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Archive for the ‘ Putting ’ Category

Make All Your Short Putts part 3

If you are already excellent at making short putts, then you might not want to watch this. I don’t want you “thinking” about your short putts with new info that you don’t need.

If you are a firm believer in the “Open door, close door” putting school of thought, then this won’t apply to you either.  I could never make that work for myself.

But, the bottom line to sending a golf ball along a chosen target line is still physics:  make the putterface perpendicular to the line of travel at the moment of impact.  I find it much easier to do that when I have a follow-through that continues that perpendicular position of the putter a short way PAST the point of impact.

Putting track gadgets help you FEEL and repeat the proper motion for muscle memory to recall it later. Unfortunately, unless you do this a zillion times, it’s so easy to LOSE that feel from practicing with the track at home to the course.

On the other hand, you WILL ALWAYS be able to bring your same EYES to the course as your TRACK GUIDE.  Watch the video and then scroll below for more:

The most important thing to remember about all of this, is to CONTINUE TO FOCUS ON THE PUTTER as you strike the ball and during the follow through.  Your target line below the putter (represented by the ruler line in the photos below) will be fuzzy but visible enough to line up the line on your putter with your target line.

3-footPutt-1Notice how the line on my putter is parallel to the target line at impact. I am focused entirely on the line on my putter, not the ball. THIS IS THE ESSENCE OF A STRAIGHT PUTT.  And since we don’t have to worry about distance on short putts, we can put all of our mental energy on just this.

3-footPutt-2I am still focusing on the line on my putter. The ball just gets in the way.  I can see the target line just in front of the line on my putter.

3-footPutt-3I was actually quite surprised when I took this freeze frame of the video and saw how I was still lined up with my target line this far after hitting the ball.  Look how the line on my putter is still parallel to my target line.

Here’s part 1 of hitting short putts:

http://golfshortcutsecrets.com/how-to-make-all-your-3-foot-putts/

Here’s part 2 of hitting short putts:

http://golfshortcutsecrets.com/2-drills-you-can-do-in-your-living-room/ (half way through the video)

The Eyes Over The Ball Putting Tip is a Myth

Some Myths In Golf Instruction Make The Likelihood Of Being A Good Putter Almost Impossible…

Golf instruction is simply outdated and incorrect when it comes to the “flat stick”.

It is simply misinformation. Virtually nobody correctly studies the exact science regarding putting mechanics and applied bio-mechanical principles.

In fact, there are 8 myths that most golfers believe, that actually keep
them from becoming good putters…
8 Myths that Tour Putting Coach Andy Gorman Will Destroy And Teach You What Works A Whole Lot Better!

Andy Gorman Tour Putting Coach

You can ignore the host telling you have to watch Part 1, you don’t. There’s a lot of blah blah there and he actually covers what you need to know here. I watched it to save you the time. (By the way, I don’t know anything about the host, Rick)  I just spent the time to find a great putting instructor for you and some of HIS best FREE instruction.

Really pay attention to the main point at the 4 minute mark. It’s the lie angle that’s critical and the putter and posture create variables that you have to get right to give yourself the best chance to be consistent.

Andy has an awesome program you might want to check out:  Putting Myths Destroyed

Some of the very best players in the world entrust Andy with their “putt for dough” department Just a couple of his current students include several: National Team Players, PGA Club Pro’s, Tour Players on the European Tour, LPGA, LET and Challenge Tour… just some are;

  • Robert Rock, 2012 HSBC Abu Dhabi Champion
  • Peter Lawrie, European Tour
  • Steven O’Hara, European Tour
  • Steve Webster, European Tour
  • Charley Hull, LPGA and Solheim Cup Rookie Star
  • Alison Nicholas, 1997 US Open Champion & Winning Solheim Cup Captain.
  • Plus he’s coached thousands of regular golfer’s
  • Coached 9 youngsters into US College Scholarships.
  • Coached the Jamaican National Team from 1997-2001.
  • Coached numerous European Tour players as well as European Ladies Tour players.
  • Coached club players and weekend warriors to transform their games from the long game to sinking putts.

