How Your Elbows Are Affecting Your Putting Stroke (And How to Fix It)

For years my putting has been up and down. In this lesson with my coach Francis @BeyondGolfPerformance I finally learned how my elbow position, grip, and ball placement were affecting my putting stroke.
If you’ve struggled with consistency on the greens, this lesson could help you sink more putts and eliminate those dreaded three-putts.

Thanks for watching! If you want to support me and the channel, check out my startup clothing business BACK9 Golf Apparel for premium golf gear: https://back9golfapparel.com
Your support means the world!
SAVE 20% OFF USE CODE: “RAULGOLFS” at checkout!

WATCH NEXT:

HOW TO USE THE SHOT TRACER APP DESKTOP!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEELNUjohkg

MY FIRST GOLF VLOG -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VmVmkY4Gtk&t=649s

BUILDING A GOLF BRAND – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhL6DzeseGQ

THANK YOU FOR ALL THE LOVE AND SUPPORT!

If you’re new to the channel consider subscribing, so you don’t miss my journey to becoming a scratch golfer and BUILDING MY BRAND Back9 Golf Apparel!

________________________________________

For years, my putting has been such an up and down roller coaster. Missing short putts. Brh. Three putts from 3 to 5 ft. Come on. Always nervous standing over the golf ball. Oh my god. You kidding me, dude? Can’t putt to save my life. But then I had a lesson with my swing coach, Francis, and he showed me something I had never thought about. He’s fixed, bro. Let’s go tripping. Dude, that was awesome. I set up a 6ft putt here. Okay. I want you to hit 10 putts. Now, am I are you looking for anything or just set up a I’m going to I’m going to look at your like everything. I’m look at setup and look at how your path’s going through. I just want you to try to make as many 10 uh as many six foot putts as you can. It’s a good start because this is re usually my downfall. It’s either left or right. So you’re missing both ways, huh? Yeah. And it’s like, dude, it could be a three-footer and I miss it. So when I feel like I’m pulling Okay. Okay. So again, can you say real quick what you’re what you’re doing? What’s up? Can you say real quick what you’re doing right now? Yeah. So, what I’m doing here is I’m checking uh I want to see how many sixoot putts we can make. Six feet in is really where we need to be solid, right? Those first three made one out of three. Now, we’re four out of six, which is pretty good. Yeah. Let’s see if we can keep making them. I’m watching how your putter is moving through your stroke. Yeah. I’m watching to see how we’re releasing the putter. I’m looking at your setup to see if you’re consistent in setup. Nice. thought that was too hard. And do you feel like you’ve made any big changes to your putting stroke over the years? Yeah, recently, which is the last video, I drained like these long ones. Yes, I saw that. Mainly breathing and then now it’s like slightly to the back and I’m more hunched over. Okay. Like before I would be like right here and then now I’m like either choking low and then like really just like you’re more over it. Okay. Yeah, more over it. I feel like and that that’s where I feel like I get the most feel if that makes sense. Yeah. When you’re lower to the ground. Yeah. And then I’m like choking on the club. Love that. That was the only two distance and I’ve been putting it lately pretty good. Okay. But like the first three three or six I was I wasn’t doing that. Like now I am. You see now they’re like softer and and more lagging to the hole instead of So just one more I think now. Right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So how many have you made so far? I think I missed three. Four. Three. Okay. Three or four. Okay. Three or four. Okay. Let me see. So, so you missed what? Five. Five. Okay. So, about 50%. 50%. Yeah. Okay. Cool. So, currently tour average from 6 ft is about 70%. 7 out of 10. Yeah. 7 out of 10. And that’s not just straight putts, right? That’s left to right brakes right to left, uphill, downhill, everything. Everything. Yeah. So, being that we’re at a very straight putt and we’re missing, you know, about half of them means there might be a little bit of work, but we’re still trying to figure something out. Like, obviously, like you were putting really well last video, so you made some changes. I felt like I was on fire. Okay. Like, it was so crazy. Cool. So, I like the idea of you being more over the ball, too. Okay. Um, go ahead and set up over the ball real quick. I want to see something. Okay. Right here. Right. Cool. So, your eyes are technically like right over the golf ball. Okay. Go. Go ahead and make your putt. Do it. Yeah. Okay. Now come back here behind me. And this is exactly where your putter line was aimed. See how it’s aimed left? Yeah. Your first three putts, but when you’re missing those Yeah. Yeah. Were there were all left. So you either you kind of readjusted and started pushing. Yeah. Or you let the club actually rotate. I think it’s the first one because I noticed I was going left. Let me adjust at impact. I kind of feel like I’m opening it up to to to make