Hi guys my name is rick shields down here traffic girl century manchester i do apologize about the voice i was at a very busy manchester golf show. So my voice has got a little bit but i'm visited here by andy gorman and it is world-class putting coach unbelievable uh he's got some great devices he wants to share with us give us loads of information about the putting stroke. And i'm gonna do as little talk as i possibly can. And let andy do most of the talking. And who's it you you mainly work you're working with a few pros at the moment aren't you i'm working with a few yeah. But most significantly would be charlie hull and uh you know we've she's recently won as well she has yeah yeah well you know i call myself the gunners mate you know i'm the guy that loads the weapon. And uh you know at the end of the day the player you know is the person that's going to pull the trigger they've got to control the putter. And the pressure and uh you know a couple of interesting things that we talked about after uh the tournament win and all the thought you know some of those secrets we'll share so i look forward to that's what we're doing yeah i look forward to spending some time with you. And uh you know sharing the secrets with your audience and what i'm also going to do guys is do it in different parts as well. So we can break it up otherwise if we just load with information in one video you're not gonna be able to absorb it. And improve also guys if you are in the uk. And want a putting lesson andy is based in birmingham. But does travel around as well you know get around. So you know the golf pros you want me to come down and help your members out then.
We can work something out. But uh you know yeah where there's a putting green i'll travel super that's easy enough it's even a carpet even a carpet your living room carpet is one of the best places to practice this putting stroke. So so you've got a name for this method avenue what's your kind of method yeah well it's a t-stroke putting system. And you know we'll see the products in a little while but very simply you know the t-stroke is you know is a product that we've developed in order we can ensure we get the optimum setup position. So we're going to do a full-on review of that shortly. So stay tuned we will we're going to talk about the basics of the grip. And the base of the set up today.
Aren't we absolutely we you know primarily it's all about getting into a natural position. So you know what i want you know the audience to understand is that there is a natural way. For us to put so you know guys if we can understand that there's a more comfortable way you look at guys like luke donald. And tiger they don't look like they're struggling you know they look really good and comfortable over the putts and i want to be able to portray that across to your audience and to the golfers out there so you know let's start with you rick let's have a quick look and uh see where we're going i'm sure the guys watched my videos before i'm not the greatest putter in the world i need to start holding more. So andy's your job to help me homework might be a tall task but hey we'll do our best. So should i hit some points just let's have a let's have a quick look there see what's going on that's what do with any of my students i'm having a look to see what are you know the common features what are we looking. For we're looking for what are the what are the common faults. And uh you know set up position is primarily where we're going to find the fact that i go through spells of changing my grip a lot. And i'm sure guys you've seen it as well i've changed from normal to candid to claw grip so i'm going to do just normal at the moment normal grip that's which i would start to hopefully use a bit more of okay you know there's no such thing as a bad stroke if the ball goes in the hole right. So how about the whole thing there we go my job might be done right here to be fair though i saw i saw you recently and you did give me some advice early on. So he did yeah yeah there is. And you know the interesting thing there is you know fairly typically we're going to we're going to see golfers with their you know the classic symptoms of putting which are you know what we're going to see. And read in a lot of the magazine articles eyes over the ball yeah trying to take the putter straight back. And straight through in fact the best putters in the world don't do this. So you know there has to be a reason why they don't do it why maybe those that are struggling a little bit are a little bit more prone to getting their eyes over the ball to standing really quite crowded over the top of the golf ball maybe trying to take the putter straight back. And straight forward and i'm guilty of this i'm guilty of trying to do that i'm guilty of giving that information out as well. But i'm just going to look at how we can change those ideas. And those concepts today.
And help obviously improve the putting sure so i is not. So much over the golf ball not so much no. And just a little bit inside couple of inches inside maybe a ball ball and a half inside of the of the golf ball itself is absolutely fine. And you know we use the analogy that you know you've got to you've got to get your eyes over the ball so that you can see the line well the last time i was looking at the line was just before i pulled the trigger on you know i'm pulling the putter back i'm actually looking at the golf ball. And i'm using you know to some degree hand-eye coordination to actually coordinate the movement the problem is if the golf ball's too close to us our eyes are over the ball actually it's not where the arms are hanging freely. And that then.
Compromises the position of the hands on the club coming back to the grip position itself okay. So if you'd like to take a setup position right just as i would do normally as you would do normally now typically with our grip position we tend to grip with our ordinary clubs a little bit more into the fingers itself. And so that we notice here that the shaft plane is a little lower than my forearm out here okay. So if we put a stick on there and just match that up you'll see very simply that that's now much lower down so that would look as if it's pointing much more towards my belt than towards the lower point of my sternum in fact if you just turn to the side you'll be able to almost demonstrate that so if i grip in my fingers here the shaft plane is pointing down towards the belt now you may also be able to see that the putter itself the toe of the putter's off the ground now if manufacturers can help us by flattening the putters. But that doesn't necessarily get your eyes over the golf ball so actually you're hitting the double whammy really if you've got a swing grip then.
You end up having to stand a little further away from the ball then.
