The “Straight Putt” Trick: Read Break Like a Pro (Zen Golf Putting Masterclass)

Nish: 0:00

Every good story is about the journey. And this is the story of our journey trying to play the top 100 golf just 10. Top 100 in 10 Golf podcast. So today is part two of my visit to Zen Golf over in Sheffield. I am going to put a bold prediction out here. I think if you listen to this episode in its entirety and watch the lesson that he gave that Will gave me, you will struggle to misread put ever again because you’ll see putting in a whole new different way. He basically will help you gravity. So Will, who is the head of education at ZenGolf, shares his insights into putting. He does a putting lesson with me. So this episode today is a clip of my chat with Will and tips that I got about ways of approaching my putting. It was an eye-opening session that I had. And today is my way of sharing that with all of you. And I hope you can take something from it. Now before we carry on with the episode, could I ask if you’re watching or listening to this podcast, please could you hit follow or subscribe because it would help us reach our subscriber targets for the year. And then we can produce much better content and more production values to it. And we can get great guests on, like Will from Zen Golf today. Now back to the episode. So today we are focusing less about the technology. I think a lot of people know about the green stage and they know about the variability in the practice and things like that and the technology, but it’s more about the application of that technology and how you put that into a cohesive strategy to make your golf better. And I walked away from today’s putting lesson with a clearer idea of how I want to go and approach my putting now, a solid strategy on how to read puts better, which was amazing. And my main bugbear at the minute is my pace control. And I’ve walked away from this with a way to almost take that out of my head and not be worried about it. What we’re doing here, Will.

Will: 2:21

We’re on the green stage now. The green stage. This gives us the ability. It’s the ultimate putting green. We can do whatever we want, we can transform you, take you wherever you want in the world. Um, but yeah, just get used to the pace and then we’ll start switching it around. And then I just want to same thing which which we did basically in there. And then we’re just gonna help give you some concepts which you can then take onto the course.

Nish: 2:47

Amazing. And I recall last time we were sat around here, and it was yeah, it was lovely. It was a lovely place to be. So, okay.

Will: 2:57

Same thing, you just talked me through. Yeah.

Nish: 2:59

You just hit one, what are you thinking? Oh, that was a close one. I think I went a bit fast. So I’m still trying to get used to my uh super stroke grip. There are other fat grip brands. Over providers available. Yeah. Yeah, I’m still getting used to it at the minute. But I was I was saying to you before, Will, that uh I’ve always been a see it do it. Just see it and do it. Yeah, I I will just like just as I’m rolling it for for distance control, but what has gone in the last year I’d say, is distance control has just you know, particularly with very, very long range puts, that’s just completely disappeared for me. Yeah. Um which is really odd because I was always pretty good at that.

Will: 3:42

So in terms of from my perspective, yeah, you’re doing the classic thing, which everyone does, yeah. Drop a load of balls down, just hit the same, hit the same thing. We talked about that before. So if we’re talking about putting that little bit of randomness, little bit of variability in there, what could you do straight away?

Nish: 3:56

So immediately I could just even if I just go across the Yeah.

Will: 3:59

But the interesting thing is as well, is it’s not just if you want to get good at pace there, yeah, doing longer puts, doing shorter puts, increasing that variability helps your body adapt because we want to be adaptable golfers. So if you’re struggling with pace, don’t hit the same put from the same place. Same place, yeah. Hit some puts from the same place. It’s funny that, isn’t it? That you sort of that feels like the most obvious thing to do, but yeah, it’s strange, isn’t it? So there was a a study done years ago which looked at like um variability in practice, and they did what what’s class is block practice. So they got a group and they had to like basically imagine throwing a beanbag into a hoop. Yeah, they said, right, there’s a hoop, here’s the distance, throw the beanbag. They got one group just thrown it from the same distance, and then one group thrown it from three different distances. They tested what the performance was, and then they tested what the retention was later, so they came back and then did the same thing. Yeah. Who do you think did better in the retention test? Because ultimately that’s about transferring it and retaining the skill. The group who did the variable practice over different distances, or the group who did the specific bearing in mind that the test was coming back and doing the one specific distance, which that one group was doing.

Nish: 5:10

It’s got to be the variable one, hasn’t it? Because you’re you’re probably picking up more a broader skill set, so you’re then able to just go back and do the other one again.

Will: 5:19

That’s it. And it’s wild, isn’t it? Because the traditional form of like learning is you can’t move on until you’re good at one thing. Repeat. Repeat it. So what we’re gonna do now is that I w I’m gonna give you a slope and I want you to talk me through how you solve the problem, how you hit the put.

Nish: 5:37

Okay.

Will: 5:38

Yeah.

