1. Place two clubs parallel to the line towards the cup on either

side of the ball.  Check to see you are swinging your putter

through a straight line.

2. Place a two by four parallel to the line towards the cub outside

of the ball.  Check to see you are swinging your putter through in

a straight line.

3. Mark the sweet spot with a piece of tape (a half inch by a half

inch should do it).  See if you can it the sweet spot with each putt.

4. Place 6 balls in a circle around the hole about 4 feet away.  Putt

each one in turn.  Can you make all six?  Remember to read the

green before each.

5. In order to aim for the center of the hole, Place four tees in front

of the hole with enough room for a golf ball to squeak through.

Try from two and four feet out.

6. For long putts, use the distance on the practice green.  Start with

your short putt routine and then hit three from 20 feet.  Then

three more.  Then three more.  Are they getting closer?

Remember 90 percent of long putting is judgement of distance.

Putting Tips to Read the Green:

Remember 90 percent of long putting is judgement of distance.  But

we all know that the greens can be harsh.  There are two tiered

greens, sloping greens, upside down plate greens, and greens that

just happen to be an optical illusion.

Here are seven tips to read the green better.

1- as you approach the green look for slope (note that most greens

slope back to front-I did say most!)

2- look for the grain.  Treat it like slope.  If the grain is away

from you, it will be faster.  If the grain is towards you, it will

be slower.

3- look at the terrain. Grass grows towards the sea, towards a

setting sun, away from mountains (tricky in a ravine), or with the

direction of water supply.

4- think about moisture. Shaded, early morning, or evening greens

can be slower.  Goes for rain and sleet also.

5- think about sunshine. Sitting in the hot sun can dry and make a

green faster.

6- watch the line of your partner’s putts.  Enough said.

7- lastly, is the wind strong enough to have an effect?

Golf Putting Tips For The Stroke

14. Develop a routine for your putt.

- review the slope, grain, and layout of the green.

- estimate the distance.

- select your aiming point.

- setup your grip, feet, head, and putter head alignment.

- decide on your stoke for the distance.

- take a parallel practice swing.

- smile confidently to yourself.

- swing smoothly.

- wait.

*************************

Dropping in Those Long Putts

15. When faced with a long putt, carefully study the green for overall slope, individual breaks, grain, wind speed and other factors that may influence your stoke.

Having decided on the proper target line, pick a spot along the line a few feet in front of your ball and aim for that.

16. Once your feet and the face of your putter are squared to the target, begin to think in terms of speed and distance.

Try to visualize the ball rolling along the desired path and into the hole. Then make your putt with confidence.

17. Putt Like a Pendulum

When putting, your hands should always be slightly ahead of the club head and the ball.

Your arms and shoulders should form a triangle that moves in unison during your back swing and stroke-much like a pendulum.

Just slide the club back without breaking your wrists and the forward again. Be sure to follow through straight along the line of your putt.

by Mitch Tarr

Junior Golfer Putting Reading Green

It’s the 18^th hole and my junior golfer, 15 year old son, walks up to the green and eyes his ball lying about 25 feet from the hole. It’s a double breaker with a bit of an uphill putt that he needs to win a bet from me.   I follow him around the green as he squats behind the ball to take a look at the slope.  I hover around him and look him in the eye and finally decide to give him a little lesson in managing his mental game.

I ask him: “So AJ, right when you take the putter back, do you breathe in, out or hold your breath?”

I have a sly smile on my face as he sends mental daggers my way through his eyes.  He is determined to show up the old man for the first time in our many years of playing together.  I just keep smiling and smirking while noticing his body language reeks of tension.

Flash backwards in time for a moment.  I’ve been playing and teaching my junior golfer since he was 3 years old.  Before that, I actually pushed him around a course while in a jogger’s baby carriage in his first year while I played the game. Heck, it was the only way I was going to get to play some weekends when his mother left him with me.  I’ll never forget the gyrations I went through to try to keep him either asleep or entertained enough to stay quiet on a golf course!  From a distance, other golfers must have thought I was nuts doing African dances around my funny-looking golf cart!

Come to think of it,  you know, those times were probably very instrumental in my learning how to deal with distractions and still play the game at a high level.  Did you know that Tiger Woods Dad would purposely yell and throw clubs in front of Tiger while he was swinging in order to teach him that famous Focusing ability he is famous for?

But I digress from the main story.  From the age of 3 til about the age of 12, AJ would listen and hang on every word that I would say about golf.

Golf Swing follow through

I showed him a very simple swing that served him very well and we enjoyed many years of playing together, driving golf carts in crazy ways, and celebrating another grand day at the course with a tall soda (and beer) at the 19^th hole.

And then, something happened…AJ hit that age where he all of a sudden “knows everything” if you know what I mean.  His game started to get better and I could see this wall come up any time I would talk about the mental game of golf.  In his eyes, it was just a matter of him playing more and practicing more and he’d seen the beginnings of improvement from that formula.  Never mind that I write to 10,000 golfers every week, never mind that I’ve worked with hundreds of kids and elite athletes from all over the world. Never mind the fact that I took my own golf handicap down to a 5, shot a 1-under and a hole in one, all without practicing….No, never mind all that…I’m just Dad and I don’t know anything, right?

Sound familiar?

Flash  forward to that 18^th hole where he challenged me to a bet where if he won, I would have to buy him some new Nike shoes and if I won, he would have to wash my car 10 times.   He wants those shoes really bad.  I don’t let up as he walks all around his putt and takes an unusually long time to line it up. I know that he is a bowl of jello inside and his legs look like they will give out from under him at any moment.

