A Game-Changing Putting Lesson – Learning AimPoint With Jamie Donaldson

I’ve been dabbling with AimPoint for a while – using my feet to read the break of a putt – but I know I’ve only been scraping the surface of its potential. That’s why I was very excited to have this lesson with Jamie Donaldson, a world-renowned AimPoint coach…and we quickly get to work on fixing my biggest struggle when it comes to putting.

More about Jamie:
Website: https://jamiedonaldson.co.uk
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aimpointgolfeurope/

🎥 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessratcliffegolf
📱TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jessratcliffegolf
📝Newsletter: https://breakingpar.substack.com
⛳️ Practice Plan: https://jessratcliffe.com

👋 I’m Jess – after cutting my handicap from 34 – 9 in a year, I’m documenting my journey as I work on my game. Subscribe to join me for a new video every Saturday.

0:00 Intro
0:28 My Current Putting Routine
3:02 Learning AimPoint
3:45 The Distance Control Drill
8:15 Putting My New Routine To The Test
12:10 Outro

I’ve been dabbling with the aim point for a while using my feet to read the greens and it’s definitely helped my putting but I know just by dabbling I’m only scraping the surface of its potential which is why I was so excited when I was down at Wen to have this lesson that I’m about to share with you with Jamie Donaldson a world-renowned aimo coach and we start by looking at my current putting process so Jamie can see how I approach a part and also where I might be leaking shots when I’m on the green yes so my normal process I guess I would have a little lean back and a look yeah try and get a sense already with the eyes of where it’s at and then come down if it’s that length I probably would just go straight over okay and then from here I’m I’m feeling a tiny touch in my in my right leg Y and so I would probably consider that inside left okay cool let’s test it okay so then I do use a little bit of the line on that was one of the questions I was going to have for you do you use the line on the on the ball and you know how do we know the line on the ball delivers us our best results when it comes from hitting putts so I can show you a test for that as well okay so then I would again lean back I’ve sort of set my line as I think and then it’s all about that pace oh wow did I push that well that’s it went that way which is the way you said okay just for the record it was a she got the direction right did it break did it break a lot that I I’m torn between did that break a lot or did I hit a weak part okay so there’s some feedback yeah it’s it’s definitely enough speed to reach the hole but we would prefer to see it about a foot past okay so there can be a little speed element in there right um but we’ve seen your process on that and we’ll come back to that one later that’s probably a good example of a part that I’d have on the course actually where you’re not so close that you’re thinking tapping you’re a little bit further away but you are in your head thinking I can make this normally on the course I’d be probably over reading maybe have it here instead and so you’ve just got that moment of finishing thinking oh that could that could have been but it wasn’t and also this five-footer I think is worth discussing because this is probably not because of an iron shot or if it is it might be one around yeah so the thing that that gives a lot of people a lot of headaches in this distance is because these tend to be your par saes absolutely so these are after a bad first part or a decent Chip Shot they’re not because you’ve hit an eye into here as a rule so these are quite painful because the score changes when you miss them okay so we’re going to go this side now and I’m just going to give you a bit of a longer P okay so I’ve definitely got more weight in the left so we know it’s a right to lter okay so that was on a pretty decent path it just didn’t go in because of speed so the feedback loop was it went right to left if you’d hit it firmer it could have gone in so we could only really blame speed for that part okay so my biggest struggle that Jamie picked up on straight away is distance control so this is what we’re going to get stuck into next but first Jamie took me through the core elements of aimo how you read certain slopes and the break in your feet going from subtle through to strong and then we put that to the test we put my feet to the test to see can I feel the brake around the circle of a hole so looking for the straight left to right and right to left Breakers but then this was the bit that I found to be the most gamechanging for my putting and also the drills I’m going to take away to do in my practice and it’s distance control so Jamie’s about to take me through a drill to help me dial in my distance my speed for those 10 20 and 30 foot parts so what we’re going to do is I’m going to run you through a really simple way of training speed and I’ll put three discs down at 10 20 and 30 fet so they represent three sets of targets and what I’m going to get you to do Jess is play a 10-footer and I’m going to watch how long your back swing is so if you could just play me three 10t parts and I’m going to eyeball how long you swing it perfect so that’s as long as it finishes near in line with it we’re fine don’t worry about making the pup okay now oh gosh look at this what would you change cuz that’s obviously not gut there no what so would you swing it longer would you shorten the down swing time so you’ve got two things available to you see I would probably what I would call is give it a bit more O Okay so let’s let’s think of it in time in time so keep the back swing length the same which was about a foot and think about it coming back quicker okay in time that’s lovely and again even quicker still beautiful and now play that good so that’s excellent that’s about a foot by which is great what want okay so now we have a little bit of a feel which which is the time from start of down swing to impact is what you did there okay and now we’re just going to repeat it so have a practice swing first keep the back swing length the same so a little bit longer than that good now when you feel it’s the same forward speed we play okay fantastic just a fraction quicker extra it did you feel it I did yeah right if you can feel it when it’s slightly quicker that’s what we’re going to work on changing so let’s get it right a swing to that there you go that’s a perfect back swing length Okay very nice okay so they’re they’re three decent puts okay so what we have now is we have a a back swing which was a foot long and the forward time is just whatever it felt like to you okay what we’re going to do is we’re going to