Putting %

[_.-Dut-._]

When I practice putt I typically take thirty putts from 20'

Then take twenty putts from 30'

My percentage is around 60% when figuring the whole set of 50. Typically, around 70-80% from 20' and 30% from 30.


Im not seeing any major improvements in these percentages. I have tried to overhaul my putting style going from a line-drive to a pitch and trying staggered vs straddle and most changes drops my percentage greatly. Going to the pitch made no change in my hit/miss but did make long misses a thing of the past. 30% from 30 seems horrendous to me but the 70+% from 20 seems promising at least.

My question really is, at this point is it just repetition? Is my 60% from the circle a good enough foundation to build on?

Putting has been the one part of this game I have never truly "got". Not to say that my drives and approaches are perfect but im not left feeling utterly lost after a bad round of driving, after a bad day of putting I want to go home buy a new putter and change to all turbo putts.

 

[black udder]

Go through the Discraft putter confidence program. You ask me, 30' and inside, it's all about tapping into your natural ability (as from caveman days when you threw spears and rocks to kill things). Spin putt, pitch putt, do whatever feels most comfortable. Me, I've improved a lot just by putting every day. Just rapid-fire about 30-60 putts a day from close range (10-15'). Just the repetition helps you train the muscles and that in turn gives you higher percentage and that gives you more confidence so you can make more and not be so afraid of going full bore for almost any putt.

Putter Confidence Program.

 

[j_mardis1]

There are quite a few theories on improvement.

In the book I am reading (Putting out of Your Mind by Dr Bob Rotella) the basic premise is that if you put all of your effort into putting you will putt worse than if you let go of all importance of the disc going in the basket and just feel the flow. This is assuming that you have a putting motion that is fundamentally repeatable.

Davis Love III putts with one ball only on the practice green. Many people take four or five balls/discs out, or even 20, and putt them all really fast. If you putt like this in your competitive rounds, that is just fine, but when you get to a tournament and the (perceived) pressure is on, your routine will change unless you have engrained it into your mind so that you can do it in your sleep.

Another great book is "zen golf." I have not read it yet, but it is next on my list.

Jordan

 

[black udder]

Davis Love III putts with one ball only on the practice green. Many people take four or five balls/discs out, or even 20, and putt them all really fast. If you putt like this in your competitive rounds, that is just fine, but when you get to a tournament and the (perceived) pressure is on, your routine will change unless you have engrained it into your mind so that you can do it in your sleep.

Jordan

I like this kind of practice before I play. I like the rapid-fire stuff just to get used to seeing discs go in the basket. It's only muscle memory and confidence building. It's hard to keep up much focus when concentrating on every putt and going through your normal routine. The putting confidence program recommends 30 minutes a day broken into 2 fifteen minute sessions to help you keep that focus. I think they recommend the "use your normal putting routine" and I think recommend 2 or 3 discs. A sort of happy medium between getting lazy (too many discs) and not having to run to the basket every shot.

 

[taylor714]

When I do some practice putting, I usually take 10 or so from inside 20 feet, then I move out to about 50 feet and throw maybe 20 or 30. It helps me dial in the longer putts for that round. I'm still playing around with about 5 putters and trying to decide on a mold to go with and stick with. I love the rhyno, but I had 3 of the best rounds of my life using a warlock, then a magic.....So who knows. You know what they say......practice makes perfect.

 

[Blake_T1]

you have to know why your misses happen.

you can miss due to technique failure.
you can miss due to aiming wrong.

where you can increase your % varies depending upon why you miss.

 

[noah1]

Here is what I did. You WILL get a sore back! 30 feet looks like 5 feet used to.

1. Practice how you putt. Rapid fire or slow and steady. I have found rapid fire I can make a lot more than slow and steady as a percentage, but slow and steady allows me to make more towards the front of the series. Basically, cognitive science tells us we can only focus for so long before loosing it. Once you loose it it's like those games where if you don't get shot your health starts to repair it self. If you focus too hard you won't be able to make those last ones in a series. If you think your technique is flawed you probably want to start slow, then switch to rapid after a few weeks, and then back to slow.

2. PUTT! I'm talking a 1000 putts a night. It took me almost 3 hours to do this. I did it for about 3 weeks straight. Post video to the video critique session.

