The time has come to send our golf ball on our chosen path towards the hole. As you reach this point, you have done a great job of completing your key tasks. You’ve gathered all the information you need. You have a very clear picture in mind of how you are going to make this putt. You have a good feel for the speed and the corresponding line. You can clearly see what part of the cup is going to accept the ball. You know that you’ve done your best aligning the ball, and your putter. You have officially earned the right to make this putt! My next point is a challenging one. I’m going to tell you what to think and feel as you stand over your putt. How can I do that? I really can’t, but I am going to try to guide you towards the proper mindset and emotional state. As I stated above, you have earned the right to make this putt. You deserve it. You have followed all of the steps, and done your homework. All of this preparation is designed to put you in the ideal mental and emotional state. There are just 2 more things that I will ask you to do: 1). Have 100% trust in the alignment of the ball and putter 2). Make absolutely sure that your final thought is about creating the speed that you have chosen for this particular putt Let’s look at these two final concepts in a little more detail. Having complete trust in the alignment of the ball and putter is one of the key components of the Banana Putting System. One of the main reasons that golfers miss putts is a lack of trust in their alignment. By carefully going through all of the steps in this book, you have gathered all of the information you need. You have a picture in mind of your ideal putt. You now need to place 100% trust in the work you have done. Putts are pulled and pushed and hit with too much and too little speed because the golfer doesn’t believe that he or she is properly aligned. My good friend Dr. Craig Farnsworth once told me: You are much better off to be completely committed to the wrong line, than to be uncommitted to the right line. I believe that golfers need to have achievable objectives when they play. An achievable objective is something that you can control and something you can measure or track. A key objective in putting is total and complete commitment to the line and speed you have chosen. Total and complete commitment Total and complete commitment Total and complete commitment Sorry for the repetition, but this is really important if you are going to make your golf ball go in the hole. Please remember, you’ve worked very hard to arrive at this point completely prepared. All of the work, all of the steps are carefully scripted so that you can stand over your ball with this level of commitment. Standing in the way of this state of total and complete commitment are your thoughts and feelings as you stand over the ball. Nearly all of our work has been done from the “level eye” position that we talked about earlier. Things make sense and “look right” when we look and see with our head in an upright and level position. Your address of the ball is getting ready to change all that. As you position yourself over the ball, you are going to tilt your body and head towards the ball. As you turn your head to look down the start line, you rotate your face and eyes toward the target. Your eyes are no longer level. Suddenly the world looks different! What happened to that nice vision you had of a perfect putt? Have you completely lost your feel for the putt? Where’s your line? This doesn’t look right?! Do you need to make an adjustment to fit your new perspective? This is what goes through the mind of nearly every golfer. This is what we’re going to remove from your game. This is why you miss more than you make. Are you turning the page or your computer to see this photo more clearly? I would do the same thing. Everything is suddenly turned 90 degrees from my “level eyes” position and its very confusing. Can you imagine driving your car with your head turned 90 degrees to the side. No way! You wouldn’t make it out of the driveway before you crashed into something. This is why you get very confused and unsure standing over the ball. You have suddenly put yourself in a position where it’s very hard to believe that you are properly aligned. That’s [...] Read more »

Start with a better alignment…by Scott Myers Getting the correct alignment for the putt is crucial to starting the ball on-line. Not only does this mean having the correct alignment of the putter, but also the correct alignment of the body. When the body is correctly aligned to  your target, the putting stroke will remain square to the target through the entire motion. This will eliminate any need for the body to try and compensate for poor alignment during the stroke. Alignment is the act of getting not only the putter aimed correctly at your target, but also having the appropriate areas of your body aligned correctly with your target line. While your putter will point directly down your target line, the line formed by your shoulders, knees, and even feet will not be pointing at your target – they will be parallel to it. Imagine standing over a set of railroad tracks. The track farthest away from you is the line down which you will aim your putter.  