add 50% to that and another 50% to that because if we keep that forward time the same that will give us another 10t and then another 10t taking us from 10 to 20 to 30 brilliant beautiful here we go and when it’s when it’s correct we just it’s a match right okay so now let’s repeat that for the next distance beautiful there we go so this this this kind of forward times like a rhythm if we were banging a rhythm on a desk we’d be able to maintain it okay so this is a skill set you didn’t know you had no which is maintaining Rhythm yeah okay swing all the way back to that TEEG and just manage that forward time beautiful okay oh thought I was going to hold it it’s a shame to hit that cup yeah that was perfect I tell you what let’s do it again and just aim a bit further right than that cup practice first so the see how the practice is as important as the execution yeah get that feel get that get that Tempo I’ve given you the back swing length little bit right of the hole there we go now look at where this finishes oh nice pretty cool huh yeah I mean not crazy short no which is what I have been doing exactly and it’s it’s these probably felt a bit more long longer than you’re comfortable with and that’s really normal yeah but the easy not the easy thing but the constant here is the forward time yes and that’s a feeling and you managed that beautifully uh we’ve just got to learn to get more comfortable with the swing length swing lengths now I’m not saying when you play a 30-footer you’re going to remember it’s 24 in of back swing but this is a drill for helping you understand length of swing and timing when you play to different targets you just got to do what you think feels right yeah but you’ve now got two dials one of them is how long you swing it and the other is the forward time brilliant and if you’re practicing and you think it feels crazy quick slow it down yeah how about this uphill you can go longer and quicker right downhill which you’ve struggled with shorter and slower okay but don’t just hit a downhiller and be scared of being no passed change your stroke length right so now that Jamie’s helped me with my green reading really feeling the break in my feet from those subtle to strong breaks and help me dial in my distance control it’s time to put my new pre-shot routine over my putts to the test to see how I get on with quite a lengthy downhill putt normally my Nemesis so we’ve got a I don’t know what the distance is it’s a fairly long putt it’s downhill it’s been your Nemesis till now so so let’s let’s get an idea of where we’re going to start it okay and then you can come back and you can rehearse your stroke that’s it you get your numbers feel so me I’m going for two in the right leg so left to right get your start line organized that’s that’s where you want the ball to set off so now take us two steps back and now let’s just keep rehearsing our stroke length in our Tempo so what I’d like to do is keep keep looking at the hole and just move it around till you think the two are correct so where’ you think that ball would finish if you played that part I think this feels pretty good let’s go a little bit longer historically there now that makes more sense to me okay so let’s play that okay great speed yeah much better Pace than before was a little bit of a misread but we’ve got that Tapp in and that was a downhill pot that we were we kind of talked ourselves into hitting bad putts earlier yes I’d be happy with this that’s that’s about a 25t part yeah we’ve already talked about them just being two parts come then let’s finish it off okay do my best to pop her in and this is just a short part so get a feel for which way I I don’t have much in that so let’s rehearse your speed that’s it just get a feel for how hard and the sort of length and the forward time you’re going to use step in and play there you go lovely so we’re building a pre-shot routine so so much of putting or performance comes from having a a correct process so so we’ve covered the green reading we’ve tidied that up for you and now we’re getting into speed control and I guess at some stage we should talk about line or no line yes that is the thing is whether it’s helpful I’ve sort of ditched it throughout because I think when when we were saying about it in the lesson it’s something that again if I have set the line wrong yes and then trust the line yeah or even stand over it and don’t trust the line it just adds in an extra variable that kind of throws in a bit of confusion the line it’s about 50/50 for players or golfers using a line or no line effectively and the first thing is can you aim the line at the right place secondly do you follow it like you I think you aimed it well but you just ignored it um and also people’s perception of curves so there’s a curve element to put and and if we’re just aiming to a point near the hole quite often the player will pull or push it to finish on that point right just like you know they naturally start it higher because they come obsessed with where they’re aiming which is obviously above the hole yes so these are people that we like to teach curve visualization to right okay and that can be really powerful for people um I would say lose the line for now yes go more on that visualization yeah and if anyone’s worried about using the line you know it’s only going to work if you got a good green read yes that’s true so a lot of people use a line and have Dreadful green reads and it makes worse yeah yeah so it’s a it’s a kind of playoff between a good read and being able to aim at that point brilliant thank you so much Jamie I feel I’ve learned so much that hopefully now as I’m going out in the course on that quest to put some good scores together yeah this one now help me one get rid of those pesky three parts they they’ll kill your score they will two not leave anything short anymore cuz I’ve got my distance control to dial in yeah but also the practice drill that you mentioned of doing those longer Parts yes have to two put them if you miss you start again gives you short putts that everyone’s scared of and if you can accomplish six in a row long two putts it means you’re holding out from short range and you’re building up a little bit of a you know Memory Bank of success absolutely I loved that lesson with Jamie and I feel like I’m leaving with a framework and a feedback loop a framework to work on my distance control which is where I was leaking the most shots on those greens but also a feedback loop so that now when I’m practicing my putting or I’m out on the course and I don’t make putts I can ask myself was it my or was it my speed and try and get those two to match up a little bit better so that I can hopefully make some more putts when I’m out there on the course