He takes the putter back very hesitantly and leaves himself a 4-footer.   I mentally pounce all over him as you can feel the pressure in the air between us.  I tell him that he will not be able to handle the pressure and that I am looking forward to a clean car for the foreseeable future.

Score is everything

Hi misses the putt and I say nothing, not a word.  We walk to the car in silence as I let him process the whole thing his way. I turn the radio on in the car to break the tension as we drive home.

A whole month later, he comes to me and tells me he is ready to learn about the mental game and we get going in earnest.

I just learned this week, as I write this, that AJ has earned a college scholarship to play golf in college. He is a fine, upstanding, moral young man who impressed a college coach not just with his golf skills but with his personality and character.

Sometimes, golfers need to get their lessons in a certain way that only works for them.  After working with hundreds of golfers in person and more online, I’ve noticed a few patterns about what makes you a play your best game.  It’s all about being able to play under pressure. More to come on that…

Greens and fairways,

Craig Sigl

The No-practice expert

Author Paul Hobart

completing your key tasks. You’ve gathered all the information you need. You have a very clear picture in mind of how you are going to make this putt. You have a good feel for the speed and the corresponding line. You can clearly see what part of the cup is going to accept the ball. You know that you’ve done your best aligning the ball, and your putter.

You have officially earned the right to make this putt!

My next point is a challenging one. I’m going to tell you what to think and feel as you stand over your putt. How can I do that? I really can’t, but I am going to try to guide you towards the proper mindset and emotional state.

As I stated above, you have earned the right to make this putt. You deserve it. You have followed all of the steps, and done your homework. All of this preparation is designed to put you in the ideal mental and emotional state.

There are just 2 more things that I will ask you to do:

1). Have 100% trust in the alignment of the ball and putter

2). Make absolutely sure that your final thought is about creating the speed that you have chosen for this particular putt

The Putting Banana

Let’s look at these two final concepts in a little more detail. Having complete trust in the alignment of the ball and putter is one of the key components of the Banana Putting System. One of the main reasons that golfers miss putts is a lack of trust in their alignment. By carefully going through all of the steps in this book, you have gathered all of the information you need. You have a picture in mind of your ideal putt. You now need to place 100% trust in the work you have done.

Putts are pulled and pushed and hit with too much and too little speed because the golfer doesn’t believe that he or she is properly aligned. My good friend Dr. Craig Farnsworth once told me:

You are much better off to be completely committed to the wrong line,
than to be uncommitted to the right line.

I believe that golfers need to have achievable objectives when they play. An achievable objective is something that you can control and something you can measure or track. A key objective in putting is total and complete commitment to the line and speed you have chosen.

Total and complete commitment
Total and complete commitment
Total and complete commitment

Sorry for the repetition, but this is really important if you are going to make your golf ball go in the hole. Please remember, you’ve worked very hard to arrive at this point completely prepared. All of the work, all of the steps are carefully scripted so that you can stand over your ball with this level of commitment.
Standing in the way of this state of total and complete commitment are your thoughts and feelings as you stand over the ball. Nearly all of our work has been done from the “level eye” position that we talked about earlier. Things make sense and “look right” when we look and see with our head in an upright and level position.

Your address of the ball is getting ready to change all that. As you position yourself over the ball, you are going to tilt your body and head towards the ball. As you turn your head to look down the start line, you rotate your face and eyes toward the target. Your eyes are no longer level.

Suddenly the world looks different!

What happened to that nice vision you had of a perfect putt?

Have you completely lost your feel for the putt?

Where’s your line?

This doesn’t look right?!

Do you need to make an adjustment to fit your new perspective?

This is what goes through the mind of nearly every golfer. This is what we’re going to remove from your game. This is why you miss more than you make.

How a golfers sees the ball from sideways

Are you turning the page or your computer to see this photo more clearly? I would do the same thing. Everything is suddenly turned 90 degrees from my “level eyes” position and its very confusing. Can you imagine driving your car with your head turned 90 degrees to the side. No way! You wouldn’t make it out of the driveway before you crashed into something.

This is why you get very confused and unsure standing over the ball. You have suddenly put yourself in a position where it’s very hard to believe that you are properly aligned.

That’s why you did all the steps, and very carefully chose your start line. That’s why you very carefully lined up your golf ball. That’s why you have aligned your putter exactly with your golf ball alignment. I have asked you to do all of these things for an important reason.

I’m going to ask you to completely ignore all of these crazy thoughts and feelings you have as you stand over the ball. That’s right…completely ignore them.

Let me ask you a quick question. Do you have anyone in your personal or business life that you ask for advice? Most people have a trusted friend or advisor that they will ask for advice or input.

What would you do if this person consistently gave you the wrong answer? You would probably stop listening after a while, wouldn’t you? I think so.

In this case, the person giving you bad advice is YOU.

Your thoughts and feelings are the source of this uncertainty as you stand over the ball. These thoughts and feelings often conflict with the earlier work that you have done, and because of that, leave you confused. You suddenly change your view of the putt, and adjust your stance, your putter alignment, or you manipulate the putter during the stroke.

You do all of this because this final perspective standing over the ball is different.

*******************

This is an excerpt from the book:  “Banana Putting” by PGA instructor Paul Hobart.

Paul States at the beginning of Banana Putting:

I have a few bold statements to make before we get started.

