Putting Issues

[jhilton]

Hello all and thanks in advance for any help. I am a disaster when it comes to putting. I'm easily giving up 5-8 strokes a round generally once a putt goes beyond about 15 feet to the basket I'd estimate I about 75% at 15 feet and about 25% at 20 feet. I have so little confidence too that everything other than a drop in with a putter has me fried with nerves.

The issue is the moment if I need to put any energy behind a putter to get it to a disc golf basket, 50% of the time I'm going to shank it right. I know it is caused by variance in my release as I put spin on my disc. If I try to not put spin on my disc (push), it naturally just falls out of the sky short. I just can't develop the distance to get it to the basket at more the 15 feet.

I need a putting technique I can count on getting some consistency out of inside the circle. Either a way to get a consistent release with spin or a way to add a great deal more power to push, or something in between. Please help!

 

[DiscFifty]

After a year off, I'm in the exact same boat. If I would have made some putts I could have easily had some very high rated rounds recently. So I'm back to doing some basic drills to get things hopefully automatic from 20ft in. I'm taking 10 putters and throwing 50+ putts each from 10ft, 15ft, 20ft. Not really worrying if I miss a few, just drilling that muscle memory over and over and over. Sometimes I just focus on 15ft. If you don't have 10 of the same putters, that's ok, just use any discs to get to 10, but make sure to throw your putters last in each drill of 10. One of Eagle's recent vids talks about this around the 9:15 mark. Btw, I'm also re-building my putting form and Eagle's form is pretty much what I'm trying to putt like. The hybrid spin/push allows for velocity and spin with minimizing elbow movement.

 

[autocrosscrx]

What is your grip? What is your putter of choice?

I used to put my index finger on the leading edge of the disc. Moving my index finger placement to touch the bottom of the rim and also swapping from beaded to beadless putter (Judge to Classic Aviar) cleaned up my release enough to minimize my shanks to the right.

I still occasionally struggle with misses to the right, but it is result of my arm swing and generally not the release.

 

[chambers]

Aside from getting a practice basket and/or doing the 15/20/25/30 foot practice drills as DiscFifty suggests, have you tried different putters? I can't putt with a low profile, low glide disc for the life of me (Pure, Rhyno). I am 100% better when I use a Omega/Aviar that has a little glide. Probably won't fix your issues, but trying a few different putters might be something to consider.


_________________

 

[ray1970]

My only two pieces of advice....

Loading and shifting my body weight really helped me with putting distance. I have to be mindful to do it but loading my weight onto my rear leg and pushing forward during the putt makes a big difference.

Committing to the putt is also something I used to struggle with for fear of missing and leaving myself a long comeback putt. I've gotten much better at just jamming the putt into the basket with authority and my putting has greatly improved.

I picked up a basket when all of this Covid stuff started so being able to step out into the yard and just practice putting really let me work on these things.

Good luck.

 

[jhilton]

What is your grip? What is your putter of choice?

I used to put my index finger on the leading edge of the disc. Moving my index finger placement to touch the bottom of the rim and also swapping from beaded to beadless putter (Judge to Classic Aviar) cleaned up my release enough to minimize my shanks to the right.

I still occasionally struggle with misses to the right, but it is result of my arm swing and generally not the release.

I have putted beaded and beadless. Currently I am putting beadless, but trust me I can still send one 25 feet at 30* to the right if the Putt is one that would give me a birdie. On my end the miss comes from my hand adding spin to the putt to try to make those longer distances. I wish I knew a way to block my wrist from doing that.

 

[RowingBoats]

Putting is so personal that it is hard to know what advice might help.

I made progress when I created a four count rhythm to shift my weight back, back swing, shift forward and eject. Basically, I found a way to make my arm feel attached to my body's momentum in the same basic way I do with a drive. This adds a lot of power to the same basic putting form.

Another thing I did that just demolished my putts and form was holding onto the disc too long. I realized that on longer putts I was compensating by holding onto the disc until my arm was fully extended, and the results were always chaotic.

The biggest one...practice haha. I bought a practice basket and try to do a hundred or more putts per day. There is just no substitute for muscle memory.

 

[BillFleming]

I have the same issue, I'm not accurate outside of 15(ish) feet. So, I've 'given up' on making putts from there. Instead, I've worked on my approaches and try to land inside that 30 foot ring (15 to each side of the basket=30 feet). I know I can make it from there.

Meanwhile, I am practicing trying to make the longer putts. I will stand at 25 feet and try one stance/throw, but with different discs. I write down how many misses/makes I have and where I am missing at (high, low, left, right, long, short). Then I try a different stance and repeat. Then I try a different throw (spin/push/spin-push combo/etc) and repeat. It takes a while as I throw 5 times each, and also have to try different stance/throw combos.

