LightSpeed Putter

[geoffmangum]

Dear Michael,

I'm using the LightSpeed putter in this new Secret in the Dirt video called "A Sensible Stroke", which is posted here: Secret In The Dirt - Golf's Greatest Social Network.

[Michael Jacobs]

Geoff,

Love the video, B O O M!!!

The putter looks great in the video, Dr Zick just shot a near career round and had his lowest total of 27 putts the first time he used the Lightspeed Mallet Putter.

A couple of questions for you Geoff:

Can you give us some of your thoughts on the motion of the left arm and left hand for STRAIGHT STROKING

and also, can you give us some insights on the impact interval of a putt?

Thanks and we love you at the XGOLFSCHOOL!

[geoffmangum]

Sure, Michael! Thanks for the love!

The left arm for a right-handed golfer is the arm 1) that is on the same side of the chest as the target, 2) does not have to swing across the rib cage to go left, 3) is dependent on the left shoulder more than it is on the shoulder frame action as a whole, which makes for a wider margin of error in case the shoulder action stalls out, and 4) the left hand is operated by the right side of the brain, and the right side of the brain is the space awareness side, and the right side of the brain is also the recipient of all the visual signals from the left side of wherever the eyeballs aim (and that is the ONLY side that matters for a right-handed golfer).

Because of this, the left arm and hand are capable of swinging straighter than the right arm and hand, which has the right elbow rubbing or bumping against the side of the chest in the forward or thru-stroke, and this elbow-chest conflict "rolls" the forearm and right hand "closed" thru impact (a pronation of the forearm and hand). Whenever the shoulder stroke stalls out a bit, the left armpit in the thru-stroke tends to open up and if that happens, the right hand gets left behind and has to "clutch" onto the putter handle, and also the elbow on the right side conflicts with the chest and the forearm and right hand pronate the face to the inside closing on an arcing pull action.

Because of all this, the golfer should feature the left arm and hand in preference to the right arm and hand. This is done by setting the left hand onto the handle first and completely compared to the right hand being added second and over the left and not totally onto the handle; by using slightly more muscle tone at setup in the left hand and arm than used in the right hand; by NOT pressing the right thumb fully onto the handle and instead engaging the left thumb but only casually holding the handle beneath the right thumb; by having the attitude that the left shoulder will inevitably stall out and the left armpit open so the attitude to have is be prepared to leave the right hand behind if necessary to continue the down-the-line stroke.

In fact, the "back of the left hand" is probably a better aimer at the target off to the left than the "palm of the right hand" can aim in the same direction. This suggests actually positioning the putter and aiming the putter face with the left hand doing the aiming, not the right hand. Harvey Penick always told Crenshaw to carry his putter from the fairway onto the green in the left hand.

The muscle tone in the left hand should be matched by the same muscle tone in the left forearm and a little stringiness in the bicep to indicate that the bicep is also tightened up just a bit to make the shape of the left arm more of a unit. With this unit in readiness, the golfer can start the backstroke by shoving the left shoulder and unitized arm-plus-putter back from the ball, as opposed to using the rear / right hand to drag the putter head back from the ball by the handle. The former makes a backstroke that cannot possibly loop outside across the target line at the beginning, and the later almost always will generate a loop in the backstroke.

The MINIMUM grip pressure or muscle tone (in the sense of "not less than this") is found as follows for any putter head and shaft:

At address with the putter sole flat to the ground, lift the torso slightly to elevate the sole off the ground and let the wrist be loose or limp so the putter head and shaft will droop inward towards the feet. This will cock the hands more downward. Pressing the handle by increasing the grip pressure and muscle tone so that the shaft extends back to the initial angle that had the sole flat to the surface gets the putter re-soled once the right amount of muscle tone has been attained. Note that level of muscle tone or grip pressure, and never use less than that for this particular putter.