• You are already a great putter. You simply haven’t put yourself in a position to succeed. I will show you how to control the physical, mental, and emotional aspects of putting so that your excellence will shine through.

• You can putt as well as Tiger Woods. Unbelievable? It sure sounds unbelievable, but I have a good reason for stating this.

• Master these concepts and you can forget about the “Y” word.

Yes, the yips can become a thing of the past. I’ll explain them, why you get them, and how to be so ready to hit your putt that the word never even comes up.

• Trying to figure out the perfect line of your putt is a waste of your time. You are going to learn to look at your putts differently than you have in the past.

• You do not need to work on the mechanics of your stroke for these concepts to work. A perfect putting stroke is no guarantee of success on the greens. Sure, it helps, but I can turn you into a golfer that makes putts regardless of your putting stroke. You may find that just by reading this book and using these concepts that your stroke improves.

• I can show you how to putt well with a range ball and a putter you borrowed from the local Putt-Putt course. You do not need the latest and greatest equipment to be a great putter. It doesn’t hurt…but there are no guarantees when you walk out of that Pro Shop with your new purchase. My concepts will work with any equipment.

• You can putt better tomorrow. I have no idea how long it will take you to read through this book…in fact I just began writing, so I don’t even know how long it’s going to be! Let me say this…when you finish reading this book, and have digested the concepts, you will have become a better putter. Sounds crazy? Give it a chance.

• The principle in this book require no practice. Doesn’t that sound to good to be true? My experience in working with lots of golfers is that these concepts will immediately change the way you look at, think about, and feel about putting. I do not mean to downplay the role of practice. Great players practice, and I believe that practice helps. For the purpose of this statement though…practice is not necessary for you to improve using my concepts.

Practice will enhance the concepts in this book, and I will suggest some drills and techniques if you want to take your putting to another level.

To get more information on Banana Putting and Paul Hobart, click here

Getting the correct alignment for the putt is crucial to starting the ball on-line. Not only does this mean having the correct alignment of the putter, but also the correct alignment of the body.

When the body is correctly aligned to  your target, the putting stroke will remain square to the target through the entire motion. This will eliminate any need for the body to try and compensate for poor alignment during the stroke.

Alignment is the act of getting not only the putter aimed correctly at your target, but also having the appropriate areas of your body aligned correctly with your target line.

While your putter will point directly down your target line, the line formed by your shoulders, knees, and even feet will not be pointing at your target – they will be parallel to it.

Imagine standing over a set of railroad tracks. The track farthest away from you is the line down which you will aim your putter.  The track closes to you is the one with which you align your body.

Aligning your body correctly to your target line is actually quite easy and can be accomplished in only three steps.

Step one:
•    Choose the line on which you want your ball to start
•    Walk up to the ball, place your putter behind it, and with your eyes directly over the ball, align your putter to the target using the alignment line on your putter to point it straight down the target-line you have just chosen

Step two:
•    Align the toes of each of your feet on the line you have just aligned your putter to. (If you drew a line from the tip of each shoe, it would run parallel to your target-line line. )

Step three:

•    Square your shoulders to your target-line.  This is the most important part of aligning your body.

Alignment is crucial to putting better

If you decide to only follow one of these steps, make sure this is the one. The path of your putting-stroke is determined by the alignment of your shoulders.  Square shoulders=square putting stroke.  Open shoulders=out-to-in putting stroke.  Closed shoulders=in-to-out stroke.  Making sure your shoulders are square to your target line before you take your putter back will guarantee a square putting stroke every time.

•    If you need help figuring out if your shoulders are indeed square to your target-line, hold a golf shaft across each shoulder with both hands and turn your shoulders so that the shaft is now parallel to your target line.

***********************************************

This is an excerpt from the powerful ebook:  “Breakthrough Putting Secrets Revealed”

Golf putting techniques

Too many golfers just go up to their putt completely mindless, having never worked on any of the foundations that set you up for a consistent putting stroke that sends the ball on the chosen line of travel.

There are a number of things you must do if you want to be a putter who doesn’t fold under the pressure of a must-make putt.  The problem with far too many every-day golfers is that they have made some great putts in the past and so they carry around with them the idea that they are good while using a poor mechanical motion.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day!

Get Breakthrough Putting Secrets Revealed to find out what you must do to really become a great putter.

There are other books and programs out there to learn putting. 

Breakthrough Putting Secrets Revealed

teaches you what you NEED TO KNOW and not what you ought to know and nothing more. Focus on this foundational system and you will discover how to become a much better putter.

My friend Scott Myers has done a fantastic job of breaking it down to the core principles. Forget the rest and focus on the 80/20 of putting Breakthrough Putting Secrets Revealed.

Greens and fairways

Craig

P.S.   Tell me what you think about this topic below!

When one of the boys wants to give one of his fellow pros the needle,
all he has to say is, “You’re the greatest putter in the world.” More nasty
things have been said about putting than about Russia. From the high-
handicapper to the scratch player to the touring pro, wails are heard about
their putting.

Arnold Palmer putting stroke

I’m no exception. It’s normal to complain after you hit two perfect
shots that travel 450 yards straight to within six feet of the cup and then
miss the birdie putt. After all, the surface of the green is specially prepared
to make the ball roll true. There’s no rough, no sand, and nothing to
worry about except the cup. It sounds easy but, of course, isn’t. Other-
wise, the men who build golf courses wouldn’t allow two shots to get to
the green and then two more to get in the hole for a par. Of course, to
score you have to one-putt, not only when you hit the greens but when you
miss them, too.

