4 Week Putting Cycle

[ChrisWoj]

Spitch? I just use a loose pitch I guess with natural spin. I think horseshoe But round. Longer the draw the more distance without losing accuracy with a natural **** the bed throw. If you rock on your feet then 20' and in is a gimme.

https://youtu.be/KOFEyG6qDKE?t=100
Was messing with learning video editing techniques back in spring. Took a video of me putting. Not necessarily very close up, but kinda gives you an idea of what I call a spitch? Starts at 20' at the 1:40 mark that I have queued up here and the next set is 25'.

 

[ChrisWoj]

Cool man, yeah it was something that developed for me to hit longer putts without changing my style. I just found I didn't have enough space to get my arm back far enough to get a good oomph. I can do up to about 40'-50' that way. After that it looks like a Beato drive, in slow motion.

I think when I get out to that range I start to turn the body a little, and even if it looks like a putt it has a mental feel of more a throw.

 

[BeRReGoN]

I think it's normal to turn your body for longer putts, it's easier to get a higher release and flat or anny angle otherwise you need to putt with a big hyzer or lot of height like Barsby.

 

[txmxer]

Thought I'd revisit the putting saga.

I've had some good putting rounds since this thread. I've been doing a lot of my practice in my shop building which gives me enough room to putt out to ~33'. I've developed a spitch for anything 20' and beyond. I think I'm more accurate 20' and in with a straddle putt. I have worked on stretching the distance on the straddle putt because sometimes you can't take any other stance due to obstacles. Learning to get some distance with any accuracy from a straddle is challenging for sure.

Although my percentages aren't great, I feel like I've started to find my "putting stroke" which has created a lot of improvement. Made some long putts I was really pleased about.

Things I believe:
1) You really want to find a spot with no wind to develop your putting stroke. The wind is an extra variable. It's good to practice in the wind, but you need to have a stroke you are comfortable with to do so.
2) I like practicing short putts (10-20') a lot to develop confidence and consistent stroke and release.
3) Most of my putt comes from the wrist. The longer my throw movement, the more inconsistent I've been. Of course, the further out you go, the more movement is needed to cover the distance.
4) At 40'+ I'll hit 1 or 2 out of 10, so I really focus on having a soft touch and getting the disc to finish inside the 10' circle.
5) Along with 4 above, I like to practice layups in the 40'-100' range. Developing muscle memory through repetition.
6) I putt with Wardens and a Wizard. I have 5 throwing Wardens, 1 soft Warden and 1 soft Wizard. I think the Wizard is my favorite putting putter. Also have a few other random putters that I'll throw some. I don't feel throwing different molds has had a negative impact on my success rate. These are all 175 G and I think weight is more important than to me than having the exact same mold. I don't like light weight putters. I have a few I got early on and they are just too inconsistent.
7) If I'm trying to make the putt, I prefer to keep the disc as low and level as possible. If I'm 40+ out and no ceiling or wind issues, I'll add a lot of loft to get the disc to sit if I miss.
8) Wind sucks. Head/tail/cross, all sucks when it comes to putting. If you can make putts in the wind, you have mastered a really difficult skill.

 

[ChrisWoj]

Things I believe:
1) You really want to find a spot with no wind to develop your putting stroke. The wind is an extra variable. It's good to practice in the wind, but you need to have a stroke you are comfortable with to do so.

8) Wind sucks. Head/tail/cross, all sucks when it comes to putting. If you can make putts in the wind, you have mastered a really difficult skill.

I definitely think you need to get out there on both windy AND calm days. I am a fan of my baskets being outdoors. I like the space. I do like not having real control over the conditions - forcing myself to get out there regardless. I agree completely that you need those calm days though - and maybe going inside is the ticket. Minimizing variables is a great way to put it - hard to really get comfortable with what you're doing when the wind is moving all over the place.

 

[ReinZ_96]

... I am a fan of my baskets being outdoors. ...

After putting in my basement everyday for the last 3 months over the winter I got outside to play the first few rounds of the year this week and holy cow is it different. Even with no wind. Indoors the furthest I can go back is 20ft and that feels like I'm a mile away from the basket since I have low ceilings AND am going through a door frame halfway to the basket. I was shooting distances with my range finder while putting outside yesterday and what 'feels' like 20 feet is actually circles edge. Now, I've got some depth perception issues that my glasses don't entirely fix, so this may be a large part of it, but it was certainly surprising to say the least. I feel like this also partially explains my habit of constantly missing low, always thinking I'm closer than I actually am. The best thing I've learned from my indoor putting over the winter, though, is where to aim on the pole for different distances. Actually aiming at something rather than just aimlessly throwing in the direction of the basket certainly makes putting easier. LUL

 

[ChrisWoj]

I feel like this also partially explains my habit of constantly missing low, always thinking I'm closer than I actually am.

