As we all know, putting requires a solid stroke that is derived from very coordinated motions of the shoulders, arms and hands, not to mention the complex set of psychomotor motions that must be mastered between the body and brain in order to be consistent. If you have control of this “powerful package” formed by your shoulders and arms, then you will be able to control your putting stroke.
In this article, I examine the most common problems that excessive flexion and extension of the lead and trailing elbows cause during a golfer’s stroke and how to fix them.
Within my putting academy I use several high tech tools in order to study the effects of the putting stroke. In this article I will feature two of my systems:
Advanced Motion Measurement’s 3D Motion Analysis System
The SAM Puttlab created by Science & Motion Sports
The Most Common Putting Problems
Within my putting research I feel I have identified the six most common issues within a golfer’s putting stroke that stem from the improper flexion and extension of the elbows. These issues can happen at any point during the stroke, and will negatively influence a gofler’s actions on the greens if left untamed. We used 3D Motion Analysis Testing with golfers of differing handicap levels in order to identify the following flaws, which are listed in order from address to follow-through.
Elbows at the address position
Flexion values for lead and trailing elbows at the address position
Lead and trailing elbow extension during the address position
Elbow separation on the backswing
Rear-elbow flexion on backswing
Lead-elbow flexion through impact and its influence on the lead wrist
The “pulling in” of the elbows during the finish
Elbows at the address position
If you assume your normal address position with your putter and look down, you will see that your elbows hang a certain distance apart; however, what happens if you push your elbows together or move them outward? Is there a correct position?
The graphic above shows a right-handed golfer whose elbows are separated by 12 inches. The “pockets” on the inside of each elbow are not quite facing the sky, but they are close. This is the most relaxed, but controllable position golfers can have within their putting setup. They have “locked in” the framework, but have not created any adverse tension or unnatural positions with their elbows in the process.
What happens when the elbow separation becomes too narrow? Whenever golfers press their arms close together, tension is created. The tension is mostly felt where the inside of the upper arms meet the side of the chest. As we all know, tension in the putting stroke is a bad thing and it will not take long to permeate throughout the whole body, making a smooth stroke almost impossible. If the elbows start to creep too close, inside the 8-to10-inch mark (depending on your frame size), I can almost guarantee that they will have unwanted tension in their putting stroke.
Think back to Jack Nicklaus’ putting setup. What do you remember? Nicklaus had wide elbows and a very steady head! This is a fine position for the type of “push” putter Nicklaus was, where the rear forearm “pushed” or powered the stroke while the lead arm went along for the ride. But most people do not do this when placed in this position. If your elbows move 13-to-15 or more inches apart, most golfers will find that maintaining proper posture becomes very hard unless their putter is quite long. Whenever I see someone whose elbows are this far apart, I usually see poor posture as well from the down-the-line view. Whenever golfers crouch over the ball, they tend to “stand-up” through impact and leave the ball out to the right of your target. It also can be very uncomfortable to set up in this manner with a standard length putter, which leads to: “OW! My back.”
In the graphic above, the golfer has placed his rear forearm and the lead forearm in different flexes, which causes shoulder alignment issues. The rear forearm is flexed at 162.5 degrees (with 180 degrees being straight) and the leading forearm is flexed slightly more at 154.2 degrees. This places one shoulder out of line with the other, but more on that later in the article.
In a perfect world, I would like to see a golfer’s forearms flexed the same amount so that his or her shoulders, hips, knees, feet and the ball’s targetline are all parallel to one another. This creates, what Dave Pelz calls “perfect flowlines.”
A note for the average golfer
Most golfers align their shoulders to the left of their intended target line due to the improper flexing of the forearms. Thus, if I had to pick one error I’d like to eliminate within the set-up position I’d like to see the trailing forearm flexed slightly more than the lead forearm (remember, more flexed means closer to 90 degrees), or dropped closer to the hip. This accomplishes two things:
It keeps the shoulders square to the target line at address, not open, as most players tend to place them.
It also helps the rear forearm and the club shaft stay merged within in the same plane.
Drill: Whenever the rear forearm is flexed correctly, a line drawn up the club shaft will bisect the forearm directly. Look for this in your mirror at home.
Lead and trailing elbow extension during the address position
I touched on this aspect of the address position above, but I would like to go into deeper detail in order to show you the correlations between the leading and trailing elbow flex and its effect on the position of the shoulders.
Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 1 shows a trailing forearm that is flexed at 162.5 degrees (too straight), and shoulders that are opened two degrees. This goes to show you that as your rear elbow flex diminishes, the shoulders will open. However, if your lead forearm is too straight, then the shoulders will likely be too closed.
