Category: putting

Using Strokes Gained Putting To Improve Your Putting with Alex van der Linden

May 1, 2014

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I wanted to post this video for a couple of reasons. 1) I think it is very good information that can help you look at your putting and stats a different way and 2) I wanted to share with my viewers, tweeps and friends a very special person in my life that I won’t get to see everyday like I have for the past year and a half. Alex van der Linden and I met through a mutual friend, Brian Baille, on social media about a year and a half ago. Brian knew that I had been teaching putting and learning more about SAM Putt lab data and reached out to me to let me know that I may want to contact this young man who was a wiz on the putt lab. These opportunities come across your radar and many times we don’t take action but something told me that this is one that I might take a chance on. I called Alex and we met for lunch one Monday that I was off. We proceeded to go to the dojo to test some stuff on the putt lab. When we finally looked up, 6 hours had gone by and I was blown away by the information, knowledge and overall presentation of this young guy that looked like a young poindexter (and so his nickname was adopted). I wasn’t looking to hire anyone and he wasn’t really looking for a job but I had to create an opportunity for the both of us to work together. My first personal assistant was created. Even though he was officially working for me, I always felt that we were working together because I feel like I learned as much from him as he learned from me. He watched me give hundreds of lessons, we discussed swing and putting theory, he assisted me in putting lessons and fittings and slowly we developed a relationship in which we could pretty much read each others minds, which is scary. He was left brain and I was right. He taught me how to critical think and question the so-called answers and I taught him how to take all the information, put the pieces together and present in a golf lesson to the average golfer. It is always great to see young professional learn and grow as Alex has done. I look back on my career and remember when I was his age and think of how far ahead he is to this point. I have seen his life and his career change in the blink of an eye and to think that I may have been a positive influence on it is very rewarding. I am excited to see what the future brings in his next endeavor as he leaves me to join the staff at the Governors Club in Chapel Hill. I feel like that you will be seeing and hearing a lot from this up and coming superstar in the teaching business.

Ladies and Gentleman……It is my great pleasure to introduce my good friend…….The Golf Geek! Follow him on twitter @vandogolf

 

Best of Luck and God Bless My Friend,

Guru

 

The #1 Myth In Putting and How To Change It

June 5, 2013

In my last article I discussed what I feel is the most important factor in distance control (feel and touch) in the putting stroke. Aside from knowing how to read greens (www.aimpointgolf.com) controlling the distance your ball rolls is critical. How do myths and misconceptions is golf get started? Someone has an idea, tries it, feels like it works and shares it with someone else. The word spreads and we have a myth or fact. The difference is that a fact is researched, tested with accurate data and hard numbers. I trust the numbers. Since having a data collector like the S.A.M. Putt lab, my staff and I have been able to learn a lot about what creates a great putting stroke and we have been able to help more of our players improve with some simple ideas and drills.

Cruise Through Impact don’t punch it!

Good putters arrive at impact mostly at a constant acceleration rate which means that their peak velocity is before impact. In my opinion, the average golfer overaccelerates because of 3 reasons:

1. They have been told by their buddies or other golf pros that when they leave a putt short they decelerated

Over acceleration
Over acceleration

2. they don’t have enough backswing  because they are trying not to make a mistake (tentative). They think shorter is more efficient

3. The don’t have enough speed in the backswing to have a smooth acceleration rate through impact.

 

How To Change It

The best way to change this profile, smooth out the stroke and also create some balance to the length of the stroke is as follows:

1. Take the putter back with more speed

2. If it is too short for the length of the stroke, add some length. (trial and error)

Constant Acceleration
Constant Acceleration

3. Don’t forget to brake at the finish (don’t be sloppy)

****You must get your putter velocity up to speed sooner in order to create a (cruising) through impact.

Consistency In Whatever you do Is Key

I understand that their are good players that can overaccelerate prior to impact and putt pretty good. But the best players arent always the best putters and can always improve. Whatever you do if you do it with a high consistency rate with repeatability you can make it work.

Closing Remarks – Results and Testing

I have shared this idea with few LPGA Tour players  EGolf pros, elite juniors, top amateurs including our club champ and many every day golfers and they it always makes sense to them and they have improved so their is something to it. I will keep testing it and researching it.

Let me know what you think, if you can improve on it or am I completely out of my mind. All I want to do is share great information with other golf coaches and help players play better.

Thanks for reading and don’t be afraid to share!