Flattening the left thumb print to the flat surface of the handle orients the aim of the putter face parallel to the alignment of the chest and shoulders. In other words, thumb flatness on the handle flatness puts face control solely and completely with the orientation of the chest and shoulders at and thru impact. At address with the face aimed at X; the thumb of the left hand on the flat handle aims the flatness of the handle parallel to the face aim, and the alignment of the shoulders is also parallel to the face aim. Then after the backstroke and coming into impact, when the chest re-orients to the same position it was in at address, and the flatness of the thumb is still there, the face is necessarily square to its original aim at the target. In other words, so long as the thumb pressure keeps the thumb print or "oval" flatness matched to the handle flatness, the squareness of impact is transferred completely to the body returning the shoulders to whatever orientation they had in space before starting the backstroke. Easy enough, and the putter face itself can be safely ignored in favor of simply worrying about the chest re-achieving the address position without curling too far thru this orientation. Just re-square, and you're there.

As to impact, the time the putter face remains in contact with the ball depends on the speed and mass of the putter head, the cover material of the ball, and the face material of the putter head, and a few other minor matters. In general, for normal ranges of putt distances and putters and balls and putter head speeds at impact, the ball and face remain in contact for about 0.0005 to 0.0010 second (1/1,000th). When the putter head on a 10-foot putt is typically moving sideways thru impact at something like 100 inches per second, the putter face covers 100 x 0.0005 or 0.05 inch (5/100ths of an inch, or half a 1/10th of an inch). That's about as big a spot on the ground as a fat period at the end of a sentence, and less wide than the inside of the little letter "o". So it's very small.

However, it is not completely insignificant. The SAM PuttLab for instance measures 2,500 times each second, and if the forward stroke uses 750 ms (0.75 sec.), and covers 10 inches, as is fairly typical, those 10 inches are being sampled 2,500 x 0.75 or 1,875 times. That is one sample every 10 / 1,875 or 0.0053 inches. That's 10 data-points to span just the moment the putter and ball remain in contact. If the golfer is continuously "arcing" the putter path thru impact, the direction of the face at the BEGINNING of impact is not the same as the direction of the face at the END of impact. And in particular, if the face was aimed at the target at address, that aim direction is NEITHER the aim direction at the START of impact nor at the END of impact, but is somewhere in between. The AVERAGE direction is the one the ball ends up going off along. And if the golfer is not consistent in the timing and in the extent of the arcing, he is GUESSING every stroke how to send the ball where he hopes it will go.

part 1 of 2

[geoffmangum]

In contrast, if the golfer simply allows the stroke to STAY headed square thru impact, without the arcing, this is easy to do and improves the connection between aim and start line immensely, resulting in more consistent line control and greater accuracy in both aiming and sending the ball off online.

The amount of time the stroke needs to be left alone thru impact is not long at all, in time (1/2 of a thousandth up to 1 full thousandth of a second), or in space (a span along the ground about as wide as the inside of this little "o"). But for a wide margin of error, the golfer should PLAN and PRACTICE getting the putter face square and swinging online no later than about 1 inch before the back of the ball and staying online for another 1-2 inches past the front of the ball. This span in time and space occupies about 1/5th of a forward stroke from top of backstroke to top of forward stroke or follow-thru. For a 10-inch backstroke thru to a 10-inch follow-thru (total of 20 inches in the stroke), we are concerned with 1/5th of that as the impact zone or a mere 4 inches right around the bottom / center of the stroke. If the stroke requires 3/4th to 1 full second from top of backstroke to top of follow-thru, then this 4 inches takes no more than 1/5th of a second. In fact, it takes a lot less than that, because the putter head accelerates down to a maximum velocity thru the bottom 4 inch impact zone, and most of the stroke is consumed coasting down with gathering speed and with coasting up with decelerating speed. The time actually spent by the putter head in the 4-inch impact zone is probably no more than 1/10th of a second.

The human body is designed for movements not much faster than about 1/10th of a second. So there is a natural fit for the time in which the golfer should remain in neutral while the stroke stays headed straight. That means "quiet" or "heavy" hands and steady grip pressure without any changes in muscle activity in the fingers, hands, wrists, or arms thru this moment. The moment of impact is one of "patience" and assuredness, not last minute panic and fixing.