Nish: 5:39

Oh, and we’re moving. And we’re moving. It’s great to even see this in action, like not seeing this. Okay. Was that a good putt or a bad put? No, I thought it was a bad put because I just didn’t commit to anything there. I don’t mind missing if I’m not leaving it short. Leaving it short, I don’t like. Okay.

Will: 6:01

Because I don’t have any idea of what it’s doing, like. It’s good for me to understand the psychology of what you what you’re doing. So I want you to break it down a little bit further. Okay. Okay.

Nish: 6:09

So it was a bad put because I thought that was a bad put because in my head I didn’t actually commit. Okay. Because I didn’t visualize that that ball was going to go in. Yeah. I just was it looking for an aiming point rather than anything else. Yeah. So I wasn’t actually thinking about where that ball had to finally end up. That’s why I thought that was a bad put. So you’ve got commitment. Yep.

Will: 6:30

You’ve got intent. I’ve got commitment issues well. You’ve got intent. Yeah. So where did you intend it to do? Yeah. Like what did you and you were saying like your intent was an aim point, wasn’t it?

Speaker 1: 6:40

Yeah.

Will: 6:41

So we can uh we can unravel that a little bit more as well, can’t we? So in terms of intention, what is the roll of the ball, what’s it gonna look like, what’s the trajectory of the put, what pace is it gonna go in, and what part of the hole is it gonna go in, everything like that.

Nish: 6:53

Yeah, so I didn’t do any of that, yeah. Normally when I’m aiming, I’ll pick a spot back of the cup that I want to hit. That’s nice, I like that. That’s my aiming point, yeah. But I didn’t do, I was I was more fixated on because I’ve suddenly now seen this break from it being flat, yeah, fixated on how it’s gonna turn.

Will: 7:13

And then the other part of it, which is something which you potentially didn’t mention, was like what was your stroke, what was your strike like? Yeah, okay. Because your strike, not just the stroke which you hit, you you put on it, but the strike of how you hit the ball will impact on what the distance is. So if you consistently hit it out of the middle or from the same spot, you consistently get the same sort of distance as well. So part of then tracking into that that distance control element is also it’s feedback because you’re getting visual feedback, but you’re also getting haptic feedback, you’re getting that kinesthetic feedback, the feel of the ball coming off the face, and yeah. So we need to add that layer in there as well.

Nish: 7:49

You know, it’s an interesting thing, and I’ll I’ll I’ll I’ll I’ll bring this up because we need any contact with your face or anything like that. I kind of generally don’t tend to think about that. Like I couldn’t tell you where I hit that’s well kind of why I stopped doing the lime thing, yeah. Because I was too worried about getting this little notch onto the end of the line rather than where I was trying to send the ball, and it was I was going haywire with it. Sometimes I’d be like, Oh no, I’ve got to hit it a bit harder because it’s like uphill or whatever, and I was just like and it’s like this minute by analysis, yeah, like minute detail, like and it was so like and I was and I know I’ve not hit that out where I want to hit it, whereas I don’t think about trying not to think about that anymore.

Will: 8:32

Let’s hit another one, okay. And I just want you to give me a rating out of five for the three things for the commitment, yeah, intent, yeah, and strike.

Nish: 8:42

Well, so a couple of things I did there, strike five out of five. I thought I hit that really, really well. I was thinking about the whole, the whole of the way, all the way through, or where it wanted to go in the whole way through, and then yeah, I suppose intent-wise, that’s was it was just like that’s the line that the ball’s gonna take, and that’s how it’s gonna five, five, fine.

Will: 9:05

That sounds pretty good, mate.

Nish: 9:07

Right, I can go home now.

Will: 9:10

Okay, so new slope.

Nish: 9:13

Move around.

Will: 9:14

You can you can go wherever you want to go. The more you move around, the different the different uh a different put it’ll be. So we can have the same put, and this is what we’ll we can talk about as well is that when we look at strokes gained, yeah, you get it in distances. But if you hit a put from here across the slope and then it goes across and down, yeah. If I go up here, it’s more down and less across. Even though we’re going from the same distance, we’re going for we’re getting a different putt. Yeah, we’re getting a different experience. Yeah. So actually, we’ve got to think about how we solve that problem, doesn’t it? Yeah, the variability of it. So when we’re practicing, we don’t we can’t just go, I’m gonna practice 10 foot puts, 15 foot puts, five foot putts. It’s about the variety of the putt from that distance as well.

Nish: 9:58

And that’s those putting mats now, right? Yeah. There it is, a 10-foot putting mat, dead straight putt. Yeah, that’s all you’re doing.

Will: 10:06

Yeah, it’s just repeating, isn’t it?

Nish: 10:08

Rather than only one gear kitchen floor.

unknown: 10:10

Yeah.