Follow me on twitter @golfgurutv

Guru

Putting – “The Art and The Science”

April 1, 2013

DSC_0335

Is Putting an “Art or is it Science?” I think it is a little of both.  I have always considered myself a pretty decent putting coach as I have spent time with some of the best trying to learn how I can help my students more with such a huge part of the game. As a teacher we have to inspire our students to practice and to be willing to make changes that will show up in their score. Two years ago I had taken my putting instruction as far as it could go until I was introduced to two pieces of technology…..AimPoint Green Reading  and The S.A.M. Putt Lab. One for green reading and one for stroke mechanics and feel. I was now armed with a deadly combination that has taken my putting instruction to an entirely new level. I recently hosted and spoke at a PGA teaching seminar with my good friend, John Graham DSC_0314in which we focused on putting. John introduced AimPoint and I revealed some of the studies and findings of our S.A.M. Lab data that we have compiled over the last year. Thanks to my new assistant, Alex van der Linden (aka Poindexter the Golf Geek) for his expertise and helping me crunch the numbers we found some interesting trends and some valuable information that I think has helped us with our teaching. I won’t reveal all of our findings but want to focus on what I think is one of the most important part of being a great putter……TOUCH and FEEL. We know that distance control is important but how do you teach. Just giving your student a series of drills is not the entire answer or it isn’t the one that satisfied me or John Graham.

Speed vs. Acceleration and A Myth Dispelled

One of the most frequent ideas that I hear the average golfer say that they are trying to doDSC_0340 with their putting stroke is to ACCELERATE through the ball and follow through. They do this because they have the misconception that they always decelerate which couldn’t be further from the truth. Most of the golfers that we tested overaccelerated which means that their peak velocity happened after impact and peak acceleration happened just prior to impact. This makes it very difficult to control your speed. (see graph below)

overacceleration - double hump

What Good Putters Do

We found the opposite when testing PGA tour, LPGA tour, Mini DSC_0288Tour Players and top amateurs. they had constant speed control which included zero acceleration through impact. Good putters had a very flat top to their acceleration graph like the one below. Also I have posted a short video of a recent putting lesson that includes this common misconception as well as a few more helpful nuggets.will collins acceleration profiles

RESEARCH TO PROVE MY WAY OF FIXING THE PROBLEM

I believe that I have a way to change this pattern as I have had much success with my students. This way is easy to understand and is teachable through using the SAM Putt Lab to create the proper feel for the stroke. currently, Alex and I are doing a research project to test my theory to see if there is a distinct correlation between the profiles that we have seen and consistent distance control. Before I reveal my idea I would like to gather more data.

Follow me on twitter @golfgurutv

Here is the #makingeverthing

Guru

The Ultimate Putting Experience Recap

July 18, 2011

After finishing our first annual Putting School, I thought I would just give a recap and the feedback that we got from our participants. First of all I want to thank my coaching partner, Nancy Harvey for being such an outstanding counterpart. Nancy is such a great coach and I have so much fun doing schools with her. It was great to have so much time to cover all that we wanted to share and take our time so the students could digest it, experience the changes and put them together at the end with a little competition or some performance practice. It was extremely warm as the temps rose into the high 90’s with high humidity so to keep the student’s attention was a testament to how effective the info was. I look forward to doing the next one in a little less extreme heat for sure. The feedback was excellent and I have already received some great ways to improve the school and some very generous testimonials that I will share with you when I get them all together. During our 4 hours we discussed and implemented the following:

  • The putting improvement cycle : aim, clubface control, putter path, solid contact and distance control
  • How to achieve the correct putting grip and posture which drives the fundamentals
  • The importance of putter fitting and how an ill fit putter affects the ability to repeat the stroke. Special thanks to Coutour Golf. Check out www.coutourgolf.com
  • Pre – putt routine and how “linear and non-linear” putters should approach the ball
  • Aimpoint green reading basics
  • Various drills for short and long putts and how to develop a practice plan to implement them

We videoed the students before and then after to show change in set-up and stroke. They will receive the analysis with voice over through email for their v1 locker for future reference.

Nancy and I are already planning the next putting school and we have discussed how to make it even better. Look for the dates coming in a few weeks and plan on attending if you want to improve your putting and lower your scores. Thanks again for the 6 wonderful students that endured the heat, left a better putter and for all your excellent feedback after the school on how to improve it.

For more information about our school and other programs; check out our website @www.danarader.com or call 704-542-7635 to schedule a lesson.