Using a steady tempo and an even back-and-thru rhythm signals the body very accurately when the stroke is at the exact bottom of the swing, as the timing of the tops and the timing of the bottom of strokes is ALWAYS IDENTICAL regardless of how large and powerful or fast or slow the stroke. All strokes with the same tempo and rhythm take exactly the same total time and reach the top of the backstroke always at the same moment, reach the bottom of the stroke always at the same moment, and reach the top of the follow-thru always at the same moment. This is true for a 10-inch backstroke at a putter head velocity at impact of 100 inches/second and for a 20-inch backstroke and a 175 inch/second velocity at impact, so long as the tempo and rhythm remain stable. Both take the same total time with identical position timing at the tops and the bottom. This all means that stable tempo and rhythm tells the golfer when the patience matters, so it's really easy to like this. All strokes are the same.

The fullness of the backstroke in fact is what ALLOWS the patience, contrary to the crap-ass stroke usually taught by paranoid golf teachers -- the short back, quick thru "ka-pop" chicken stroke. This combined with the "arcing" mania in golf ruins strokes every day and makes it so golfers have no clue how to be consistent and how to know whether their aim means anything in comparison to what stroke is getting ready to happen.

So, impact staying online is important and makes the aim fit the stroke. When the aim fits the stroke, the golfer can always use the aim of the putter face itself to organize and preview WHERE and HOW the stroke needs to move the same every time in order to get consistency and accuracy. And the golfer whose stroke actually sends the ball exactly where the face was aimed at address is the ONLY golfer who ever receives any useful "feedback" about his aiming skill and what is needed to improve it.

So the golden road to simple, consistent, accurate, feedback-rich, steadily improving putting is to either leave the stroke alone thru impact or at worst keep pulling-or-pushing the hands and arms straight thru impact so the aim and the stroke match up.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
PuttingZone.com
Putting Coach and Theorist

[Shot Limit]

That was awesome! Thanks Geoff.

[Michael Jacobs]

In contrast, if the golfer simply allows the stroke to STAY headed square thru impact, without the arcing, this is easy to do and improves the connection between aim and start line immensely, resulting in more consistent line control and greater accuracy in both aiming and sending the ball off online.

The amount of time the stroke needs to be left alone thru impact is not long at all, in time (1/2 of a thousandth up to 1 full thousandth of a second), or in space (a span along the ground about as wide as the inside of this little "o"). But for a wide margin of error, the golfer should PLAN and PRACTICE getting the putter face square and swinging online no later than about 1 inch before the back of the ball and staying online for another 1-2 inches past the front of the ball. This span in time and space occupies about 1/5th of a forward stroke from top of backstroke to top of forward stroke or follow-thru. For a 10-inch backstroke thru to a 10-inch follow-thru (total of 20 inches in the stroke), we are concerned with 1/5th of that as the impact zone or a mere 4 inches right around the bottom / center of the stroke. If the stroke requires 3/4th to 1 full second from top of backstroke to top of follow-thru, then this 4 inches takes no more than 1/5th of a second. In fact, it takes a lot less than that, because the putter head accelerates down to a maximum velocity thru the bottom 4 inch impact zone, and most of the stroke is consumed coasting down with gathering speed and with coasting up with decelerating speed. The time actually spent by the putter head in the 4-inch impact zone is probably no more than 1/10th of a second.

The human body is designed for movements not much faster than about 1/10th of a second. So there is a natural fit for the time in which the golfer should remain in neutral while the stroke stays headed straight. That means "quiet" or "heavy" hands and steady grip pressure without any changes in muscle activity in the fingers, hands, wrists, or arms thru this moment. The moment of impact is one of "patience" and assuredness, not last minute panic and fixing.