up for that. Me thinking, oh, this draw this breaks left. Yeah. But it really was a straight P. I didn’t know that at the time. You know what I mean? Are you Do you know if you’re right eye or left eye dominant? I want to say right. But that would make more sense to me because like as we’re setting up to a golf ball as righties for putting especially like we’ll start to look this way because this we’re using our right eye to help aim. And if we’re over the golf ball, we’re doing this. Inadvertently, we’re moving our lower body more and more open. Okay? And it’s not bad to have a slightly open stance, but we have to know, do our shoulders want to be open, too? Like, do we want to be square? What are we trying to do with the putt? Right? If the ball’s too far back in the stance, a couple things could happen. One, you hit down on the golf ball. And if you hit down on the golf ball, now the ball starts to pop and hop and roll, and it doesn’t get to roll on top of the grass as quickly. or if the ball’s too far back, we start to feel out to the right. Do I start closing it more? Does it go left? If we were to break this down, ideally, I would like to see the ball just forward of middle, wherever middle would be. Club in the middle of your stance somewhere, ball just forward of it. Why? Because if everything else is equal, then the putter technically is on the upstroke, right? just just past the bottom point of the arc. And we’re really trying to hit the ball slightly on the upstroke. Now, we don’t ever want to have the club head go past the handle. So, that’s where our hands and our arm position helps us keep the handle a little bit more ahead of the golf club at impact. And I think because you put the ball back in your stance, you probably saw a more consistent strike because your hands were now more ahead than they used to be. Y. So, I think we could still do that. Maybe not have to put it back because I would worry about you having to add loft to the putt being that the ball’s back in your stance. Okay. Instead of letting the handle lead and taking loft a little bit off the putter potentially or bring it back to the true loft, right? And the only other thing I saw face on was I think that we drag this left elbow a little bit farther away from our body to try to keep the face square, but sometimes that pushes or if you turn your body a little bit that could pull. I would like to see a little more connection. So you’re saying that’s not a good thing? That’s not a good thing. I wouldn’t tell that to a PJ tour player who’s draining 70% of putts. 75% of the time. Yeah. Right. So yeah, it works all the time. No, I I think it’d be nice to get a little connection to feel. Okay. Like maybe this would be stock and then make some make your variations from there. Okay. So So how would I do then if I’m not doing this? Like what am I doing? Just Well, I mean a simple fix would be to give you a towel drill, but I don’t want you to give you the towel yet until we figure out like what we’re trying to do. So okay, here’s how I like to go about it. I like to hold the putter right in front of me. I’ll put the putter, the grip of the putter facing my sternum, so pretty high up. And I take my grip. And when I take my grip, one thing I took, um, a note I took from a coach out in Spain when I was playing professionally, he gave me a really cool tip. He said, “You know, in irons, we we we hold the club down in our fingers. Why? Cuz we want the wrist to start to work and roll over. We get a lot of power there, right? We wouldn’t necessarily hold our putter grip down that low cuz we don’t want the wrist to roll over. We don’t want to see a big break, per se, in an angle and make this happen, right? So to lock the wrist out inadvertently, we hold it more up in our lifeline, right?” So I think you do that, too. naturally like the little gun thing. I love that. Love that. Cool. So, I like that you do that cuz it look like looks like it’s more of an extension of your forearm. So, now from there with that grip, what I would do is I would try to pull the butt of the club closer to my sternum, but keep the elbows pointed down. So, my elbows are going to be right in front of my chest. That’s it. Now, if I were to hand you like your baby, how would you cradle your baby in front of you? Right? You support the weight of it with the elbows. So, now the elbows can’t go anywhere because we’re supporting the weight of the putter. That’s gravity’s pulling down on it. Right. So, now we’ve officially locked our elbows in a connected spot. I’ve never heard of this. Um I taught this to some people with Parkinson’s. Yeah. Uh back in back in Florida. It was hard for them to have the shakes as much cuz we’re naturally locking the joints in a in a way that gravity and the weight of the putter is actually keeping it in line and connected. Right. So, elbows down, putter a little closer to me. Now, from here, I want to feel the weight of the club just kind of like deviate my wrist downward just a little bit. So, the putter head’s going to look like it goes below my hands just a little bit. From there, if I just rock from my core and all I’m thinking about my in my head is