As a coach, I believe start line is the foundation for improvement. It’s the one thing we can control. If we can control start line our feedback will be so much better when it comes to judging speed and green reading.
Start line primarily comes down to how you control the club face. Research shows us that start line is determined 90% by face angle. So our ability to control face angle determines our start line.
Your face angle and ability to square the club face at impact will be influenced by the rotational profile of the putter. So how we open and close the putter, the speed and timing of that will affect our ability to square the club at impact.
Sounds simple doesn’t it? The reality for many though, is that this can be quite complex. How the putter swings is affected by how we move our body. We have about 200 degrees of freedom in the body; all of these different joints have to be coordinated in a manner to control that putter face throughout the stroke. So you can also appreciate everyone’s stroke will be different but as long as you can control the putter face you can master the start line.
One thing I’ve also learnt as a coach is that very often players will have a consistent bias in how they control the club. Their pattern could be low rotation back and high rotation through which is causing closing, or vice versa. Players typically will have a common pull or push bias. If you are inconsistent then often this can come from extreme rotation profiles. So controlling the face in an efficient and consistent manner is key to developing a consistent stroke.
Key elements of technique which will influence your control of the face:
⛳ Posture at setup & how you move your torso
⛳ How your arms move
⛳ How your wrists move
Learning to move to control what happens here at a segment and joint level is key to control the face.
With start line being so important, one of my goals at Visio is to help players get feedback on the start line and more importantly how they control the putter face and how their body moves. Training aids such as the putting gates, putting template and the putting mirror, all help in these areas.
Two of my favourite aids are the gate and template. They can give you direct feedback on your start line bias; do you start left or right? Additionally, by filming your stroke above the template, you can appreciate your pattern in club face movement which may cause the push or pull. This gives you the platform to then work out where this issue may be coming from, is it a torso issue, arm issue or wrist/hand issue?
To help improve your start, you first need to work out what your issue is.
Check out the video from my online coaching academy www.philkenyonputting.com which talks you through a drill to help create an efficient torso motion which could help you with your face control and start line.
#practicewithpurpose
Phil Kenyon
Do the alignment lines on your putter enhance your accuracy, or could they be hindering your performance?
Most golfers use the lines on their putters to aim the face precisely along their chosen start line. This is especially common if you also use a line on your golf ball to assist with aiming. But have you ever considered whether these lines are actually benefiting you?
ou step up, address the ball with your putter, and make a smooth stroke, only to watch the ball veer off line like it had a mind of its own. You swear you aimed it right. But did you? For most golfers, the issue isn’t the stroke. It’s misalignment, starting the ball in the wrong direction from the very beginning.
Do you ever stand over a putt and second guess your read, only to watch the ball miss wide, breaking too much or not enough? You’re not alone. And there’s a chance, the problem isn’t your stroke, it’s the read.
Putting is often lost before the ball even moves. distance, slope (angle & gradient), grain and other factors can all influence how the ball rolls. If you misread those pieces of information, even a good stroke can send the putt off line.
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