When I won the Masters in 1960, I was putting good—no doubt about
that. But you still have to play a lot of other good shots to win a golf
tournament, especially such a prize as the Masters.

On the first hole of the last round, I hooked my tee shot away to the
left of the fairway over some trees almost to another fairway. But I hit a
two-iron onto the putting surface 20 feet from the pin and holed the putt
for a birdie. What had looked like a sure bogey from the first tee became
a birdie.

The second hole is a par five that can be reached in two. I landed in
a sand trap on my second shot, but with an explosion shot got within two
feet of the pin. I figured that I was off to a flying start with my second
birdie.   I missed the two-footer.
Don’t ask me what causes inconsistency in putting, because I can’t tell
you, except that I feel that erratic putting comes from not doing the same
thing all the time.

Pick the style which suits you best and stick to it. There are a couple
of things, though, that have to be done no matter which way you putt. The
blade must be square behind the ball at impact. In other words, the center
of the ball and the blade of the putter are at right angles. And your head
must not move when you putt. Any movement of the head not only will
take your stroke off the intended line of flight, but also will prevent you
from stroking the ball the same way all the time. You must see the blade
of the putter contact the ball or you haven’t done the job right.

At one time or another I have putted every possible way, I think, except
standing on my head. Some of them worked, some of the time. Some
never worked. When I first went on the tour, I traveled by car. They
joked about the trunk of my car, but it was no gag. When I opened it
I had to be alert because there were 25 putters jammed in the back and
they might come tumbling out.

Through trial and error, I came upon one way to putt that seems to
remain the same. I use the reverse overlapping grip, which sounds technical
but actually is the Vardon grip in reverse.

The follow through

I have all five fingers of the
right hand on the club. I place the bottom three fingers of the left hand
on the club, insert the index finger between the groove formed by the last
two fingers of the right hand, and put my left thumb on the shaft so that
the fingernail is touching it. This immobilizes the left hand and makes
it just a guide in the stroke.

Although both hands move together, the right
hand does the putting. Many things can go wrong with a putt. You can read the greens wrong,
find a roll that isn’t there, or miss one that is. You can play a putt to break
left and it goes straight, or vice versa. And, most of all, on putts of 15 feet
or more, there is the problem of how hard to hit the ball.

I like to putt hard enough so that the ball gets past the hole. That way
it has a double chance of going in, once on the first putt and again on the
putt coming back. There is no worse feeling than leaving a putt short, dead
on line for the hole.   I think I’d rather get hit by Rocky Marciano.

Some days out there on the course (or at least some holes in a round), you just “feel” like you are going to make everything…and you have a great putting round…

When you know it's going in

Other days, you just can’t buy a putt for any amount of money right?

I remember one particular round where I had that feeling putting…

It was a scramble I was playing with 3 other buddies.  We had a lot of pride riding on this as the representatives of our workplace vs. those “other guys” we love to hate!  (Did you ever see that episode of “Cheers” where the gang plays softball against the bar down the street? It was like that.)

Anyway…we are facing humiliation, down by 4 strokes with 5 holes to go and we are on a par 3, about 170 yards.  Out of the 4 of us, only one put it on the green and when we got to the ball, we noticed it was a twisting, downhill, left-to-righter. All of us are right-handed and so this was about as tough of a putt as it gets from about 12 feet.

I can’t really explain how I got there,  but as I walked up to hit that putt as the last guy in our group, something just grabbed ahold of me and I felt like I JUST KNEW it was going to go in. I KNEW I was going to make it. My buddies tried to give me help with the line and distance, and advice, etc. and I just ignored it and stared at the hole.

It was the strangest thing because I wasn’t the go-to guy in our group on the green at all. I was the guy who usually put it out there on the fairway about 270 yards consistently and was pretty good with approach shots.  But putting? Not the best part of my game.

It was almost like I could hear an echo of myself inside my head saying something like “It’s just going in…”

And it did…just like I saw it going in in my mind before I ever stroked the putt.

Confidence is more important than mechanics

I’m not here to tell you how I created that feeling. I honestly didn’t really try to…it just happened.

What I do want to tell you though, is that I now believe that I have this ability…I have this “state” inside me.

I think the Golf Gods gave me a taste of greatness there to let me know I have this. When I go out to the course now, if I really put my intention on it, I can bring back some or all of that feeling by going back to that day.  It’s easier to get into your memory banks when you have done some unconscious connecting like I have.  Keep following my journey and you’ll learn more on how to do that.

The best advice I can give to you on how to play golf with your unconscious mind is to:

Have the intention to trust your unconscious mind to do the putting and then ASSUME it is doing that.

We didn’t win the scramble but I came away from that round with something even more valuable. I owned something about myself that day. I ran with it. I still build on it.  I know you’ve had a taste of this yourself.  When you get it either on the putting green or elsewhere on the course, SAVOR it!  Believe in it!  Soak it up, pretend you can expand it throughout your body. Don’t deny it, don’t doubt it…GO WITH IT.

Expect to get more of whatever you focus on.

I encourage you to get some mechanical instruction on putting, for sure. AND, you know darn well that when you JUST FEEL like you are going to make a putt…then it doesn’t matter how you putt…it goes in.  Your mind, if allowed to do so, can make every putt. Pretend you can clear the interference between your thoughts and letting your consistent self take over to make all the right calculations for speed, break, distance and translate that into the minute muscle movements to put it all together.

Hold the thought about that time when you KNEW it was going in.

