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I just had a conversation with a student about the ‘Duration of a Putting Stroke’ … the time it takes to complete a Tick Tock – Back & Up and Down & Out and Back. The premise was that a very long/big ‘Stroke Length’ takes the same amount of time (Duration) as a very short/small stroke. I shall leave this very specific math aspect up to you and Mr. Newton!

Longer stroke lengths make a golf ball roll farther due to the ‘Kinetic Energy Load’ or ‘Terminal Velocity At Impact’. (see ‘Energy Transfer Clubhead To Ball’)

Thus, if we learn how to ‘Control Our Stroke Length’ in our ‘Putting & Chipping Pre-Shot Routine’, we shall be able to control our ‘Ball Rolling Distance’ (BRD).

Let us assume that you have located a perfectly flat and smooth area on your club’s practice green. If there is ‘Slope and Break’, read and evaluate that first by using your proven professional ‘8 Step Putting & Chipping Pre-Shot Routine’. Factor in ‘Mother Nature’s Elements’.

Test your stroke outcomes (performance) from 8, 12 and 16 Feet … 5 balls from each point! Pace and mark these Ball Locations with a tee so you can retest any aspect that you are unsure of. Use a ‘Ground Stick or long-shafted club to define your ‘Target and Body Lines’. (Set-Up) Remember, ‘All Putts and Chips Are Dead Straight’ from an initial ball rolling line perspective. That helps keep your very short game simple and definable!

Let’s take ‘Bunker Basics’ back to raw basics … like at the beach … sand, bucket and shovel? If you want to make this procedure more complicated, that is your prerogative, your poison!

Always apply your ‘5 Set-Ups’ (Posture, Grip, Stance, Ball Location & Alignment)

Factor in your ‘5 Essential Elements’ (Clubface Aim, Clubhead Path, Clubhead Speed, Sweet Spot & Angle Of Attack - AoA)

These ten elements or components never go out of style … anywhere or ever!

Working off the beach! We hear relentlessly about ‘The Open Open Method’ … Open Clubface Aim, Open Alignment and then we need to decide about our ‘Clubhead Path’ … Outside-In so as to accomplish more ‘Cut Spin Rate’. Pretty complex? A lot of factors?

Bunker Work.

Let me please tell you about a ‘Bullet-Proof Bunker Drill’ that is a baseline experience. It is called ‘The Line Drill’. Just draw a straight line in the sand working squarely away from your feet and chest. It is useful to have this line just inside your Target Heel about equivalent to your ‘Putting Ball Location … about 2 inches from the back of the line to the inside of your ‘Target Foot’.

When this is accomplished, make several Tallish-Chested and Longish-Armed swings that just thump the sand. You will recall that this is about your ‘Tether all Pole’ (TOP) Bottom Of Swing Arc (BOSA - Bottom). You will find that your divot starts just behind the ball and extends two to four inches out in front of the ball and line. You do not want to be too deep or FAT as you may not get the ball out of the bunker! Put another way, your ‘Angle Of Attack’ (AOA) should be more ‘Shallow’ than many might think.

Interested in a trick that works like a charm?

Let us discuss achieving the perfect impact, the perfect moment’s outcome of a disciplined ‘5 Set-Ups’ (Posture, Grip, Stance, Ball Location & Alignment) and ‘Pre Shot-Routine’. (PSR) This includes an efficient blend of the ‘Physiological and Psychological’ (Physical & Mental)!

Whenever we spend time working on our golf swing, any aspect of it, we are really working on achieving the perfect impact position and sequences … static and dynamic, potential and kinetic. We must, somehow, get the ‘Sweet Spot Of The Clubface’ (‘Center Of Mass, Moment Of Impact Event or Coefficient Of Restitution’) precisely delivered to the ‘Ballistic Point or the Bottom Inside Cheek Of The Golf Ball’. (BIC) (see ‘Inside-Out Clubhead Path’ or ‘Swing Radius’ … ‘The Physics Of Rotation and The Geometry Of The Circle’)

‘Pure Impact Conditions’ is a consistent universal golf challenge ‘Putting To Driving’.