I tell you these things, not to impress you, but to impress upon you that Andy Gorman really knows what he’s talking about when it comes to golf.

 

Greens and fairways,

 

Craig

Slow Down To Golf Time

 

 

A segment from just one of the 8 golf instructors in the Great Golf Without Practice Bootcamp

 

 

Right Click to Download .mp3 for later listening

 

Eric Jones Programs:

Blast Method For Longer Drives

Brown Bag Golf Training Program

Scoring Clubs DVD Program

A-Game Cheatsheet

 

A-game

Nor Cal PGA Names Eric Jones of The Bridges Golf Club the Teacher of the Year

VACAVILLE, Calif. — The Northern California Section of the PGA is pleased to announce that Eric Jones, PGA Teaching Professional at The Bridges Golf Club in San Ramon, Calif., has garnered the 2014 NCPGA Teacher of the Year Award. Jones is being honored for his contributions to golf instruction for players and professionals at the facility, PGA Section, and National level. People of all ages and playing levels can take advantage of the resources at their local facility. There are PGA Golf Instructors there who can help them learn or improve their golf skills.

ericjonesstanding

Jones is a graduate of Stanford University where he played collegiate golf and also served as the Junior Varsity/Assistant Coach. He is one of only a few PGA Professionals who holds a Master’s degree in Sport Psychology. An accomplished competitive golfer, Jones has been playing golf for more than 45 years. He won the 2003 World Long Drive Championship title and captured his 2nd Long Drive Championship title in 2012.
“I am passionate about the art and science of teaching golf. I feel strongly that the future of golf instruction lies not just in improving the swing nor in enhancing mental skills, but in the intersection of both disciplines, where the mind and the mechanics work together to maximize performance,” said Jones.

ej-worlds-teeshot-640x360

Jones is the author of more than 100 articles on golf, an expert consultant to the PGA, featured keynote speaker at major golf shows, founder of the Eric Jones Golf Academy, and author of numerous golf books including “The 5 Keys to Distance”, “The A-Game Cheat Sheet”, and “How To Practice Your Golf Swing Like The Pros”. His innovative books, videos and seminars have helped countless golfers elevate their performance.
His teaching practice extends well beyond the traditional one-on-one sessions to include clinics, workshops, seminars, monthly training programs, online instruction, a radar-based training program and a new junior golf academy. By structuring a teaching practice with multiple forms of student engagement, Jones is able to provide the equivalent of more than 1,800 lessons per year and a variety of structured improvement programs that make instruction accessible to all levels of players at affordable price points.

Double Vision Putting

In today’s shortcut secret video, I’m going to give you an advanced mental game tactic that once you master, will pay off huge especially with longer putts.

Golf is one of those sports where you don’t look at the target at all while taking the action (making the swing).

We look entirely down at the ball. In other sports, like tennis for instance, you can have a kind of peripheral vision about where you want to send the ball but not golf, you are looking straight down while where you want to send it is nowhere in sight.

Watch this video to transcend this problem. If you have ever played other sports that have a ball or puck, I’ll bet you will notice the power here.

Greens and fairways,

Craig

 

PUTTING TIP – DOUBLE VISION

Here’s today’s golf shortcut secret and this one is for making more putts.

A huge problem with golfers on the green is that they become ball bound. Meaning, they spend too much time and energy looking at and focusing on the ball and not enough on the target – the hole! I’ve mentioned in another video that I take my practice swing while looking at the hole, I then take my last look at the hole…and this is very important….I then take a nice long deep, slow breath down into your belly…

455624303_295Right AFTER that, I go quickly to my ball and then I continue to have a super-imposed vision of the hole over the ball while I’m looking at the ball.

You can do this. If you don’t think you can, that’s ok, pretend to do it and it works anyway.