Hmmm, I’m betting you’ve had that thought on a bunch of 2-foot putts haven’t you?  I’ll bet you’ve had that thought on the practice green right before the round even…

I wonder how you will allow yourself to tap into that KNOWING and FEELING again.  It’s 10 times more powerful than any putting gadget.  After all, how many perfectly straight putts will you have out there on a given round that rely mostly on technique? Not many.

Assume you can tap into that “It’s going in” state and you will…

You don’t need any help putting…you just need to learn how to trust…

Tell me below how/when you have created that “This one is going in” knowing or feeling.

Greens and fairways,

Craig

Get Mind Links and the bonus ebook: The psychology of chipping and putting

Dr. Tom Kubistant, CSP

If putting is “the black art of golf,” then the yips is the “black hole.”  Uncontrollably quivering, twitching, and downright convulsing sends many competent players straight to the 19th Hole.  Beyond going nuts with their putting, yipsters lose the inherent joy in playing The Game.  No matter where they are during a hole, there is always that nagging thought reminding they will eventually have to stroke a short putt.  These apprehensions eventually seep into the rest of their games.  A dark cloud usually hangs over yipsters and gloom pervades their entire beings.  If you doubt this, try living with one!

Becoming a better putter is a sequential process enfolding from general to specific.  No one tactic will work in isolation.  One first has to become grounded with the general perspectives and principles before one can effectively employ specific techniques.
Overcoming the yips is as much psychological as it is physiological, mechanical, procedural, and technological.  Every golfer has to develop a holistic approach to putting encompassing all those elements.  Putting is the most mental part of golf.  Especially when afflicted with the yips, each element has to be addressed individually and then reintegrated back into the whole.  This is why it takes so long.  But the yips can eventually be overcome so the golfer actually becomes a better putter.
The following sections have been proven successful by scores of players.  Don’t believe me; find out for yourself.  I have divided them into:  setup positions, stroking techniques, and putting tactics.  Take out your Hi-Liter!
SETUP POSITIONS
Here are some new applications…a couple of which were submitted by you golfers.  Thank you.  By the way, the best tongue-and-cheek tactic one of you shared was, “Bang the putter against your ankle.  The crippling pain will disconnect any yips!”
• You have undoubtedly experimented with a multitude of putter styles and lengths.  Accept there is no one perfect putter.  Find a pretty good one and stick with it for at least FOUR months.  During this time the only thing to experiment with is the size of the grip.  You see, the answer is not in the wand, but in the magician.
• As you walk up to the ball, do the “swimmer’s shake.”  Roll your head, shrug shoulders, and shake out arms all the way down to your hands like swimmers do when they step onto starting blocks.  Breathe deeply while doing this.  Don’t fret, your playing partners probably won’t notice…they are worrying about their own putts.
• Stand up straighter so the arms hang more.  This way the stroke can swing more from the shoulders.  This may initially feel strange for your eyes may be over two inches farther away from the ball.  However, this new distance is much closer to that of the other strokes in your game.
• Take a wider stance like you would in the wind.  Then roll in or pigeon-toe your feet (like Arnold Palmer) so you feel the pressure on the inner parts.  The feeling of solidly braced legs seems to extend all the way up to the head.
• Spread out your toes inside the shoes.  By being aware of feet and toes you shift sensitivity away from the eyes and hands.
The next six techniques are little movements which facilitate the smooth transition from setup to takeaway.
• As you step up forcefully pound the putter on the ground like Kenny Perry.  This overt movement stimulates a more purposeful mindset.
• Place the putter in front of the ball and then loop it back over like Nick Price.
• Hover the putter like Jack Nicklaus.  This helps with a more rhythmic and lower takeaway.  You can also feel this takeaway going slightly down in an arc, thus minimizing subtle movements in the wrists.
• Put a forward press on the club so it stabilizes both hands in the
same position throughout the stroke.
• Set the putter 2-3 inches behind the ball.  This promotes a smoother throughstroke.
• Gently tap the putterhead a couple of times on the ground before taking it back.  The yips flourish in static tension.  All six techniques engage your natural and purposeful rhythm before the takeaway.

STROKING TECHNIQUES
Here are some neat techniques.  Experiment with each of them alone and then in combination with one of the above setup positions.
• On the rehearsal stroke, have the putterhead follow through blocking out vision of the cup.  This will facilitate completion of the actual stroke.
• Purposefully purse or bite your lips during the stroke.  This physical act seems to divert and even dissipate tension.
• Stick out your tongue like Michael Jordon.  This keeps your jaw, neck, and shoulders loose.
• Feel the inner bone of the rear elbow brush across your midsection during the throughstroke.  This simultaneously keeps the stroke on line as well as releases the putterhead.  Some players have combined this technique with the “secret” detailed in Part II (Go look it up!).
• When you feel shaky over a putt, jam the rear elbow close to your navel.  This will restrict the stroke, but it will hold up.  Since this position won’t generate as much power, make sure you follow through.
• Each time you come upon a stroking technique that works–even for just a couple of rounds–store it away in your memory.  Such techniques are valuable in themselves, but they also reveal your ideal putting stroke.