Will: 10:11

I think where we’re what we’re we’re starting to see is that when you commit, you get a good strike. And um where the breakdown is is actually what is your intention. Yeah. And actually, really getting focused in on that intention. Yeah. So when you listen to people like Ian Polter, yeah, you listen to how he hits putts. He’s he just thinks it’s going in. Yeah, it’s just always gonna go in. He’s so deadly focused on what he is intending to do that he makes it happen.

Speaker 1: 10:40

Yeah.

Will: 10:41

Like it just happens, just force of will. That’s it. So that’s where we’re missing at the moment. So it’s the pace control, isn’t it? It’s something which you’ve already flagged up. We’ve hit quite a few, we’ve hit one short, and then you’ve, if I’m honest, you’ve hit quite a few past, yeah, which are probably gonna leave you anything from four foot to six foot past. Yeah. So even from 14 feet away, yeah, 13 feet away, you’re now putting yourself in an opportunity where you’re gonna have a free put, aren’t you? Because your intention isn’t matching your perception.

Speaker 1: 11:13

Yeah, okay. Does that make sense?

Will: 11:14

Yeah, okay. So what we’re gonna do is just I I want you, yeah, I’m gonna give you a little test. I want you to show me where the straight put is. Through the hole. Through the hole. So I want you to this is like a little arrow. And I want you to lay this through the hole where you think the straight put is.

Nish: 11:38

Well, what do you mean by that so much? When you say straight putting it.

Will: 11:41

Is it straight is it straight there? So if I stood here and hit a putt from back here, is that bang straight? Oh, I see. So from and Or is it from here, or is it straight here, or is it straight there?

Nish: 11:52

So where it’s level, basically, is what you’re saying. Yeah.

Will: 11:55

Yeah. So think of it as a clock face. This is interesting, this. Think of it as a clock face. So 12 o’clock straight downhill, 6 o’clock straight uphill. 3 o’clock is right to left, perfectly right to left. 9 o’clock’s perfectly left to right. So I want you to put this at 12 o’clock. If I just dropped a ball, it would roll. So if I ramped up this slope, if I put a ball there, it would just roll in. I think it’ll roll in there. Okay. I think. So where you’ve been wrong at test will.

Nish: 12:24

You’re gonna find out about my psychology here now.

Will: 12:27

So where we currently are, yeah. On the clock face, it’s eight o’clock. You’re kidding.

Nish: 12:34

Eight o’clock?

Will: 12:35

Twelve o’clock is actually here. That is gonna roll downhill there. That’s rolling downhill. So if that’s gravity, if that’s showing us where gravity’s moving. Yeah. What impacts on the ball to make it break? Well, it’s a pull of gravity. So if we can see gravity, what do you think it’s gonna do for your attention?

Nish: 12:55

Some pushing it that pushing the ball that way. Yeah.

Will: 12:58

So if you know that this is 12 o’clock here, and you know that the ball is on this side of the hole, you know that it’s what? Right to left or left to right? It’s left to right. It’s a left to right put. So we’re already decoding the put a little bit.

Nish: 13:11

Yeah, so you know it’s that side of the side of the hole, hole.

Will: 13:15

And if we know that, is it above or below nine o’clock? Oh, it’s above. Where’s the ball is? Oh, sorry, where the buttons would be like, yeah, yeah, sorry. So then we know it’s uphill left to right, don’t we? So get into now, so you’ve got a segment now. Now we’ve got a little segment. Okay.

Nish: 13:30

Okay.

Will: 13:31

So now this is interesting. One thing which you did, and I don’t know whether that’s just because Sam stood here. Okay. You never came around the hole.

Nish: 13:38

No, I didn’t.

Will: 13:38

You’re right. So when we think about when we think about the ball, it gets launched at a speed, and something like 60% or like 70% of the break happens in the last three feet of the putt. Right when it enters decay phase. So as it slows down, when it stops true rolling, when it starts reaching its optimal its momentum from the put, as gravity takes hold, as a friction of the surface takes hold, that’s where all the break happens. So if that’s where all the break happens, where should we spend all that time? At the hole. So come stand near me. Fascinating. And actually, I’m gonna put uh I’m gonna put a um thing where you thought the straight foot was, which is about here. Yeah. And I just want you to walk around this surface and walk around this space and just feel it under your feet. And just feel like just go around here, just follow me around in a circle. Right, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, following you around. There we go. So tell me when we start moving uphill. Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah. And then we’ll then when do we start moving downhill?

Nish: 14:40

Yeah, around here. Yeah.

Will: 14:42

So now you’re starting to feel the environment. Because what we’re trying to do is, when you’re back here, you need to have that embodiment of that environment. You need to be aware of what’s happening up there. Yeah. So if we come back here now, how does that change your perception of that putt?