Using a steady tempo and an even back-and-thru rhythm signals the body very accurately when the stroke is at the exact bottom of the swing, as the timing of the tops and the timing of the bottom of strokes is ALWAYS IDENTICAL regardless of how large and powerful or fast or slow the stroke. All strokes with the same tempo and rhythm take exactly the same total time and reach the top of the backstroke always at the same moment, reach the bottom of the stroke always at the same moment, and reach the top of the follow-thru always at the same moment. This is true for a 10-inch backstroke at a putter head velocity at impact of 100 inches/second and for a 20-inch backstroke and a 175 inch/second velocity at impact, so long as the tempo and rhythm remain stable. Both take the same total time with identical position timing at the tops and the bottom. This all means that stable tempo and rhythm tells the golfer when the patience matters, so it's really easy to like this. All strokes are the same.

The fullness of the backstroke in fact is what ALLOWS the patience, contrary to the crap-ass stroke usually taught by paranoid golf teachers -- the short back, quick thru "ka-pop" chicken stroke. This combined with the "arcing" mania in golf ruins strokes every day and makes it so golfers have no clue how to be consistent and how to know whether their aim means anything in comparison to what stroke is getting ready to happen.

So, impact staying online is important and makes the aim fit the stroke. When the aim fits the stroke, the golfer can always use the aim of the putter face itself to organize and preview WHERE and HOW the stroke needs to move the same every time in order to get consistency and accuracy. And the golfer whose stroke actually sends the ball exactly where the face was aimed at address is the ONLY golfer who ever receives any useful "feedback" about his aiming skill and what is needed to improve it.

So the golden road to simple, consistent, accurate, feedback-rich, steadily improving putting is to either leave the stroke alone thru impact or at worst keep pulling-or-pushing the hands and arms straight thru impact so the aim and the stroke match up.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
PuttingZone.com
Putting Coach and Theorist

Geoff,
Thanks a million for taking the time to give us a thorough answer. Very well put, I do have 2 other questions often asked about the impact interval and think everyone would benefit from your further explanations:

In an ideal scenario can we expect there to be a 'rise or descend' of the putter head into impact and beyond

And secondly, what can we expect of the loft of the putter to be in a moving stroke? Have you found an optimal loft for a putter and its relationship to what the actual dynamic loft of the putter is at impact?

Thanks, any plans on visiting Long Island this year? There has been a lot of interest in your visit

[geoffmangum]

Dear Michael,

Good questions! Can't cover everything at once.

RISING

The putting stroke imagined as a complete circle like a giant hoola-hoop in plastic is, in my personal case, 4.5' or 54" in radius and 9' or 108" in diameter, so the hoola-hoop centers on the base of my neck at address and reaches to the ceiling of a conventional room. The exact shape of the bottom of this hoola-hoop between the feet is what interest us for understanding the trajectory of the putter thru impact, in terms of the rising back, descending into impact, rising past impact motion of the sole of the putter head.

The geometry of a 9-foot diameter circle thru the bottom area is:

1. only one precise point touches the ground, directly beneath the pivot of the base of the neck, where the circle is centered.

2. about 13" back from this bottom point, the sole of a putter will just barely clear the 1.68" height / diameter of a golf ball positioned in the plane of the hoola-hoop.

3. about 4" back from this bottom, the sole of the putter head that began on the ground at the bottom now will clear about the width of one quarter, so that a stack of a dime atop a quarter will allow the putter sole to shave the dime off the quarter but otherwise leave the quarter itself unmolested.

4. The same degree of rising occurs going forward, perhaps a touch moore, since the leading edge of the putter sole starts precisely at the bottom, whereas for the backstroke, the rear edge of the flange or other rear of the putter starts 1" or more back from the real bottom, and so does not rise over the same distance in the backstroke as the front edge of the putter in the thru-stroke.