I dont understand it.  Although I work year around with yipsters at the start of every season I receive an influx of requests from those poor souls afflicted with the putting, chipping and pitching, and full swing yips.  The last few Augusts I was contacted by yipsters who lived in Australia,
New Zealand, South Africa, and even Tasmania who were commencing their seasons.  And every March I am almost inundated with correspondence from yipsters across North America and Europe.  It is almost as if golfers vow that in the upcoming season they will better cope with and even conquer their yipping.  I donít understand the motivation for this timing, but there it is.
I have been researching and working with the putting yips since 1986.  My first article on it was way back in 1990.  This work expanded to the chipping/pitching and full swing yips.  I have written series of articles on each of these three distinct types of yipping.
As this general affliction became more recognized, other athletes, performing artists, and professionals have contacted me for help with their yipping of fine motor skills.  To date, I have helped pianists, dentists, baseball infielders, surgeons, drag racers, pool players, painters and sculptors, basketball players, jugglers, shooters, and even barbers.  Erase those images (for example, of your dentist yipping!) from your head!
Along the way, I have almost become a clearinghouse for yips tips.  Now, many of the tips I receive are fads, off-the-wall flukes, ìprofessionalsî trying to market some kind of snake oil, or help only limited types of people.  But some of the advice has lasting and more generalized benefits.
Over the years in these pages, I have probably presented well over a hundred proven yips tips.  I want to share some of the more recent putting tips which have helped golfers.  Some of these are broad perspectives, others are physiological and neurological, still others are mechanical and procedural, and some of them are tactical.  Please remember, all tips are isolated techniques.  They need to be incorporated into the golferís entire putting system to be truly effective.  (Please refer to my 2006 three-part series.)  No technique should be employed or relied upon in isolation.
NEW ANTIDOTES TO THE Golf YIPS
Here are the best new proven putting yips tips you may wish to experiment, employ, and integrate.
ï First, at the beginning of the season, decide on ONE putter and stick with it for the entire year.  I encounter so many yipsters who bounce around from putter to putter that, this in itself, only serves to keep them lost.  No matter how mass produced, each putter has its own unique look, feel, and if you will, personality.  Find one which looks good to your eye and stick with it through all of 2008.  Stick with it especially during the low and yippy times.  Blame this on me!
Your putter is your tool, sword, or instrument, if you will.  Your putter can also be seen as an extension of your thoughts.  Honor your putter.  Granted, you will make different hand adjustments and even modify the grip (see below), but stick with the same putter.  There are so many subtle variables in putting that you need to stick with the same putter to eliminate as many as them as possible.  Choose one putter for the year.
Here is a unique variation which has helped a good many yipsters.  If you want a bigger putter grip, you might want to experiment with building it up from the outside.  Instead of installing a bulbous oversized grip, wrap one or 2 grips over your existing one.  I have found tennis racquet overwraps work best.  (A couple of yipsters have found some success with the opposite extreme in using the thinnest grip they could find.  Keep this option in mind as a possible alternative.)
Unlike the slip-on oversize, the added layers provide more feedback.  With any thicker grip you have to stroke the ball more fully, thus better employing the bigger muscle groups of the shoulders.  Especially on short yipable putts, the greater diameter of the grip will help keep the fine motor impulses of the hands disengaged so a more connected stroke can commence.  Make sure you stand taller or have a shorter putter so the arms naturally hang down.  A thick slip-on or overwrap grip will help with a shoulder stroke in which the hands and forearms merely go along for the ride.
Take more…or less…time.  Now, you may be reacting,ìGreat, this is a big help!  Bear with me.  Although I advise yipsters to identify, groove, and rely on a consistent preputt routine, sometimes it can become too routine.  Experiment with the extremes of your preputt routine ranging on a continuum from:  Lee Trevinoís philosophy of Miss Em Quick all the way to settling longer over the ball.  I have had yipsters benefit (from temporary to permanent) by altering the time they spent over the putt–either more time or less time.  Especially under pressure or when you feel  yippy, change the timing in your preputt routine.  Initially, you just want to survive these occurrences, but the alteration might help in the long run.
Set your hands way ahead of the ball like an extreme forward press.  Push forward (bow, supinate) the front hand and cock back the rear hand as far as they will go. This position will also lock the rear elbow into your stomach which will reduce flinching.  Indeed, this position will feel very restrictive…which is exactly what you may need.
This setup position will significantly change the angle of the putter face.  So after you set your hands in this position align the back of the lead hand and the palm of back back hand on the target line.  After making the micro-adjustments with your hands and putter face you might want to tap the putter on the ground a couple of times.  This tapping releases any tension from this position as well as anchors the alignment.
Such putts will roll longer due to the decreased loft of the face.  This will counteract the more restrictive stroke of your rear elbow wedged into your stomach.  Trust that the ball will reach the target.  Even if you do yip the stroke wonít be affected.  Granted, this extreme press might not feel good nor look good, but the results will.
Here is a specific mental imagery many yipsters have found valuable.  As you settle over the ball really ìfeelî the connection between the ball and the hole.  No, this is nothing mystical.  Imagine the hole receiving the ball like a vortex.  Feel the ball being drawn to the hole and sucked down into it.  Really visualize both the connection and process in great sensory detail and even in slow motion.
Such imagery should be comforting and reassuring.  The hole is where your ball NEEDS to go.  After seeing and feeling it, simply release the stroke sending the ball on its natural course to the inevitable result.
Really feeling the connection between ball and hole is the way of readying yourself to make the stroke.  Do not start until you feel this connection.  For yipsters, this imagery diverts attention away from the sensitized physiological and psychological emphases toward something that is outside of your control; namely, the ball being drawn down into the hole.   Weeeee!
Here is a technique I have adapted from my general mental coaching playing sessions to specifically help yipsters.  When we are on the course, I talk with my golfers about concentration.  One concentrating technique I developed is what I call ìturbocharging.î  On 3-4 big shots during a round, I advise the golfer to open the eyes very wide during the set up over the shot.  Opening eyes very wide turbocharges existing concentration better immersing the player into the shot performance.
Under pressure and, in particular with yipsters, there is a tendency to blink at the end of the backstroke or during the throughstroke.  Since the eyes are really an extension of the brain, blinking can disconnect the brain from the body, especially with fine motor skills.  This blinking also tends to move the head.  More significantly, this blinking disrupts concentration and allows the yips to twitch.
Unlike the squinty-eyed look of Clint Eastwood just before he blew someone away, full concentration is enhanced by a wide-eyed look of being completely immersed in the moment of the performance.  Keeping your eyes wide open better connects brain with body.  More integrated and fluid strokes then tend to emerge.  Even if your vision becomes blurry, whenever you feel pressure, doubt, or the yips coming on, open your eyes way wide.  This little technique will turbocharge your existing concentration.

