What is rhythm? How do I obtain it? Can it be taught? The answer is yes!  Just as in all aspects of the golf stroke (putting and full swing) the answer is not only soluble, but easily attainable as well. The mystery dissolves with a closer look at perhaps the most overlooked axiom in the stroke, the dynamics. More simply put, dynamics in putting refers to the motion and time it takes the putter to travel.  The average rhythm of putting strokes on the PGA tour takes approximately twice the time on the backswing as it does to impact. The actual time may vary  between each player, much like a signature,  but the ratio stays at approximately 2:1. When working with the dynamics of the stroke, you can actually improve someones “touch” without the repetitiveness of hitting hundreds or thousands of putts! “Touch” infers the ability to consistently produce a high precision movement of the putter to roll the ball a particular distance, which is vital for producing  the correct delivery speed for the ball to enter the hole . Struggling with the yips? Poor dyanmics lead to erratic face and distance control issus, especially on those short putts!

Here is an example of a “yip” stroke

putting stroke 001

Here is an example of improved dynamics and better ratio

putting stroke 002

To improve your dynamics today, make a practice stroke and count “one…two” during your natural backswing (no matter how fast or slow that may be) and “one” during from the end of the backstroke to where impact would be (no ball yet remember).  The speed of the count will be different for each individual; faster or slower depending on your natural tendency; the goal being to acheive a backswing length roughly twice as long as the downswing to impact. Once you can get into a consistent rhythm and have timed it out, then you may try it stroking a ball to a target with the same count; “one…two…one”!

Here is a different look and take on an issue that plagues many golfers and instructors. When someone is given a club for the first time, the unusual shape of the tool and plane of motion the tool was designed to move on is unique from many of the usual sports that individual may have played previously. What develops is exclusive placement and positioning of the hands around the club in a manner that allows the golfer to sense the weight and the center of gravity of the club. Golfers will move and rotate their hands around the shaft to make the face look and feel correctly.  When moving dynamically, the changing weight and sweet spot sensation (the feel of the club) causes the individual to “torque” the clubface in either cw (clockwise) or ccw (counterclockwise) .

Steve torquing the club face closed (ccw counterclockwise)

Try this drill-

When teaching someone a “proper grip” (left to interpretation by the instructor) give them a shaft or dowel without a clubface. Most of the time the placement, positioning, and precision of the grip of the individual  is consistent and aligned properly. There is less likelihood, or need for that matter, for golfers to torque their hands and fingers around the faceless dowel or club in a manner that would produce “unusual” grips.