This all means the following for golfers: it is not necessary to "keep the putter low thru impact", as this occurs naturally without any effort. The real problem is a "lifting" muscle action thru impact, usually in a hardly noticeable yet harmful lead elbow flex that lifts the sole of the putter thru impact perhaps the width of two quarters. This action also usually involves the face angle thru impact and might also alter presentation loft and sweetspot path or trajectory thru impact, so in general it's not a good thing. Training this elbow twitch out of putting strokes is a good thing, and is done with a sense of minimum grip and muscle tone in the lead arm and hand, a sense of heavy and inactive / dead / inert hands thru impact, no changes in grip pressure thru impact, and a low-as-possible return to the very bottom of the stroke just before contacting the ball beneath a pivot point at the base of the neck that is very stable in elevation without dipping or twisting or rising off the address elevation above the ground. That's WHY holding the head and neck steady thru impact is vital to stroke effectiveness -- to stabilize this pivot point, which is the equivalent of a grandfather clock's hook at the top of the pendulum that swings -- you can't shake the hook and expect a good pendulum stroke straight and low thru impact.

Once the putter face clears the lead big toe, the necessity to "stay down in the putt" with a stable base of neck is concluded. Also, once the putter starts to swing past and out of the width of the stance, which is typically 15 inches wide and about 7.5 to 8 inches either side of the exact bottom of the stroke, the putter sole starts to rise more dramatically. As it does so, the lead armpit naturally flares open, as keeping this armpit unchanging with a quickly rising putter means an unnatural leaning of the whole upper torso, and this frankly does not really happen in even pure "shoulder stroke" styles. So the lead armpit starts opening once the putter head clears the lead foot. To the brain and body, this means the rear / dominant hand has a problem keeping up, and this hands makes an anticipatory grab onto the handle right at exactly the wrong moment -- before impact has finished. This pulls the putt. This pull action would not matter if it were delayed about 1/4th more of an inch of good, online, leave-it-alone stroke. To avoid pulls, then, practice consciously EXTENDING the time of staying down in the putt by at least 1/4th more inch, and hopefully until the putter clears the lead foot.

A training drill is to "putt the exact bottom of the stroke, not the back of the ball", as the real accuracy of the stroke comes from "dotting the bottom" each and every time, not chasing a hit thru the back of the ball, wherever its position might be in respect to the exact stroke bottom. To extend the staying down and thru, more the ball forward of the exact bottom, and putt the bottom not the back of the ball while allowing the rising thru impact that is known not to matter until 3-4 inches past the bottom. Knowing that playing the ball 4 inches ahead of the putter face located at the exact bottom of the stroke will ONLY result in the putter face impact point on the ball lowering the width of one quarter, which is inconsequential to solid impact, the golfer can stay low naturally without odd body action to put the putter lower than it naturally arcs, so this chills out the uninformed psychology of poorly taught golfers and lets them simple make a neutral pendular stroke low thru impact without chasing the back of the ball with hit, and thus eliminating pulls.

More on Loft in a second ...

Geoff Mangum
PuttingZone.com
Golf's most advanced and effective putting instruction.

[geoffmangum]

Yes, Michael, I have studied the geometry of loft changes thru the impact zone.

Basically, the standard stroke circle is not too different from mine, which has a diameter of 9 feet or 108 inches. This geometry adds positive loft thru the bottom of the stroke, beginning when the static loft returns to the exact bottom of the circle beneath the center of the circle in a neutral manner (no forward-pressing, hands-ahead delofting). Once the static loft transits the bottom of the stroke, positive loft starts developing as the putter head rises past the bottom thru the impact zone on the lead side of the bottom of the stroke.

How much loft gets added for different ball positions, and what does it matter to the quality of the roll?

[IMG]Ball-Face3-0.jpg[/IMG]

The above graphic depicts a 0-degree static loft impacting the back of a ball played 3 inches ahead of the bottom. The geometry adds 3.18 degree of dynamic loft for a total presentation loft of 3.18 degrees (about 1 degree of added loft per inch the back of the ball is forward of the bottom of the stroke). While the putter transits the 1.68-inch diameter-space of the ball (contact ends before this, after a mere 1/20th of an inch or less), the dynamic loft increases to about 5 degrees. The net effect is a dynamic loft thru the ball that looks like about 3.5 degrees, angling up from a point just below the equator about one dimple wide out the opposite front of the ball just above the equator by about this same distance of one dimple high off the equator.