This has been important for me - practicing with flags set up at specific distances has been really helpful. I know when I'm at 5, 6, 7, etc. meters because I have flags at all of them and practice them a lot. It makes it a lot easier to judge distance!

 

[txmxer]

I definitely think you need to get out there on both windy AND calm days. I am a fan of my baskets being outdoors. I like the space. I do like not having real control over the conditions - forcing myself to get out there regardless. I agree completely that you need those calm days though - and maybe going inside is the ticket. Minimizing variables is a great way to put it - hard to really get comfortable with what you're doing when the wind is moving all over the place.

Thanks Chris. Probably could choose my words better. I have been playing fir 1 year now. While I practiced putting some, I was very inconsistent and never confident in my form.

Over the past couple of months I've been putting a lot more trying to find my putt.

Back in January I was putting outside only and I'd get really frustrated with myself. And the wind. I think I've had one truly calm day this year and that was Tuesday this week. When I moved inside, I eliminated several variables and focused on the basic technique. Hard to do when your putts are going all over the place in the wind.

Now that I feel I have a somewhat consistent form I feel I can work on putting in the wind because I know what the disc should do when I throw, I know what my release should feel like and I can see how it reacts in the wind and work on compensating with disc angles and trajectory.

In moto, the best guys would embrace the worst conditions. I'm sure DG is the same.

Putting with a head or tail wind is tough. Disc dumps or flies by the basket. Someone said they were good putting in 20 or 30 mph wind and that's pretty crazy.

 

[ChrisWoj]

Thanks Chris. Probably could choose my words better. I have been playing fir 1 year now. While I practiced putting some, I was very inconsistent and never confident in my form.

Over the past couple of months I've been putting a lot more trying to find my putt.

Back in January I was putting outside only and I'd get really frustrated with myself. And the wind. I think I've had one truly calm day this year and that was Tuesday this week. When I moved inside, I eliminated several variables and focused on the basic technique. Hard to do when your putts are going all over the place in the wind.

Now that I feel I have a somewhat consistent form I feel I can work on putting in the wind because I know what the disc should do when I throw, I know what my release should feel like and I can see how it reacts in the wind and work on compensating with disc angles and trajectory.

In moto, the best guys would embrace the worst conditions. I'm sure DG is the same.

Putting with a head or tail wind is tough. Disc dumps or flies by the basket. Someone said they were good putting in 20 or 30 mph wind and that's pretty crazy.

One key - avoid listening to the whole "tailwind drops it" "headwind lifts it" stuff. It oversimplifies things. Focus on what part of the disc the wind is hitting and imagine what that force will do to the disc. You'll figure out how to adjust off your putt now that you're comfortable from the indoor work.

 

[ChrisWoj]

My first month...
So I created this routine for the disc golfers at UToledo's Rocket Disc Golf sport club, and being a member of the team I went through it myself. Here are the results of my first run through. I started on December 20 and January 19, so I didn't *exactly* stick to the 5 out of every 7 days intent, but I'll admit to some weakness when its 30 degrees and rain/snow at times.

My setup...
I have 2 baskets set to 20 meters apart. My flags are set from 5-15 meters in between them, such that I can use the flags going in either direction with the middle flag at 10m from both baskets. Although the routine calls for "feet" (to make it easy on grabbing a tape measure for team measures) I chose to use my flags as I had them set out. My yard is relatively flat, but there IS a slight noticeable slope, so that in one direction I'm putting slightly downhill and in the other direction slightly uphill. I carry 5 Prime Dynamic Discs Deputies and every 5 putts I turn and putt on the opposite basket.

My results...
06m: 278/300 (92.6%)
07m: 261/300 (87.0%)
08m: 123/150 (82.0%)
09m: 59/100 (59.0%)
10m: 61/100 (61.0%)
11m: 114/250 (45.6%)
12m: 104/250 (41.6%)
13m: 33/100 (33.0%)
14m: 9/50 (18.0%)
15m: 11/50 (22.0%)

Foot by foot: 246/400 (61.5%)
This routine starts at 15' and you advance 1' deeper with every made putt.

C1 Rotation: 650/878 (74.0%)
This routine starts at 6m. Every made putt you go longer by 1m, every miss you go shorter by 1m. If you miss at 6m you stay there, if you make at 10m you rotate back to 6m.

C2 Rotation: 478/1224 (39.0%)
This routine starts at 11m. Same as C1 Rotation, but using 11m-15m.

