Swingbyte Blog Improve your Putting with Swingbyte and PGA Instructor, Bill Schmedes III

Putting practice with Swingbyte might be one of the most useful training features our product offers. From the putting green to your office at work, you can use Swingbyte to improve your stroke just about anywhere- the trick is knowing what to do. For that we turned instructor and putting instruction expert, Bill Schmedes III.If you want to sink more putts, you need to get the ball rolling off the face at impact as intended. Once you do this, you can work on developing consistency so your ball ends up where you want a greater percentage of the time. In this article, we're going to focus on two key things: Setup and Ball Striking While putting can be more of an art than the science of full swing (there is no "one size fits all" approach to any part of the golf swing!), the information below will help you understand the factors that contribute to accurate putting and give you a good starting point for improving the consistency of your putts. 1. The Setup:Having the correct setup is key. Just like a strong foundation for a house, the proper setup will help provide stability and consistency for your putting game. Posture: Use a mirror to make sure you're bending properly from the ball joints: you shouldn't be too hunched or bent over and your arms should hang naturally. Lower body stability is very important because it can affect where you strike the ball on the face of the putter.Shoulder Alignment: Shoulder alignment has a huge affect on where the face is aligned at address and subsequently at impact. Shoulders should to be aligned with where the ball needs to start.Grip: There are several ways to grip a putter but it's important to take your wrists, fingers and hands out of the stroke. Gripping the club in the life lines so both palms face each other is a good way to take the smaller muscles out and reduce moving parts.Eye-line: If you have a mallet style putter and your natural stroke is pretty straight back and through, your eyes should be lined up with the top of the ball. If you have a heel-toe balanced putter and an arc to your stroke, the eye-line should be slightly inside the ball. Work with the natural movement of your stroke and focus on consistency.Ball Position: This will vary with the golfer and the width of stance but generally speaking you want it slightly forward of center. For most players, that will help them hit slightly up on the ball, which will help that ball roll better.2. Ball Striking:A) Hit Slightly Up on the Ball:Key Swingbyte data points: Shaft Lean and Attack AngleWhen you're putting, the ball is actually slightly depressed on the green (sitting down a bit), so you need to hit slightly up on the ball to get it rolling end over end on the intended start line instead of it jumping out of that depression before it rolls. When the ball bounces before it starts rolling, it has a tendency to get off line.Shaft Lean and Attack Angle should be close to neutral (0°) or slightly back (shaft lean) and up (attack angle) at impact so you're catching the ball on the up stroke. Once you're set up correctly, try to return your handle at impact as close to your starting address position as possible.Practice Tip: When using Swingbyte, don't too caught up on the numbers and trying to achieve specific parameters, but notice how the changes you make affect the data directionally. Use Swingbyte 3D compare your shaft's position at address (green dotted line) and impact!B) Square the Face at Impact: Key Swingbyte data points: Face to Address and Face to PathFace angle at impact is king. Generally speaking, you want to get your Face to Address and Face to Path to be as close to 0 as possible to ensure that your ball is rolling off your club face as intended.Practice Tip: Grab a ruler and place the ball on one end so you can clearly see if the face is square to the edge of that ruler at address. The goal is to putt the ball and keep it on the ruler for the entirety of the roll. If it falls off the ruler it typically means that you've delivered the face poorly or it was a poor strike (toe or heel hit). This drill will force the player to concentrate on correct shoulder alignment (face related), ball position (face & path related), and lower body stability (strike related). If you can do these two things properly they will have a great chance of keeping the ball on the ruler.C) Keep the Path Neutral: Key Swingbyte data point: Path For most people, I try to get the putter's Path as close to 0 as possible, especially if they're a straight back, straight through putter. I've found that if there's too much in-out or out-in, it requires too much manipulation to get the putter back to square and then can be tricky. A slight arc is fine (a few degrees) but when the path gets too severe it can also affect where the ball hits the face and create a toe or heel hit.Practice Tip: Training aids like putting tracks and alignment sticks can be can help keep your path closer to neutral. If you're at home, I like to use the grout lines of a tile floor to help square the face, they can work on getting the leading edge square to that grout line and then from there depending on their stroke, they can use the grout to stay straight back and through - they can almost trace the grout line. If they've got an arc in their swing, they can get the putter to move slightly inside the grout on the backswing, square at impact and then slightly inside through stroke.You don't have to get all 0′s but if you do, it's pretty cool too. Bonus Drill for Home Practice:I like to do things to help with Tempo. If you've got a putter where you have a line on the back and a little cut out or space where they could put a quarter or dime on the back. I'll have my students try to keep that quarter on their putter as they bring the club back and swing through the ball. This can help develop consistent tempo and stability in the stroke. It helps to reduce any moving parts.About Bill:Bill Schmedes III is a PGA Class A member and the Director of Instruction at Fiddler's Elbow CCin Bedminster, NJ. He has spent time learning under many of the greats in the game including Gary Gilchrist and Patti McGowan.Bill has been fortunate enough to be able to work with all ages and abilities. He loves working with the beginner golfer just as much as he does a tour player! His players have won on the local, state, junior, and national levels. www.bs3golf.com