Nish: 15:00

Well, so my first effort, well, number one is I’m thinking about how how hard I would watch you hard or not hard to hit that now. Gravity’s gonna push that. It’s not pushing it a huge amount, it’s not like it’s a big hooping.

Will: 15:16

Yeah, but yeah, true, I agree. It also depends on the pace which you want to play it in at. So if this is 12 o’clock, where on the clock face do you want that ball to roll in the hole at?

Nish: 15:29

I would say there’s nine o’clock. Yeah, I’d probably say about nine or ten. I’d want it to go in.

Will: 15:35

Yeah? Yeah. So nine o’clock’s there, so ten o’clock’s a little bit high. There on that high side. So if you come and stand back here where I am, and I want you to stand on the lower side of the hole. Yeah. This way. Gonna get touchy feely here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No problem, no problem. Now I want you to draw a picture. How how’s that ball? So if you’re saying 10 o’clock, which is here, yeah. How’s that ball gonna get from there to there? So from my foot, reverse engineer the putt.

Nish: 16:04

This is so interesting, this, you know. You never I you never look at it from the the whole side of it. Or I don’t, sorry, I should say I don’t.

Will: 16:11

Hold that in your hand, use a club to paint it. Right, feel the pace in your hand. Now, what are we doing? Coupling intent, perception together. We’ll not perception action couple together. What we’re seeing and what we’re doing, yeah. Interesting. Right, let’s see. So start the hole, draw your eyes all the way back to the ball, along that trajectory, along that line where you’re seeing it, yeah. Oh, I wasn’t too far off that in terms of what I was trying to do. You just left it short, first put you left short. What was your relate what was your reaction to it?

Nish: 16:44

So the first one with a short is my intent wasn’t there.

Will: 16:47

Yeah. That was when I was that first short. What was your what was your shit? Because I hate leaving it short. You hated it. Yeah. You just left one short and you’re like, I was alright then, yeah, yeah, it wasn’t too bad. Because I was like, I’ve read Because you’ve committed to your intent. And that’s the difference, isn’t there?

Nish: 17:02

Interesting.

Will: 17:03

Yeah. So instead of becoming outcome focused, which is what a lot of people kill themselves about. Yeah. It says, So even if we I’ll tell you what, let’s bring the put the ball into here. Yep. So what are we nine foot away?

Nish: 17:16

Okay. Here, what you think very common kind of put distance, right? So this could be a paw, it could be a birdie on a par five. Generally speaking, my level, I’m leaving myself. This is like I’ve got a score with this, I’ve got a I’ve got to hold this because I’m like parring it, or or it’s for this is for a bogey because I’ve nailed my long distance once a long way. Yeah. So I don’t want to double. So it feels like you’re adding a little bit of pressure onto it because you don’t want to do that.

Will: 17:43

So at tall level, what’s a percentage make rate?

Nish: 17:46

From nine foot? I don’t know, it’s probably not even 30%, is it? 60%? 50%.

Will: 17:53

So it’s a flip of a coin. Yeah. So but at tall level. At tort level, it’s a flip of a coin. So what’s your expectation? Yeah, so if you’re saying you’ve got to hold it, at tour level it would be 50-50. Yeah. So when you talked about your first putt and you went, I hate that because I left it short, didn’t give myself an opportunity and go, well, actually, from 13, 14 feet, you know, even the pros are holding what 20%, 25%. Right. And you’re kicking yourself for that. So now it’s just about actually let’s I’m not telling people to t to think that they’re never gonna hold a put ever again. What I’m saying is if we can temper our expectations that we don’t get down on ourselves, and we can actually go out. What is a good put?

Speaker 1: 18:35

Yeah, okay.

Will: 18:36

A good put is when you can commit with intent. Yeah. Or you commit with the intent where you wanted. And you were happy with that. So you felt like that was actually a good put, even though it didn’t get it and it didn’t have a chance of going in.

Nish: 18:48

No. Because it was a good put, yeah. Yeah. But yeah, well I was like, yeah, I’m happy with that because felt like I read it well, and you know, it was it would have dropped had it not been for those pesky kids, you know. I’ve never thought about going to the behind the hole and then doing that the other way.

Will: 19:05

Yeah, I think there’s there’s there’s a school for where particularly for to help you find to read a put, you should be on the low side of the hole so that it’d be reading it from this side, but also then so the low side and below the hole. So but it whatever’s low, which would be down there, yeah, and then the low, and then back and then down of the hole in terms of like down the slope of it. So you’d be coming and spay spending a lot of time here. This this side. But what you just did, what we just did, is that we also then came behind the hole and watched the ball come in, didn’t we? So we’re building that that pattern, that efferent pattern, that image in our brain where we can start to see and visualize something.

