PuttPlate Assisted Learning
In this Assisted Learning video series, FatPlate Director of Instruction, Ben Frost, helps to ensure that you use your new FatPlate training aid in the most effective way possible and also provides you with enough knowledge & practical practice drills so that you hole more putts.
Getting Started
Start by assessing your ability to start the ball on your intended target line. Place the ball at the StrikeBridge and the two short stub tees in the start gate at its widest setting. /
You are now looking for your miss pattern, or in other words a tendency to start the ball either left or right of your target line. If you hit it straight through the middle there will be no feedback and you should bring the tees in closer. When you do start the ball off-line you will hear or see the ball strike one of the stub tees.
Your Next Step
Having ascertained your start line tendencies, you will probably want to get to work on your stroke mechanics but to do this you must have a constant, which is a centred strike on the putter face.
Using the strike bridge and the impact gate, set the tees slightly wider than the putter head and with the ball in place, simply try to hit the ball through the tees without making contact with them.
Now if in achieving this you find that your miss tendency disappears, you may have just stumbled across your answer, however, if you do you still hit the start gate you need to move onto the next step.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR STROKE
The back-swing and thru-swing gates will give you a complete representation of your stroke
Place the large Stub-Tees in the back-swing gate at the widest setting and hit some putts looking for contact made between the putter head and one of the tees. If you don’t make contact move the tees in by one hole and repeat and keep repeating until you do make contact with one of the tees. This shows the direction of the backswing so move that tee back out by one. Because the downswing may approach from a different angle, repeat the process with the other tee to show the path of the putter through the entire backswing and approach. If you now repeat this on the way through
PUSHED PUTTS
If you tend to push your putts due to an in to out stroke, a great drill for you is to place a tee just inside on the back stroke and just outside on the through stroke and make some putts, trying to avoid both tees.
PULLED PUTTS
If you tend to pull your putts because of an out-to-in stroke, a great drill for you is to place a tee just outside on the back-stroke and just inside on the thru-stroke and make some putts, trying to avoid both tees.
OVER ACCELERATION
If you suffer with an over-acceleration of your through stroke a great drill for you is to replace the two short Stub-Tees we use for start line drills with two of the longer ones.
On putts of around 10 feet your focus is to make sure that the putter head stops short of those two large tees when you’ve hit the putt.
BACK STOP
If you struggle with short putts, you may find that your backswing is simply too long and this can introduce many unwanted variables.
With the backstop drill, place two short Stub-Tees at the front start line gate (ensuring you start the ball online) and then place a large Stub-Tee in the back-stop gate at the back to limit the length of our backswing. Now try to hit some short putts just focusing on not hitting the back-stop.
MIRROR INSERT
Having both the ball and club sitting on the putting surface is a key PuttPlate design feature (as it enables you to practice in the most natural way possible) but the importance of correct setup must not be overlooked.
During a practice session with the PuttPlate we suggest you start with 10 or so putts using the mirror insert before removing it and moving on to whatever it is you wish to work on. We would also suggest that you replace the mirror insert every 5 minutes or 30 putts, and make a few strokes or putts just to be sure you are still setting up correctly.?
You can also use your mirror insert to work on minimising head movement during the stroke as this can be the cause for poor strikes and inconsistent directional control.
MIRRORBAR
MirrorBar’s main aim is to ensure correct shoulder alignment at set-up.
To check that your shoulders are square to target, place the MirrorBar on either the near or far side of the PuttPlate and make sure that your shoulders are parallel to the horizontal line before you take the putt./p>
Please note: As our physical characteristics and stance are all different, you may need to slightly angle the MirrorBar until your shoulders in position.
STANDARD GATE DRILLS
In addition to specific ‘problem fixing’ Stub-Tee gate drills such as ‘pushing’ & ‘pulling’ putts, these standard PuttPlate gate drills allow you to work on impact, start line, back swing & thru-swing stroke drills… or any combination of them all.
COURSE PERFORMANCE & ASSESSMENT
Now let’s establish if your improved skills are being transferred to the course.
Within the Practice Record & Playing Guide you will find an area to record your course performance and number of holes per round.
By completing the assessment cards over a number of rounds, you will be able easily identify areas that are still in need of a little more attention on the practice green.
COMING SOON
Keep checking back as we’ll continue to add modules to our online golf lesson video series so that you learn the skills to become the master of the greens.
BEN FROST COACHING
Although Ben is kept busy with FatPlate product development, he still enjoys working with golfers who have a desire to improve so continues to coach individuals and groups at our National HQ at Stonebridge Golf Club, located just 2 mins from Birmingham Airport & the National Exhibition Centre.
And if you can’t make it in person, online lessons are also available whereby Ben can provide you with a full analysis of your swing.
For booking details contact: ben@fatplate.golf