There are two ways to eliminate this from creeping into your putting stroke.
Use a mirror and audit your down-the-line position.
Have a friend place a club shaft along your forearms at your address position. If it is parallel to your ball’s target line then you are fine. If not, you will know which forearm is not flexed enough.
Elbow separation on the backswing
Another interesting flaw that I’ve seen develop during testing (mostly with average golfers) was those golfers’ tendency to “widen” or “spread” their elbows farther apart as the club moved from address to the top position. Biomechanically, that move keeps the putter head from rotating open on the way back, and tends to push the putter on a more straight-back-and-straight-through path.
I really don’t know why it happens (I will need to do extra testing in order to answer this question), but my conjecture is that these players internally believe that they must move the putter straight back and straight through on a straight line and not an arc.
NOTE: If you could naturally move the putter straight back and straight through with zero face rotation, it would be a much easier way to putt. But our testing has shown that the body’s anatomical design always tries to put “some” arc in the stroke unless you physically stop it from doing so by making a physical manipulation (i.e. widening your elbows on the backstroke).
Rear-elbow flexion on backswing
Another interesting development in the very novice golfer was the over-flexion of the rear elbow during the backstroke. Imagine setting up to hit a putt, and the first move you make is to flex (moving toward 90 degrees) your rear elbow in order to power the putter shaft on the backswing.
This causes two things to happen. One, it allows your putter to leave the ground too rapidly, and two, it causes your angle of attack on the forward swing to be too steep. This action de-lofts the putter at impact too much, and unless you adjust your putter’s loft accordingly, you will actually drive the ball into the ground. That causes the ball to bounce before it rolls.
In the image above, you can see on the left how the backswing line is very “up” and the right side of the graph (in red) shows the putter face being de-lofted 2.4 degrees. Now assume that you have a standard putter with 4 degrees of loft and you deloft it 2.4 degrees:
4 – 2.4 = 1.6 degrees of dynamic loft.
Couple this with the fact that your putter is chopping down on the ball (moving 2.4 degrees downward at impact), and you have the keys to making the ball skid and bounce off the start of its roll! In order to stop this problem from happening, simply keep the putter head closer to the ground during the backswing and that should take care of most of it.
Lead elbow flexion through impact and its influence on the lead wrist
As the putter moves through impact, several things are happening at once: the putter path is flattening out, the putter is hopefully moving at a constant rate of acceleration and the face is beginning to rotate back to square (90 degrees to your arc). It is here that the ball’s initial starting direction and velocity are programmed. If you have issues here, you will surely fail.
Notice the lead elbow’s flex above, 134.6 degrees, which means it has a lot of flex in it on the way through impact. Now, notice the lead wrist’s position (it is 33.1 degrees extended, or cupped). This shows you that as the lead elbow flexes more through impact, the lead wrist begins to breakdown and this adds loft to the putter and interrupts the natural closing rate of your putter head, which leaves putts out to the right. This impact alignment breakdown is the major flaw for all golfers today, from PGA Tour players down to the weekend hacker.
In a perfect world, the above example is how your impact alignments should look — the lead elbow is very extended and the lead wrist is in a very neutral position. If you “breakdown” the lead elbow’s flex, the lead wrist will follow suit and you will add loft to your putter as shown by the graphic below.
4-degree putter + 3 degrees of added loft = a 7-degree putter
That’s basically a chipper!
The “pulling in” of the elbows during the finish
By now, we have all seen the golfer who “pulls his arms into his body just after impact,” which would be like impacting the golf ball and then trying to stick the butt of the club into your belly-button as quickly as possible. Obviously, this impedes the level of accuracy golfers are going for on the putting green, but thankfully it only afflicts novice golfers and is a flaw that is easily overcome.
Just after impact, golfers should feel the putter head staying reasonably low to the ground (don’t force it!) as in the graphic below. This allows the putter head to naturally release back to square at impact and it keeps the putter head’s rate of rotation through impact constant. You can see how the leading elbow flex is 150.1, which is very close to 180 (perfectly straight), and this does not allow the lead wrist to breakdown too rapidly during the process. This is the motion necessary to control the closing rate of your putter face through impact.
When these positive motions occur through impact, it keeps the rate of rotation very constant through the ball, as shown in the bottom right graph above. Notice how close the lines are to being on top of one another. Thats means that each individual stroke that was measured had virtually the same rate and amount of rotation through impact!