Speaker 1: 19:46

Yeah.

Nish: 19:47

That tracing it backwards was was fascinating. So I didn’t I wouldn’t have ever really thought to do that. Point of interest, and you might not know this number at all, but like, you know, what what’s the what would you say is a a feel of a percentage of people who actually get some actual putting coaching versus going and working on their swing.

Will: 20:08

It’s microscopic.

Nish: 20:10

Yeah, I was gonna say it’s less than probably five, ten percent, even not even that, maybe.

Will: 20:14

I think it’s something like um I think it’s something that it up the eight, I think it I don’t think I think it’s higher than that. I think it’s still like eight percent or lessons or swing lessons.

Speaker 1: 20:23

Yeah, yeah.

Will: 20:24

Um, and I understand the psychology behind it. Like, no one wants to be put in for a 10. Yeah, didn’t think of it like that. No one wants to be put in for a 10. People want to get onto the green with an opportunity to do something. Yeah. The interesting thing is that everyone can put, everyone has the ability to put. No one has the abil not everybody has the ability to hit a ball 250 yards, let alone 300 yards, you know. Yeah. Um, but every person, you know, and we do this at events where we’ll do like a famous puts challenge, and the majority of the time the people who win it are the are the non-golfers or the kids. Yeah, just rock up and hit it. They see it and they do it, and they just they go, Oh, what is it? Let me feel it, blah blah blah, and just have a go. They’re not got bringing any preconceptions, not thinking about clubhead, they’re not thinking, oh, it’s got to be the same this way and that way, not thinking about how I aim it and what I do. Yeah, just look and go. Because but the beauty of it is that it’s from our perspective, it’s a way of bringing people into this game. There’s always gonna be a level where someone’s been to Scarborough, yeah, being on the crazy goals. Yeah, but that there’s no reason why we can’t use putting in the same way to bring people into this game so they can fall in love with it. Because I’d rather still hold have the opportunity to hold a birdie putt or hold one putt. You’re always gonna have more opportunities to hit putts than you are gonna have opportunities to hit amazing free woods into telephone and stuff like that. So that’s you use this the most, don’t you?

Nish: 21:44

Of all the your whole bags. So Yeah, I’d be interested to know that what that percentage is. But oh yeah, sorry, yeah, yeah, yeah. Where’s that? Right. Oh, I think twelve o’clock right there. Yeah. Nice. It’s not better. I’m so happy I got a question right.

Will: 22:02

Give me your intent. Where’s this ball rolling in at? See, I I I’m eleven. I like it. I’d want that to go in at eleven. Yeah. Come back here then. Let’s let’s paint that picture all the way from the back to the foot. So if this is 12 o’clock, there’s 11 o’clock. How’s that ball gonna get there? Build it from the hole back to the ball, and then go and recreate that image back here. And you’re over it. Draw them eyes back. Yeah. The smoother your gaze, the better it’ll be.

Nish: 22:33

I’d have never thought to go back and look at it from the back of the hole.

Will: 22:36

You’d never say that putting was artistic either, and you just used the word draw. Draw, yeah. I’m gonna draw it. I’m gonna draw the image, I’m gonna draw the picture. Interesting. It’s all about just feeling that how gravity really connects to it. Not on the side of the hole I wanted. Yeah. But better. So, what am I gonna ask you to do now? Three balls, same place. Different pace. Different pace. So, hit one fast. So if you know that you know that it’s possible to go low, it’s probably possible to go high. So hit one fast, hit one slow. Remember, as you change the pace. Look at that though. Wow. As you change the pace, you also need to change the angle, don’t you? You can’t just hit it at the same place. So I’d actually say, you know, at a medium pace, these are looking pretty good. So Nish, if you’re talking to me and you’re saying, right, if we’ve got a problem with distance control, it’s not it’s not a case of hitting the ball past, is it? So it’s about being able to play between the mid and the slow pace. Because there’s gonna be times when the slope’s gonna dictate what the pace you can actually hit this ball at, isn’t it? Yeah. Both from a strategical perspective, that makes sense. Yeah. So if you hit that ball past, if if we’ve got an uphill putt, we don’t want to smash it miles past. No. Because then we’ve got a downhill biddler, haven’t we? So you would need to be able to play with pace. See now looking at that. That’s more the pace, isn’t it? That is the pace. That’s looking nice. So now what do we need to change? So I need my angle to go further out. Yeah. So now we’re starting to really decode the whole putt, aren’t we? But it starts with perception. See, your thingies are pretty perfect for just a nice pace to put. What we need to be able to do is now couple you up to what the pace of the put is. You know, I think your intention is always to commit with intent, with pace. Yeah. Rather than quote unquote the right pace. Oh! Hardly touched that. So when we come back to the whole point again, it’s like when we get good at goal, need to practice not just different varieties of shots and puts, but also not just just the different angles or the different distances, but the different paces of them. Yeah. Comes back to that big word again, degeneracy.

