A Simple Drill

Hi,

Use as many balls as practical, I normally use three. Play them from about 6 feet (1.5 meter) from the hole. Address the ball, aim at hole by first looking at it once, strike the ball intending it to go in the hole. Repeat.

The specifics. Do not waste your time adjusting your stance or posture, just address the ball as you would normally but do it deliberately without undue delay. Do not waste your time thinking about technique, this is not a drill to teach technique. Do not waste your time reading the green, you'll learn that naturally with experience anyway even with this drill. Do not waste your time aligning the putter head. Do not waste your time figuring out the distance from which to play them, just dump the balls on the green from approximately the distance you want and hit them from there.

It is important to play many balls and for a reasonably long period of time (30 to 60 minutes non stop) when practicing this drill because that's the only way you'll learn anything with it. It's an empirical study of sorts. The more balls you play, the more you'll learn about the results you produce and the better you'll become. That's precisely what this drill teaches and if there's one thing we're certain of is that we can never be good enough with the putter.

There's one thing about drills, most of them have only one purpose and when that purpose has been fulfilled, the drill becomes almost useless. Not so for this drill. Every green is different from the last, every position on the green is different from the last. Whatever you learn from any green and from any position on any green is knowledge you can use.

In short, address ball, aim, shoot. Repeat.


Have fun

Hi Martin,
i have read yout thread a couple of times and now i think i understand the logic behind it.
You are primarily trying to get people to forget about things such as alignment, technique and distance ,becuase your thread is dealing with developing feel for shots ( am i correct? )
I think all in all it is a sound idea becuase most golfers place too much emphasis on the technical aspects of putting without ever developing feel.

Good idea.

Silas.

silas,

"feel" isn't the purpose of this drill. The acquisition of practical knowledge is the purpose of this drill. Acquisition of knowledge through extensive practice of a simple exercise.

This:

"strike the ball _intending_ it to go in the hole"

Is the most important part of the drill. But, in order for this part to teach you anything, you must apply this:

"Repeat."

A few thousand times before the exercise has any significant effect.

The good thing about putting is that you can't develop blisters due to too much practice so it's possible to practice a whole lot more than at the practice range.

This may sound a stupid question and i do hope i don't incur your wrath, becuase it seems like a very good drill, but can i practice your drill while paying attention to posture , alignment , reading the greeen and incorporating feel. i feel doing so will be the icing on the cake for this great drill

Silas.

silas,

Nothing stops you from thinking for yourself or doing whatever you want. Which is a good thing after all.

Hi Martin

I have read a number of your threads and see that you promote a technique of doing it rather than thinking too much about it.

I respect your opinion here and can see that there is some mileage to this train of thought.

I tend to believe that "Perfect Practice makes Perfect" not "Practice makes Perfect" Some people hit a lot of practice balls but just make things worse by doing the wrong things.

As I said I respect your opinion and have found your methods interesting.

Best Regards
Brian