I’d highly recommend getting the level. I really think a few sessions on the green with the level testing yourself on slopes will pay some big dividends down the road.
2 Likes
The beauty of the AimPoint system is you don’t ever have to read a green again. It takes all of the guessing away and honestly takes a lot of pressure off of your putting. You don’t have to stand behind the ball thinking did I read this right. What speed did I read for this break. You just feel it and hit the speed for the day. It’s liken magic.
1 Like
I’m another Aimpoint user, and I believe its a great way to go for many players. Yes, you really should get the level to calibrate yourself. If possible, you should take an in-person class. As @jon says, some people struggle to feel the slope, a good Aimpoint instructor can help you figure out a method that works for you. My personal method is to stop at a spot, close my eyes, and rock left and right just slightly. I’ll feel like its easy to “fall” one way or another, and I’ll have that read in a second or two.
Aimpoint is really good because you’re only evaluating the piece of the green between you and the hole. The slopes beyond the hole, the edges of the green, the horizon in the background, you see them all, and its really hard to eliminate their influence in how you read a putt visually. Aimpoint eliminates all that visual clutter. Plumb-bobbing can provide a reference for a vertical line, but you’re still seeing all of that background.
6 Likes
Well said! When you’re predominantly using your eyes, as you said, a lot of extraneous information can enter the equation that really won’t help you determine the break.
I can’t tell you how many times my feet (gravity) told me one thing, and my eyes were seeing another. Gravity usually wins the debate!
3 Likes
What you just said here makes the most sense. I’m on the AimPoint train and I’m going to try and convince others to get onboard.
2 Likes
Gravity - it’s the law.
(
)
But on a serious note - I have an AimPoint clinic scheduled for later this week … will come back here and update with my impressions and experience.
6 Likes
great! Excited to hear what you think
Is the aimpoint express dvd worth the money ? or is it just basic(as in you can find that info online).
@John1 You can’t find the info online, believe me I tried. It’s the best $50 I’ve ever spent though. It’s not really basic it is just that you don’t get the luxury of learning and putting it to work with the help of a pro. So it teaches you how to teach yourself. Very good program.
1 Like
I’ll second @Gisclairj - the people at AimPoint are very protective over their info. Even when I wrote an article about my experience which was going to get them a lot of positive attention, they had me take out certain information that they deemed “proprietary”
1 Like
The only thing that is floating around is a -Class-Notes-AimPoint-Express-Level-1-2-pdf- But in all fairness i think you should reward owners for intellectual property. I guess in this case that is maybe open for discussion.
I’m totally fine with them wanting to protect their information. It took a lot of time and money to come up with the system so they are entitled to keep vital parts of it secret. My guess is that they have to be extra vigilant because it is somewhat simple to teach and understand.
Initial attempt after 30 minute practice with AimPoint knowledge. First impression of AimPoint practice, it is magical. It really takes any guess work or self doubt out of the putt. Read what you feel, make the read against the cup, aim to your point, hit the speed, let physics do the work. I absolutely love it. Definitely going to hone this skill. I can say this, I’ve never pitted as consistently as I did this morning and I never felt pressure, I felt like, this is the read trust it and putt it.
3 Likes
I’m a big Aimpoint proponent, but I wouldn’t go that far. Your eyes will still try to influence your read, or maybe you’ll have compound breaks to figure out, there can still be bits of doubt. Even after 3 years, I still remind myself to “trust the read” a half-dozen times each round.
2 Likes
Glad that you’re finding value out of it so far. I really think if most golfers took the clinic they’d see meaningful results in their putting if they put it into practice.
2 Likes
Ok. Y’all have me interested here. I really try to be a “feel” guy, but taking a level out and testing how good your “feel” is makes a lot of sense to me.
2 Likes
I think that’s one of the big misconceptions about aimpoint, there’s feel involved, you’re just judging what gravity is telling you with your feet. A lot of announcers on TV have no idea what it actually is (Azinger comes to mind who is incredibly lazy about learning anything new) - and make it out to be something that it isn’t. Anyways, you can give it a shot and see for yourself!
2 Likes
@papageorgio I totally echo what @jon is saying here. It is definitely a feel thing. In fact, I feel like I have a better feel for what’s going on with the green since getting into the AimPoint. Sometimes I’m really shocked about where my initial AimPoint is, thinking, there is no way this is going to break 4 feet and sure enough it does. It is pretty incredible, and I know for sure I wouldn’t pick half of the lines I did before AimPoint. In fact before AimPoint I would try and draw a line, curve that the ball needs to be on and I would just get a starting point. I never looked at it so linear, but it makes sense.
1 Like
That makes sense. I will occasionally take a tee out, make a read, putt at the tee and note the results. This is a low tech way of “testing” your read of the slope.
It makes sense to bring a little more data to the table and systematize
2 Likes
I think that’s the difference for me, just having a process/system. Before that I think my tendency was to over read putts and not feel all that confident in my line while I was standing over the ball.
4 Likes