We get even further over now compromising our balance and our hands and arms are very much inside that doesn't look comfortable. So yeah i noticed that a little bit with how you were putting okay earlier yeah um you know before we saw you last time. So ultimately if we can get the arms into a nice hanging position grip much more with the palm. So it's not a full palm groove i wouldn't say that it's a lifeline grip because i don't want the shaft plane coming up into the upper arm i want the shaft plane to move sort of you know use it there yeah there we go. So more towards the elbow i like to use the skeletal structure of the body because that's consistent some of us have bigger muscles some of us have a little bit more bulk to the body you know that's that's on top that's muscle or maybe just a little bit of body fat yeah you know. And of course you know working with male and female audience that various things as well so bottom line is here we use a skeletal structure at all times. So using the elbow here that just gives us a very clear indication of where we need to be so when i grip the club this is where i want you to get a little bit more. So we can get that shaft plane matching the forearms can you the interesting thing about that then.
Putter stays square to the path of the club okay cool because it's leading with your arm a bit more absolutely. So we're working a little bit more i'm going to show quickly the audience there i would normally hold it in my fingers quite a lot on my putter. But what andy's recommending there is more into my hand yeah. And so that the butt under the club is pointing more towards my elbow is that good that's very good. And then.
I just grip with the finger there we go okay fingers are just wrapping around the club not necessarily in a you know in a you know finger locking grip there just they're in there holding me on making a nice squishy tie to hold the club there now that's interesting isn't it yeah because we wanting to increase the grip pressure much more like we would a hammer this is one of the this is really key do listen to this bit now because i thought this was unbelievable last time when i spoke to andy yeah he explained that grip pressure's often talked about in terms of let's hold the putter like a bird with a broken wing. Or maybe a tuber toothpaste without the cap on we've seen it we've read it the bottom line is that i want the utmost of control over this putter yeah. So if i'm holding it really light i can't even support the weight of the club head and club heads are getting heavier. So this is going to become more difficult. But if i grip the club firmly then.
I now have control so i've got control over that club and i would say that that's a seven out of ten firmness rather as much as that yeah. And i'm not concerned if a player gets it firmer than that what i am concerned about is where's the tension in the body. So the pressure's here but if the arms are in good position during the setup then.
We're actually in the best place to make it happen. So if i've got no tension in my arms. So they're not tucked up underneath me and my eyes over the ball back to the very first thing we talked about that the pressure that's in the in the grip here doesn't put any pressure in my arms and shoulders so i've not got any tension that would cause me to lack the release of the putter through the stroke so it's all about getting those arms relaxed so we stand up a little bit taller that's a little bit easier for you rick than it is. For me okay you know a little bit vertically challenged. So i might you know i profess to be five eight but i might be pushing that these days all right so i'm more much more in my palm i'm holding it seven out of ten seven out of ten nice nice little squeeze even pressure in both hands yeah. But the arms hanging nicely from the shoulders there we go okay that's fantastic. And now we can see here you know if we do this from the front angle that the hands are much more in front of the shoulders that's right there we go. So the hands aren't underneath the shoulders like the world knowledge would just like to get you a little further away not so much higher because we want them to be relaxed but a little further in front of the shoulders and now the hands are in the same positions where you would stand tall. So just stand up nice and tall let go of the putter i'll take the one hand off stand up nice and tall straight up now if you just stand up tall there we can actually yeah you'll notice that your hands are actually physically in front of your shoulders. So all we're doing is obtaining the same three hands. So they're totally relaxed okay not walking around like this no tension in the shoulders muscles in the top. So nice and relaxed from there just bend forward now and take your grip pressure on the club you want the hands to be in the same free hanging position so a little further forward that's it you're moving back that's perfect so there we go so now we're in a much more relaxed position from there you can increase that grip pressure without putting tension into the upper body that's weird because i really feel like i'm holding tight there you can't feel anything going up the arms yeah it's really nice nice feeling. So from there now i believe that we can actually make a stroke that is tension free. But in control of that club head that felt good really easy it feels like you're in control of the club yeah it does yeah it feels like you've got a better hold of the golf club even though you like say you're holding tight. But everything else is super relaxed absolutely i like it yeah you know it's. So much easier to get into a position that way and actually you know i have spoken to a number of the you know the top players those are the good putters i've had that opportunity. And you know they they don't share all their secrets because why would they but you know my observations are they're not fighting the putter they're not struggling to make the stroke happen they are literally getting into a good strong comfortable position. And letting it go and you know it's really good to watch guys like tiger and luke donald and you know charlie now she's you know really comfortable with what yeah well you know you know charlie you know she's really getting get into grips with it you know it takes time to make a full-on change you know. And this sometimes you know we've just got to accept that you know change does take a little time. So part one we've covered well we've covered quite a lot we've covered the setup yeah we've covered the grip. And just understanding that we can relax yeah still hold the putter quite tight yeah. And get into a position that is suited to the individual skeletal form not not in the muscle form not muscles no eyes inside of the golf ball inside again comfortable relaxed arm position into a free hand. And i'll explain in the next.
Video why ladies are slightly different to the men okay. So join us in part two guys if you've not checked andy out yet on twitter his twitter name is just here also do subscribe to my channel you can subscribe by clicking the link here. And you can check out part two just in this window right here thanks. For watching and join us very soon you.