3. You've got it in muscle memory, now it's time to build confidence. I haven't putted all winter and I can still putt using a classic roc as well as I could with a gateway wizard last year. It's all about confidence!!!!

4. Start stretching the distance and you need to learn why you are missing. Is your technique flawed? Are you low putting? Are you loosing concentration?

 

[masterbeato]

it is not about how much you practice, it is about having your practice click.

practice any way you want, but just keep it the same. practice fast, putt fast. that is how i do it and my putting percentage has gone way the hell up lately.

 

[Blake_T1]

what i was alluding to is that if you have an inherently weak putting style (e.g. putting form with noise or an unrepeatable motion) you may hit a point where your technique failure % will dominate your practice and you probably won't progress much beyond what you are currently making. if this is 60% from 30' because of 40% technique breakdowns, it's unlikely you'll creep much beyond 70% from practice. true % increase will be because of decreased technique breakdowns, which often requires streamlining form.

there are exceptions to this, and simply throwing 10,000 putts will likely help with that, but some techniques will experience failure at a much higher rate than others.

 

[black udder]

what i was alluding to is that if you have an inherently weak putting style (e.g. putting form with noise or an unrepeatable motion) you may hit a point where your technique failure % will dominate your practice and you probably won't progress much beyond what you are currently making. if this is 60% from 30' because of 40% technique breakdowns, it's unlikely you'll creep much beyond 70% from practice. true % increase will be because of decreased technique breakdowns, which often requires streamlining form.

there are exceptions to this, and simply throwing 10,000 putts will likely help with that, but some techniques will experience failure at a much higher rate than others.

I'm guessing my example for this would be my grip. I had my index finger on the outside of the rim. I can putt fairly well and accurately from 30' or so like this, but that distance up hill or further out and I tend to run out of steam and miss low. By just moving my index finger under the rim to have the first joint come under the edge of the disc, I'm able to get more spring from my wrist and consequently much more distance. I can putt strong from 50' I'd guess (I haven't measured it). At this point, when it's 20' or so I'll putt with my old grip, but outside that, I'm more inclined to use the newer grip. I hope to transfer all to the newer grip at some point when it's more comfortable for me. To me that would illustrate a technique issue that was holding me back.

 

[noah1]

what i was alluding to is that if you have an inherently weak putting style (e.g. putting form with noise or an unrepeatable motion) you may hit a point where your technique failure % will dominate your practice and you probably won't progress much beyond what you are currently making. if this is 60% from 30' because of 40% technique breakdowns, it's unlikely you'll creep much beyond 70% from practice. true % increase will be because of decreased technique breakdowns, which often requires streamlining form.

there are exceptions to this, and simply throwing 10,000 putts will likely help with that, but some techniques will experience failure at a much higher rate than others.

I'm guessing my example for this would be my grip. I had my index finger on the outside of the rim. I can putt fairly well and accurately from 30' or so like this, but that distance up hill or further out and I tend to run out of steam and miss low. By just moving my index finger under the rim to have the first joint come under the edge of the disc, I'm able to get more spring from my wrist and consequently much more distance. I can putt strong from 50' I'd guess (I haven't measured it). At this point, when it's 20' or so I'll putt with my old grip, but outside that, I'm more inclined to use the newer grip. I hope to transfer all to the newer grip at some point when it's more comfortable for me. To me that would illustrate a technique issue that was holding me back.

I can second this. I've had similar issues.

 

[_.-Dut-._]

Looking at the throw analysis it would appear that everyone putts at least somewhat different, and most putt completly different.

That would lead you to believe that if you find a style that feels comfortable and gives you a consistent release you should stick with it and practice it til it works.

 

[mark12b]

to echo what blake's saying, i think at that kind of percentage it's time to start looking at specific kinds of misses and figuring out the most repeatable way of fixing them. e.g. right now a lot of my misses are chaining out on the weak side, so one day i'll try adjusting my grip, another day i'll try lining up in front of the right side of the basket instead of the pole, etc... some things work well for the problem at hand but maybe have other drawbacks, so i try to pay attention to the big picture with these kinds of changes.