The track closes to you is the one with which you align your body. Aligning your body correctly to your target line is actually quite easy and can be accomplished in only three steps. Step one: •    Choose the line on which you want your ball to start •    Walk up to the ball, place your putter behind it, and with your eyes directly over the ball, align your putter to the target using the alignment line on your putter to point it straight down the target-line you have just chosen Step two: •    Align the toes of each of your feet on the line you have just aligned your putter to. (If you drew a line from the tip of each shoe, it would run parallel to your target-line line. ) Step three: •    Square your shoulders to your target-line.  This is the most important part of aligning your body. If you decide to only follow one of these steps, make sure this is the one. The path of your putting-stroke is determined by the alignment of your shoulders.  Square shoulders=square putting stroke.  Open shoulders=out-to-in putting stroke.  Closed shoulders=in-to-out stroke.  Making sure your shoulders are square to your target line before you take your putter back will guarantee a square putting stroke every time. •    If you need help figuring out if your shoulders are indeed square to your target-line, hold a golf shaft across each shoulder with both hands and turn your shoulders so that the shaft is now parallel to your target line. *********************************************** This is an excerpt from the powerful ebook:  “Breakthrough Putting Secrets Revealed” Too many golfers just go up to their putt completely mindless, having never worked on any of the foundations that set you up for a consistent putting stroke that sends the ball on the chosen line of travel. There are a number of things you must do if you want to be a putter who doesn’t fold under the pressure of a must-make putt.  The problem with far too many every-day golfers is that they have made some great putts in the past and so they carry around with them the idea that they are good while using a poor mechanical motion. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day! Get Breakthrough Putting Secrets Revealed to find out what you must do to really become a great putter. There are other books and programs out there to learn putting.  Breakthrough Putting Secrets Revealed teaches you what you NEED TO KNOW and not what you ought to know and nothing more. Focus on this foundational system and you will discover how to become a much better putter. My friend Scott Myers has done a fantastic job of breaking it down to the core principles. Forget the rest and focus on the 80/20 of putting Breakthrough Putting Secrets Revealed. Greens and fairways Craig P.S.   Tell me what you think about this topic below! Read more »

You can’t teach a player how to putt, but you can put across some of the
basic ideas to help him get the ball rolling toward the hole. Where do most of the tournament players spend the most time? On the
putting green, of course. You can’t score without sinking the ball in the
hole. When one of the boys wants to give one of his fellow pros the needle,
all he has to say is, “You’re the greatest putter in the world.” More nasty
things have been said about putting than about Russia. From the high-
handicapper to the scratch player to the touring pro, wails are heard about
their putting. I’m no exception. It’s normal to complain after you hit two perfect
shots that travel 450 yards straight to within six feet of the cup and then
miss the birdie putt. After all, the surface of the green is specially prepared
to make the ball roll true. There’s no rough, no sand, and nothing to
worry about except the cup. It sounds easy but, of course, isn’t. Other-
wise, the men who build golf courses wouldn’t allow two shots to get to
the green and then two more to get in the hole for a par. Of course, to
score you have to one-putt, not only when you hit the greens but when you
miss them, too. When I won the Masters in 1960, I was putting good—no doubt about
that. But you still have to play a lot of other good shots to win a golf
tournament, especially such a prize as the Masters. On the first hole of the last round, I hooked my tee shot away to the
left of the fairway over some trees almost to another fairway. But I hit a
two-iron onto the putting surface 20 feet from the pin and holed the putt
for a birdie. What had looked like a sure bogey from the first tee became
a birdie. The second hole is a par five that can be reached in two. I landed in
a sand trap on my second shot, but with an explosion shot got within two feet of the pin. I figured that I was off to a flying start with my second
birdie.   I missed the two-footer. Don’t ask me what causes inconsistency in putting, because I can’t tell
you, except that I feel that erratic putting comes from not doing the same
