PuttingZone Webinar : Four Putting Skills – 4. Aiming

1. PuttingZoneWebinar: Four Putting Skills – 4. Aiming

3. Sun Wind

4. Geoff Mangum’s PuttingZone™ The Show begins at the end of 3 minutes of music. Let’s get this show on the road! Fleet Foxes, Sun It Rises

5. Welcome to Geoff Mangum’sPuttingZone Golf’s most advanced putting instruction – combining the best techniques from golf history with modern sciences of physics, anatomy, biomechanics, motor learning, and especially neuroscience for brain-body perception and movement for reading greens and putts, aiming the putter and body, stroking the ball where aimed, and controlling distance and pace of the ball for capture at the hole. Brain science for instinctive putting at the highest level.

6. Welcome to Geoff Mangum’sPuttingZone™ PRESENTATION OUTLINE • Overview of Putting • 4 Skills • Touch • Stroke • Read • Aim • PuttingZone Drills for Skills ✔ Today’s Webinar – 1 hour Brain science for instinctive putting at the highest level.

7. B. 4 Skills ✔ • Touch • Stroke • Reading • Aiming

8. Aiming the putter & body Aiming the putter face at a target near the hole for start line

9. B. 4 Skills -- aiming ✔ • Importance of aiming skills • Aiming and stroking relationship • Allowable margins of error • Aiming without a target • Aiming with a target • Bad influences and voodoo fixes • Checking the putter face aim beside the ball

10. Aiming the putter & body – all golfers have Poor aim “Almost all golfers are pretty poor at aiming on the green.” • 90% of golfers mis-aim the putter face on a straight 10-foot putt, almost all aiming outside the hole left or right. • Almost all of these golfers do not know their aim is poor, or else they would not tolerate it. • The golfers who have learned that their aim is poor do not know what to do to learn the skill. • Practicing with a laser won’t get it – the skill has to be “how do you use the body to see accurately” – there is no such thing as “groove the move” to get accurate aiming skill.

11. Aiming the putter & body – Aiming / stroking relationship “Aim well; putt it where you aim.” • Golfers who don’t know where the putter face aims from the address position are not confident about putting the ball where the putter aims and will use a stroke action that is difficult to understand and repeat – hence streaky. • Golfers who always & ONLY stroke the ball wherever the putter face aims quickly learn to make the aim count. • Golfers who ONLY stroke the ball where the putter face aims can more easily understand and repeat this stroke without streakiness. • Golfers who ONLY stroke the ball where the putter face aims are the ONLY golfers who ever receive accurate feedback about their skill at aiming, and this quickly fixes poor aiming.

12. Aiming the putter & body – Aiming WITH a target • “Connect the dots” of ball and target and aim the putter square down that same line then “check”. • Step 1: Stand behind the ball and use the edge of the putter shaft to connect the ball and target, and then select a spot 3-5” in front of the ball that is on this line. • Step 2: Walk up to the ball keeping the line and aim spot in view and place the putter face behind the ball so the center of the putter head aims square thru the center of the ball.. • Step 3: Set up beside the ball and “check” whether the putter face as aimed actually points where intended (as described in next slide).

13. Aiming the putter & body – Perceiving putter face change

14. Aiming the putter & body – Aiming WITHOUT a target Aim the “shot” with the body and its stroke, not with the eyes. • The brain aims the stroke action as a whole, not simply the putter face or setup posture, and the eyes in aiming serve the body’s stroke action in the aiming process – it’s about the body, not the eyes. • A golfer who knows and understands a repeating stroke action can aim the putt the same way the golfer aims a seven-iron shot. • A golfer who knows his stroke movement, and especially a movement that rolls the ball the same direction as the putter face aims, can aim the putt with only minimal assistance from vision. • The critical skill for instinctive aiming is knowing where the stroke always sends the ball in relation to the body ands its setup.

15. Aiming the putter & body – Aiming WITh a target Master the eyes to see the objective line from ball to target accurately. • Given a target spot near the hole, stand behind the ball, close one eye (doesn’t matter which), and use the edge of the putter shaft to “connect the dots” of the ball and target. • Examine the line 3-5” in front of the ball and select a spot on this line to serve as the “end of the stem of the T” to use when aiming the putter face thru the ball down this stem line. • Center the putter face behind the exact back of the ball and square the face down the stem line. • Address the ball and aimed putter face and “verify” where in fact the putter face aims sideways straight the given distance across the green – at the target, or left or right, and if so how much.

