welcome to complete putting our four week coaching plan that will transform your game with the flat city this is week one let's take charge of your game let's talk put a length and how it can affect your setup and your putting stroke so if you're not aware you can actually get putters in different lengths so we've got a few here to give you an idea on what they look like so i've got a 33 inch putter here in my left hand i've got a 35 inch putter in my right hand and then he's got a 34 inch there plunk that in the middle and you can see the differences in the length of those putters now this can have a massive effect on how you stand to the golf ball and how you actually put you can go longer than 35 it's rare that we see that andy but so john ram for instance has got a 37-inch putter but you know what we don't often see that so i'll give you that one back there andy so it's important to understand that if your putter length is wrong for you it could be inhibiting your ability to put a good setup on it and then a good stroke on it because it is very much about the posture with putting because it is very different as we know to an iron shot isn't it yeah we want to stand quite differently think about what we want from let's say an iron or even a driver we stand at the side of the golf ball we have this nice sort of neutral spine and we swing around the body well with the putting stroke it's a lot different we're really looking to create a fairly consistent it's a straighter back and through stroke it's not fully straight but there's certainly a straighter move than we would see with an iron so how we stand to the golf ball with our posture will help influence that motion if we stand a little too upright or a little too bent forward again that's going to have an influence or an impact on how we move the putter and then we start having to compensate pierce for a poor posture so if we can get the right length for us that's going to enable us we're all different sizes if we can get into a good posture for ourselves and get the right length to suit us it just means then we can produce a nice consistent motion really with a lot more ease okay so we need to figure out how to get into this posture don't we so obviously people at home will have different length putters but let's give them the posture that we like and then we can see whether the putter's going to be any good for them okay this is a great guide this is so you can do this just stand up wherever you are now and go through this so get yourself with a normal stance feet shoulder shoulder width apart and what we like to see is as we said earlier more bend forward from the hips the eye line is a little more over the the target line and from here now i'm just going to rest the putter just against my leg here i'm just going to get my arms to relax hang down in front of me just underneath the shoulders now from here all i want to do is just bring the the upper arms close to the chest this is about where i'd like to be so if i just grab the putter now here and just place my hands on what feel comfortable this is perfect for me because look at that i'm right at the top of the putter length i feel comfortable from here if you get if you do this exercise and you start gripping down here or you know the put is a little too long for you all this here is wasted weight and and length of shaft here so again if you're if you're feeling that it's a little bit too short you might be sort of right off the end there again it's just finding out so great exercise that you can do eye over the eyes over the target line let the hands and arms hang underneath underneath the shoulders upper arms in and then from here just take hold of the putt from here now i'm in a good posture for me and then we fit the length to suit the individual we're all different so we know straight away for you the 34 inch is perfect 30 40.
that's obviously just gone straight into your hands there all right then so let's see what you've got then so what's this put it's around about 12 feet i think a little bit left to right a little bit of left to right i'm just going to get again really feel for me now because i really feel the arms are just hanging down eyes very much over that ball to target line and from here i can go ahead and just swing more freely on this yeah you look rock solid over the golf ball you probably just need to work at your pace control i think i do yeah but luckily for you we're going to be doing that through this coaching plan all right so we've done the posture you understand the length of the putter now it's time to get into the rest of the setup [Music] so when it comes to the grip we have a slight variation now with a normal let's say seven iron we have the club position more across the base of the fingers well with putting we want it slightly different we like to have the the putter a little bit more upright running more down the palm of the hand this really helps the club stay a little bit more locked and helps keep the club face square from here we can go ahead and put the right hand on where we feel comfortable now when we build the stance we want the feet roughly about shoulder width apart nice and stable with the lower body the legs are still really important in putting we'll also have the ball slightly ahead of the center of the the stance and the shaft pretty much at 90 degrees we don't want too much shaft lean we don't want the shaft leaning back like this a great guide for the shoulders as well is that we want them fairly level we don't want really any any excessive tilts of the shoulders either way so do your best to get the shoulders as level as possible and we want roughly 50 weight distribution on each leg now in regards to posture we like to see that the the top of the neck is a flat spot so you'll see here that the top of the neck there is pretty flat and the hands are very much hanging down underneath that spot this allows you to get the eyes pretty much over that target line we like to see the eyes literally over the target line so we can look straight down that line when it comes to alignment obviously we want the putter aiming straight down that target line and we want the feet the knees the hips the forearms and the shoulders all running parallel to that target line [Music] green reading is massively important and we feel it's very much overlooked by golfers so that's why we're going to be working at it every week through this four week plan now andy today we're going to be talking about why we see people get green reading wrong and we're also going to be talking about a system that we can actually help them with for simple green reading and what better place to do it on the 18th green here at villapadiana los flamingos golf course the greens here are super fast and super slopey which is great for you because we get to see how good you are green ready i'm pretty good at green reading as well okay so yeah let's just go through a couple of the reasons that we see why