thing all the time. Pick the style which suits you best and stick to it. There are a couple
of things, though, that have to be done no matter which way you putt. The
blade must be square behind the ball at impact. In other words, the center
of the ball and the blade of the putter are at right angles. And your head
must not move when you putt. Any movement of the head not only will
take your stroke off the intended line of flight, but also will prevent you
from stroking the ball the same way all the time. You must see the blade
of the putter contact the ball or you haven’t done the job right. At one time or another I have putted every possible way, I think, except
standing on my head. Some of them worked, some of the time. Some
never worked. When I first went on the tour, I traveled by car. They
joked about the trunk of my car, but it was no gag. When I opened it
I had to be alert because there were 25 putters jammed in the back and
they might come tumbling out. Through trial and error, I came upon one way to putt that seems to remain the same. I use the reverse overlapping grip, which sounds technical but actually is the Vardon grip in reverse. I have all five fingers of the right hand on the club. I place the bottom three fingers of the left hand on the club, insert the index finger between the groove formed by the last two fingers of the right hand, and put my left thumb on the shaft so that the fingernail is touching it. This immobilizes the left hand and makes it just a guide in the stroke. Although both hands move together, the right hand does the putting. Many things can go wrong with a putt. You can read the greens wrong, find a roll that isn’t there, or miss one that is. You can play a putt to break left and it goes straight, or vice versa. And, most of all, on putts of 15 feet or more, there is the problem of how hard to hit the ball. I like to putt hard enough so that the ball gets past the hole. That way it has a double chance of going in, once on the first putt and again on the putt coming back. There is no worse feeling than leaving a putt short, dead on line for the hole.   I think [...] Read more »

You’ve felt this before, I know it. Some days out there on the course (or at least some holes in a round), you just “feel” like you are going to make everything…and you have a great putting round… Other days, you just can’t buy a putt for any amount of money right? I remember one particular round where I had that feeling putting… It was a scramble I was playing with 3 other buddies.  We had a lot of pride riding on this as the representatives of our workplace vs. those “other guys” we love to hate!  (Did you ever see that episode of “Cheers” where the gang plays softball against the bar down the street? It was like that.) Anyway…we are facing humiliation, down by 4 strokes with 5 holes to go and we are on a par 3, about 170 yards.  Out of the 4 of us, only one put it on the green and when we got to the ball, we noticed it was a twisting, downhill, left-to-righter. All of us are right-handed and so this was about as tough of a putt as it gets from about 12 feet. I can’t really explain how I got there,  but as I walked up to hit that putt as the last guy in our group, something just grabbed ahold of me and I felt like I JUST KNEW it was going to go in. I KNEW I was going to make it. My buddies tried to give me help with the line and distance, and advice, etc. and I just ignored it and stared at the hole. It was the strangest thing because I wasn’t the go-to guy in our group on the green at all. I was the guy who usually put it out there on the fairway about 270 yards consistently and was pretty good with approach shots.  But putting? Not the best part of my game. It was almost like I could hear an echo of myself inside my head saying something like “It’s just going in…” And it did…just like I saw it going in in my mind before I ever stroked the putt. I’m not here to tell you how I created that feeling. I honestly didn’t really try to…it just happened. What I do want to tell you though, is that I now believe that I have this ability…I have this “state” inside me. I think the Golf Gods gave me a taste of greatness there to let me know I have this. When I go out to the course now, if I really put my intention on it, I can bring back some or all of that feeling by going back to that day.  It’s easier to get into your memory banks when you have done some unconscious connecting like I have.  Keep following my journey and you’ll learn more on how to do that. The best advice I can give to you on how to play golf with your unconscious mind is to: Have the intention to trust your unconscious mind to do the putting and then ASSUME it is doing that. We didn’t win the scramble but I came away from that round with something even more valuable. I owned something about myself that day. I ran with it. I still build on it.  I know you’ve had a taste of this yourself.  When you get it either on the putting green or elsewhere on the course, SAVOR it!  Believe in it!  