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We all know about ‘Putting’ and each one of us has his or her little quirks and basic golf foibles. Your ‘555 Team’ hopes that you have embraced our ‘8 Step Putting & Chipping Pre-Shot Routine’, in whole or in part? We all need some sort of routine to keep us ‘Patient and Cool In The Heat Of Battle’. Randomness in making golf strikes is stressful and usually comes with sub-optimal outcomes!

Putting is best accomplished employing ‘Over Spin’ or rolling the ball ‘End Over End’ along the dance floor to the predetermined ‘Entry Side Of The Cup’. We ‘Set-Up’ to deliver the ‘Sole Of The Golf Club’ about 3/8 to 5/8 of an inch above the grass in our ‘Putting Stroke’. THIN-ness or gently ‘Topping The Ball’ invites ‘Over-Spin’ … less humping and hopping across the ‘Dance Floor’ endlessly ‘Off-Line’. We all know this flat stick reality?

How can we ‘Track Our Performance’ if we do not have a fundamental basis by which to even make one good strike? We need knowledge and reasonable physical capability … Fitness and Range Of Motion. (ROM) We track our vehicle’s ‘Miles Per Gallon’. Why not our golf skills efficiency?

The good news is, “If We Can Do It Once We Can Do It Twice or On Demand!”

Here is a primary guidance clue for you! “A CHIP IS A PUTT WITH A HOP!”

Knowing this, if you can make a really sound and repeatable ‘Putt’, you can very likely make a reasonable ‘Chip’. When you want and need a longer ‘Chip’, it is logically known as ‘A Bump & Run’. Here is a little ‘Confidential Inside Knowledge’!

We read and study three ‘Swing Paths’ … 1) Square To Square, 2) Inside-Out and 3) Outside-In. You can accomplish any of these with three ‘Clubface Aim Conditions … 1) Square, 2) Open and 3) Closed. This produces a variety of known ‘Ball Flight Shapes’ and outcomes.

Any of these combinations except the ‘Square Square Clubhead Path’ with a ‘Square Clubface Aim’ will result in ‘Spin Rate’ around the ‘North South Polar or X Axis’ and ‘Curvature’.

It is imperative all golfers understand that the ‘Natural, least resistive Clubhead Swing Path’ is ‘Down The Body or Foot Line’ … also known as ‘Across The Toes’. (see ‘Unmanipulated’)

A 555 Golf Drill For YOU

We all know that ‘Breaking A Big Seemingly Insurmountable Problem Into Smaller Bite-Size Problems’ is a sensible ‘Problem Solving Methodology’. Golf abides and thrives by this approach!

Think about making a ‘Golf Swing’ with two (2) Lever Assemblies … with two (2) hands. A really effective simplification is to make ‘One Handed Swings’ or, as your 555 Team calls it, to ‘Isolate The Parts’. Use ‘One Lever’ to amplify the true action of that lever!

Cut to the chase?

Golf is ‘Sequential Kinesthetics’ (smooth fluid motion) just as in throwing a baseball. Things happen in a ‘Pre-Selected Progression’, in an orderly flow. When we are out of sequence, with broken links, athletic harmony vanishes along with happiness!

The Golf Front Swing happens ‘From The Ground Up’ and ‘From The Inside-Out’. That is the opposite to the ‘Back & Up Swing’. ‘From The Top Down’ and ‘From The Outside-In’.

Your ‘Set-Up’ is not complicated but it’s being correct in an orderly manner is critical. The ‘5 Set-Ups’ will become you ‘Happiness Insurance Policy’ in very short order! (Posture, Grip, Stance, Ball Location & Alignment) The catch is deciding to be organized.

In order to become ‘Happy Golfers’ we MUST learn how to establish and maintain our ‘Bottom Of Swing Arc’.

If we ‘Bottom Out Early’ we shall hit FAT and take a Grass & Dirt Divot behind the ball. The reciprocal is also true. If we ‘Bottom Out Late’ we will very likely hit the top half of the ball or Thin as we have come to call it. The variables are Fat, Thin and Perfect.