My self-analysis...
First I will agree with the above posters who stated that you should put down your putters and reset your feet every putt. I tend to putt in sets of 5, and as a result of this I do believe my numbers are consistently hurt because as I move through each set I have a tendency to stop "sitting on" my rear foot, I get my weight out on my front foot preventing weight shift. I also missed a lot of putts due to lost focus. One of the things I need to do more of my second time through this is retain focus throughout not only the sets but the entire weeks. In the month during which I went through this routine I only played 9 holes, due to a groin injury. Midway through week 3 until the last couple of days I really lost focus. The last two days of the whole thing I reined it back in, but it was very easy to stop hitting the routine with a tournament mindset. One of the main things I need to practice is the act of being more intentional - the next four weeks need to be about that. If I can retain proper focus through all four weeks, I can certainly do it through a single tournament.

I was lucky in that despite it being midwinter I did only have a few days where the wind was really atrocious. Throughout I don't think I putted on more than a few days where temps were above 35 degrees (I putt a lot at night, got good lighting), and the ground was often a bit sloppy, but overall the conditions were decent. Hopefully I'm so lucky in the next month on the routine. Time to reboot, and regardless of weather: aim to improve on the numbers.

And hopefully by the end of it I'll be able to get out and put it to use on the course.

I have not practiced putting in two years. My old dog started going blind, I pulled up the flags so he wouldn't poke his eyes on them, used it as an excuse to focus on other stuff, and just stopped. Haven't played much (formal) competitive golf anyway. But I'm diving head first into this 4 week putting cycle and I'm going to maintain it through this coming spring and summer.

As with 3 years ago, the routine involves me flipping between baskets every 5 putts to change up the angle and wind.

The results, on day 1, were not exciting.

My first set from 6m was 78%, down from the 92% over the whole month from that range in 2021. And then 74% from 7m and 64% from 8m. Those were 87% and 82% respectively. My first C1 rotation (moving up and down by 1 meter based on miss/make going between 6m-10m and rotating back to 6m when I make at 10) was also down, but was marked by streakiness and had some positive bits (62.5%).

Day 2, though, felt some encouragement. I was brutally ugly from 11m and 12m (42%, 26%).... but after 330 total putts of work, the next set was a big confidence booster after day 1. I hit 90% from 6m. And then my C2 rotation actually exceeded my rate for the month in 2021 (42.7% vs 39%).

That last bit felt great. But I will chalk it up to two things:
1. There were some VERY nasty days putting out in the snow that month in 2021 and yesterday afternoon was just cold and a bit breezy.
2. I brought a jump putt back into my game last summer and it immediately made an impact, I was putting all standstill outside 10m in 2021. Dunno what I was thinking. Can't wait to see where I get the jumper to with practice, though.

Lots of work ahead of me. Excited to see the change in these baseline days when I come back around in a month.

 

[ChrisWoj]

Sticking with it!

I'm now two full weeks of work in, and the total number of reps comes to 2,152 putts.

Week 1 was heavier, at about 1300. Loaded with baselining every distance from 6m to 15m. Week 2 was lighter, focusing on C1 putting. Week 3 is gonna be heavy again, because C2 rotations (to a certain number of makes) can get long if you have bad days.

I haven't broken down my numbers at all yet, but the big takeaway after two weeks of work is that, after just about the whole two weeks, I've established a single stroke. Thats the big piece of immediate progress. I'm down to a single feel from the forearm forward, and I'm really varying most of everything else based on the shape of my arm swing.

I think it came in very handy yesterday in the wind at Whiteford-StoneCo. We had pretty consistent 10+ minimum wind, but kinda gusting up and down from 10-20. I missed a few pretty easy putts, but when I kept my head on what I was doing I really was able to get rolling and felt like I was very comfortable hitting my 20-25 footers in that wind.

I went home and later in the evening did the final day of putting for week 2 of this routine, and I found myself (in calmer conditions) really feeling the same stroke from all the way out to about 14m. The foot by foot routine, where you start at 15' and go deeper one foot at a time every make (with no penalty for a miss), I really felt like I was doing the same thing at 45' that I was doing at 25'. A comfortable single stroke.

So yeah, I'm excited for the next two weeks, and for at minimum a few more months of this same routine before I'm gonna hopefully be ready to expand my backyard, at which point I'm going to restructure my routine to incorporate the return putts.

 

[EllEstar]

Hey man, just wanted to let you know that over the past 3.5-4 months I've been overseeing indoor putting practices for our local club, during the cold and snowy winter months around these parts.

I've been using your cycle as a basis for our practices, with some modifications to fit into a 1-2x week schedule that we have going, and extremely varied skill levels.

I believe that it's been incredibly helpful for everyone that has been showing up consistently, including myself. I'be seen a lot of improvements from many people, just from having a consistent routine that's geared towards actualky training every aspect of the putt, and I just wanted to thank you for that.

 

[ChrisWoj]

Hey man, just wanted to let you know that over the past 3.5-4 months I've been overseeing indoor putting practices for our local club, during the cold and snowy winter months around these parts.

