Right Hand Putting Grip for Touch and Distance Control
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Test this right hand putting grip to improve your distance control and feel on putts. Combine this with the left hand grip and watch your scores drop!
Okay. So we're finally ready to test out the right hand grip. And I've been testing this for over a month now. And as I've mentioned in the Facebook group, I've honestly, I don't think I've ever putted as well as I have right now. And as you'll see, there's reasons why that are very clear using the Sam lab. And there are still things to improve, which is really exciting because I don't think I've ever put it this well in my life. I finally gotten down to averaging 29 putts around, which is a huge change than the beginning of the season where I was averaging 35 butts per round. So this has been huge and we're going to look at the data and the video of the right hand grip. And then it's time for you guys to test it. And give me your feedback when combining this with the left hand grip.
And then we're going to talk about setup and path and stuff in the upcoming videos. When going to talk about why as we look at the data. So the big thing is I mentioned in the first introductory video, you have to be inside of a degree on most things when it comes to facing Google. As I talked about in the opening video, the, if you're hitting a 15 foot birdie putt and you're facing is open or closed by a degree that is going to lead to a missed putt. So we're talking about very small numbers here. So what I've done is put up my baseline video. This is the very, very first one that I did in July of this year. And this was today. So you can see that at setup just by being aware that I was so closed.
I didn't obviously this on the right looked square to me. Obviously I'm not going to deliberately set up close, but now what looks square to me is only 0.2 degrees close. So almost a full degree just from a setup change, which has made a huge impact in my starting direction, because I actually am aiming at the whole point. Two degrees is very, very difficult if not, almost impossible to detect with the naked eye, but one degree is getting to the point where it becomes more obvious, but obviously our eyes adjust to what becomes what we see frequently. And so, you know, one degrees closed is going to cause me to miss a putt, but it's also, it looks normal to me, it looks square. So this is something that is very, very important is to get the face single lined up. And if you look at how far off it was before on the, the baseline, you know, sometimes I was at even a degree and a half, 1.4 degrees closed and now the numbers are much, much smaller and much tighter group together.
So this has given me a much better starting chance of just getting the ball to start on the line that I wanted to just from adjusting the setup, which again, without the Sanford lab would have been very difficult to figure out. So what this has led to is half a degree, or excuse me, a significant change in where the face angle is at impact, which is at the end of the day. The only thing that really matters you know, as I mentioned in the opening video, if you haven't watched that go back and make sure you watch the first one that the tiger woods and mini golfers set up several degrees open, or even some set up several degrees closed at address. And then they closed the club face through the hitting area. I'm trying to set up pretty square and have the club face returned to square at impact.
And you can see what I have going on right now is the face is actually open. As I started this project, I mentioned that I pull putz that's. My tendency was to pull them and the facing Eagle combined with my path was a pretty devastating move. I'm now a degree open, whereas I was a degree and a half closed. So you've got a two and a half degree swing, which is extremely significant. Obviously it changes your feel. It changes the strike, it changes the direction and all of this stuff, but it's not perfect yet because I'm still you know D O just under degree open still under that magic one degree number, but barely. And so there's still room for significant improvement. The reason that I'm struggling with this face angle still being opened at impact worse before it was closed, is that my path is still about the same.
I'm still swinging. What would be the equivalent of out to in, or the over the top putting stroke is what I've got going on. And that's what we're going to address with setup changes, but getting the face angle in the right ballpark with the grip changes has been a complete game changer in my putting and my strikes, the consistency, my distance control has been off the charts. Honestly, it's been the best it's ever been. So getting that face angle closer to where it needs to be, has been a huge change for that. You can see here that this is what's going on. I'm taking the putter a little bit more or less straight back, a little bit outside the line, and then kind of swinging over it and then left. And that's why I've, you know, subconsciously compensated by holding the face open slightly, whereas before I would still make the same path, but the face would be closed.
And so I would just hit, you know, these pretty big pools on these putts and completely missed the whole from 15 feet when I did this face angle closed like this you'll note too, that the strikes are closer to the center of the face before I was averaging five millimeters out on the heel. And now it's 2.5 miles. So I've cut that in half, which again is huge for distance control because just missing the center of the putter face that far off, even though five millimeters is relatively, not very much it changes the you know, the, the energy transfer to the ball. And so that was another reason when you're combining that with a club face angle that's closed and I'm swinging over the top hard, left that I could blast the ball, pass the hole and leave myself a pretty tricky putt coming back. Now, the putts feel much more solid. They sound better. They feel better. They're rolling better. And my distance control has improved. So all of these things together cha and these are just two grip changes, just changing the left and right hand grip together have led to this. And now once we start getting into the setup changes and looking
At the the, where
The path is going, what I'm going to do to fix the path, then we're going to be well on our way to putting really, really well. One of the things I want to address
Is the speed or pace. Ideally, you want to be very consistent with this.
And when you're, when you're putting a, here we go, when you're putting one of the things that I think is very difficult
Is to change
The natural tendency of the pace of your stroke. Some people take the club back very slow and come back through very slow, some take it slow, and then whack at it really fast. Some are fast back and fast through. I don't believe that you can pick one way or the other that is better. I know that some putters on the PGA tour try to pick up their stroke and try to pick up the pace and, and get more of a pop a little bit more of a hit. I have personally never putted well, that way part of it could be just me on my path that makes me come over the top even more because I get a little more aggressive with the right side and try to hit it harder. So for me, I've always putted my best on very, very, very fast greens.