You’ve got to send continuous messages to your unconscious mind that the hole is the target and not the ball. If your unconscious mind, which controls your body, gets the message that the BALL is the target, well then all it has to do is strike the ball and get it moving and anywhere it ends up is fine right? No!

Because that’s not what you want. That’s more like baseball where the ball is the target. You want the ball to GO somewhere. Your unconscious mind is like a laser guided missile system. It needs coordinates. You can fire off that missile and it will land anywhere if you don’t give it those coordinates.

IMG_20112013_100701I’m Craig Sigl…your swing

How To Deal With Annoying Golfers

You finally are able to carve out some time to work on your game down at the range mid-week. You get your clubs set up, do some stretching, and then you follow my advice on how to work on your game by imagining actually playing the course.   You pull out your driver like it’s the first tee and go through your routine.  You step up to the ball and just as your about to take your swing back, a couple of guys 3 stalls down start laughing rather loudly and your focus is destroyed.

What do you do?  How do you handle it?

Isn’t golf supposed to be a gentlemanly game with etiquette and consideration for other golfers?

Well, if you’ve been golfing at all lately , you know that has been degrading over the last 2 decades.  But, you can turn this around to your favor.

Watch the video to find out.

Greens and fairways,
Craig


Title:Golf Tips: How To Deal With Annoying Golfers

Hi Craig, Today I went to the driving range to practice, there was about 6 guys and ladies hittting some balls.Then two guys pitch up and start hitting balls. Need I have to tell you the talking, laving,joking so that everyone there has to know they are there. Am I a bad guy if I wish they can finish and go home so that everyone there can concentrate to practice? Or advise how to overcome this behavior.

Unfortunately, there are people like this out there. Uncaring, inconsiderate and lazy.

Seems like you’ve got a choice in action

1. You can walk over and politely ask them to be a little quieter so that everyone can focus on their game
just like in a regular tournament. You might be a little squeamish about confronting someone like that but I also think that’s a great way to teach yourself how to overcome fear

or

2. You can use what they are doing as a “test” of your ability to focus. It’s all how you look at it.
Tiger Woods dad used to try to distract him in practice on purpose to build up his focusing ability.
He would throw clubs in front of him and make noises and Tiger said it was very helpful when
tournament time came because nothing could distract him after what his Dad used to do.

In other words, you can see it as a golden opportunity to practice your mental toughness focusing ability because let’s face it, it’s going to happen to you out on the course. You might as well be prepared for it.

AND, this goes to a bigger point I’d like to make about managing your mental game. It’s the idea that things SHOULD be different than they are.

“My game SHOULD be better right now”

This green SHOULD be smoother

The players ahead of us SHOULD play faster

The people at the course SHOULD be quieter

Get rid of SHOULDs and Musts. All they do is get you frustrated and you are much more likely to play well in a good state than a frustrated one.

greens and fairways
your swing is good enough to go low…

How To Make All Your 3-Foot Putts

So I’m working hard on my game this year…using all of my own tricks and strategies. I decided a short while back to begin right next to the hole and eliminate misses on my short putts.

I did a little research, and went back to my memory banks and started experimenting and came upon this fantastic tip for making all of your 3-foot or shorter putts. It’s so simple I can’t believe I overlooked it the last few years.

Before figuring this out, I couldn’t make more than 16 3-foot putts in a row.

The moment I figured this out and replicated it, I made 40 3-foot putts in a row.

Watch the 3-minute video to see what I mean

 

Transcript

Title: How to make all of your 3 foot putts

Hi Craig Sigl here with today’s shortcut secret. I am SOO excited to have discovered this one because I have been working on how to crack the code for making all of my 3 foot putts as the foundation of confidence for my short game.

So, I’m at the practice green after a round trying to figure out why I missed two 3-footers that day and I’m experimenting with different setups and strokes and then my mind went back to a drill a golf pro gave me 20 years ago in my only set of lessons.

The drill is to start a putt with your putter touching the ball and just push it to the hole. No backswing at all. Something in my body and shoulder movements clicked for me when I did that. It felt really different than what I had been doing.