16. Aiming the putter & body – bad influences and voodoo fixes Eye dominance only hurts the player who doesn’t master the dominant eye and bandaid designs are usually goofy and a bad idea. • With one eye closed behind the ball, there IS no dominant eye. • Beside the ball, the geometry of the orientation of the neck and skull and face and eyeballs eliminates the “mysterious” influence of eye dominance – learn the skill. • Relying upon “subconscious” effects of putter designs to “correct” or “cause” a better “response” when aiming is perhaps helpful to Joe “Can’t Aim” Golfer, but is basically “black box” voodoo that is no substitute for personally generating accurate perceptions skillfully and knowingly.

17. Aiming the putter & body – Perceiving putter face aim 4 easy pieces • Set the throat / neck line to match the leading edge of the putter face, to match the “eye line” to the putter aim. • Aim the face itself at the putter sweet spot and ball and look straight out of the face, instead of aiming the eyeballs down the cheeks. • Rotate the head like an apple on a stick to send the line of sight on the ground straight along sideways. • Wherever the face aims the eyeballs after turning down the line the correct distance is where in fact the putter face aims (use Mt Fuji or the “eye spot” to see exactly).

18. Aiming the putter & body – facing the ball The “face” is the skull, and the face aims the same line the side-piece on glasses aims, or like an arrow stuck thru the back of the head out the bridge of the nose – aim that arrow.

19. Aiming the putter & body – facing the ball No Yes

20. Aiming the putter & body – facing the ball

21. Aiming the putter & body – apple-on-a-stick head roll The button on the cap spins in place; the chin remains the same distance off the chest the whole turn. Practice with the “fist telescope” (shown in the previous slide) when squared up parallel to a line on the kitchen floor – “face” the line to make the line show up inside the fist, then practice the correct head roll that sends the “fist telescope” view straight sideways down the line on the floor. If the “face” is aimed correctly, the head turn will “spin” the top of the head without shifting it left or right.

22. Aiming the putter & body – Mt fuji & the “arrow” of the socket • Align the pupils with the aim of the putter face; close the target-side eye. • Imagine / project the perpendicular line off the putter face about 2’ towards the target. • Tilt the forehead up/down to settle the “peak of Mt Fuji” (where eyebrow meets nose in the rear eye) 1-2 feet sideways on this start line. • Rotate the head like an “apple on a stick” in order to move this “peak” straight sideways along the aim line. • Whatever the “peak” hits at the distance is where the putter aims.

23. Conclusion • Read the green from the fairway for fall-line and approach putt and to discern safe-miss beside the green in case of the need to save par from just off the green. • Read the green surface and putt by predicting the future, focusing on the delivery speed in relation to the fall line and baseline for “high and slow” delivery. • Pick a line, aim accurately, and putt straight with touch. Integrating the 4 skills together in a standard routine has the golfer reading the green and potential pin placements in a practice round, pre-round management identifying realistic birdie holes and par holes, having a pre-round putting warm-up, and then playing each hole in turn to avoid bogey and to rack up birdies whenever this can be accomplished without bringing bogey into play.

24. Pause for Summary Next: Drills for Putting Skills Fleet Foxes, Blue Ridge Mountains (Fleet Foxes 2008).

25. PuttingZone™ Thanks for your time and interest! “Roll ‘em and hole ‘em!” -- Geoff

26. Geoff Mangum’s PuttingZone™ • For MORE information and to receive future tips and news from the PuttingZone, visit or contact: • Geoff Mangumwww.PuttingZone.com518 Woodlawn Ave, Greensboro NC USA 27401+001 (336) 340-9079 mobilegeoff@puttingzone.com • Join us! If interested in becoming a PuttingZone Certified Coach, contact Geoff for more details --17 Academies and 80 Certified Coaches in 16 Countries Worldwide and growing strong. Click to restart the show Jerry Garcia Band