The Truth About Putting

Listen up. Putting isn’t really that hard.

It’s nothing more than rolling the ball along the nice green grass.

Please read that again…

It’s nothing more than rolling the ball along the grass.

But, (and this is huge)…

… much of the industry are obsessed with making things harder than they need to be.

I’m not sure if it’s the golf teachers feeling they need to justify their position or it’s just the way things are.

But for way too many golfers, traditional putting advice doesn’t work too well. We get told to;

• Fix our stroke
• Rock our shoulders
• Improve our putting path
• Keep our eyes over the ball
• Make sure our putter face alignment is spot on
• Putt smoothly
• Keep our wrists firm
• Hit the putts firmly to the hole
• And about a MILLION other things

 

And all this technical instruction can leave as a little confused.

• we never know what we’re doing
• we are made to feel more than a little hopeless (the golf pro doesn’t mean for this to happen but it’s just a symptom of a bigger issue)
• golf isn’t fun because we can’t seem to get the results we want (some days we can’t get the ball into the hole from a foot!)
  
• the harder we try, the worse we become (and do this long enough and putting becomes really frustrating)
  
• we are always thinking and analyzing what we’re doing and this ultimately becomes very tiring (and boring)

 

When push comes to shove, the traditional way (the technical way) is simply too hard. What should be a simple task – rolling the ball along the grass – becomes almost impossible.

Is there a better way?

Again, I’m not writing this to put the typical golf pro in the poo. But my research suggests only around 2% of golfers can make all this technical stuff work for them.

2%. It’s a small number and sadly, many of the creators of this putting content fall into the 2%.

It can work for some, but not too many. And if you have been going around in circles, trying the latest putting theories, buying new putters but still feel awful when you pull your putter from the bag, sadly, you are most likely not inside the “lucky” two percent.

And because the golf industry is built on the back of all this technical instruction, if you can’t make it work, you really have no other option.

You’re stuck. It’s like a step forward and then two or three back.

And the most frustrating thing is the harder you try and improve, the worst things can become.

More tactics

Another tip (or 10)

More theories

Another new putter (is that the 3rd putter in the last 12 months?)

Hoping for a miracle cure

But none of it works or provides a long term solution. In fact, it could be causing you more harm than good.

Please check out the image below…

The Learning Matrix

Take your time to study this image. It’s important.

For many, the tips, the theories and all the instruction DON’T provide the path to the best results. And the “normal” way is hard work because you need to constantly find new things to come up with.

And because it’s hard you can’t sustain high levels of performance. This is why you can putt well one week, and like a madman the next (things can even change hole to hole).

And if you keep bombarding your system with too many rules/regulations/theories then you may start getting the yips and ultra-poor performance.

This is when you find golf really hard and you don’t get any sort of decent performance. You are fighting the system and it’s NOT much fun.

But let’s flip the lid on all this instruction

Many years ago I asked the question, “Is there an easier way?”.

Automatic Learning (as I like to call it) was the answer. I looked at how we approach other skills (like throwing or driving a car) and realised us crazy golfers had totally complicated the simple art of putting the ball.

With Automatic Learning you get the best of both worlds. You get higher levels of performance with the least amount of effort.

And it gets better. Because you’re learning optimally (like how you’re meant to) your results can keep on getting better and better. It really is the ultimate win-win situation and you don’t need a university degree to get results.

So you really have a choice. If you can’t make traditional teaching concepts work for you, then by all means you can keep going down the technical rabbit hole.

Or,

You can embrace your learning system and trust yourself that you can roll that potato along the ground towards the hole.

The major learning conflict

The very foundation of accepted golf instruction doesn’t work (There! I said it)

The current system really has set you up for failure. And this is quite ironic, but the very thing you’re doing to fix your putting is the thing causing you all the misery.

Let me say that again so it’s really clear.

All the theories, tips and quick fixes are causing you to fail. It has nothing to do with you. You are more than talented enough to roll the ball along the grass.

So it’s not you fault. It’s also not a time for band-aid solutions. The last thing you really need is another tip out of Golf Digest (don’t get me started)

Now is the time to reconsider the way you approach your putting game.