Another voice in my head came to me and this one was a video of a pro teaching how amateurs biggest short game problems could be solved by accelerating at the ball and through the follow through.

I put 2 and 2 together and came up with this:

The big secret for making all of your short putts is to take the club back as little as possible on the backswing.

As soon as that light bulb went on, I went back to my 3 foot half circle drill where I see how many in a row I can hit, and I hit 40 3 foot putts right then! I’d never made more than 15 before that.

This seemed TOO easy, I was floored, astonished! How could I have missed such a simple fix for my short putts.

So, I introduced other variables in my putting stroke to try to “disprove” my new theory.

I jabbed at the ball…and it went in.
I rested the club on the green after a putt..and it kept going in
I changed my stance and got my eyes off the line of travel…and it still went in!

All I had to do was to make sure that the putterhead was squared up to the line to the hole and only bring back the club a couple inches…and it worked no matter what else I did!

I’m so excited by this…my days of missing 3 foot putts are over and so can yours.

See you on the next tip…

By the way…your swing is good enough to go low

Visual putting more important than feel putting?

If you’ve been with me for any amount of time, you know that I tend to see things differently than your average golf coach or instructor. This is definitely true for my putting and it may be for you too and you’ve overlooked it. Maybe not, but it does merit taking a look at this concept to see if there’s any truth to it for you.

I’m actually not a very visual person and yet, something about putting really is all about how the putter squares up and, can I keep it on line with my target line.

Take a look and see if this helps you. By the way, what do golfers really mean when they say “feel” about putting? Other than the obvious of how it feels when a putter strikes a ball. How does that actually have an effect on whether a golfer can make a putt or not? Is it just a confidence thing?

I’d love to see your opinions below this video.

 

Transcript

For every part of the game of golf, you can find experts who will disagree with each other as to what is the best way to do X. Golf shortcut secrets is not about believing anyone but trusting yourself and going with this – “It Works For Me!”

I’m here to advocate for you and give you permission to find your own way in this game. There is no perfect….There is no “doing it right.” There’s is only getting the ball in the hole in the least amount of strokes as possible.

Today’s shortcut secret is about putting. I struggled for years as a below-average putter routinely missing 3-footers until I woke up to something and here it is. I had a friend stand behind me while I putted for a whole round and he didn’t say anything until the end. When it was over, he told me that I consistently did not line up the direction of my putter with my target line.

After the round, we went to the practice tee and found a straight putt to practice. He stood behind me and told me to tell him when I thought I was lined up straight. Half the time I was and half the time I wasn’t…and the times I was, often on my misses he would observe that my putter did not continue down the line. Basic stuff right? Well it wasn’t to me. Here’s the kicker. I was going around telling myself that I pushed or pulled it when I missed. “Well, what does that mean?” Those are just words that golfers used to explain misses but they don’t really mean anything substantial and certainly don’t help you with the fix.

Anyway, bottom line…I found out that my eyes had a very hard time aligning the putter with the target line and seeing the putter follow the target line during the stroke. When I thought I was lined up, my partner behind me said I wasn’t. The problem was my eyes or how I saw my putter.

Ok great…I knew my problem but didn’t know how to fix it…until one day…I’m walking around a sporting goods store…and I always go to the golf section…and I try out various putters on the display and practice green they had set up. After hitting a few others, my eye was drawn to this one particular putter that had a very large visual aid on it as you are looking down on it.

I started putting with it, using my normal putting method and I started hitting ball after ball straight to the cup. I couldn’t believe it! I switched back to the other putters and didn’t make nearly as many and it became obvious to me that I could SEE the putter head flowing down the target line behind and after hitting the ball. My eyes then automatically guided my shoulders and arms and today, I putt better than ever!

There’s a lot of science out there on how our eyes work with respect to putting but maybe the solution is to just look for a putter that strikes you as it did for me…focusing on your vision when choosing a putter…and not the feel of the putter. Remember when the 2 and 3-ball putter were all the rage a few years back when they came out…it’s because of this…you might help yourself by LOOKING into this. It’s such an easy solution.