people struggle reading greens well the first thing is people the main thing is people underestimate how much break there is so they're they're faced with the put and they don't generally allow for enough break and some of the our students pierce when we get them on the golf course sometimes we will just ask them to double the amount of break that they think is going to happen and they put better doing this so bear that in mind if you're if you're looking at a pert are you continuously underestimating the amount of break that might be a good option for you the second thing is is really the system of how they choose their start line now obviously when we are looking at a breaking put the number one thing first of all we've we've assessed the pace but the next thing we need to think about is where are we where do we want to start the golf ball off because if we can get the initial start point good to match with the pace we're going to produce a good put but most people struggle to pick that start line and this is one of our theories why so think about this put here we've got almost a almost 30 foot appears i've already got my initial start point down there because i've already worked this out some people have a really good idea of of seeing the brakes so they'll look at the put and they'll see the curve or the trace that they can imagine the ball going in the hole but what they tend to do is if you imagine a straight line from the ball to the hole here and you imagine the journey of the ball what they do is they can see the apex which is the furthest point away from the line and they aim at the apex so they're pointing the golf ball or aiming themselves straight at that apex yes the problem is with that they've missed out this part of the put which is the most important because we've got to focus on the start line the initial start line if you're aiming at the apex you've missed all this out what we need to do is choose a line and choose the the path of the put that's going to get it to that apex which is generally wider than the apex so you can see here where i've put the t that's a lot further away than the apex because that's my start line but if i get it online that will travel through the apex and in the whole piece i'm predicting a good one here i like it i like it so what we're saying is it's the most important part short of the put here to aim obviously the ball will break more when it gets more towards the hole but this is the really important part where you need to be focusing on this aim when you think about this we ask this a lot of people how much brake is there and people tend to judge brake based on the apex now we're looking at the the point next to the hole that's how much break there is not where the apex is when we put golfers here and actually show them this they go i can't aim that far right what do you want about most people will be doing this as well so let me play the put here i've chose it already i'm just going to go through my sort of system of how i do and then let's see how that ends up here so i'm going to walk in again notice i tend to focus very much on the initial part here i'm looking down of where i want this ball to start and then it's pretty much just about getting the pace right now but the attention's on the start line okay a little bit uphill as well just to give it a little bit extra it's gonna come in so that one's so if we assess that there now slightly firm on the put if i'd hit a little bit softer the break would have kicked in so the read wasn't too bad just a little firm on that but great that i missed it on the high side because most people as we said earlier they're underestimating it and if you're missing on the low side it's never got a chance of going in you're absolutely correct i'm pretty sure that's not good enough have another go we need to see if that line was good because you're absolutely right you overhit that one there's no way you'd want to be that far past let's see what happens now when you get the pace correct based on that start line assuming i'm gonna get it correct now here well i'm hoping you are we've only got two gold golds to get it right now otherwise we're in trouble that looks better away a little short maybe on that one there now it's not too bad they're fast a little short but again a little firmer on that one so somewhere in between those two puts is the perfect one don't get another go on no no no no no people will be turning off but you can see that exactly right if you'd have got the pace better on that one that would have been really good for the line for sure [Music] did you know the average pga tour pro only holds 65 of his puts from six feet from 10 feet he only holds 39 and from 20 feet he only holds 15 percent now based on that what do you think your expectations are that's the data we've got from the 15th club but it surprises us really how many golfers from six feet expect or think that they should hold everyone and then when they miss they get frustrated so think about this set yourself some real expectations based on your level if they're 65 on six feet what do you think you should be this is going to help you then deal with those missed shots and not take any frustration on to the next shot which we know can affect the scores so six foot here based on the pga tour average 65 percent i'm going to give myself 50 that means one in two i'd be pretty happy with so let's see reasonable put and i hold it i'd be happy with that but i'm moving on to the next tee with a smile [Music] it's time for your week one practice now we're going to split it into two sections the first section is going to be 10 minutes and it's going to be on something we're going to call the calibration station because what we want to do is we want to be able to calibrate so we want you to be able to calibrate your putting stroke on a straight putt so this will be the first part of your practice so andy what sort of things are we looking for in the calibration station and obviously you've got something there to help us yeah well the first thing is we've got two paces roughly six feet we're not gonna have it too long we want a pretty straight put so we can calibrate really our setup and our stroke and this is really going to help us generate some consistency to help the ball start on our target line and we've got the use of a putting mirror here the put out mirror because this really helps us see um first of all get the aligns the alignment right but also see if we can get the the shoulders and the body aligned but also the eye line we mentioned that getting the eyes pretty much over the target line as well okay so you're also wearing a a funny looking hat there what's going on okay well i've got my optics cam here so i'm going to switch this on and hopefully show you guys how this looks so if i get in my posture now take my setup you should see you can first of all see the put out mirror and you can see it's got plenty of lines on it so from here i can align