I've been using your cycle as a basis for our practices, with some modifications to fit into a 1-2x week schedule that we have going, and extremely varied skill levels.

I believe that it's been incredibly helpful for everyone that has been showing up consistently, including myself. I'be seen a lot of improvements from many people, just from having a consistent routine that's geared towards actualky training every aspect of the putt, and I just wanted to thank you for that.

Thats exciting to hear!

I've been posting daily on our local FB Group with a "Post todays putting practice!" asking people to throw up the results from their personal practice sessions, and linked the routine. A few people have joined in, and one is even following the routine, also with his own modifications - though he's going over the top with extra C1 Rotations lol.

 

[ChrisinFL]

This has been important for me - practicing with flags set up at specific distances has been really helpful. I know when I'm at 5, 6, 7, etc. meters because I have flags at all of them and practice them a lot. It makes it a lot easier to judge distance!

I have half buried golf balls every 5', out to 50'. I practice all distances, but my usual is warm up with 10 shots at 10', then back up 5' as long as my results were good, and then I focus extra work on 30' as I try to get to 50% makes at 30'. Also beginning to do a bit extra at 35', and starting to progress there.

 

[ChrisWoj]

I have half buried golf balls every 5', out to 50'. I practice all distances, but my usual is warm up with 10 shots at 10', then back up 5' as long as my results were good, and then I focus extra work on 30' as I try to get to 50% makes at 30'. Also beginning to do a bit extra at 35', and starting to progress there.

There's a very specific reason I stick with the cheap flags instead of something sunk like golf balls, or something decorative like sunken concrete cylinders: snow. Based on your username, I assume you don't have that particular issue. lol

Although, if this winter is any indication, maybe I won't have that problem in the near future... one significant snowfall all winter this year.

 

[ChrisinFL]

There's a very specific reason I stick with the cheap flags instead of something sunk like golf balls, or something decorative like sunken concrete cylinders: snow. Based on your username, I assume you don't have that particular issue. lol

Although, if this winter is any indication, maybe I won't have that problem in the near future... one significant snowfall all winter this year.

Yes, Florida. The golf balls were readily available, easy to use, and half buried, they stay in place, and are below lawn mowers. Also, after several months I am getting wear patterns in my grass, so it is also nice that I can easily relocate them a couple feet to either side to let the lawn recover. I thought I would do these temporarily, and if I like it I could switch to nice buried block markers later, but now thinking this is better since I can easily move them when the grass starts to get worn down too much. I enjoy putting practice, and it is beginning to be reflected in my scores, too. Nice to not have very many two putts (unless it is real windy, then all bets are off).

 

[ChrisWoj]

Yes, Florida. The golf balls were readily available, easy to use, and half buried, they stay in place, and are below lawn mowers. Also, after several months I am getting wear patterns in my grass, so it is also nice that I can easily relocate them a couple feet to either side to let the lawn recover. I thought I would do these temporarily, and if I like it I could switch to nice buried block markers later, but now thinking this is better since I can easily move them when the grass starts to get worn down too much. I enjoy putting practice, and it is beginning to be reflected in my scores, too. Nice to not have very many two putts (unless it is real windy, then all bets are off).

This is interesting. Honestly - after just a couple of multi-hundred-putt sessions, the wear is there and the grass is ruined. If I just shifted mine a few feet to either side, I'd wind up with a mud volleyball court soon enough. I prefer to just have a single putt-rut. My putt-rut had totally cleared after two years, and within a few days I was back to mud. At this point, after just a few weeks... its done. lol.

 

[ChrisinFL]

I love Florida! I don't miss the freezing winters, or the muddy melting snows, of upstate NY. Although, DG does get hot here in the summertime!

 

[ChrisWoj]

I love Florida! I don't miss the freezing winters, or the muddy melting snows, of upstate NY. Although, DG does get hot here in the summertime!

I am jealous of any opportunity you may have to get to play Olympus. Hope you're near it!

 

[ChrisWoj]

Four more days in, and another 1000 putts. One more day left this week, up to 3134 total constructive putts these first three weeks so far.

Today I had my best C2 Rotation. Moving up and down from 11m to 15m it took me until today to finally break through and make the 15m putt, and it took me hanging out for what felt like forever making the 13m putt over and over and just not being able to follow it up with both the 14m and 15m to get through the top of the rotation. But I did it twice! And hanging out in that 13-15 range for a while is definite progress. Overall I made 50 putts out of 97, was at 48/90 and had a slow finish. Wind was light. Not too chilly. Just a great day to putt.

Other bits from today....
Started with the C1 rotation, weak beginning 18/35 as I got rolling, but finished it 32/37.
And finished with 50 11m putts and kinda lost my mental focus during the set, weak outcome at 27/50 considering how good I did between 11m-15m just before.

Have to retain focus for the entire routine!