not satisfying to you because it is not easy.  It is acheived by hard won practice in reading putts over and over.  You keep looking for the break line and at first it does not even appear, then appears very spotily, then when you get to the "zone" at your best, you actually do read and "see" the line.  When you are totally dialed in to seeing and reading the line, you stand up over a putt, KNOWING that you have the line down and the level of confidence you have standing over that putt is, use your own adjective, "tremendous" , "formidable" , "certain" , "strong" or "in the zone."  Anyone who has ever putting really well, even for just a round or two, knows this feeling of confidence, because it is based on the fact that, at that time, you did correctly "read" the break line on the putt before standing over it.  But why is this so ephemeral?  That is the million dollar question.  And the answer is tied back to question Number 2, which actually needs to be asked in reverse before you read a putt.

2.  HOW DO YOU ACHIVE MIND'S EYE CALIBRATOIN WHEN ADDRESSING AND STANDING OVER A PUTT?  The answer to this question is a deeply crucial putting fundamental, not quite a mechanic, but a rule of the highest importance.  The reason it is so crucial and fundamenatlly important to putting is that it is the lynchpin of BOTH (1) reading the putt before executing the putt AND (2) lining up the putt accurately.  The secret is that when address the putt, you as the player MUST HAVE AND ALIGN YOUR EYES DIRECTLY ON TOP OF AND OVER THE BALL ROLL LINE.  TIGER WOODS CALL S IT THE MOST CRUCIAL ELEMENT OF GOOD PUTTING.

3.  WHY SO CRUCIAL ON EYES OVER THE BALL LINE AT ADDRESS?  The answer is that what you see in break lining up a putt cannot be translated to correct alignment unless the eyes are  over the ball.  And, the other answer is that unless you putt like that, you cannot achive "minds eye" sensitivity to lining up putts IN THE FIRST PLACE!  LINING UP PUTTS WITH YOUR EYES OVER THE BALL IS A FORM OF PRACTICE IN BUILDING CUMULATIVE SKIILL IN READING THE BREAK LINE BEFOREHAND, AND BEFORE THE PUTT EVER OCCURS!  Eyes over the ball line and practicing reading break lines go hand in hand, as a matter of both exectuion and putting practice.  That is what 99% of golfers, pros and amateurs, do not grasp.

In my next part, Part 4:   The real secret to great putting practice.

 CALIBRATION PART TWO:

In my last post, I introduced the mere concept of calibration as a vital key to having strong golf putting and short game skills.  Today, I briefly delve into the "why" of calibration, as a key fundamental.

The best mental picture analogy to explain the importance of calibration is a basketball player swishing 3 point shots from 30-40 feet out.  How do they do that?  Is there a particular "secret" mechanic or technique that is the secret sauce of that swishing skill?.

The answer if you understand calibration is a most emphatic "NO!"  Swishing 3 pointers has very little or even nothing to do with shotmaking skills or aptitude.  There is no secret "flip of the wrist" or anything else when a player makes those shots.  That is becuase when practicing those shots, a great basketball player thinks of nothing having to do with shot making mechanics or technique, because THEY ALREADY HAVE THEIR TECHNIQUE DOWN, OR ELSE ARE WORKING ON IT FOR THAT SOLE PURPOSE.  BUT HAVING IRONED OUT THE MECHANICS THEY TAKE THE NEXT STEP THAT IS A FUNDAMENTAL PART TO BE ADDED TO THEIR TOOLKIT as a separate set of putts with a separate PRACTICING PURPOSE.

What is that separete and key practice component if shotmaking mechanics is not the story?  The answer is that the player is focused solely on visualizing the shot and "dialing in" the feel and hand/eye subconcious hand-eye coordination that cements the marvelous and incredible human radar judgment of the basketball player.  The player practices building up the sense, again subconcious, of how much "umph" and shot speed needed to arc the ball into the net of the basket.  There is no slide ruler involved here.  But there is a building up a "callous" or feel for that specific shot and the practice of that shot is what grooves it out for the player.  There is no substitue of grooving out that shot with key repetitive practice that replicates that swish over and over until the player "gets it".

HOW DOES A PLAYER "GET" THE 3 POINTER?  BY REPETITIVE PRACTICE UNTIL IS IT "DIALED IN".  

HOW DOES A GOLFER "GET" A PUTT TO DO THE SAME?  BY REPETITIVE PRACTICE UNTIL THE PUTT TO BE MADE IS "DIALED IN."  THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR WHAT IS NEEDED TO GROOVE OUT A PARTICULAR PUTT.  BY PARTICULAR PUTT, I MEAN A SPECIFIC 1 FOOTER, A 3 FOOTER OR A 6 FOOTER OR EVEN PERHAPS A 9 FOOTER.  THAT PRECISE PUTT MUST BE GROOVED AND INGRAINED WITHOUT ANY FOCUS ON MECHANICS! All of the focus is on the "feel" of the putt and the "seeing" of that SPECIFIC putt's break.

In the next segment on this key topic, I will explain how "getting" it on the putting green can be achieved, and how you will know if your 3 foot or 6 foot putt is dialed in or calibrated.  Is there a way to know?  The answer is most certainly YES.