#golf #putting #DynAlign #alignment www.dynaligngolf.com
Watched an interview with Bill Harmon who said some of golf’s greatest ball strikers, such as Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, and Lee Trevino, may not have made it in the modern Trackman age if they had gotten with a teacher who tried to make their swings perfect. He called them “The Symmetry Police”.
That reminds me of putting instruction that recommends a square stance along with square knees, hips, shoulders, and thumbs down the top of the grip. That type of set-up may be symmetrical, and you can putt well with it, but there are key areas where it can be vulnerable to breaking down under pressure.
Unless excess slack is reduced in the wrist, elbow, and shoulder joints, the stroke can become misdirected when force is applied to the stroke. Slight rotational motion in any one of the joints can cause the putter face to vary in its relation to the club path. This type of set-up can be high maintenance, and require a lot of practice to keep tuned up.
The putter itself can cause rotation when it is put in motion unless you are using a torque free putter, such as an @Axis1golf putter. A great majority of putters in use today create torque when put in motion, and that requires a player to increase their grip pressure to prevent the face from opening in relation to the club path. When grip pressure is increased, it can rob the player’s feel for distance. When you toss a ball, the lightest grip pressure typically yields the most accurate result.
One way to make your putting set-up more resistant to random motion in the joints, is to reduce slack in the joints with dynamic pre-shot alignment. This type of pre-shot preparation is not symmetrical but it is much more stable against variation that can show up in pressure situations.
Look at photos of Jack Nicklaus’ putting stance. One of the greatest pressure putters in history. He was anything but symmetrical in his set-up, with an open stance, secondary spine angle, and lead hand thumb that did not go straight down the grip.
