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Visual Alignment Calibration - Putting

Training your eyes to see a "straight line" can provide a huge boost to your putting, especially if you feel uncomfortable over the ball. More specifically, it can greatly improve your start line and allow you to make a flowing stroke without manipulation. Ultimately, golfers may need to re-calibrate their eyes several times over the course of a season, depending on any bad habits they pick-up. Thankfully, to do this, all you need is an alignment stick and the diligence to run through (5) visual calibration tests.

Tags: Putt, Drill, Intermediate

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Strel is visual alignment calibration.

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So getting your eyes to see a straight line is really helpful for controlling start line.

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And freeing up your ability to swing the putter and control the stroke or swing the putter

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without trying to guide the stroke too much but controlling your face control.

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So I use a three ball drill but in order to do that when you need a partner.

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So this one's a little bit easier to implement but it can be challenging for some

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offers.

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So basically what we're going to do is I'm going to get behind the ball and I'm going to aim

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this putt pretty straight.

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So I'm going to point the alignment stick and in my case the line on the ball as well

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at the target.

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I've got about a straight 10 footer maybe 12 feet but I wouldn't do this too long or too short.

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You want your eyes to have to track a little bit.

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So a putt inside of say you know six feet wouldn't work too well because your eyes wouldn't

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really have to track anything.

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Okay so now I've got the alignment stick and I can use the line on the putter if you can

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or the shaft on the putter to confirm that the alignment stick is a pretty much where

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I wanted to go.

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And now I'm going to get in my setup position and I'm just going to use my eyes and

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I'm going to walk down the stick and see where it looks like it's aimed and compared

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to the the whole location when I first did that it looks like it's aimed to the left.

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So my next goal is to change my visual alignment so that I can adjust where this is looking.

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So there are a couple there's five different ways I can move my alignment my visual alignment.

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I can move it out that way that makes it more left for me.

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I can move it that way you know that either those two don't have a big impact for me but

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they could move it enough for for some golfers.

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I could move it up that makes it more and that does make it a little bit better so I can

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move up and down and the one that doesn't make a whole lot of sense is forward back

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with this way because that's basically the same thing as just a longer shorter part.

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So then we get to the three rotations and these typically have a bigger impact.

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The first two are the ones that I use the most and then the last one would be a rare exception.

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So the first two would be either bringing my chin down which that does help some or

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bringing my chin up that makes it worse.

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So for me bringing chin down makes it better but I had a lesson on Friday where chin up made

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it better.

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This is something that you have to play around with and then tilt.

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So basically bringing my head a little bit to the right that helps a bit bringing my head to the

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left and then if I track with my eyes that makes it worse.

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So I'm just measuring okay getting down made it better, talking my chin made it better,

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right tilt made it better.

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The opposite made it worse and then the last one would be rotation.

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There it's hard for me to track and if I turn towards the target it makes it look more

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left.

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So that one seems like a wash.

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That's the one that's rare that it really helps people.

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I like to have the rotation plane closer to neutral.

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So then once I have so now I'm going to kind of play with a combination of those until

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that looks pretty straight right there and now to test it I'm going to bring a ball

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in and just put it parallel to the stick and I'm going to try and roll it straight down

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that stick or parallel to it.

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And that looks to me now like this is a little bit more straight.

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So one of the reasons that you may be missing parts right away, you know if you've been

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pulling parts or pushing parts could be because of your visual alignment.

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You can use something shorter like a pencil but I typically use an alignment stick because

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you'll have them in your bag and it's a long enough path that it gives you a good part

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of the path of a straight put but it doesn't give you a whole thing.

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The other place where this is useful to calibrate is if you're just at home and you've

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got tile on the floor you can practice getting in your posture and tracing the line with

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your head and making sure that it looks straight.

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If you have a hard time seeing a straight put you're going to have a harder time hitting a

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straight put and that visual alignment and the face control is really important for controlling

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your start line.

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