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Putting
- Lesson 1
Effective
Practice
Develop and Execute a Putting
Training Program
This lesson will:
| 1. |
Show
you how to define your own practice
putting routine to make sure you’re
getting the most out of your time. |
| 2. |
Give
you a simple practice routine that
can be completed in as little as 10
minutes that will almost certainly
improve your putting. |
| 3. |
Show
you how to create journal entries
for every practice session so you
never forget what you’ve learned. |
Developing
Your Program
We know, we know. You don’t
want to train in order to improve your
putting, you want us to give you something
you can simply read and suddenly become
a great putter. Unfortunately, we aren’t
going to do that. You’ve got plenty
of other options on the internet to find
those promises. Instead, we are going
to give you something that really works.
Yes, you’ll have to put in some
time and effort, but we’re going
to help make sure what time you do spend
is spent efficiently and produces the
best results possible.
So, first things first.
You need to practice your putting. You
need to develop a putting training routine
and stick to it. You’ll do that
using the Aspiring Golfer My Training
system.
| Step
1: |
Login in
to the site and go to My Training. |
| Step 2: |
In the My Training
Program box, select Putting Practice
from the first drop down and select
Edit Program from the second drop
down. Click Go>. |
| Step 3: |
Define the objective
to your putting practice. You can
simply put “to feel more comfortable
standing over a putt” or “to
reduce the average number of putts
I have per round” or whatever
else you’d like. |
| Step 4: |
Define a schedule that
you will be able to keep for your
putting practice. We recommend spending
at least 5 to 10 minutes every day
doing something putting related, with
longer sessions of 30 minutes 2 or
3 times a week. Ultimately this is
up to you, provided you spend enough
time to adequately complete the routines
we recommend. The more time you spend,
the more you will likely improve though. |
| Step 5: |
Define a routine for
your practice schedule. We have a
routine that we recommend, which can
be completed in 10 to 30 minutes depending
upon how long you have to work on
the last exercise. This routine is
to be done as often as possible (you
can do it on carpet if necessary).
It will develop a feeling of comfort
holding the putter and confidence
in making solid repeatable strokes. |
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·
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Taking
your normal putting stance and grip,
make 10 smooth putting strokes WITHOUT
a ball. Concentrate completely on
making a smooth stroke, with good
tempo. |
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·
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With a ball, make that
same stroke 10 times. Do not be concerned
with direction or distance. Simply
focus on making a smooth stroke and
making solid contact with the ball. |
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·
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Make 10 strokes with
a ball aiming at a target that provides
distance only (not direction), such
as a wall or the fringe of the green.
Worry only about the stroke and distance
of the putt. |
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·
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Make 10 strokes with
a ball aiming at a target that provides
both distance and direction, such
as a table leg or the hole. Do not
change the point at which you are
putting from. This will help you to
“read” the green and focus
completely on the feel of the putt. |
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·
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Use the rest of your
practice time trying to make putts
from all different points. Take the
time to read the line of the putts
and go through a complete putting
routine for each one. |
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| Step
6: |
Define
your favorite drills. If you have
other drills you like to do with your
putting, go ahead and put them here.
As part of your last step in your
routine (making putts from all different
points), you may choose to incorporate
specific drills. For example, you
may see how many total strokes it
takes you to make 10 putts (2 putts
each from 2ft, 4ft, 8ft, 15ft, and
30ft). Doing this in different practice
sessions, you might start to see improvement
in your putting. |
| Step 7: |
Define your keys for
improvement. These are for you to
determine based on your lessons learned.
You could use the two tips we provided
earlier. You might also want to add
some obvious, but easily forgotten
ones such as complete focus during
practice session and commitment to
training schedule. |
Executing Your Program
Now that you’ve defined your training
program, you need to execute it. You need
to hold yourself accountable for spending
the amount of time you committed to in
your schedule. You also need to learn
from your training sessions so that you
can maximize your putting improvement.
You’ll do these things
using the Aspiring Golfer My Training
system as well.
Before every practice session,
print out your putting training program
(or keep a copy in your golf bag) and
take it with you to your practice session.
After every practice session
you have, you’ll take the following
steps to create a training journal entry.
| Step
1: |
Login in
to the site and go to My Training. |
| Step 2: |
In the My Training
Journal box, select Add New Entry. |
| Step 3: |
Complete the form by
entering the date of the practice
session and the duration of the session,
selecting Putting Practice for session
type, entering an overview of the
lesson, and finally entering lessons
learned. For each lesson learned,
you should give it a descriptive title
so you can reference it easily in
the future. You will assign a priority
ranking to it (1 – 999) that
will allow you to quickly see the
lessons you feel are most important.
You’ll also choose whether or
not to share the lesson with other
members. This is encouraged if you
feel it might be able to help others
with their putting as well. |
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