Speaker 1: 25:05

Yeah.

Will: 25:05

It’s about being adaptable, you know, and this is a great way of doing it, is that you can see, start to, but you you’re grounding it in perception, aren’t we? So we’re building this picture of what’s possible. Yeah. And then what we’re doing is we’re exploring it, we’re being playful in there. Yeah. So now if we feel that this is possible, can we play underneath it? Can we play around it?

Speaker 1: 25:28

Yeah.

Will: 25:29

To the point when you were just dying it in. It just that’s just rolled in, didn’t it?

Nish: 25:35

Powerful. Like you’re such an adaptable golfer if you can use that to your advantage. Like you’re saying, you know, you don’t want to leave yourself three, four feet past over here, because then you’ve got the opposite problem. Exactly.

Will: 25:50

So however, how much of this you want to take forwards to it is entirely up to you. Yeah. Yeah? Because ultimately, you’re not going to walk around with a load of ghost holes, and you’re not going to walk around with a big rubber arrow in your pocket.

Nish: 26:06

No, but it’s such a nice thing to have in your head, though, of like even just working out where is the natural gravity bit of the hole to drop in.

Will: 26:15

And that’s it. We want you to have that ability so you can see gravity.

Nish: 26:19

Yeah.

Will: 26:20

So for you to see gravity, you have to sense it. We call this like active perception, being an active perceiver, not just passive. We don’t want you a passive golfer, we want you active in that. Yeah?

Speaker 1: 26:31

Yeah. Okay.

Will: 26:32

Okay, so choose a choose a ball, choose a ball location. You’re gonna stick with there. Okay. Come show me, come tell me and show me your intent. I don’t want to just just just drop in.

Nish: 26:46

Okay. That’s what I’m trying to do. Just drop in. Sheesh. You know when I was given my intent scores and stuff like that? Like five out of five before. Nah. It was one and two. That’s there’s so much more intention there, isn’t it? Isn’t there? Sorry. You’ve got your entry point into the target, you’ve got the pace that you want it to go at. And also you’re f you’re focusing on that bit as well, aren’t you? So you’re not you know, you know, I’m not I’m not looking at a line on my ball going. Like this notch needs to hit the line.

Will: 27:26

Yeah, so if I said to you that 90% of where the ball goes we’re putting is down to face angle at impact.

Nish: 27:34

Face angle impact.

Will: 27:35

So where the face is when it hits the ball for ball. Yeah. That’s that metric alone has driven so many coaches to go down that route as being the key thing which they need to control and improve in their player.

Nish: 27:48

Yeah, okay.

Will: 27:49

Right. Have we had to worry about that today?

Nish: 27:52

We’ve not touched that at all, have we? Why? Just doing it yourself, you do it when you work it out.

Will: 27:56

It’s we call it self-organization. And just what you talked to me about, you talked about I just roll the put. Just roll the putt, yeah. And now what we’re doing is we’re just coordinating that thumb to our eye, aren’t we? And what you talked about before was like if I put a line on a ball and then I’m lining my put, think about that’s the dartboard. The ball is the dart, and the club head is your hand. What happens when you put the line on the ball? You tell me what was happening to you. Well, I’m only thinking about this thing here, just there’s nothing going on. Exactly. So then your hand becomes the hand, the club becomes the dart, and the ball becomes the dartboard. You’ve lost the dartboard, haven’t you?

Nish: 28:35

Yeah. So by I’ve never been down with that kind of like um take it back this much to go back to get that.

Will: 28:43

Hey, I’ve never been down with that kind of thing. It’s amazing that by just helping you see gravity and helping you then attune yourself, dial in, yeah, get in your old dials. I’ll not do them up around here. Yeah. For those on visual. Yeah. Um, not have to I’ve not had to go, because what’s the tradition what would be a traditional putting lesson?

Nish: 29:08

I bet it’s just like metronomic, right? Where it’s just like you gotta get your move your shoulders like this and hands in a position, lighten the grip, all this kind of stuff. Haven’t had to touch on that, over there. Visualise the the path of the ball and wow. That’s powerful, isn’t it?

Will: 29:27

Yeah, because I’m just tapping into something which is just you’ve been doing as a human being for the last millennia. Amazing. Where are you? Picking up a row a rock to know let’s say if I was a a maniac throwing something at you. But if I was a saber-toothed tiger, you you’re looking at rocks next to you, how you’re gonna defend yourself, you’ll pick one up which you know you can throw at it. Yeah. Based on how far away that tiger is.

unknown: 29:55

Yeah.