Okay, if you are still reading this you deserve to be rewarded.  There is, indeed, a secret to putting.  You might have heard rumors about this, probably dismissing them as myths.  Yes, there is one secret to putting just about all the best putters have employed and hoarded.  They might have referred to it in different terms, but they all reach the same core.  It is also one of the most important emphases for coping and even conquering the yips.  For those golfers who come to Reno to work with me on their putting, I introduce it and we spend significant time working just on it.  I also have them swear that they will not tell anyone else (under penalty of being forever cursed with the yips!).  It is a secret I have alluded to in previous putting articles and even hidden deeply within a couple of them.  This one emphasis unifies everything for just about everyone.
Enough buildup.  The Secret is simply this: when the putt is away, visually focus on a couple blades of grass where the ball was.  Thatís it.
If you go into each putting performance emphasizing looking at where the ball was, everything becomes more unified and even natural.  The mechanical., psychological, neurological, rhythmical, and strategic elements of the putting performance blend together.
Now, this is much harder than it seems.  Especially under pressure to make the putt, doubt, or with the emergence of the yips, our minds and bodies usually split and conflict.  Having the discipline to visually focus on a blade of grass where the ball was connects stroke with outcome.  (Now, this is greatly different from the ìkeeping your head stillî or ìlooking downî observations one hears from some inane commentators or teaching pros.  It is quite a different neurological orientation and process.)  Visually focus on the precise spot where the ball was.  See a particular blade of grass, indentation, or even a discoloration where the ball was.
Many golfers–especially yipsters–take this emphasis one step further: after the putt is away they bring back the putter and place the toe on those blades of grass where the ball was before they look up.  This is a great practice technique and it can also be effectively  applied during the round.
Donít worry, your playing partners wonít notice.  They will just think you kept your head still.  They donít know the depth and breadth of what you are emphasizing.  Please, donít believe me with this secret (and donít share it with others!).  Find out for yourself.
HOW TO APPLY…OR NOT!
These are some the recent proven techniques, emphases, and even secrets when I work with yipsters.  Now, do not run into your den or out to your courseís putting green to apply all of the above tips at once! All good putters, and especially those who recovered from the yips, have developed a comprehensive system to putting in which individual techniques were seamlessly integrated.  This comprehensive system should include putting philosophy, strategy and tactics, relaxation and centering, concentration, reading and targeting, preputt and postputt routines, mechanics, rhythm, and even intuition.
See which one of the above fits for you and then implement just that one for a full ten days.  It will probably work, but it may not.  If it works, purposefully integrate it into your system.  Then choose another tip to apply.
Remember, your yips were probably forming for years before they actually appeared.  So your coping and conquering efforts will take some time to work as well.  Dedication, patience, trust, and even a sense of humor will see you through.
Finally, donít do any of the above!  Take a break and donít work on your yips.  Sure, still play golf, but purposely donít emphasize anything nor worry about your putting.  Just nonchalantly swipe at putts.  Again, blame all of this on me!
Sometimes we just need to get away from it all.  There is a time to apply, modify, and refine.  However, there is also a time to do nothing.  Especially with such a complicated and devious affliction as the yips, frequently the more we try to control it, the more elusive it becomes.  Give yourself a break away from it.  Look at this as a metaphorical ìpitstopî in your race with the yips.
Take a couple of weeks off.  You might be pleasantly surprised that when you come back to addressing your putting you are more relaxed and even integrated.  Sometimes our minds and bodies become so frazzled that each needs time to heal.
There is the classic Sam Snead story when he was asked to watch the swing of an extreme duffer.  After five minutes of painful observing he was reported to have said, ìTake two weeks off…and then quit the game!î  There is a time to push and then there is a time to step aside and let it all flow and go.  Give yourself permission to occasionally step aside from your yips.
If there is a silver lining to the putting yips it is this:  I have found that golfers who have overcome their yipping actually become better putters.  They are more courageous, consistent, resilient, committed, fluid, and wise.  Rest assured that if you can cope with the insanity of the yips, you can respond to any little putt.
Let it roll in.
__________________________________________________________
Dr. Tom Kubistant is one of the original modern day sports psychologists.  He has been researching the mental game and helping athletes since 1972.  He has written five books and over 400 articles on the psychology of human performance.  He is once again expanding his services to coach other athletes and performing artists.  Although he rarely works with golfers anymore, he loves talking to them.    © 2008, Dr. Tom Kubistant; all rights reserved

Last time, we talked about commitment. As a helpful review, we discussed how using our own genetically programmed instructions for propelling us to golf improvement can be very powerful. The second part about the word “commitment” and how it applies to golf is what happens to us on the course. I’m sure you’ve heard it before, “commit to your shot.” Shoot, it’s not like I made this idea up myself. Golfers from over 100 years ago have been saying this and for good reason.