Here is another graphic, this time a putter with 3-degrees of static or design loft impacting the back of a ball played 1 inch in advance of the bottom of the stroke:



In this case, the dynamic presentation loft at impact is 4.061 degrees, which increases slightly during the impact moment.

This net blow effectively MISSES the center of gravity (COG) of the ball, which is a good thing. Directing the blow of the putter head's COG straight thru the COG of the ball is a "knuckleball" action that sends the ball in the same launch angle with zero spin (no forward spin and no back spin). Instead, when the blow MISSES the ball's COG and passes ABOVE the ball's COG, this "knocks the top of the ball forward and over the stationary / inertially static bottom half of the ball. That's a good neutral way to roll the ball with forward spin off the face, provided the COG of the putter head is not HIGHER than the ball's impact point on the putter face. (This causes back spin off the face -- as happens with Odyssey Putters a lot by their poor design). So putters generally want low COGs. In this way, the less-massive top half of the putter face / head will tend to "give" in the ball impact more than the heavier low COG of the putter face / head. This is said to generate a vertical "gear effect" where the top face rolls back. If there is good friction between face and ball, perhaps aided by grooves (?), then the action gears the top of the back of the ball over forward away from the recoiling top half of the putter face.

I confess I don't fully believe this vertical gear effect. But I do believe knocking a top half of the ball over the bottom half of the ball is facilitated by missing the ball's COG slightly above the ball's geometric center.

My experience has been that a neutrally-arcing blow thru the ball of a putter head rising past the exact bottom within the range of 3-5 degrees dynamic loft rolls the ball plenty nicely, so there is no effective gain to be had by special stroke techniques or putter designs (other than avoiding basic BAD designs, of which there seem to be a vast number).

The REAL question for QUALITY of roll is not the extent or quickness of forward spin off the face to reduce skidding (it never eliminates all skidding), but the largely unexamined effect of "launching balls into the air off the face". The typical launch of a fairly decent putt of modest strength is about 2-3 inches before the ball lands and engages the grass so the grass friction can begin the business of ridding the putt of skid. This delay in engagement is not good, and neither is the vertical kinetic energy of the launch, which saps total distance and also causes adverse line effects upon rough landing and bouncing onto grass stems at the start.

Launching is a function of the angle of the blow, the solidity of the blow, and the resistant inertial mass of the golf ball in gravity keeping it glued to the ground until sufficient minimum force vertically is applied. It seems to me that given standard golf ball masses and cover materials and standard putter designs for mass and loft, that typical putts do not get seriously in trouble until the length of the putt (and hence the force) starts to exceed about 20 feet. Before then, launching is not much of a problem unless the golfer's tool is a bad one or he is making an non-neutral stroke for rising thru impact. But with a neutral rising past the bottom and (back of) ball position out 1-2 inches past the bottom and a nothing-weird putter design, putts inside 20 feet don't present a significant launching problem.

Outside 20 feet, you aren't sinking those anyway, so focus on distance and solid no matter what, and if that means a little delofting to engage the ball more quickly with less lofting / launching into the air on these longer putts, that's fine.

The last point to note is what effect launching and bouncing 20+ footers has. A ball in the air cannot "take break", which happens only in reaction to the tilt of the surface in gravity. So bouncing balls have "swiss-cheesed" break (similar to osteoporosis) and miss to the high side of the intended / expected full break. Such launched balls also expend energy vertically and in the bouncing on the ground impact collisions, so the distance is similarly "swiss-cheesed". The dual effect is that launched 20+ footers end up high and short. You can either get used to this effect and adapt for it, or try to reduce the longer-putt launching. Personally, I ignore this at a conscious level, although I MAY be doing something about it non-consciously.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
PuttingZone.com
Golf's most advanced and effective putting instruction.