******Make it a goal to take a putting lesson this year and get fit for a putter. You will thank me after but your golfing buddies wont!

Please share this blog to anyone that might want more info on putting or golf in general by choosing one of the social media buttons below

Follow me on twitter @www.twitter.com/golfgurutv or friend me up on facebook @www.facebook.com/jasonsuttongolf

See you on the lesson tee,

Guru

My Day With a Short Game Master

April 14, 2011

Every year as I compose my goals for my life and career,  I also update a list that I started about 15 years ago called my life list. A bucket list of sorts that included things that I wanted to do in my career. Several of them involve working with other top coaches. If you want to be at the top of your profession or field like I want to someday be, you must get around people who you admire or that have accomplished similar things that you aspire to do. Tony Robbins calls this modeling. I call this building relationships that will make you better with like-minded people. Today I am glad to say that I  can mark one of those items off of my list as I got to spend the day coaching with one of the best short game coaches in the world. Mr. Todd Sones (@toddsones). I have been fortunate in the last few years to build a relationship with Mr. Sones as he has kind of taken me under his wing and mentored me in many areas of the teaching business and life. So when he emailed my boss and asked if he could come to our golf school and partner with me and do a scoring game school I was very excited. An opportunity like this does not come along very often for me to work alongside a top 50 teacher and observe how he works with average players. I assembled 8 of my students to experience working with myself and Mr. Sones for a great day of learning about putting and the short game. We started off with a presentation about Todd’s philosophy and what the students should expect for the day which I recorded for your viewing pleasure (pending). I wish I would have had someone video the whole thing because I couldn’t process everything that I was witnessing as I was trying to teach and also follow behind my mentor as we went through each student.

We started with putting for the majority of the morning which included a set of stations for the students to work (drills and practice) as I filtered each student to Todd to assess and also fit for a coutour putter which is Mr. Sones putter company where he can build high quality putters that fit the student properly. Getting students into proper posture and then fitting them is the only way to go. Out of 8 students, only 2 of them had putters that were even close to what would allow them to putt to their potential and one had been fit by me. Needless to say, once we put putters into their hands and they could see the results immediately…..they all bought new putters. The great thing about Todd is that he has that ability to help the students and also educate other teachers as well. Myself along with some other staff members and one PGA pro who drove in from Virginia, were privy to observe and pick the brain of one of the best as he did his work. I had seen Todd present his philosophy many times and had many conversations with him about teaching putting but until you see a guy work one on one with a student, you just don’t get the full effect. To see how he could make simple adjustments to their setup, explain it to the student and have them understand it and implement it quickly was great to see. After 3 hours of putting instruction, the students were all able to tell us what we had worked on and how they will practice their changes which I feel is the true sign that the student really gets it.

We ended the last couple of hours by working on shots from the edge of the green and back to about 40 yards which is so crucial in the scoring zone. Mr. Sones believes, as do I, that the terms “pitch” and “chip” are terms that don’t fully describe short game shots. These terms are often misused and confuse the average golfer. So the cool thing about what he teaches is the different language that he uses for each shot. We taught the students these shots:

1. bump and run – short shot played with a putting grip and stance (pw, 8iron)

2. bump and spin – same shot only played with a sand wedge to spin it

3. hinge and hold – played from the rough using an early hinge action to create a steeper angle of approach

4. low toss shot  – 25 yards off the green

5. high toss shot – same shot with a higher trajectory

He uses a different way of getting into setup which start by setting the club for the shot at hand and then “standing to the handle” which positions the butt of the club in the middle of your body. This sets the proper ball position without even mentioning it which is one less thing for the student to think about.

Mr. Sones says” A good short game can be summed up in one word, “descend!” and a poor short game can be described as “ASCEND.”

There were plenty more nuggets that I picked up as we talked in between and after the session that I will have to share later or you will just have to hit me up on twitter or come and take a short game lesson. Better yet, come out and get fit for a Coutour putter that will help me teach you better.

Because today I am a better coach than I was yesterday and that is what it is all about…..Am I Right? I can’t believe that I get paid to do this. Thanks for reading my blog and share this with someone who needs help with their short game. You can find me at the Dana Rader Golf School on the both sides of the building….not just the range.  or on twitter @twitter.com/golfgurutv

This year, make your lesson plan include at least 50 percent short game and putting and you will thank me later.