Will: 29:56

You’re not thinking, right, pick one up, pick one up, pick one up. Yeah. Direct perception, it’s all online, off you go.

Nish: 30:03

Or you’re not like thinking, oh, what’s my thing?

Will: 30:04

Or if they’re really close to you, and they’re up in your face, you probably get for the big one because you can smash it on them because it’s heavier and you can move it at smaller. But if they’re 30 yards away, you’re not gonna pick the big one up. Your body won’t even look at it.

Nish: 30:18

Yeah, you’re making those value judgments straight away, sort of thing. Yeah, that’s interesting, isn’t it? That you just yeah, I mean, like I say, I I would love to I’d be fascinated to know what the percentage are of getting your putting lessons versus traditional lessons are.

Will: 30:34

Yeah. But it’s because. But yeah, but you know why? Every putting lessons done here on the flat. Yeah. So, like I I’ve sort of talked about before, I don’t blame the coach, you know? Yeah. Because they haven’t had the technology and they haven’t had the opportunity.

Speaker 1: 30:53

Yeah.

Will: 30:53

Because sometimes they might go on to the putting green and there’s a corporate day, can’t get on it, it’s packed. Um, the practice ground putting green is terrible, it’s no use, it’s not real. You can’t go on the golf course because it’s busy, um, or they’re going to annoy members, or there’s people playing through, you know. Um, so where they end up going is on the carpet.

Speaker 1: 31:14

Yeah.

Will: 31:14

You know, they go on the flat put. And then once you’re there, what what else can you do? You can’t do anything else. There’s no variability, is there?

Nish: 31:21

You are just going on do my shoulders go round.

Will: 31:24

Or the ball went right. What does that mean? So if the ball went right, oh 90% of the ball, uh uh the direction of the ball is face at impact. Oh, right, cool. I need to control it. So we need to control is face at impact.

Nish: 31:35

Oh, that’s if it went right. Is that this sort of thing? Is that coming into the the the super stroke grip? Yeah. How do you hold it?

Will: 31:42

So that was interesting, that, because as soon as I pull my footers out, that’s the first thing you you picked up on the So if you think about, and also think about how much foam is on there. And you said to me at the start, you said No feel.

Nish: 31:55

I struggle with feel. That’s exactly what I said to you. What are you saying, Will? You’re saying I’ve screwed myself over here with my buttons, what you’re saying. No, I understand, I understand exactly where you’re coming from now, you know, and that’s that kind of almost realization moment. You go, well, hang on a minute. I mean, clearly I can do it, you know, it’s it’s fine, and it’s just you know, fine or whatever.

Will: 32:19

I mean, I’m choking down and it does help, but I talk talk to him about it before on the last on the first podcast was that when I did my master’s research at the time, it Dave Pells was the man, like he was coaching, you know, like Phil uh Phil Mickles and the stuff, and his thing was like you take it straight back and straight through, and you keep the club club the putter face on the same line all the time. For you to do that as a human and how you hold the golf club, you’d have to manipulate you this way and manipulate that way.

Speaker 1: 32:51

Yeah.

Will: 32:52

It’s not natural. No. So what we found was that when you hit puts, that everyone’s actually got their own stroke for different slopes. Yeah. Really consistent movement patterns for different slopes. Really consistent movement pattern in different environments.

Nish: 33:12

Do you know what’s interesting there actually, Will? And when I first stepped up on here and you said I’ll get get feeling for the pace of the thing, you know, and you’re thinking, you know, okay, yeah, well, is it is it fast, is it slow, whatever. When I hit that one and I hit that one, the two that went just that just were at sort of dropping in pace because I was concentrating on them dropping in and for and in my mind I could see the ball dropping into the hole. I wasn’t thinking about how hard I’m hitting it now here at all. It was just like tell us what needs to happen for it for that bit for that final outcome to happen, which is an interesting shift.

Will: 33:55

Exactly. So, what what we’ve sort of done there is we’ve changed sort of the focus from being internal, as in what do I need to do with the club to get the ball there? Yeah, to then being external, which is what does the environment demand of me? Yeah. So now you’re focusing out here, external focus, is all that here, rather than what am I doing with the golf club?

Nish: 34:15

Yeah, like am I drawing all these lines and things like that, and like okay, I could you know, put a T peg here because I can’t have the putter head going there or whatever. It’s like none of that, it’s just focus on that bit there because your body will get the ball there.

Will: 34:28

And then also then it’s with that, it’s trying to help you just become a lot more natural. Yeah, um, it’s helping you to become more of a problem solver than a essentially process-driven, gotta do this to do this, to do this. And with it, it improves it’s a weird thing, but it improves your distance control. So the less you think about what you’re doing here, the more think about what’s going on there, yeah. Just like me throwing a phone at you.

