5 Aha Putting Tips
Putting in disc golf is one of the most crucial parts of the game. It can either be the easiest part, or the most difficult. In my experience, it causes the most anxiety during a tournament round. Even a 5 foot putt can leave you shaking and wondering what the hell is wrong with you? Especially when you make those putts without thinking about them in casual rounds 100% of the time. Feeling confident on the putting green can make a huge difference when it comes to having a successful tournament round. Afterall, smashing those chains is probably the most addictive part of disc golf and it gives you that drip of dopamine that puts a smile on your face! 🙂
I’ve spent the last two years fine tuning my putting stroke. I’ve worked on being consistent, smooth, and developing a routine. It’s quickly become the strongest part of my game and has helped me work my way into the Open division and feel competitive there. I recently won an invitational event where I competed against some of the best players in New York State in a putting competition and applied what I have been working on over the last few years. Now I will share my “5 aha putting tips” with you!
Spartan Discs High Stakes Putting (Full live video here)
1. Toss a disc to yourself while you’re sitting on the couch.
Back when I first started playing rugby in high school, I had to learn how to pass the ball. It requires a completely different motion than I’ve ever attempted relative to a football or baseball throw. Your hands are at your side and you have to spin the ball from your hip. I had blown my knee out in my 2nd year and was in a wheelchair for a few months. Since I couldn’t move around, I sat there and tossed the ball in the air to myself, both left and right handed, and quickly became the best passer on the team.
When I transitioned to disc golf, it was also a very new and unnatural motion to spin the disc off of my hand. I thought that the best way to work on my grip and a smooth release was to practice tossing it in the air to myself, similar to how I learned how to pass a rugby ball. I worked on curling my wrist and spinning the disc no more than 2 or 3 feet straight up into the air, catching it, and repeating. I get comments all the time about how smooth my putt is and I attribute it to this practice.
2. Develop a short, simple routine.
This step is crucial to being consistent. The first 5 years of my disc golf career I always had potential to play incredibly well but when it came to tournaments I always found myself getting nervous on the putting green which led to terrible consistency and poor performance. Over the last two years, I spent a lot of time working on my routine. I go through my routine on every putt whether it's a casual round, practice round, tournament round, or just at the practice basket. I believe the key to a successful routine is keeping it short, simple, and easy to repeat. Here is what I do:
Visualize a line from the basket through your lie: When I approach the basket I draw an imaginary line from the pole of the basket through my disc on the ground. This gives me a guide that I can use to place my feet. Orienting my body with the basket the exact same way is the first step to being consistent. My front foot is behind my disc with my toes pointing roughly 35° to the left of the pole. My back foot has the imaginary line going right through the arch of my foot and what I’ve found to be comfortable is having this foot perpendicular, angled 90° relative to the pole of the basket.
Find your release point: This will be different depending on your style of putt. I am a direct spin putter and my goal is to have the disc stay below the band and above the cage, so directly at the heart of the basket. I aim just below the band, and just right of the pole as a right handed putter. This area of the chains will do the best job of grabbing your disc by using its spin and pulling it into the center of the basket. If the putt isn’t fully committed, it will give your putter time to lose some height and still finish low left, increasing your chance of making the putt.
Create a “tick”: If you’ve watched enough disc golf you may have picked up on something that the two best disc golfers in the world do when they putt. Paul McBeth digs his back foot into the ground, twists it a few times, then executes his putt. Paige Pierce does this thing where she flips the disc up over her head early on in her stroke, which may seem weird, but it helps her body understand what she is doing and creates consistency. My “tick” is rocking my weight back and forth from my back foot to my front foot, which is the first step in my putting stroke. The weight shift starts on my back foot, I drive the energy from the ground up through my hand and towards my target. When I rock, it tells my body it’s time to putt and then I execute.
3. Spend a majority of your putting practice at 15-20 feet: A few years ago I watched a YouTube video that Eagle McMahon posted about his putting practice. (Check it out here) He specifically talks about the benefits of practicing at this distance and there is a ton of value in it. It’s all about building muscle memory and confidence. I PROMISE it translates to putting better at 25, 35, 45 feet, and beyond.
4. Create timing by incorporating your breath: Breathing is not so arguably one of the most crucial keys to life. There are breathing techniques to help reduce stress, transcend into psychedelic like states of mind, and to perform well in sports. When it comes to yoga you are transitioning between positions that are timed with your breath. Weightlifters inhale and exhale at specific points during their reps. Any high level athlete consciously uses their breath to perform better in their sport, and they practice doing it so much that they can unconsciously incorporate their breath into their discipline. I used this theory and incorporated it into my putt. I inhale as I reach back with my putter, and have an audible exhale as I execute my stroke. Breathing during my stroke has become so obviously important to me that I plan on writing an entire blog post just about how it has affected my disc golf game! Try this during your next practice session, and continue to work on it until you don’t even have to think about it!
5. Find what is comfortable to you: Watch professional disc golf and try to find two players that have an identical putting stroke. I bet money you can’t! They might have some similarities, but every player has their own style of putt. This is because all of our bodies are different. It is so important that you find what is comfortable for you, and is easily repeatable without causing pain. You might find that having your back foot 90° to the pole hurts your hip or knee, so try pointing it straight at the pole. If you work on the core tips that I talk about, you can apply them to any style of putt and have success. It may take a little while to find what is comfortable, but once you do, make sure you stick to it! I spent the first 5 years of my career changing things in my putting stroke which was always detrimental to my consistency. Find what works early on and keep doing it!
I hope you find some value in these putting tips that have worked for me! Let me know what you plan on incorporating into your practice! Hit me up on Instagram or Facebook or leave a comment below 🙂