 

[PhattD]

I've got two putting routines that I alternate between.
1) Sink Putts! Like the Mark Ellis confidence program. Get two discs and find a range where you can sink them both all the time. If that's 10' fine if you can do 15' or 20' even better, but move around the basket so you are throwing from different angles and different wind directions.
2) Get 5 discs. Start at 20' 25' whatever you're comfortable with. Throw all five. If you make all five move back 5'. If you miss any take all 5 discs to your farthest miss and throw again if you sink all five from your farthest miss move back 5'. Keep doing this until you miss one of you comeback putts. Then move 5' forward and throw all five. If you miss even one move 5' closer and keep doing this until you sink all five. You will be suprised how often you sink all five from the 30-40' range after moving out to 70 or 80'. The point of theis exercise is it shows you your "run at it" range. If you make all five of your comeback puts from your worst miss at 60' you won't worry about running at it in a tourney under the same conditions. You should also sink at least one of the five in order to move back.

 

[Blake_T1]

Looking at the throw analysis it would appear that everyone putts at least somewhat different, and most putt completly different.

this is exactly the wrong way to look at it. what i can say from studying hundreds of hours of film and watching countless top tier pros is that all great putters pretty much have the same release, even ones that have completely different "styles."

how people get the disc moving differs from style to style but the one thing in common is how the disc leaves their hand.

you can meet players with different releases who might be good putters, but every great putter i have ever seen has the same release.

any chronic miss tendency can be fixed with a technique adjustment. most chronic misses are simply rooted in inefficient or poorly designed form (e.g. the vectors created by your body are off line). tweaking bad form into better form usually decreases the % of chronic misses. chronic misses are caused by technique failure.

the way i see it is go ahead and miss putts due to wind conditions, mis-judging distances, failure to focus/aim, etc. but if you miss over and over again in the same way because your technique is inconsistent and fails you, then that technique could use some polishing.

to echo what blake's saying, i think at that kind of percentage it's time to start looking at specific kinds of misses and figuring out the most repeatable way of fixing them. e.g. right now a lot of my misses are chaining out on the weak side, so one day i'll try adjusting my grip, another day i'll try lining up in front of the right side of the basket instead of the pole, etc...

there's an easy fix for chronic left side miss. nearly all left side misses are rooted in one of the following: nose up, early release, left push/drift.

there's 2 problems (often in conjunction with one another as one can lead to the other) that can cause those 3 miss factors.
1) shoulder orientation. if you line up with the right shoulder ahead of the left shoulder. this can cause problems with #2.
2) hand orientation on the disc when it leaves. if the disc is a clock with 12 o'clock facing the basket and 6 o'clock facing you in line with the basket, releasing the disc with the hand somewhere between 12 o'clock and 3 o'clock will result in 1 or more of the 3 miss factors. releasing with your hand between 3 o'clock and 6 o'clock will reduce the problem.

putting isn't rocket science but there should be some science behind it. too often i hear people spout out clichés without ever knowing why they are used, etc.

my overall take on putting is that the release is sort of like a trick shot. if you can't make more than 50% from 20', you don't have the release. if you don't have the release, it's honestly not worth practicing much because you'll never get much better at putting unless you practice a TON. if you have the release, putting is easy and it's mainly a matter of correctly aiming.

similarly, if you do have the release, you will make the greatest % of putts if you have form that has a low technique failure rate. often this requires building certain fundamental on the knowledge that in the long run, they will give the least f ups and in turn, you will make more putts.

 

[mark12b]

e.g. right now a lot of my misses are chaining out on the weak side, so one day i'll try adjusting my grip, another day i'll try lining up in front of the right side of the basket instead of the pole, etc...

there's an easy fix for chronic left side miss. nearly all left side misses are rooted in one of the following: nose up, early release, left push/drift.

there's 2 problems (often in conjunction with one another as one can lead to the other) that can cause those 3 miss factors.
1) shoulder orientation. if you line up with the right shoulder ahead of the left shoulder. this can cause problems with #2.
2) hand orientation on the disc when it leaves. if the disc is a clock with 12 o'clock facing the basket and 6 o'clock facing you in line with the basket, releasing the disc with the hand somewhere between 12 o'clock and 3 o'clock will result in 1 or more of the 3 miss factors. releasing with your hand between 3 o'clock and 6 o'clock will reduce the problem.

thanks, i'll pay attention to my shoulder position and see what happens there. lately i've been mostly putting with a staggered stance but trying to be squared-up to the basket -- so, there's a good chance that right shoulder is coming forward sometimes. i feel good about my hand orientation as i've been really working on the 3-o'clock grip + palm-push, and my makes are flat and solid with just enough apex.

looking back at what i wrote, an adjustment like "lining up in front of the right side of the basket" is actually a good example of what not to do, at least long-term. i did experiment with it but i wouldn't be comfortable relying on it in the long run since it's really a crutch for something more fundamental that needs fixing. i'd much rather get my form solid than figure out workarounds.