It’s because probably the greatest shot killer is not that you have a bad swing, or that you failed to align properly, or that your equipment stinks or any other reason that you normally come up with. The greatest shot killer is DOUBT! Yep, the slightest little hint that you’re unsure of whether or not you have the right club or not and it’s “all over but the crying” as some of my smart aleck friends say when they are about to whip me in a game.I mentioned a perfect example of this with the Jack Nicklaus story about the 79 Masters when he couldn’t decide whether or not to use an 8 or a 9 iron and he used the 8 and sailed it over the green after not trusting his instincts and committing to the shot.

Commit to your golf putt

Also remember Brad Faxon’s words: “most golfers just suffer from too much doubt when it comes to putting.”

If you haven’t experienced doubt on the putting green before and seen it’s ugly effects, then you are already the greatest putter in the world and I want to know your secret. So many top pros have recounted in interviews that the best putting they ever did was when they were in their teens. Why? Because they had their best mechanics? Because they have a more steady nervous system in their youth? No, it’s because they are full of confidence and have reached a basic fundamental skill level. They have very few past failures and disappointments to cut into their natural cockiness. And that’s all you need! The best putters in the world have long recognized this. Do you remember being a teenager and you felt invincible? Like you could do anything and nothing bad would happen to you? As we get older, things happen to us and we become more afraid to try things and we get closer to our own mortality.

When I was a teenager, I can remember being unafraid to go swim out to 10 foot waves in the ocean so that I could ride them in with my little blow up raft! Getting rescued by the lifeguard one time cured me of that real quick. I went river rafting once and after running a class 3 rapid, walked back up to the beginning of the rapid and SWAM it! I can also remember jumping off a 50 foot cliff overhanging a lake without knowing what was under the water. I look back at those times and think “how in the world did I ever survive being a teenager?” Could you go back to that time, in your head and create that state that is stored in your unconscious mind for confidence? Of course you can.

Let’s get back to commitment, which is an easier, more do-able route to achieving confidence, the opposite of doubt. See, it’s real easy for a golf psychologist or pro to tell you that you have to have “confidence” on every shot. Unfortunately, they don’t tell you how to manufacture this when all you have is a bunch of doubtful thoughts running through your head. Your standing up there with a shot that’s in-between clubs and all you can hear in your mind is “is it a long 9 or a short 8?” I know, I’ve been there. You’ve got 2 choices here now to get rid of that. You can either distract your mind with something else so that little voice gets crowded out, or, you can PRETEND that the choice you made is the right one and do it strongly and forcefully. You are going to ACT AS IF the choice you made is the best one for that situation. Commit to it! And you will repeat that conscious thought to yourself, maybe even out loud again with something like: “The 8 is the correct golf shot, the 8 is the correct shot.” Once again, fake it ’til you make it.

That’s the secret to commit to your golf shot. Now some help with making the right choice. This is simple: 90-95% of the time, your first choice is your best choice. You may have heard this before as I did but didn’t quite know why and because you didn’t know why, you didn’t trust this old idea. You might have even heard this concept as it relates to taking tests in school. I am now fully convinced of this having read a book called: Blink. The power of thinking without thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. And because I am convinced, it’s easier for me to make the choice and commit to it.

This book is loaded with scientific studies that support the conclusion that our unconscious mind learns things way before our conscious mind does and is far more accurate. Now, I’ve talked about the power of our unconscious mind in the Mental CD but I didn’t know it could do that too. I’ll give you one example of this power that we can use to help you become convinced so that you’ll learn to trust your choice and then commit fully to the golf shot since being logically convinced will only help you be fully behind your choice.

A few years ago, a group of scientists at the University of Iowa did an experiment. They set up a simple card game where there are red cards and blue cards in 4 separate decks. On the other side of each card was a money value. “Each card in those 4 decks either wins you a sum of money or costs you some money, and your job is to turn over cards from any of the decks, one at a time, in such a way that maximizes your winnings. What you don’t know at the beginning, however, is that the red decks are a minefield. The rewards are high, but when you lose on the red cards, you lose a lot.  Actually, you can win only by taking cards from the blue decks, which offer a nice steady diet of $50 payouts and modest penalties. It took on average about 50 cards turned over before the subjects figured out that the blue cards were the way to go.” Here’s the interesting part: They hooked the subjects up to sensors that measure the sweat glands in the palms of their hands. The scientists found that after only 10 cards being turned over, the sensors registered a stress response and the behavior of the card turner began to favor the blue decks 40 cards before the subject was able to say they had a hunch that the blue decks were the way to win the game.

What does this tell us? That the unconscious mind accurately learns far faster than the conscious mind. This doesn’t mean that your first choice is infallible but, if you are really undecided and there is no VERY strong evidence or condition that comes up to change your mind about your first choice, then that is the way to go. And it must be a very strong new piece of information that wasn’t available to you when you made your first choice. Once you make the choice, then PRETEND that Tiger Woods himself is standing by you telling you that you have the right club or have chosen the right line on the putting green.

Commitment is the backdoor method to gaining confidence and defeating doubt for your golf shot.

Now go for it!

Greens and fairways!

Craig