Still haven't found the confidence or what works for me yet, but I keep trying and meanwhile I'm laying up.

 

[aphilso1]

Assuming you are practicing already and using a putter that feels good, I think the first step is getting a repeatable stroke that consistently makes 15 footers. I went through a spell where I changed up how I was putting, in an effort to increase power and make more circle's edge putts. And while I did slightly increase my longer distance make rate, I started missing more of those 'must make' putts inside 20' and typically my miss was to the right.

I adjusted by adding a stagger stance putt to my arsenal for inside 20'. It felt awkward at first and like I wasn't getting any power on my putt, but for the shorties you really don't need a bunch of power. It only took a couple putting sessions to start to feel comfortable, and then only a few more sessions to where I started getting some power on my putts. While I had planned on only using a stagger putt on the short ones, I am now actually more comfortable stagger putting for anything inside the circle because it is so much more accurate for me.

I'm pretty sure when I was missing right, it was due to transferring my weight at an angle other than directly toward the basket. I tried all sorts of things to get my weight transfer more in line with the basket, but none of them stuck. Straddle putting was a last resort for me, but once I got comfortable with it really made my "automatic make range" expand.

 

[jhilton]

After a year off, I'm in the exact same boat. If I would have made some putts I could have easily had some very high rated rounds recently. So I'm back to doing some basic drills to get things hopefully automatic from 20ft in. I'm taking 10 putters and throwing 50+ putts each from 10ft, 15ft, 20ft. Not really worrying if I miss a few, just drilling that muscle memory over and over and over. Sometimes I just focus on 15ft. If you don't have 10 of the same putters, that's ok, just use any discs to get to 10, but make sure to throw your putters last in each drill of 10. One of Eagle's recent vids talks about this around the 9:15 mark. Btw, I'm also re-building my putting form and Eagle's form is pretty much what I'm trying to putt like. The hybrid spin/push allows for velocity and spin with minimizing elbow movement.

Thank you so much for sharing this video!!

 

[autocrosscrx]

Eagle did another vlog about 3 years ago where he tells you to make 50 consecutive putts a day, at whatever distance is comfortable for you. That may be 8 or 10 or 12 feet. That way you are practicing making putts and building confidence.

I think that is another really good one.

 

[ballgolfconvert]

No power has to be weight shift. Make sure you start the stroke with the legs and then the arm follows. Inside 30' i also have found straddle putting helps most players.

 

[aphilso1]

My only two pieces of advice....

Loading and shifting my body weight really helped me with putting distance. I have to be mindful to do it but loading my weight onto my rear leg and pushing forward during the putt makes a big difference.

I think that this is the biggest key to minimizing misses to the right when putting from a staggered stance. I had days where my weight shift felt perfect and then my misses were typically only high or low, but on the pole. Unfortunately I couldn't get that perfect weight shift replicated every time out.

 

[ray1970]

Unfortunately I couldn't get that perfect weight shift replicated every time out.

Yeah. If it was easy we'd all be on the pro tour.

If I'm not really focused on everything during my putts it can go bad in a hurry. The whole muscle memory thing from repetition goes a long way but a small lack of focus can still add strokes to my game.

Since I can't focus on more than a few things at once, I mostly concentrate on my weight shift, point of aim, and my release point.

I'm darn sure not the best putter but I've greatly improved over the last year or so and usually I can tell out of my hand if the putt is going to be good and if not I can usually tell what I did wrong.

There was a time where I was pretty clueless as to why I missed. Now at least I kind of know what I did wrong to miss and can try to make a correction on the next putt.

 

[Dcinmd]

No power has to be weight shift. Make sure you start the stroke with the legs and then the arm follows. Inside 30' i also have found straddle putting helps most players.

It never hurts to practice straddle putts. You are going to need them at some point during a round.

 

[klodkrawler05]

You've got lots of good advice in this thread already so I'll try not to re-hash too much over what has been said.

Putting is one of my favorite parts of the game because of how individual it is, watch touring pros drive and you can pick out things they all do very similarly even if it looks different. with Putting you'll see totally different styles being just as effective any given week.

My advice is to spend a little time and try mimicking a few different styles, Mcbeth, Ricky, KJ, Eagle, etc. see if anything naturally feels most comfortable to you. Once you find one that you like you can start studying that players style for clues. Eagle for instance attempts putts from 80'+ that look as effortless as someone that's 15' from the basket, but if you watch in slow-mo you can see how far he rocks back and pushes off his back leg.