*****Special thanks  to my friend Todd Sones for a great day and sharing his knowledge with me and my students.

See you on the lesson tee,

Jason

GURU TV – PUTTING BASICS: The key to winning “The Masters”

April 9, 2011

Great putting wins major championships. It couldn’t be more important to the players trying to win at Augusta National this week. Very tricky undulating greens require expert speed control and green reading to boot. Here are some keys to being a great putter and a video that explains the basics of the setup and stroke.

List of keys in order of importance

1. club face control – great putters have very little face rotation in their stroke. Grip in the palm helps with this.

2. posture – straight legs with shoulders tilted over the ball with the back of the neck parallel to the ground to allow hands to hang under the shoulder line.

3. connection – upper arms connected to the shoulders with elbows in for a shoulder controlled stroke is essential to path control

4. eyes over or just inside the ball – allow you to see the line and aim the putter face

The winner of this years Masters will be the best putter and will have to hole some key putts coming down the stretch. Enjoy the tournament and get out and work on your putting stroke.

See you on the lesson tee,

Jason

Guru TV – A Putting Lesson w/Federico Celano (mini tour player)

February 3, 2011

This is an example of a portion of a typical putting lesson. I would watch the student hit some putts on the putting green and then bring them in and put them on video. Then I would finish up on the putting green again for drills and green reading.

Follow me on twitter @twitter.com/onplanegolf

See you on the lesson tee,

Jason

danarader.com 704-542-7635

Why You Shouldn’t Aim At the Apex of the Break

January 5, 2011

Stroke mechanics are only half of the battle to putting better. It doesn’t do any good to make a perfect stroke unless you read it correctly. Studies show that most amateurs under read putts which means they miss them on the low side. This is something that I have been preaching to my students forever using string or aim line aids to prove it. Mark Sweeney, the founder of aimpoint technology that you see on televised tour events, has developed a system to help you read putts more consistently. My friend John Graham is a certified aimpoint instructor (check out his blog @ johngrahamgolf.com)  or check the website (@ aimpointgolf.com) for more info. This is a wonderful video that demonstrates what I am talking about. I look forward to learning more about this system and maybe getting certified to instruct it. In the meantime. PLAY MORE BREAK. You will putt better in the long run.

Follow me on twitter @ twitter.com/onplanegolf

See you on the lesson tee,

Guru

20 Days With the Guru, Day 4: A Forward Leaning Shaft (Even For Putting)

December 9, 2010

Do your putts ever bounce or get airborne? How do those putts turn out? Not so good, huh. When I teach putting, I stress the importance of solid contact in order to control distance. Solid contact is second only to club face control in the order of importance in a good putting stroke. The question is,”Should you hit up on the ball or hit down to achieve the best roll?” About 10 Years, I had the same question, so I decided to put a video camera on the ground to see what impact characteristics produced the best results.

What did I find?
A ball hit with a shaft that leaned toward the target slightly produced a ball that had a small skid and then a consistent roll. The ball that was struck with a neutral to backwards leaning shaft tended to hop or bounce. Which way is going to be more consistent, the forward lean of course.

The worms eye view:
Even though the golf ball weighs slightly less than an ounce, on a soft putting green it creates a slight depression on the ground (a hole perse). If you hit a putt on the upswing, you will drive the ball down into the front of the depression and the ball will hop.

A Forward Press Helps:
A typical putter has 3 to 5 degrees of loft on it. In order to get a consistent roll, the last thing you want to do is add more loft. Good putters tend to be neutral or take loft away at impact. This is why I like to see a slight forward press at set up. This means that your hands will be positioned just ahead of the club face. I use high-speed video when I teach putting and I have found that 4 to 5 degrees of forward shaft lean seems to produce the most consistent roll and contact. The more I use “The Kure” putting solution training aid, the more I like it because it forces you to get your handle forward at impact in order to make the green light to come on. So why not go ahead and start there.

Hit Down Not Up:
If you have always hit up on your putts for whatever reason, when you lean the shaft forward you will have the sensation of hitting down. If you are topping your putts, you are doing one of three things.
1) your lead wrist is breaking down
2) your weight or your head is too far behind the ball
3) your ball position is too far forward. Start with placing the ball a putter head length inside your lead foot.

A drill to find low point in your putting stroke
Place the grip end of a golf club about 6 inches behind your putter as you set up to hit a putt. Hit putts as you miss the grip in your backstroke. You will feel your stroke swinging from high in the backstroke to low in the follow through. This will help get your hands ahead at impact.

This something that you can work on in the house on the carpet. Best of luck and I will

See you on the lesson tee,

Jason