my putter straight down the target but also you'll see my eyes now are over pretty much over that target line you can clearly see if you go too much ahead or if you're sort of way inside that there so it's a great way of just practicing getting yourself in a good posture with those eyes perfectly over there i see the alignment of the shoulders as well when we're over there and i think the the key is with this you will notice if you are massively out this is going to tell you straight away so it is going to put you into a place where you go oh i'm going to be i can't even see the mirror what's going on there or i'm the mirror's over there somewhere behind me so it really does help with that but what about if we haven't got a putting mirror is there a alternative yeah well you can either use some alignment sticks so get some alignment sticks lying down place the putter in between or some golf clubs either side as well it's just something simple that you can really use to make sure that your body alignments and your eye line is over the golf ball now one thing that you can do if you haven't got a mirror pierce is just drop drop a golf ball right between the eyes and see where it lands yeah does it land in front of the target line or inside and it's just a guide really to see and if we can get it pretty close to that target line then we're happy okay well let's see you hit some shots we're not going to watch you hit puts for 10 minutes but i'd like to see hit three though and see what you've got okay so again i just really feel quite neutral now get me to understand what a straight putt looks like and straight alignment now when you're doing this for the first time you may well feel maybe the pace on that one or maybe hit the flag you'll feel and see when things are going wrong for you so you'll understand if your posture is wanting to go out you'll understand if you want to aim left if you want to aim right so it's going to give you some really good information moving forward and it's just a really good thing that you can do okay one more you've got one out of two what have you got a bit soft on that one oh so that was a soft place i'd like to hit it a little bit firmer than that that's why it probably just moved offline maybe you touch a break from right to left on this one but do your best to get a straight put and just calibrate get your setup looking really strong and neutral get the club face in a good spot and get that eye line over the golf ball okay very good now we need to work on your green reading your second section of practice is green reading now you know how important this is so what we're going to do is we're going to get andy to go through his process we need you to practice this though for 20 minutes when you have your practice putting session so andy 15 to 20 foot putt is what we're looking for nothing with too much of a break but there is a break on this one yeah let's go through that process and of how you practice your green roof okay so this is going to be the first put we want you to have 20 minutes doing and varying the put so this is what we want you to do so first of all i'm going to come back i'm going to take a good look around and sort of use my feet as we've already talked about let me get capcom on and what we're going to really do now is start to to really get into the mindset of looking at the start line so for me i imagine the curve i'm sort of having a look here and what we want you to do is have a walk up and place a tpeg where you think you need to aim we're going to go next to the hole so i've got mine i think it needs to be about here that's your start point that's my start point that's where you want to aim it yes so i'm going to come back here i'm going to start and see if i can line up to that point it's definitely breaking from left to right so then what we're going to do is i want to make sure i've got feedback on this so i'm going to get my ball marker and place this within the first 10 inches on that line so this is a straight line okay now this is going to tell me if i'm starting it over the line that i've chosen so feedback perfectly you get from that marker there if you can get it over there you've started on your line there you go you make it make sure i'll tap it down as well so i'm going to play this putt we're going to see what happens i'm going to see if i chose the right break if i haven't i'm going to do it again and then once i'm happy i move on to the next one okay and this is where you start tying in things like pace control as well as you go through this so normal routine now all i'm really going to do now is think about the pace but i've got the feedback whether i start it on my line and then we'll see where it ends up so you started it online okay so feedback slightly firm on that one yeah but i would say if it was a little softer it might have still missed a little bit too high so i'm gonna do that one more time now it's definitely a faster putt as well down here so that would have made it go further past than you think so i'm bringing that in a little more i think my start line is about there so you're saying you over read it i've read it yeah that's interesting it must be the earlier part of the video exactly okay so get that in place put this on the line so if you're looking at this now you're probably thinking well hang on a bit this is a little bit tedious it takes a little bit of time but guess what there's no point in guessing what the lines are by going through this process in your 20 minutes you may only go to three or four different putts but you really are understanding what it takes to read them effectively and getting great feedback which will definitely accelerate your progress you're learning here there's no if you're just on the on the green doing sort of perks you're not really learning that much correct okay i think i've got a good read on that one now so go through the process all about the pace now see if i'm a little closer on this one yeah much better again there's the feedback now i know then that i can start to understand and get a get a good visual of what's going on get a good feel and learn from that i'll move on to the next one and again keep going through the process so you are learning you've got feedback and your green reading skills will get better if only you had two goes on the golf course then exactly all right so that concludes this week your practice for this week first of all you must make sure you keep your stats so how many puts are you taking per hole add them up let's build that average so we can hopefully see that average reduce as you go through the four weeks then you need to make sure you do 10 minutes on your calibration station and then 20 minutes on your green reading exactly and don't forget if you want to take part in the rest of the plan make sure you click the link down in the description head over to mygolf.com and we look forward to coaching you through the rest of complete putting thanks again