Mark Ellis Putting Confidence Program

Started Jan 02, 2011

What do you need:

Watch the Mark Ellis Putting Confidence Program Video

Two putters.

A basket or Target to Putt at

about 30 minuets a day

Motivation/ Patience

 

Post every day that you did your putting so that you can track your progress and see others progress as well.  This is not my program I owe all credit to Discraft and Mark Ellis. 

Anyone is welcome to join me in this program

 

Mark's Assignments:

1.  Unbalanced.  The assignment is to work on balance by purposely placing yourself in unbalanced positions while you putt.  Think about where you naturally place your feet for a staggered or straddle putt and change your stance to uncomfortable positions.  I putted in my basement and used a bunch of props to create odd positions, chairs, stairs, ping pong table, skateboard, walls, etc.

  During a round you find yourself in many weird putting positions.  So in your practice you should recreate weird positions: under, over, around, stretching out, kneeling, etc.  This should be a regular part of putting practice anyway but tomorrow, focus on unbalanced positions

2.  STRADDLES.  Most players throw a straddle putt only when obstacles or the terrain require it.  When you straddle you need to square your body and shoulders as much as you can and focus on hitting the post.  So the line is critical.  Once you can hit the line, adjusting up or down is relatively easy.

 All good players need to be able to straddle putt with (almost) equal competence to a staggered putt.  That only happens with practice

3.  5th Putt.  In this game you will take 6 putts, keeping track of how many you make.  Pick a spot to putt from within your comfort zone but outside your gimme range (so for me about 25 feet).  Since this game is about dealing with pressure, the penalty for failure is severe (you can make it up to suit your imagination, so losing means death or some other horrible result).  Winning means reward, the reward based on the degree of success.  In order to win you must make your 5th putt.

    If you miss #5 then you lose, no matter if you make some or all the others.  If you make the 5th putt then you win, even if you miss the rest.  If you make the 5th putt, then the higher total you make the greater your reward.  Again, you can allow your imagination to create any kinds of rewards, up to the ultimate reward based on making all 6 putts.

      So you win if you make the 5th putt.  You lose if you miss the 5th putt.  The 5th One Counts.

If you find yourself missing the 5th putt, then the next time you play the game, pick a closer spot.

4.   Make two to finish: The wind was up enough that putted in a circle until I found the two angles where the wind made the putts the hardest to cash ( sideways wind blowing from my right to left and a predominately headwind  with a slight right to left slant).  Then I concentrated on these two lines.  To finish my session I decided to keep putting until I made 2 in a row form each of the two spots from about 32 feet out.

     It is amazing how close you can come to making putts but still miss in bad winds (not even counting the good putts which came back off the post).  It took me longer to finish my session than I would have guessed

 

 

Here are some other videos on putting that might help

Ken Climo putting video

Discraft Putting Basics

Cameron Todd and Dave Feldburg

Dave Dunipace wrist action

[mark ellis]

Today I launched plastic at metal.  Repeatedly.

[joe martinez]

i will do this with you.  did it once last year but now that i have a basket in my basement i do it everyday.   i want to start doing the phone book drill a bit more as well to get my wrist better.  so i did my putting today its the 3rd of jan.  i know the towel drill is on the fundimentals  video by feldberg and climo along with the phone book drill.

[Ghost]

I did my Putting today 03Jan2011 and the towel drill.  Mark they seem to have taken the video for the towel drill off of youtube.  I was unable to find any reliable sources for an explanation.  As I remember it is just your normal throwing motion with a hand towel trying to achieve the snap of the towel.

[mark ellis]

I putted today.

 

I didn't do the towel drill yet.  I think I remember the basics.  Anyone have a link to the full explanation?

[Ghost]

I did my Putting today 02Jan2010  and the towel drill

[Ghost]

Mark I will join you in the Dave Feldberg towel drill as well.  I also have a wight band I will be using to improve my snap.  Got a tourney tomorrow The Hangover Cup and I am ready to get started.  Hopefully I can have some good putts for my three other tourneys in January.

[TODD GREENE]

I will need to get myself to stop after a set number of minutes as recommended on the video. I have such fun practicing putting that it's really hard to stop that quickly once I've started. I'm sure I put in about 90 minutes today. Then again, I'm also experimenting with which techniques seem to work best for me and most consistently, so that adds a bit of time. Once I am settled enough into a preferred style and can limit myself to the set time limit I may give it a whirl.

[mark ellis]

I'm considering doing the Program again with Ghost.  There is cumulative benefit every time you go through it.  The question is the best timing to prepare for the new season.

 

There is nothing magical about having two identical putters except that it is nice to reward yourself for the commitment by breaking out a fresh pair. 

 

There is nothing magical about putting on a basket either.  Any target will do.  When we putt during rounds where we are keeping score (tournaments, leagues, whatever) we putt at all manner of different targets from different angles (around trees, over or under bushes) and different distances, in different winds in different elevations (up or down hills) anyway.  So practice is more about training ourselves to hit a target than memorizing one form which we do time after time. 

 

A post or a tree or a chair can be as good a target as a basket.  Most basket having highly suspect catching ability anyway. So no one should avoid the program just because they don't have a basket handy.

 

I am also considering adding one more task to the daily putting, that is the David Feldberg towel drill.   5 minutes of that a day might be a good complement.

[Ben Farris]

I will be joining you on this.  I too had done it for about a month and half and noticed a HUGE change in my putting.  when i stopped, so did my putting!

Looking forward to putting every day!