Soak it up, pretend you can expand it throughout your body. Don’t deny it, don’t doubt it…GO WITH IT. Expect to get more of whatever you focus on. I encourage you to get some mechanical instruction on putting, for sure. AND, you know darn well that when you JUST FEEL like you are going to make a putt…then it doesn’t matter how you putt…it goes in.  Your mind, if allowed to do so, can make every putt. Pretend you can clear the interference between your thoughts and letting your consistent self take over to make all the right calculations for speed, break, distance and translate that into the minute muscle movements to put it all together. Hold the thought about that time when you KNEW it was going in. Hmmm, I’m betting you’ve had that thought on a bunch of 2-foot putts haven’t you?  I’ll bet you’ve had that thought on the practice green right before the round even… I wonder how you will allow yourself to tap into that KNOWING and FEELING again.  It’s 10 times more powerful than any putting gadget.  After all, how many perfectly straight putts will you have out there on a given round that rely mostly on technique? Not many. Assume you can tap into that “It’s going in” state and [...] Read more »

PUTTING TACTICS One of the problems most golfers–especially yipsters–have is becoming “cup bound.”  Of course, we want to drain all short putts.  However, we sometimes focus so intently on the cup we lose touch with how to optimally stroke the putt.  The more we emphasize the cup the more we divert concentration and allow pressure to influence. The antidote to being cup bound is to immerse into the process of stroking the putt for its own sake.  You see, the goal is NOT to sink the putt.  Rather, the goal is to put a good stroke on it–something which you can completely control.  Now, don’t become hypersensitized to all the little minutia of the stroking process.  Instead, I like to say just “be with” the execution of the putt.  Keep your process goals at the general levels of stroking a “smooth,” “solid,” “heavy,” “committed,” or “pure” putt. The best way to do this is to emphasize proper speed control.  We all calibrate correct speed/distance control on midrange and approach putts, but because we are cup bound we tend to forget this on makable ones. So whenever you have one of “those” putts, throw yourself into making a purposeful STROLL (stroke + roll) with the proper speed.  As you take a last look at the cup pinpoint a spot eighteen inches past this where you want the ball to stop (if it somehow misses!).  These techniques will help shift from being cup bound and enable good strolls. Here are other proven putting tactics. • Yawn.  As you are waiting your turn, take a long and deep yawn.  Feel like a lion before it pounces on its prey.  Are you yawning now?! • Develop and rely upon your preputt routine.  It is your “safe harbor” outside the wild seas of the yips.  Whenever you commence your routine, breath a sigh of relief realizing everything is now on “automatic pilot.”  Consistently emphasizing what you can control sidesteps the yips.  Stop yawning! • As important a preputt routine is, sometimes the yips can even infiltrate this.  On those occasions when you feel the quivers bubbling over even before you set up, forget the routine, step right up, and stroke the ball.  This is a more positive expansion of Lee Trevino’s classic advice of “miss ‘em quick.”  Sneak past these shaky putts.  There is nothing to be gained by grinding them out.  They are merely to be survived and forgotten.  Go back to your full preputt routine on the next green.  It will be better. • Here is a neat little tactic one of you originally shared with me. Wear a rubberband or one of those colored symbolic rubber bracelets.  Whenever you feel queasy, pessimistic, or fearful before a putt, snap that band…HARD!  That physical sensation should “snap” you out of tentativeness to become more positive, detached, or even lighthearted about the putt. • Step away.  When you feel the quivers seeping in when over a putt, step back.  You do so when distracted on a full swings, so why not on putts?  Be like the baseball batter who steps out of the box, then reengages, and steps back in.  When you don’t feel ready to putt, step back, apologize to your partners, reengage into the new performance, and then stroke the putt.  Give yourself permission to step away. • Employ “nonchalant” putts.  Think about it.  When you have an eighteen-incher, you either stand on your rear foot, with a very open stance, or even backhandedly tap it in without thinking nor caring.  Experiment with just how far you can do this.  You might become surprised that you can extend this distance far into your “throw up zone.”  Even if you miss such putts remind yourself you would have probably missed them anyway with the regular stroke,…but now with a lot less stress.  Nonchalant putting is not so much a permanent ploy, but a stopgap measure until you earn some confidence from your regular stroking. • The capstone of regaining control is to embody a super-assertive attitude.  Stand up over makable putts and stroke them with abandon, apathy, or even disdain…just like you did when you were a kid.  They are just little putts and really do not mean anything in the grand scheme of things.  Stroke them, go to the next tee, and play more golf.  Not caring about these putts is both the means and ends to controlling the yips. THE CORE OF REGAINING CONTROL I’ve saved another one of the secrets to putting until now to reward those who are still reading this!  It may seem blatantly obvious, but you have to learn to better relax during a round.  Relaxation is not only a defense to yipping, it is also the process to allow more concentrated efforts to emerge.  Deep relaxing insulates [...] Read more »

