Pushing the carpet, aka bracing your putts.

[Rrabb1t]

Hey folks,

Just had a pretty major "aha" moment when practicing my putts in the basement. Putting has always been my biggest weakness and it's been dragging the rest of my game behind for years when it comes to competitive play.

This offseason I focused heavily on reworking just about everything in my putt and today something finally clicked. My basement has a carpet right under from where I usually practice between 20-30 feet. In my first 100 or so putts nothing seemed right and putts were coming out with little to no pop to them and I was struggling to get them over the rim.

I took a good 10 minutes to figure out what I was doing wrong and started focusing on weight shift. It didn't really improve anything until I figured I'd try to push the carpet from under me towards the basket. Now the carpet has rubber underneath it and doesn't really move an inch but the mental aspect of it really made something happen. Before putting I could take a look at the carpet and think I'll push that damn thing towards the basket.

Putts were coming off completely clean with no flutter whatsover and were basically flying in on their own. I finished the practice session nailing thirty 20 feet putts in a row which has been unheard of for me. I kept everything exactly the same as I've been practicing whole offseason and just focused on pushing the carpet (bracing) during the entire routine.

Next time I head to the course I'll try to imagine that carpet under me every time I putt. Hopefully that mental image will help someone else too who's struggling with their putts this early in the season.

 

[DiscFifty]

It didn't really improve anything until I figured I'd try to push the carpet from under me towards the basket. Now the carpet has rubber underneath it and doesn't really move an inch but the mental aspect of it really made something happen. Before putting I could take a look at the carpet and think I'll push that damn thing towards the basket. ...Next time I head to the course I'll try to imagine that carpet under me every time I putt. Hopefully that mental image will help someone else too who's struggling with their putts this early in the season.

I would go outside and see how grass affects your weight shift, you don't want your foot sliding forward to a potential foot fault. Weight shift is ideal... but for me it's more of a body shift with my feet not moving. Well..my back foot does raise off the ground a bit when I release, but the front foot does not move at all.

 

[RFrance]

What's helped me to get a cleaner release is focusing on keeping the front leg firm, not locked, and not collapsing. The idea of pushing the carpet forward seems to be similar to clearing the hips with the plant which should give more power.

 

[slowplastic]

I think another way to say what OP is saying, is he is driving his weight in balance onto the lead leg as in...

Most AMs putt like they are almost going to step forward. Pelvis stays at same angle and spine is still halfway balanced between the legs. If your lead foot was on ice and your plant foot was pushing off of rubber/grip, then on a short putt you'd probably slide forward a little and have to step back with your back foot to balance, while on a long putt you'd slide forward a bit, get off balance, and have to continue stepping/walking through with your back foot.

On a balanced putt with weight transfer, you'd push off your rear foot and just slide forward on the ice on your front leg, balanced with the spine on top of it.