Once you've got a style that you like I think the next big improvement (for me at least) comes from reps. The more reps you get the more natural the putt will feel. Video can be helpful here too, watch for the nuances in your form, did you miss because you didn't extend your arm all the way to the basket that time and yanked it? did you come up short because you didn't push off your back leg? Try to pick out the things that cause the miss and then focus a bunch of putts just on doing that item correctly. Like Ray1970, I'm not the best putter, but I have enough reps now that I know what a natural (good) putt feels like, so if I miss I can usually tell why and attempt to correct on the next putt.

I personally use the perfect putt 360 app because I like having something to judge my performance on. The method I play it will depend on my focus for that session, sometimes I'll have 3-4 putters in my hand at a time focusing on just repeating the same motion over and over, other times I'll go through my entire putt routine 1 disc at a time. When I first started playing it, I could barely make the putter get to the basket from 30' let alone actually make putts. But after more rounds than I want to think about I can get to the basket from 30' pretty easily (accuracy not withstanding) I've started occasionally mixing in "perfect putt360 impossible mode" where instead of playing from 10-15-20-25-30 I play from 30-35-40-45-50, I'm hoping eventually that leads to me having a form I can rely on for C2 putts and maybe sink a couple during scoring rounds.

Good luck on your quest for better putts!

 

[BillFleming]

You've got lots of good advice in this thread already so I'll try not to re-hash too much over what has been said.

My advice is to spend a little time and try mimicking a few different styles, Mcbeth, Ricky, KJ, Eagle, etc. see if anything naturally feels most comfortable to you. Once you find one that you like you can start studying that players style for clues. Eagle for instance attempts putts from 80'+ that look as effortless as someone that's 15' from the basket, but if you watch in slow-mo you can see how far he rocks back and pushes off his back leg.

What he said!! I was struggling with trying different styles of putting and was most accurate with standing sideways, holding the putter in front of me with my last knuckle of the first finger being my aiming point, bringing the putter level back to my belly button, and then throwing. But then I saw Eagle's "How I Putt" and he angles his feet 45 degrees left, (my forward foot was pointed at the basket) and he brought his disc back to just below his belt and vertical. I tried that and my putts started being more accurate.

Now Eagle's style of putting may not be for you...try different styles (I even gave Kevin Jones' style a shot) and see what works.

One thing to watch is Paul McBeth's "How Perfect Is My Putting" on YouTube. He does the PP360 challenge and every putt, no matter the distance, is made exactly (well, almost) the same. The only difference seems to be how hard he pushes off his back foot. Watch Kevin Jones' putting....the only thing that seems different is how hard he uses his legs to push off.

That's what I'm working on....keeping my 'throw' the same for all distances and just adjusting how I push off from my legs.

 

[aphilso1]

Yeah. If it was easy we'd all be on the pro tour.

If I'm not really focused on everything during my putts it can go bad in a hurry. The whole muscle memory thing from repetition goes a long way but a small lack of focus can still add strokes to my game.

Since I can't focus on more than a few things at once, I mostly concentrate on my weight shift, point of aim, and my release point.

I'm darn sure not the best putter but I've greatly improved over the last year or so and usually I can tell out of my hand if the putt is going to be good and if not I can usually tell what I did wrong.

There was a time where I was pretty clueless as to why I missed. Now at least I kind of know what I did wrong to miss and can try to make a correction on the next putt.

I think that is a big upside of straddle putting versus staggered stance. Fewer variables. When I was staggered/spin putting everything, I had so many things to try to get mentally right...release angle, nose angle, weight shift, finger pop, etc. For straddle/spush I am able to mentally declutter and just put the disc in the basket. I'm really only thinking about getting a clean release and maybe release angle if it's windy.

Now that's not say that straddle putting is the answer for everything. It has its downsides too, with the biggest one being that it's much harder to get power on your putt past around 30'. If you're primarily a straddle putter, then you have to decide what to do on putts outside your comfort zone. Go to stagger/spin putts for the long ones? That means you're practicing two types of putting, and creating an intermediate zone where you're unsure which type of putting to use. Straddle everything? That means you have to either do that weird Kevin Jones full body lunge or you have to loft it way up in the air.

Personally, I straddle anything that I'm comfortable with and only stagger the long ones that probably aren't going in anyway.

 

[Zanguini]

Lofting it works, it just takes muscle memory and decent eyes to know how far you are from the basket Barsby makes it work for him.


and an overstable putter.

 

[txmxer]

As others have said--it's personal.

What are you aiming at when you putt? Do you throw hyzer or anhyzer or flat?

Do you have issues with the disc flying away and missed putt turns in to 3 strokes?

In the interim, have you considered what Bill talked about? Dialing in the upshot so you aren't dealing with as many long putts? Doing practice throws from 50-100'?