 

[Blake_T1]

thanks, i'll pay attention to my shoulder position and see what happens there. lately i've been mostly putting with a staggered stance but trying to be squared-up to the basket -- so, there's a good chance that right shoulder is coming forward sometimes. i feel good about my hand orientation as i've been really working on the 3-o'clock grip + palm-push, and my makes are flat and solid with just enough apex.

by 3 o'clock grip do you mean 3 o'clock release? that will often cause some drift/nose up.
you really want to break 3 o'clock... more like 3:30 at a minimum.

lunging the right shoulder forwards can do it as well, but it's not as drastic of an effect as lining up with the right shoulder forward.

another common thing that people do is start with the putter out, pull back and rebound forwards. this can f things up royally, which is why i generally teach people to start at a fixed point at their body (mine is with the disc like 1/2" away from my belt) and move forwards from there. this avoids any kind of inconsistent wrist bouncing that can skew putts.

 

[masterbeato]

another common thing that people do is start with the putter out, pull back and rebound forwards. this can f things up royally, which is why i generally teach people to start at a fixed point at their body (mine is with the disc like 1/2" away from my belt) and move forwards from there. this avoids any kind of inconsistent wrist bouncing that can skew putts.

this is very true, i changed this and my putting went up by a considerable amount. it also helped me with a nice quick routine.

i am no Blake, but i am banging putts, that is all that matters i guess. my problem before was i could not figure out how to focus and have a quick routine at the same time, so i just used something simple like sitting down and figuring out how to aim and use the tiniest of body motion which was easy and consistent. can be any motion as long as you do not screw anything up with the throw, and this quote is one of them. i am talking just a shrug of the shoulder or something, get those shoulders loose and ready to line up, then shoot.

 

[bcsst26]

The one thing that I found myself not doing was using the palm properly. Once I started to really push the disc off the palm toward my target I have started to make them more consistently. I also have really started to focus on my apex and have improved. I either hit metal or am in now. I still don't practice as much as I should but the last round I banged two putts for birdie that I usually don't make and didn't miss any putts that I should have made. Once I practice some more I think I can actually shoot par or under at my home course. That is my goal for the year.

 

[mark12b]

thanks, i'll pay attention to my shoulder position and see what happens there. lately i've been mostly putting with a staggered stance but trying to be squared-up to the basket -- so, there's a good chance that right shoulder is coming forward sometimes. i feel good about my hand orientation as i've been really working on the 3-o'clock grip + palm-push, and my makes are flat and solid with just enough apex.

by 3 o'clock grip do you mean 3 o'clock release? that will often cause some drift/nose up.
you really want to break 3 o'clock... more like 3:30 at a minimum.

no, i'm starting at 3:00 -- maybe cocking back puts the grip at ~2:30 -- and releasing around 5:00. closer to 6:00 if i'm trying for nose-down (typically for downhill putts).

lunging the right shoulder forwards can do it as well, but it's not as drastic of an effect as lining up with the right shoulder forward.

another common thing that people do is start with the putter out, pull back and rebound forwards. this can f things up royally, which is why i generally teach people to start at a fixed point at their body (mine is with the disc like 1/2" away from my belt) and move forwards from there. this avoids any kind of inconsistent wrist bouncing that can skew putts.

i've been going back and forth on that kind of thing. sometimes it seems like if i start from a dead stop i get less consistency, but otoh the motion you're describing does tend to screw things up... lately what i've been having good success with is to get my wrist and elbow into that beltline starting point, then pivot at the shoulder to get the disc up in front of my chin (bottom of disc facing basket), and then swing down and push out in one fluid motion. i don't really like introducing extra motion like that but right now at least it's definitely helped keep the putt on-line.