Nish: 34:57

Then decapitating me. Let’s let’s not you know, let’s not beat your own the bush. Like what you try to do is basically decapitate me. Well, but you know, whatever.

Will: 35:04

Hopefully, I don’t have to keep you coming back.

Nish: 35:06

I just think the the yeah, I think the dry cleaning bill would have been quite hefty. Yeah, you know, but I mean you’re right, you you know, you’ve done that twice, but you’ve done that twice for a reason, throwing that because it’s like it’s just instinctive, like you can catch.

Will: 35:19

Yeah, there’s no motor programme, there’s no computer program in here. You react into the environment, it’s online, it’s cot, you’re constantly processing this perceptual information, yeah. Um, and the more we can tap into that natural aspect of who you are and embrace it, yeah, and just go see do like what you talked about, that’s when you feel like you put the best.

Nish: 35:41

But what what an amazing takeaway, both things, you know. If you if you’re if you dipped into one episode, either me trying to swing a golf ball or me trying to put, you know, watch or listen to the other one because it’s all just about what is natural to you. Just do that, but more of that, and find that by using these sorts of tools.

Will: 36:05

In terms of a putting lesson, green reading should be like the first thing.

Speaker 1: 36:09

Yeah.

Will: 36:10

Secondly, it’s about how you control pace. After that, then it’s about how does the how does a putter work for you to be able to coordinate speed and distance control. Yeah. And through this, we’ll all I’d be doing lots of different expo uh experiences of different slopes, severities of slopes. Yeah. So if a perfect example is if you’re struggling with pace control, the best thing for you to go is go and get six balls, do three from uphill, three from downhill. But don’t go three downhill, just go uphill, downhill, uphill, yeah, alternate it, yeah. And what you’re gonna find is you’re gonna create patterns, so you’re gonna create that variability and that adaption. And what your body will do is self-organise and it’ll calibrate it within that space. Instead of just sitting there and hitting six balls on the flat putt, trying to nail a really good flat put. So after you’ve got pace control, then it’s fitting the putter. And then if you fit the putter correctly, based on how you feel and you’ve got awareness of that putter, yeah, your intention, tying it to your intention, you’ll probably be delivering the putter perfect every time. So you see. How we’ve just flipped the cart before the horse, and we just go, right, let’s get you fitted, let’s get the let’s get the measuring devices out, let’s get how what’s working. And the first thing probably wouldn’t be let’s make sure this putter’s right for you. No, let’s make sure that you actually believe that you’re sending it in the right space. It’ll be right, we need to change the mechanics, or we need to change your grip, or need to change ball position or stance. Change you first before we Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s it. You you do yeah, you do that bit. Where is that straight put? As soon as you’ve got that straight put.

Nish: 37:46

That changes everything, doesn’t it? Where’s the straight put? That’s the that’s the thing I want to take away from all of this. Like, where’s the straight put? Yeah.

Will: 37:54

Then once you’ve got it.

Nish: 37:55

I’ve never ever ever thought of it that way.

Will: 37:57

And then go be playful. Go and play a slow put in there, go and play a fast put in there. Play with some variety, play with some fun, just like we did in.

Nish: 38:07

You almost can’t misread a put, can you, if you figure out where the straight put is, because it’s pretty hard. You’re gonna be you’re gonna be struggling, aren’t you? Unless there’s not double breaks or anything like that. You’re struggling to misread a put then because you’ve worked out which side of the hole the ball is gonna drop from naturally. So it’s just about you getting the ball to there. Yeah, yeah. Well, I I don’t think I’ll be three putting now. That’s it, that’s my guarantee. Cast iron guarantee. Will thank you so much for both uh lessons I’m gonna say, because that’s how it’s going to be. No, certainly. I mean, I’ve taken so much out of it, and I mean I said it last time, but what a great company, what a great British company, great British success story. And look, people need to badger their clubs to get these in. They really do, because it’s so so good. So, so good. Thank you. Thanks, Will. So I’m sure you’ll agree that was unbelievable. And if you haven’t watched this episode, please get on YouTube and watch it. You get to see the stage moving, which is incredible. We’ve been sat here and done an interview with Will before, and we didn’t get that experience, but it’s honestly it’s an attack of the senses. So, yeah, that that was a a brilliant episode, and we’ve got a previous one to this one, which is on the swing studio. So that’s the one with the new track man integration, which is news that’s hot off the press. The guys have just been at the PJ tour in Orlando, and the whole world of golf is excited about that integration. So it’s where the lie and the angles change according to where you’ve landed on the fairway or the rough. And honestly, it’s mind-blowing, it really is. So please view this as a double header and get on there. And while you’re at it, please drop us a like or subscribe. That’d be amazing. Until next time on the Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast.