Best Putting Stroke, 3 Ways To Take The Wrists Out (Video) - by Pete Styles
Best Putting Stroke, 3 Ways To Take The Wrists Out (Video) - by Pete Styles

The most golfers would be aware that when you’re taking your putting stroke your putting exercise, you shouldn’t use your wrist in your putting stroke. And that’s easier said than done. A lot of people know they shouldn’t use their wrist, but when they hit the ball they still flick it in. It’s a very instinctive movement just to go at it with the fingers go at it with the right hand particularly and flick it away. It tends to be a very inconsistent way of putting. So here’s three little tips to try and reduce the wrist movement you’re using in the putting stroke. The first thing you’re simply thinking about pushing the back of your left wrist towards the target. So when you take your address position, your normal grip you focus on this left wrist bone and pushing it towards the target. If that keeps moving towards the target the club head won’t really have an opportunity to overtake it. If this left wrist bone stops, the club head overtakes and then we end up with a scoop. Now I wear my watch on my right wrist it just feels more comfortable like that, but most people I’m aware would wear it on the left wrist.

So maybe you could use the watch face as a little marker to tell yourself to push the watch face towards the hole. If that pushes towards the hole you’ll hole more puts. If that stops and the hands flick you’ll cause yourself to be a little bit inconsistent. So use the watch face to push towards the hole. The next little tip to reduce the amount of wrist hinge in putting, we’re going to try and just look at the arm shape. And just keep the Y-shape the triangular if you like of the arms so in the setup position I’ve got this triangle two shoulder points and wrists points. And if I can keep that back and through that’s all good. If I start using my wrist too much I start to lose my triangular shape because my shoulders no longer need to rock so I end up just flicking at it with my wrists. If we can rock backwards and forwards using the shoulders keeping the triangular shape that will definitely reduce the amount of wrist hinges that you use when putting. Now two little props for the last little drill here, I’m just going to pop the glove on my left hand and I’ve got a pen or you could just use a ruler and just pop it down through the elastic at the back of the grip so it sits straight up through the left wrist. And then as I grip hold of it I should feel that that can sit there nicely at my wrist but not have too much pressure. It’s just sitting there nicely and relaxed. Now if I was to hinge my wrist firstly you would see the pen as it is here pull away from my wrist on the back swing and then as I release my wrists that’s now starting to stab in both top and bottom. So if I can keep that pen there nicely relaxed and make some good putting strokes everything is looking fine there are no pressure. If I start to hinge and flick I can really start to feel that reduced pressure and then dig in. And it’s not actually they are like comfortable so that’s a very, very good way of stopping that wrist hinging. So if you can stop your wrist hinging when you’re making your putting strokes you should be more consistent online and on length and using those three exercises you’ll definitely be a better putter.
2014-03-26

The most golfers would be aware that when you’re taking your putting stroke your putting exercise, you shouldn’t use your wrist in your putting stroke. And that’s easier said than done. A lot of people know they shouldn’t use their wrist, but when they hit the ball they still flick it in. It’s a very instinctive movement just to go at it with the fingers go at it with the right hand particularly and flick it away. It tends to be a very inconsistent way of putting. So here’s three little tips to try and reduce the wrist movement you’re using in the putting stroke. The first thing you’re simply thinking about pushing the back of your left wrist towards the target. So when you take your address position, your normal grip you focus on this left wrist bone and pushing it towards the target. If that keeps moving towards the target the club head won’t really have an opportunity to overtake it. If this left wrist bone stops, the club head overtakes and then we end up with a scoop. Now I wear my watch on my right wrist it just feels more comfortable like that, but most people I’m aware would wear it on the left wrist.

So maybe you could use the watch face as a little marker to tell yourself to push the watch face towards the hole. If that pushes towards the hole you’ll hole more puts. If that stops and the hands flick you’ll cause yourself to be a little bit inconsistent. So use the watch face to push towards the hole. The next little tip to reduce the amount of wrist hinge in putting, we’re going to try and just look at the arm shape. And just keep the Y-shape the triangular if you like of the arms so in the setup position I’ve got this triangle two shoulder points and wrists points. And if I can keep that back and through that’s all good. If I start using my wrist too much I start to lose my triangular shape because my shoulders no longer need to rock so I end up just flicking at it with my wrists. If we can rock backwards and forwards using the shoulders keeping the triangular shape that will definitely reduce the amount of wrist hinges that you use when putting.

Now two little props for the last little drill here, I’m just going to pop the glove on my left hand and I’ve got a pen or you could just use a ruler and just pop it down through the elastic at the back of the grip so it sits straight up through the left wrist. And then as I grip hold of it I should feel that that can sit there nicely at my wrist but not have too much pressure. It’s just sitting there nicely and relaxed. Now if I was to hinge my wrist firstly you would see the pen as it is here pull away from my wrist on the back swing and then as I release my wrists that’s now starting to stab in both top and bottom. So if I can keep that pen there nicely relaxed and make some good putting strokes everything is looking fine there are no pressure. If I start to hinge and flick I can really start to feel that reduced pressure and then dig in. And it’s not actually they are like comfortable so that’s a very, very good way of stopping that wrist hinging. So if you can stop your wrist hinging when you’re making your putting strokes you should be more consistent online and on length and using those three exercises you’ll definitely be a better putter.