I was going to title this article ‘A GOOD CASE OF THE YIPS’, but I have never seen a ‘Good One’!

The ‘Yips’ are generally ‘Involuntary Musculo-Skeletal Movements’ or spasm in varying degrees. It is logical to refer to them as ‘Twitches’ but there are many of these descriptive names that suffice or apply. Many very normal golfers (who perform well) struggle from time to time just ‘Triggering The Stroke Pattern’. They cannot accomplish a smooth ‘Take-Away’.

Let us see if we cannot provide two methodologies that might help any ‘Yipper’ improve and avoid this affliction?

1) Can’t Pull The Trigger … If this applies to you, when you take that ‘Last Look Down The Line’ (DTL) and return back to the ball, you will do so at a natural pace. If it happens to be 5 Feet Per Second, do that as a ‘Routine’. Here is the ‘Magic Key’ that might help.

When this author – teacher thinks about his chest, that includes from the ‘Hip Girdle or Socket Axis’ up and through the Trunk and Abdomen including the ‘Shoulder Axis and Shoulder Sockets’. (see ‘The 13 Human Primary Articulating Joints’)(see ‘Pivot Core’).

If at any time during the ‘Golf Back & Up or Down & Out Swings’ you find your ‘Chest’ pointing upwards or facing the heavens, you are out of position and flirting with trouble. Your ‘Pivot Axis’ will have been compromised along with your ‘Ball Flight Outcome’.

We have a physical instruction that refers to ‘Covering The Ball’. It means that we keep our Sternum and Breast Logo facing the ball when the Lever Assemblies (Hands, Wrists and Arms) are in the ‘Bottom Half Of The Swing Circle’ moving in either direction.

I know we have discussed this topic in the past and not the too far distant past, but the topic came up in e-mails 23 times in the last two weeks. Thus, it is neither mute nor decided dynamics. (see ‘Motion Law’) It is an open topic apparently worthy of more consideration?

Address ready is ‘Static In Componentry’. It is very neutral and is what your ‘555 Team’ refers to as ‘Tap Tap Tap’. It is when we simply just hold onto the golf club handle and tap the floor in front of our belly buttons … vertical action and no ‘Horizontal Thrust’. (see lateral pressure)

To make a golf ball ‘Go Away’ we need to create ‘Compression and Line Of Compression’. (see ‘Force Lines’ and ‘Doing Work with a golf tool against a ‘Little White Ball’.) Work is a Force Through A Distance.

There is so much conversation about ‘Hip or LBM Lead and Clubhead or UBM Lag’ that the following perspective might help you better grasp these important physicalities. Let’s find out!

Envision having a powerful ‘Laser Beam’ in the butt of your golf grip such that it shines out of the small breather hole in the bottom of that handle.

At Address Ready or Impact Fix, the ‘Laser Beam’ shines in the vicinity of your Sternum to your Target Shoulder Socket. Stand up and Set-Up using your imagination! You will see for yourself!

We all know how important ‘Making Putts’ is in the grand scheme of playing and scoring in golf. This simplest, foundational stroke is responsible for between 35% and 50% of you carded numbers. Your ‘Short Game’ is another 15% to 20%. How many golfers have made more than 40 or even 50 putts in a single round of 18 holes? Improving on that stat is so very easy and predictable. What is preventing your ‘Working Smart’ at putting better?

Remember, ‘A Chip Is A Putt With A Hop!’ Thus, working on your ‘Putting’ invariably helps making Chips and even Bump & Runs. “Pitter Patter, Better Get At ‘Er!”

Things to do while preparing and putting in the wind …

1. Use your very smart ‘8 Step Putting & Chipping Pre-Shot Routine’ (PSR)