Distance Control For Long Putts & Chips

Why is it that every golfer knows the old saying “Drive for show and putt for dough” and yet the vast majority of golfers spend their precious time and money trying to fix their swing and gain more distance?

Swing fixes and more distance are such extremely inefficient ways to lower your score.

Really! I want to know the answer to this question. I want to hear your opinion below and let’s talk.

Since Golf Shortcut Secrets is all about efficient ways to score lower, and putting for dough and working on your short game seems to make perfect sense and nobody doubts it…then let’s get to it and let me give you one of my most powerful lessons on how to get more of your long distance putts and chips to within 2 feet of the cup.

I must caution you that this little tip will seem too simple and you will be tempted to overlook it. Don’t be one of those. Don’t trust the confusion masters of the golf industry out there. Trust yourself.

After watching this video, ask yourself “Does this make perfect sense to me?”

And if it does…then use it and make it part of your permanent game.

If it doesn’t, well then, ask me questions, challenge me… bring it.

Go here to watch it:

Transcript

I’m Craig Sigl author of the book: “Break 80! 52 ways to lower your golf score without practice”

Do you have trouble with distance control on your long putts, chipping and pitching? Here’s the shortcut secret to dramatically increasing the amount of shots that get close enough for a one-putt.

Always take some practice swings and do them while looking at the hole. And, do those practice swings with the exact same motion you are going to use on your real swing. In other words, a dress rehearsal of the real swing while looking at the hole. You see, what this does is send the correct signal through your eyes down to your shoulders, arms and hands as to the final outcome that you want your body to accomplish.

How many times have you made a horrible shot or putt and then just to prove you could do it, hit another ball and the second ball is perfect? Right! It’s because on the second shot, you have the feedback of the first shot to go off of.

You can simulate that feedback by looking at the hole while you practice swing. This is so simple and so powerful and yet I see golfers do this instead. They do these weird practice swings that will be nothing like their real swing. Or, they take their practice swing 5 yards behind the ball. Why would you do that when you’re going to hit the ball from 5 yards closer? It amazes me how golfers do things just because they’ve seen others do it even though it makes no sense and defies logic.

Watch one of the greatest free-throw shooters of all time, Steve Nash how he preps for a free throw…and apply it to your golf

Shortcut Putting Tip – Hold Your Finish

There’s tons of advice on putting out there but this tip is pretty much universal from all instructors and yet, many average golfers do not know about it and others that do, don’t use it. As a result, many strokes are needlessly lost when this such an easy tip that corrects many putting errors.

 

Transcript

Hi Craig Sigl here. Creator of 7 golf programs sold worldwide. You are now going to get the shortcut secret to a solid putting game.

This simple tip is going to fix 50% of all of your putting errors and it’s super easy to do. It’s so easy that you might be tempted to overlook it so I will give you the rationale as to WHY this will do wonders for your putting game….The WHY is what will motivate you to actually use it on a consistent basis so here’s the secret…

Always hold your finish pointing the putter down the target line at the end of the putt.

Yep, that’s right. Here’s the WHY. When you hold your finish, you have necessarily followed through and dramatically increased your odds for keeping your putter traveling down the target line and keeps you from jabbing or yipping. This eliminates variables in the putting stroke and makes you more consistent.

You could have aligned yourself wrong….and this fixes it

You could have had a terrible backswing…this fixes it

You could have failed to get your eyes over the ball…and your subconscious mind will still seek to correct the putter direction despite your error.

If you have held your finish, you’ve already done so many things correctly that you don’t have to think about….that’s the beauty. Do not underestimate this, do it over and over on the rug in your living room until it’s automatic.

This is really the most brilliant piece of advice anyone could give you on putting. Watch pros, they all do it and then watch average golfers on the practice green and see how many do it.

See you on the next video.