RUPERTS' FEEDBACK

                        AN IN DEPTH COMMENTARY FROM AN L2 OWNER LIKE YOU

 

THE FOLLOWING COMMENTS WERE SENT TO ME BY A NEW L2 OWNER FROM AUSTRALIA  WHO HAS DONE A GREAT JOB OF SHARING HIS EXPERIENCES WITH THE LATERAL LINE SYSTEM. I FELT THAT HIS COMMENTARY WOULD BE VERY BENEFICIAL TO OUR GROWING FAMILY OF L2 OWNERS AND LATERAL LINE STYLISTS.

 

 

Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:04:22 +1100

 Hi John,

 received the putter just before Christmas and went out the local putting green to hone my technique. I felt like a 12 year old kid with a new toy!!. OK, so it’s truly disturbing to look at the hole and hit the ball but I soon got over it. When I started off  I didn’t realize how fundamental my technique change had to be . I thought I was a reasonably good putter but I soon realized that to move forward I had to go back. I had to throw out all my previous ideas and start again. Still, you can’t make an omelette without cracking eggs! My first hurdle was the technique of splitting the putting process into its individual parts……and separating them into compartments that had a start and a finish. So my alignment was done after I completed my green assessment but once my alignment was done ….. IT WAS DONE, no second guessing, no “it could do with a bit more borrow” and the last minute adjustment that entails. It sounds really simplistic and I guess it is, but the mental change is fundamental.

  So I’ve moved along the line in my education….and it really is an education and occasionally I have those little breakthroughs that make you move onto the next level. Like understanding my top hand grip has to be “neutral”, guiding but neutral. Like understanding that my assessment of the green is maybe 70% of my putting task. Or understanding that after I’ve scanned the distance to the cup then ……… I PUTT!!!. I don’t think of my alignment or my putter hitting the ball, or my tempo, or my body alignment or my line……..all these decisions have been made and put in their own little boxes and put away, leaving me with the gloriously simple task of “straight back and  straight though.

  Traditional putting seems very odd to me now, both in stroke and in mental approach. I had a game the other day with a bloke I just met on the first tee and after the usual “is that thing legal”, “what the F*** is that”,  and the one I really like “ seems to Work!!!” the bloke said……… “give me a go”. This club is a real talking point,  and so it should be. It’s a triumph of critical thinking of seeing a problem and solving the problem with a technique and a redesigned tool.  Anyhow, enough rambling on,  I’ll let you know how I’m going with it later on, cheers. Rupert

 

 

Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:01:19 +1100

Hi John,

  thought I’d drop you a line to let you know how I’m going with your new putting style. In a word ,great. Loving what this new stick is doing for my game. I just got back from a golfing holiday ( 6 rounds in 10 days)and my putting keeps improving. But like all things it’s a plateau to plateau improvement where my technique improves then I might have a short period where my results seem to be going backwards. And that brings me to the point of my email. Invariably when my putting “goes off” the problem is always a technical one….. so my anchor hand is leaving my chest or my stroking arm is “pushing” the putt and not “going along for the ride” or my body alignment is not correct  etc etc.. So I guess for all those folks out there that are using the traditional style, this description of what can go wrong  must make the L2 style seem complicated. But in reality it is the opposite. What I’ve found after a bad run of putting is that there is always a technical error that has crept into my game. So, then all I do is run through my “checklist” of procedures to find where the problem lies. Usually for me,  it’s my anchor hand and my failure to secure it to my chest. So then, it’s a simple process of recommitting to the technique ….and guess what….my putting form comes back as it was before the glitch took over. And in my opinion the reason it returns is that the technique and putter are fundamentally sound.

  OK so compare this “fix” made with the L2 and a similar bout of bad putting with a traditional putter and style. And believe me I’ve had bouts of putting where the cup looks like the eye of a needle, but anyway. When putting with a traditional style all elements of the putt are being considered right up to the instant of contact. This process not only fills the mind with doubt but it makes it almost impossible to analyze what went wrong when you miss. It’s not as if you can think about a missed putt with a traditional putter and say “I missed that because I “hit” at the ball ,when the whole technique involves “hitting” as a fundamental. Added to this your using a tool that is light and has virtually no resistance to twisting. So there’s my point, how can you correct a putting stroke when you don’t know what to correct.

  Traditionally amateur golfers seem to have periods of bad putting where nothing seems to work. And I’m sure we all know friends that have gone through long, long periods where they don’t even look like getting it in the hole. Could it be that the technique they’re using is so fluky, so un assessable that they don’t know what’s wrong, what to correct, what to practice or what to look out for. OK, so the alternative is the L2. I’ve been through maybe 4 putting slumps since I’ve had the putter and every time I’ve self corrected after finding a technical problem with my swing. 15 minutes and I’m a “good putter” again. And believe me this isn’t because I’m some great putter or something…far from it , I reckon my return to form  is because the L2 is a logical, technique based process with easy to assess results,  rather than a process built on a poor foundation of  an inappropriate tool and a style based on “feel’ and “ touch”. 

  Anyway, thanks John, thanks for taking strokes off my card. Cheers, Rupert.

 

I OFFER A SPECIAL THANKS TO

 RUPERT FOR TAKING THE TIME

TO SHARE HIS FINDINGS WITH US.