TAKING BACK CONTROL OF YOUR PUTTING YIPS Dr. Tom Kubistant, CSP If putting is “the black art of golf,” then the yips is the “black hole.”  Uncontrollably quivering, twitching, and downright convulsing sends many competent players straight to the 19th Hole.  Beyond going nuts with their putting, yipsters lose the inherent joy in playing The Game.  No matter where they are during a hole, there is always that nagging thought reminding they will eventually have to stroke a short putt.  These apprehensions eventually seep into the rest of their games.  A dark cloud usually hangs over yipsters and gloom pervades their entire beings.  If you doubt this, try living with one! Becoming a better putter is a sequential process enfolding from general to specific.  No one tactic will work in isolation.  One first has to become grounded with the general perspectives and principles before one can effectively employ specific techniques. Overcoming the yips is as much psychological as it is physiological, mechanical, procedural, and technological.  Every golfer has to develop a holistic approach to putting encompassing all those elements.  Putting is the most mental part of golf.  Especially when afflicted with the yips, each element has to be addressed individually and then reintegrated back into the whole.  This is why it takes so long.  But the yips can eventually be overcome so the golfer actually becomes a better putter. The following sections have been proven successful by scores of players.  Don’t believe me; find out for yourself.  I have divided them into:  setup positions, stroking techniques, and putting tactics.  Take out your Hi-Liter! SETUP POSITIONS Here are some new applications…a couple of which were submitted by you golfers.  Thank you.  By the way, the best tongue-and-cheek tactic one of you shared was, “Bang the putter against your ankle.  The crippling pain will disconnect any yips!” • You have undoubtedly experimented with a multitude of putter styles and lengths.  Accept there is no one perfect putter.  Find a pretty good one and stick with it for at least FOUR months.  During this time the only thing to experiment with is the size of the grip.  You see, the answer is not in the wand, but in the magician. • As you walk up to the ball, do the “swimmer’s shake.”  Roll your head, shrug shoulders, and shake out arms all the way down to your hands like swimmers do when they step onto starting blocks.  Breathe deeply while doing this.  Don’t fret, your playing partners probably won’t notice…they are worrying about their own putts. • Stand up straighter so the arms hang more.  This way the stroke can swing more from the shoulders.  This may initially feel strange for your eyes may be over two inches farther away from the ball.  However, this new distance is much closer to that of the other strokes in your game. • Take a wider stance like you would in the wind.  Then roll in or pigeon-toe your feet (like Arnold Palmer) so you feel the pressure on the inner parts.  The feeling of solidly braced legs seems to extend all the way up to the head. • Spread out your toes inside the shoes.  By being aware of feet and toes you shift sensitivity away from the eyes and hands. The next six techniques are little movements which facilitate the smooth transition from setup to takeaway. • As you step up forcefully pound the putter on the ground like Kenny Perry.  This overt movement stimulates a more purposeful mindset. • Place the putter in front of the ball and then loop it back over like Nick Price. • Hover the putter like Jack Nicklaus.  This helps with a more rhythmic and lower takeaway.  You can also feel this takeaway going slightly down in an arc, thus minimizing subtle movements in the wrists. • Put a forward press on the club so it stabilizes both hands in the same position throughout the stroke. • Set the putter 2-3 inches behind the ball.  This promotes a smoother throughstroke. • Gently tap the putterhead a couple of times on the ground before taking it back.  The yips flourish in static tension.  All six techniques engage your natural and purposeful rhythm before the takeaway. STROKING TECHNIQUES Here are some neat techniques.  Experiment with each of them alone and then in combination with one of the above setup positions. • On the rehearsal stroke, have the putterhead follow through blocking out vision of the cup.  This will facilitate completion of the actual stroke. • Purposefully purse or bite your lips during the stroke.  This physical act seems to divert and even dissipate tension. • Stick out your tongue like Michael Jordon.  This keeps your jaw, neck, and shoulders loose. • Feel the inner bone of the rear elbow brush [...] Read more »

