Putting muscles

+James B Good question. I haven't seen any EMG studies, but I'd advocate feeling the lats, traps, rhomboids, posterior delt and other scap muscles control the putting stroke. The obliques can help, but you have to be careful not to use them in a way that creates a lot of upper body translation. When I say to avoid your arms, in putting, I'm more referring to lots of wrist and forearm movement :)

+Tyler F

Thanks so much, Tyler. That makes a lot of sense, and was along the lines of what I was thinking.

On a related note, would you say that there is a small amount of additional “arm” muscle activation (via the pectorals & deltoids) that helps the arms stay connected to the torso throughout the putting stroke?

For example, to help my left arm keep up with my torso on the putting backstroke, I feel as if there is left pectoral activation to help pull the left arm back along with the rotating torso; and to help my left arm keep up with my torso on the putting downstroke, I feel as if there is left deltoid activation to help pull the left arm forward along with the rotating torso.

Likewise, to help my right arm keep up with my torso on the putting backstroke, I feel some additional right deltoid activation; And to help my right arm keep up with my torso on the downstroke, I feel as if there is some additional right pectoral activation.

Conversely, if I do not add this independent additional arm movement (via activation of the pectoral & deltoid), and if I only use my “torso” muscles (via activation of the Lats/traps/rhomboids/posterior delt), then my arms tend to get disconnected from my torso and become very unstable. That is, my arms tend to get left behind, and do not keep up with my torso.

Best, James

+James B It's tricky to identify specific muscles, but I do like players who lack connection benefit from feeling a little tension on the inside of the armpit. It could be pec, it could be lat. But if the arms are too disconnected, then often the path or face can suffer timing issues. I personally don't feel a lot of deltoid activation, but feels are definitely unique. If it matches what we want it to look like, then I think it's a good feel to use during that training session. Always match the feels against the actual movements you want to train. In this case, path, face, and rhythm :)