how do I keep this the face stable? Like, there’s nothing that’s going to stop that, right? Nothing’s going to be. So, now just make that happen over the ball. Now, just do that over the ball. Just do that. Yeah. So, you can start this way if you want. So, I’ll go here. here. Here. And as this putter is dropping your wrist, let that bend over pull you down. And then you can kind of like get set over back, wherever you want to be. Dude, I’ve never heard of this. Like that. Yeah. Just feel that weight. Mhm. You should feel the weight almost in your fingers. Yeah. Now, the fingers act like a rail. So, if I put a rail here, that’s what your fingers are doing, right? So, now that putter can never come off your rail cuz you’ve now created it with your elbows and your fingers. I feel like I’m like Yeah. Yeah, you’re more in right now. Just make sure the putter is aim more out to the right and then rock your shoulders. He’s fixed, bro. Let’s go. Chipping. Dude, that was awesome. I’ve never heard of that that way, dude. The only thing I’ve ever heard was the pendulum. Y and then do this. Keep different, right? Like, you know, some people have different putters that make them do different things. more upright, more more uh flat angle, you know, putters or whatever, center shafted putters, different shapes can make you want to swing in a different way. Um, in one of my videos with uh Bobby Dean, a local link down below, link down below. Yeah. Uh, Barton Creek Fitting Studio. Awesome. If you’re in Austin, um, he helped fit me for a putter and I didn’t notice that different shapes mean different things to me. Like I aimed my original putter 5 in right of the ball within 5 ft and I had no idea. So, we went through all different heads and I found out this head works best for my eyes and if I can’t aim well, what am I doing trying to fix my stroke, right? So, aim being one of the first things to really give me an idea on what my stroke should should do. Such a good point. So, I mean, I think you stroke that putter really well. I felt like I I I didn’t like jerk it or nothing was like cuz sometimes I feel like I’m here and then I’m like jerking it. I just felt like it was smooth. Yeah. And I really didn’t think I was going to get there. I like that. I feel like if Yeah. Yeah, if anyone’s like worried about or have has concerns with opening or closing the face, I’m really bad with speed control for 30 or 40 ft. Like I feel like with this feel, I’m pretty much just playing cornhole or bowling. Good point. Feels like Yeah, cuz what do you do when you’re bowl? Like the elbow passes your side. What are you playing cornhole? I’m just tossing it. Where’s my elbow? I never do this. Right. Right. Yeah. Maybe after a few beers. What’s up? So, let me ask you takeaways for me as homework. Should I just solely be working on this? Yeah. Six foot. Or do I also do it 10, 15, 3 foot? So, I like to set up a drill station. I’ll I’ll make a I’ll draw a line, usually a chalk line, usually, okay, for 6 ft. So, find a flat 6ft putt. Then, if you can find a slope that gives you a slight right to left break or left to right break. If you can make 10 in a row here, then start to do like a 3, four, and 5t putt this way. And I call it climbing the ladder. So the typical ladder drill, if no one knows that yet, is you take a 3ft putt, 4ft putt, and 5ft putt. Mark them off with T’s. You start with one ball from each T. Make those all consecutively. If you don’t miss, go two balls from each T. And if you don’t miss, go three balls from each. So you’re saying one one or two two. Yep. You go 111 and then 222 and then 33. I see. I see. Once you get to the three ball from each T, that’s like the end of it. If you don’t miss, that’s awesome, right? You’re really good from 5 ft, 6 ft, and in. Um, if you do miss, go back to the one ball from HT. And you got to do it until you complete it. Reset. So, okay. 1, two, and three. Basically, I typically do that from a I talk about aim point a lot. So, I start with a flat putt. I typically do that with a 1% like right to left break. 3 4 5 ladder drill. And then if I could do that, I go to a left to right break. So, I’m always giving myself, okay, if I miss, I go back to here. 10 10 in a row. Okay. 10 six foot in a row. Awesome. Now, I could try to test my break on right to left, left to right. And I do that for like 3 hours. I used to do that for like 3 hours a day, dude. But I only have like an hour every other day and then I would do this for 20 minutes. Okay, this is great. Well, I was really thinking of like one day an hour solely on putting another day an hour solely on whatever you think. Well, I love that. Then yeah, let’s do the ladder drill from inside of five inside of five or six feet and then go to 10t. See how many you can make from 10 ft and then lag. So start to do a 15t and a 30ft putt and give yourself a little barrier like okay 3ft circle and draw it out with like maybe use custom golf clubs. Right. Right. So then you can start feeling the same exact ide with your with your tempo. What song works best for you? I saw one of your videos about the song was Snoop Dog or which is the one you said didn’t choose. Yeah.