So for me, I have a relatively slower stroke, but this is more natural and more comfortable for me. And you can see that by not trying to force this change, not by trying to make myself fit into this mold of having a shorter back swing and then a really quick or quicker accelerating stroke through the ball in the downswing has led to a dramatic increase in my consistency, which is again, critical for distance control, how fast I swing back and through, and how consistently. Yeah, I do that is going to be one of the primary determinants of my distance control. Obviously the strike where I hit it on the face and all of those things are huge as well, but just making the same stroke and finding that natural pace for me has taken my consistency from 76% to 96%. And you'll see, as we get, this is the actual acceleration of the stroke in meters per second. Don't need to worry about that too much. But what we want to see is from the top of the backswing, which is what this is TOB through the hitting area, this is the impact area. Look at how closely matched these lines are. Whereas before there was a difference in the acceleration each time, and this leads to inconsistency in the distance, because sometimes it'd be swinging faster. Sometimes it'd be swinging slower. So now by finding what is natural for me, which is naturally slower than if we look at that, you'll see
It's, it's, you know,
Within the range of what this group bars, what the tour pros do, but certainly a little bit on the slower speed at compared to average. Sometimes I'm a little bit slower than two are averages here of forward. Swing this quite a bit slower. Again, I put really well on faster greens, slower greens, where, you know, a pop or a little accelerating stroke tends to benefit that. I don't put well. So these are really interesting things to understand, but the most important thing about all of this is consistency. If you're consistently doing the same things consistently having the putter face at the same position and impact, even if it's closed, you can compensate for that. But the goal is to remove as many compensations as you can, by making the swing as natural and effortless and simple and consistent as humanly possible.
And that's what I'm starting to find is I make these subtle little changes go out and play with them, make grip changes, make setup, changes so on and so forth that my putting stroke is becoming much more consistent. And that's leading to a lot more made putts. Now let's take a look at the right hand grip so that you guys can test this out for yourselves. Okay. So this is where I've settled in on my right hand. And I tested over the past six weeks, everything under the sun, I tested having my thumb straight down the shaft so that it was more or less aimed straight like this. Now you can see it's kind of at an angle back this way a little bit. This has been where I've found to be the most consistent in terms of keeping me from wanting to rotate my hands through or do anything aggressive with my hands.
It feels that my left-hand or right-hand work together, but what really has been a big change for me is being able to put that right hand in a sense of feel for distance control. And my distance control has been the best it's ever been perhaps in my life. So I wanted to make these changes to be able to have a natural putting stroke. As we talked about at the beginning of this, this is the pursuit is obviously your right hand for most of us being right-handed is really where we have that sensitivity, that touch that feel that control. And it's such a critical part of the putting stroke is you can have a perfectly mechanically sound stroke, but if you don't have any feel for distance, then it's kind of all for not. And that's why the left-hand low stuff was. I adapted to it.
I putted really, really well for me with left-hand low distance was a little bit of a challenge at first, but I got used to it and then I could putt fine, but it never felt natural. It never felt like I could just step up there. Like I would do sometimes on a putting green, if I was just goofing around, I would just hit putts with my right hand only just to kind of slap at it. And I, gosh, my distance control is incredible. And I put both hands on the club. It stinks. I know many of you have told me you've had the same experience as you just step up there and slap at it like a, you know, a little kid and it works out just fine. And that's why getting into a conventional grip has been something that has been very interesting for me.
So I'm going to zoom in here a little bit on the right hand grip, so you can see a little bit more closely and then we'll play through the stroke here. And so you can see how quiet the hands are. Naturally with my hand in this position, there's nothing really happening in the back swing. Same thing in the downswing. My hands are working together, but they're very, very, very quiet. And so this has kept me from having to do any manipulations with the putter face or do anything goofy as I'm coming through the ball, I can just focus on my line and my speed and my feel rather than saying, okay, I need to try to do something with my stroke. Cause that's, that's a recipe for disaster. So the putter face is now, as I talked about, we'll talk about plane and path in the next video, but that's what we're going to address next, but I'm still taking a little bit outside, but again, my hands and being able to return the putter face to square or very close to square to get a good starting line has been a game changer.
And all we've done so far has changed the left and right hand grips. That's it. So as we start getting into structural stuff, set up changes where our eyes are, where shoulders are, we've already made with the left-hand setup, grip change. The we talked about how that helped change the form alignment. That was a little bit of a setup change. That was a by-product of the grip, but this is really just, just doing grip changes to be able to make these big of this big of a stride in my putting has been huge. And I've obviously seen the comments that you guys have put on there. Being able to do this with your left hand grip, you've seen huge changes. So now it's time to put the right hand on there. So long story short, the putter grip is going to feel a little bit more in the fingers so that you have a little bit more sensitivity and control a good sense of touch with that right hand, even though the right hand is not actively trying to do much, it's giving you that sense of feel and control.
And as I mentioned, having the right thumb more or less down the shaft, but clocked to about 1130, if you will, if you're looking at it on a clock, if this was 12, o'clock give or take a little bit, I would say that this is about 1130 has been the place that I've found the most comfort without changing the facing, but it's had positive impacts on my face single impact. So give a shot with this, combine this with the left hand grip from the last video, with your right hand grip here. And let me know how it works out for you guys.
Stefano
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Stefano
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