And doing what comes naturally to you and practicing will help you learn what those weaknesses are and how to adapt to them and defeat them, changing style to an unnatural motion won't help you at all, only set you back. And as you stated above every putting style has it's weaknesses. You'll get good at anything if you do it again and again. I've seen very successful putters use many different styles (anhyzer, hyzer, line drive etc..). What I wrote above was advise from the best putter I know. Practice Practice Practice. Try to tell Nate Doss not to putt with an anhyzer. He's probably practiced that a billiion times and knows what the risks are and how to minimize them, with practice anyone can do this.
85-90% of players i come across have a weak putting stroke. tons of variability in their launch point, their misses are left/right as frequently as they are high/low.
you get better at things by doing them again and again, but people's definition of "good" varies greatly. i would never be content with a putting stroke that peaked at 70% make from 30', especially if all of my misses were in the same way.
making any changes requires time for adjustment, acclimation, and mastery. honestly, most disc golfers aren't willing to sink in the reps and focused practice that is required of this, so it's much easier to default to just sticking with the same form hoping it will all of a sudden be golden. the summer my putting really came around i threw at least 70,000 putts (possibly closer to 80,000-90,000). i constantly made changes all summer until my %'s peaked at a level i was okay with. my %'s didn't start getting where i wanted them to until my consistency with finger spring and palm push were nearly maxed out.
people who are asking a question like the one posed here, likely haven't mastered the release yet. once the release is mastered, make %'s will be high, and it's more a matter of learning how to aim, read wind, and gauge putter's drop rates. there's only 2 components that matter for consistency in putting: release timing/orientation and non-linear vectors. there are styles that remove non-linear vectors, so putting becomes a matter of release in those cases.
Nate Doss has a much more extensive dg background and is much more skilled than 99.9% of people. when you are a multi-time world champ, under 30 and have been playing seriously for 20+ years, you likely have thrown TONS UPON TONS of putts and have found mastery of all the necessary components.
remember this: Nate Doss's success with anhyzer putting, Barry Schultz's success with nose down putting, etc. are heavily based upon the fact that they are good enough with their drives/approaches to leave themselves with favorable winds for their putting style.
a nose down putt doesn't work into a headwind, but Barry is good enough to leave himself a tail or crosswind putt for like 98% of his putts. Joe Amateur has probably never even considered that reading the wind at the green is equally important to reading the wind the tee (or his lie) and probably will not have great success with this style unless he becomes a money driver.
why does Tiger Woods' caddie hand him a 3-iron when he's 230 yards away? because Tiger can hit a 3-iron 230 yards. why doesn't $10 caddie at the local town course hand a 3-iron to Joe Golfer when he's 230 yards away? because Joe Golfer can't hit a 3-iron 230 yards. Joe Golfer can go hit 5,000 driving range balls with his 3-iron and he may/may not ever reach that length, let alone do it consistently and accurately.
i don't want to come off as hostile with this, i just see special case pro forms being taken so out of context that it doesn't show the whole picture.
i can go out and mimic like 20+ pros putting forms and do quite well with each form. doing that is how i learned that the release is the magic of the putt. pretty much all great putters have the same basic release/stroke whether it's Nate Doss's anhyzer putt, Ron Russell's wrap around putt, Barry Schultz's nose down straddle pitch, Cam Todd's hyzer putt, Climo's shovel loft, etc.
you can get "good" with any one of those styles. however, if you are building from the ground up, why not choose one that is easier to learn/master than the others and is affected by fewer external factors?
there is a huge mechanical difference between the stroke of most players you see out there putting, and the best putters in the world putting. there is a reason why they are the best in the world, it is not only from practice, repetition and mind, it is mechanical that sets it. doing it from what works for you is how you stance yourself, or for what style you choose to use. style has nothing to do with the actual stroke itself.
this is pretty much exactly how i feel about it (and have told to masterbeato tons of times)
I think you just said it in a way that is easier to understand. My initial point was very general. After you have a basic solid stroke do what works best for you and keep practicing it.
i partially agree. most people have a godawful stroke, so a solid stroke is what to aspire for. at the same time, once you have a solid stroke you realize just how unimportant the rest of the putting form is. certain motions/styles add in one area but detract from another. e.g. having elbow extension in your putt adds power, but also requires greater precision in your timing to avoid missing left/right. having a hyzer or anhyzer putt increases putter carry by a wide margin (vs. a flat putt) but at the same time introduces a much smaller window of precision for ranging the putt.