Think or our ‘Tether Ball Pole Concept’. What are the physical ‘Component Variables’? If our CHIN ad Chest (the Pole) fail to get and stay Tallish, so too will out BOSA vary proportionately!

If the length of the ‘Rope’ changes to longer or shorter. The BOSA unavoidably alters as well, hence FAT THIN’. What is this ‘Rope & Ball’? The Rope is our ‘Lever Assemblies’. The Primary Lever’ is our Shoulder Sockets, Upper Arms, Elbows, Forearms, Wrists and Hands’. The Secondary Lever is the actual Golf Club’. The Tether Ball is the ‘Sweet Spot’.

Just had an impromptu golf swing clinic. We have them all the time. A golfer and I happen to enter into a golf conversation. I am known on our golf course. People are quite forward about saying “Hello!” when they have an issue. Another and then two more join in. We grew to five! That is a little ‘Impromptu Clinic’.

‘Mastering Golf Basics’ (MBG) and ‘Focus On Fundamentals’ (FOF) never changes substantially. We humans are very similar in components and procedures.

How simple can I make your basics? Let’s see. We have our ‘555 Golf Powerline Delivery Sequence … ‘Accumulate, Load, Store, Deliver & Release’ (ALSDR). That is the Start to finish! From the Take-Away (SS#1), to Top Of Back Swing (TOB – SS#5 – Maximum Load & Store), Transition or Direction Change (SS#6 – The Lateral Bump), to the ‘Pre-Impact’ (SS#7) and Impact (SS#80, then to the Chase (SS#8a, to the Follow (SS#9) to the Finish and Top Of Front Swing (SS#10) to an optional Bounce Back (SS#11) is you so desire. That is ‘IT’! Do this in ‘Slow Motion’.

As you well know, our ‘Putting Stroke’ is a ‘Stage 1 Procedure’ and requires ‘No Wrist Cock and No Pivot’. It is the simplest of ‘Push Basic Strokes’ wherein ‘The Brace Shoulder is the Up & Down Engine’. This is the ‘How & Why’ we refer to the ‘One Piece or Triangular Take-Away’. (see ‘Connected’) If we only had it permanently perfected!

We are well-served by using our ‘8 Step Putting & Chipping Pre-Shot Routine’. You know this!

All members of the ‘555 Golf Family’ know that ‘A Chip Is A Putt With A Hop’! Logically, a ‘Bump & Run’ is just a Chip with a longer ‘Back & Up Swing or Take Away’. (see ‘The Balsa Airplane Concept’ .. The Tip Of The Propeller Windes Up The Engine Rubber Band’. The ‘Brace Hand’ facilitates our very small ‘Accumulate, Load & Coil’)

Our brace hand is usually our dominant hand. We gesture with it, eat with it, write with it, grind with it and more!

Just a few basics for YOU!

The ‘Lower Body’ produces exclusively all the “Horizontal or Round & Round Motion’. The Target Hip rotates back and away from the golf ball. This enables the ‘Connected Brace Hip’ to powerfully advance on or towards the ‘Target Line’. It is like that ‘Pick-Up Truck Concept’. If you push the rear bumper, that will move the front bumper and the entire machine in the direction which you steer via the Front Axel or Front End! By The Way, ‘You Must Steer The Front Foot OPEN So You Can Clear Your Target Hip Back’. (see ‘The Swapping Pockets Drill)

To progress at a pace that will make you happy, you need …

1. Desire, Honesty and an Open Mind
2. Knowledge of some ‘Golf Ball Flight Laws
3. Knowledge of fundamental Mechanical needs
4. To know ‘The 5 Set-Ups’ (Posture Grip Stance Ball Location & Alignment)
5. To know ‘The 5 Essential Elements’ (Clubface Aim, Clubhead Path, Clubhead Speed Sweet Spot & Angle Of Attack (AoA).
6. To have a proven professional ‘Pre-Shot Routine’
7. Pivot Axis and Spinal Engine (Imperative)