Flash in the pan? Whatever that means?

From previous blogs it will be obvious I'm working on two areas - backswing for the full shots and putting grip or method. And the early indications are that I am making progress.

Firstly, trailing arm position on the backswing. Having tried thinking about keeping my trailing arm as vertical as possible at the top of the backswing and found that to be too hard, I tried something else I'd also experimented with recently - trailing arm tucked against my side - like in the old hickory shaft days.

Well, it might have been deleted from the modern coaching manuals, but I now reckon that in the interests of consistency in the backswing, it's not a bad idea. Sure, it limits the length of the backswing and maybe flattens the swing plane a bit, but for someone who has always had a short backswing and a quite flat swing plane - so what?

In fact, keeping my trailing arm tucked in this way has made little or no distance to my length with driver and probably all other clubs except perhaps wedge and maybe seven to nine iron. What it has done is give me a feeling of security, of knowing where I'm swing back to, i.e. knowing that I am in a consistent position from which to commence the downswing. Maybe this doesn't matter to those who play more than I do and don't have an issue with their backswing, but for me it has been a big help.

I shouldn't claim that using this tucked or connected backswing position solves all problems because there is still plenty that can go wrong, including in particular the results that come from a rushed downswing. Therefore, I've had to add another component to this procedure.

The added component is the introduction of a slight pause at the top. This is something I've talked about before, but without linking it to the concept of a tucked trailing arm and short backswing. I've long known that a shorter backswing demands a slower transition and that rushing the downswing with a short backswing is usually disastrous. Getting the pause right (correct) is the problem, i.e. not too short and not too long - it has to be, as for Goldilocks, just right. It's a work in progress.

The pause is actually an opportunity to make sure the wrists are fully cocked. Now that I've gone back to a Vardon grip for full shots, my hands are working better together and I can feel it when I fully and successfully cock my wrists. This element of the backswing is important because of the additional speed that the wrists and hands can generate from a fully cocked position, provided the release is not too early. Anyway, I'm finding that it's something to think about that doesn't interfere with my conscious connecting of my trailing arm and side and helps me to remember to pause and not hurry the transition.

Secondly and finally, and speaking of grips, I've trialled a totally different putting grip that I am absolutely loving. It's not the usual front hand low or pen grip or whatever that those of us with some putting issues usually resort to - it's a split hand grip.

Now you don't see split hand grips very often, except, wait for it, with every golfer who uses the long putter. I'm not using, and will never use, the long putter. I'm talking about a traditional short putter, but with the leading hand as far up the grip as possible and the lower or trailing hand as low on the grip as possible, almost down to the steel. The gap between the hands will vary a little, but it is around two or three inches. It feels quite comfortable, but a bit strange at first, and so it should.

The reason I'm trying this grip is part desperation and part a realisation that speed or distance control is by far the most important element of the putting stroke. Direction is probably 70 percent a matter of a good green read and 30 percent not yipping the putt (a mental challenge, which I'll come back to soon). Distance control is critical, particularly for lag putts, so that you can get the ball into safe two-putt territory. However, it is also critical for those four to ten footers when there is a bit of break - speed and read are the critical factors in these putts.

So, having established that distance control is king, how do you get it? The answer is by letting your dominant lower hand control the feel of the putt. Some people say you can control putt distances by altering the length of your backswing - I seriously doubt this. Lag putting is about letting your mind calculate the distance required and then letting your sensory-motor skills go to work as you hit the putt. It's why rank beginners have great difficulty working out how hard to hit long putts - it is a learned thing, it takes time and practice - there is no formula.

While the lower, dominant (throwing hand incidentally) calculates how hard to hit the ball, the top hand provides a steadying influence. This won't be like the soon to be illegal anchoring that goes on with users of the long putter. However, it is helpful to have this top hand at the top of the grip because it does give one a sense of stability, while allowing the putt to be stroked by the controlling hand. I can't yet say I'm certain this is THE answer, but I believe that there is actual research evidence that golfers have improved their lag putting performances using a split grip.

Returning briefly to the question of short putts, rather than lag putts. My latest solution for better short putting (inside five feet) is simple - concentrate on keeping the putter-head low to the green surface. Keeping the putter-head low is not necessarily going to make much difference to the quality of the ball contact (spin, etc.), though it could in some cases, but the very fact that your mind is occupied by the task of keeping the putter-head low helps to block out the negative, result focused thoughts that often lead to poor short-putt strokes.

As with all of golf, the mind has to be controlled, sometimes even tricked, in order to avoid the worst of the mistakes that can befall us, particularly when we finally reach the green. I'm not sure what flash in the pan means, but it doesn't sound good for golf. I'm crossing everything that these latest concepts of mine are nothing of the sort.