Why telling a player to 'accelerate' through the ball could be bad advice

No matter how long you’ve played the game, chances are you’ve heard some version of this advice: “Accelerate through the ball.”

While this advice is likely well-meaning in the same vein as “keep your head down,” it’s not a directive you should necessarily heed on the green, says GOLF Top 100 Teacher E.A. Tischler.

“What’s accelerating? This is a misnomer,” Tischler said at GOLF’s Top 100 Teacher Retreat at Cabot Citrus Farms. “Most people are told to accelerate through the ball, say, like in putting, because they don’t want them to decelerate because they’re a decelerator, but the answer isn’t to practice accelerating, because then they start ramming them way past the hole also.

a woman on the putting green
This simple putting drill will help improve your tempo
By: Heather Angell, PGA , Jessica Marksbury

“The key is to have a good repeatable tempo, and once you’ve changed directions, put your stroke on cruise control,” he continued. “And if you feel like from transition to follow-through you’re on cruise control, you’re gonna find that the club acceleration through the ball is going to be proper. And in reality, we have maximum acceleration when we change directions.

“So if that’s where maximum acceleration is, what’s acceleration through the ball supposed to look like?”

The answer? Overkill.

So if dialing in your putting stroke is a priority this season, follow Tischler’s advice and focus on honing a stroke with a consistent repeatable tempo instead of trying to accelerate your way through impact. Need a drill to get started? Click here. Your putting stats will surely thank you.

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