GOLF  YIPS TIPS                        Dr. Tom Kubistant, CSP I dont understand it.  Although I work year around with yipsters at the start of every season I receive an influx of requests from those poor souls afflicted with the putting, chipping and pitching, and full swing yips.  The last few Augusts I was contacted by yipsters who lived in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and even Tasmania who were commencing their seasons.  And every March I am almost inundated with correspondence from yipsters across North America and Europe.  It is almost as if golfers vow that in the upcoming season they will better cope with and even conquer their yipping.  I donít understand the motivation for this timing, but there it is. I have been researching and working with the putting yips since 1986.  My first article on it was way back in 1990.  This work expanded to the chipping/pitching and full swing yips.  I have written series of articles on each of these three distinct types of yipping. As this general affliction became more recognized, other athletes, performing artists, and professionals have contacted me for help with their yipping of fine motor skills.  To date, I have helped pianists, dentists, baseball infielders, surgeons, drag racers, pool players, painters and sculptors, basketball players, jugglers, shooters, and even barbers.  Erase those images (for example, of your dentist yipping!) from your head! Along the way, I have almost become a clearinghouse for yips tips.  Now, many of the tips I receive are fads, off-the-wall flukes, ìprofessionalsî trying to market some kind of snake oil, or help only limited types of people.  But some of the advice has lasting and more generalized benefits. Over the years in these pages, I have probably presented well over a hundred proven yips tips.  I want to share some of the more recent putting tips which have helped golfers.  Some of these are broad perspectives, others are physiological and neurological, still others are mechanical and procedural, and some of them are tactical.  Please remember, all tips are isolated techniques.  They need to be incorporated into the golferís entire putting system to be truly effective.  (Please refer to my 2006 three-part series.)  No technique should be employed or relied upon in isolation. NEW ANTIDOTES TO THE Golf YIPS Here are the best new proven putting yips tips you may wish to experiment, employ, and integrate. ï First, at the beginning of the season, decide on ONE putter and stick with it for the entire year.  I encounter so many yipsters who bounce around from putter to putter that, this in itself, only serves to keep them lost.  No matter how mass produced, each putter has its own unique look, feel, and if you will, personality.  Find one which looks good to your eye and stick with it through all of 2008.  Stick with it especially during the low and yippy times.  Blame this on me! Your putter is your tool, sword, or instrument, if you will.  Your putter can also be seen as an extension of your thoughts.  Honor your putter.  Granted, you will make different hand adjustments and even modify the grip (see below), but stick with the same putter.  There are so many subtle variables in putting that you need to stick with the same putter to eliminate as many as them as possible.  Choose one putter for the year. Here is a unique variation which has helped a good many yipsters.  If you want a bigger putter grip, you might want to experiment with building it up from the outside.  Instead of installing a bulbous oversized grip, wrap one or 2 grips over your existing one.  I have found tennis racquet overwraps work best.  (A couple of yipsters have found some success with the opposite extreme in using the thinnest grip they could find.  Keep this option in mind as a possible alternative.) Unlike the slip-on oversize, the added layers provide more feedback.  With any thicker grip you have to stroke the ball more fully, thus better employing the bigger muscle groups of the shoulders.  Especially on short yipable putts, the greater diameter of the grip will help keep the fine motor impulses of the hands disengaged so a more connected stroke can commence.  Make sure you stand taller or have a shorter putter so the arms naturally hang down.  A thick slip-on or overwrap grip will help with a shoulder stroke in which the hands and forearms merely go along for the ride. Take more…or less…time.  Now, you may be reacting,ìGreat, this is a big help!  Bear with me.  Although I advise yipsters to identify, groove, and rely on a consistent preputt routine, sometimes it can become too routine.  Experiment with the extremes of your preputt routine ranging on a continuum from:  Lee Trevinoís philosophy of [...] Read more »