How does aimpoint golf work

Erika Larkin recently posted a video on Instagram that explains the basics of AimPoint, and it does it all in a tight second timeframe. Suck at putting? Read putts like magic…. Never guess when you can measure!!!!!! The first step in AimPoint green reading is to feel the slope of the green. That means providing you with equipment reviews you can trust, as well as honest reporting on the latest issues affecting the game today. That is a good point that you can find a straight put if you pinpoint the transition point.

Maybe it would be good to get a digital green reader for golf. Then I could find the transition point from uphill to downhill. A good review and some great comments to boot. Do you have any information about the Express Read class? On a flat-flat putt you aim at the center of the hole, period. If you want reference, ask Jack Nicklaus about dying the ball in the hole.

Hi dave, Will you be able to share how Aimpoint has helped you now that you have learnet it almost 10 months back. The snow has melted around here and it is finally warming up! I played my first 9-holes of the season last weekend with two friends. Early season lack of touch had us chunking shots and hitting some bad chip shots. But I still carded a 42 and my putting was ON.

I one-putted 4 greens, and sank several putts between feet. I am so happy to see that my putting it has not faded that much during the off season. Looking forward to great things this year. It simply has the same information that is found on the printed Aimpoint charts.

Obviously you can use the printed Aimpoint charts on the green just not while standing at midpoint of your line. In our class the AimPoint instructor made it pretty clear that while you were on the green you could not utilize any device or mechanism while in the process of reading your putt. I believe even the green charts that pro caddies typically carry can only be referenced while standing off the green, or at least some distance away from the putt and putting line.

It may be cheaper than the level. Only repeating what I heard from the instructor, and it made sense. I recently took the Aimpoint fundamentals class and found the technology and green reading information to be extremely useful. Even my Aimpoint instructor did not know if the App was legal for use during play…. In short, I played 9 holes and one-putted 4 greens.

Yes, 4. Out of 9. And I missed another 6-footer along the way! A particular gem was a solid footer on hole 1, and curving footer to save par on a par 3 after my tee-shot found the sand, and my bunker shot was short coming out of wet sand my only bunker foray of the outing.

I went out to the first tee stone-cold no warmup and a chilly wind blowing and a light drizzle. I managed a 42 although I started with two double-bogeys in the first 3 holes.

Putting really helped me for a change! As I mentioned before, in the holes I collected putting data on last year, I one-putted exactly 10 times I went back and checked my list, I said 5 in my earlier post, I can tell you it felt like 5.

Going out for real this weekend, hope to get in 36! I attended my aimpoint class this weekend and took my new knowledge to my local practice green yesterday for an hour. I have learned a lot of interesting things. The class was a bit pricey, but I have paid a lot more for golf-related items and gotten a lot less, I think. I think the value is right in the ballpark.

So, the class went roughly like this: Putting distance tune up: Like in the review above, we started with a warmup to get used to running the ball a few inches past the hole. This turned out to be easy for me, because my natural stride takes me 2. So two strides is exactly five-feet. This has little to do with the aimpoint methodology, but honestly I had never thought to measure my stride with a yardstick, or would have thought that accurate measurements could help me with putting.

I have learned how to stretch out my strides on fairways, like most people, but never thought to do this on greens. So, that was cool! This was a totally new concept for me. I have always read putts from behind the ball, or maybe from behind the cup. Never from a center point in-between the two. The instructor had marked out areas on the green with different slopes, calibrated with a digital level. This technique by itself is crucial to helping me understand and read putts.

The instructor made the point over and over again that it is only the ground your ball is rolling over between it and the hole that matters. Way cool stuff. This is a critical piece, because the charts are organized by stimp rating. Luckily this is quite simple, since most greens are around an 8, you can start there. If you follow the chart and aim correctly from 5 feet, your putt will go in the hole. If you consistently miss high or low, switch to a different stimp chart and try again until you have it.

Reading the charts — Then we got into doing a full-read of the putt with the charts. For example the aim numbers are marked off at 5, 10, 15, and 20 foot intervals, so you have to find midpoints sometimes, and there are rules about what to do in certain situations. My first few reads were slow, but I was getting the hang of it by the time the class was over.

Most putts rolled where they were supposed to, or if they missed they were usually too fast or too slow. Pretty amazing. I took my aim chart and new skills to the putting green. It took me a little while to get into the groove, but I kept at it for a solid hour and by the end of it I could do reads very quickly.

No wonder it used to drive me bonkers practicing there! One of the most interesting things I discovered is my new-found ability to discover when putt is straight. I was sinking a LOT of foot putts, and missing 15 and footers by just an inch or two.

Most of my worse misses came from my lack of distance control leaving a putt 10 inches short — oops — is clearly user error. I hate to jinx myself too soon, but after a while 5-foot putts were getting a little boring so I ventured out to hit a lot from feet. When I think of how many 5 to 7-footers I missed last year, I have high hopes that my putting will be drastically better. I feel like a kid with a new toy!

Based on your review I decied to go ahead and sign up for one in my area — a couple weekends from now. When my ball is feet away, it is basically a guaranteed miss. Out of greens last season I 1-putted something like 5 greens, it was pathetic. I can tell you that in every 1-putt was because the ball was 3 feet from the pin or closer and was almost always on a par 3. I often miss par chances from feet away, it is depressing!

It is much better to commit to the wrong line and make a confident stroke than hit a timid putt with the correct line. The reason I like Aimpoint Express is because it allows you to feel confident about your read and thus commit to your line more frequently. Practicing effectively is one of the biggest keys to a solid golf game. Having the benefit of a green reading system on the golf course is great, but I find the real benefits of using Aimpoint Express on the practice green.

As we will explore later in the post, a large component to training your brain to read slopes with your body is the use of a digital level. Rather than aiming at the wrong target and compensating with a faulty stroke to make the putt, your practice sessions will be spent aiming at the correct target hitting committed strokes.

This trains your brain to see the breaks more accurately on the course, and eliminates the amount of compensation that has to go on during the stroke. Not only is it accepted on tour, a major champion golfer, Adam Scott, has used this system en-route to a Green Jacket. If the best golfers in the world are using this method, it is surely an effective green reading system for those who do choose to practice it and use it.

If you have ever taken a class in economics, you might be familiar with the law of unintended consequences. As a result of reading the greens correctly, you will naturally aim the putter better and start the ball on your intended line more frequently. Dave Pelz proved this in his Putting Bible. If you use Aimpoint Express, you will begin to escape these compensations that cause day to day putting struggles!

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with AimpointGolf and am not a certified Aimpoint instructor. I am not legally entitled to write a full tutorial on how to use the Aimpoint Express system, but my intention is to explain it in just enough detail for you to determine if it is right for you. As alluded to earlier in the post, Aimpoint Express revolves around reading greens with your feet.

In a nutshell, you go to the mid-point of the putt, feel and decide on a certain slope percentage with your feet, and based on this information you use your fingers to read the green.

The photo below demonstrates the basic concept. You can see that the left edge of my leftmost finger is aligned with the center of the cup, and the right edge of my rightmost finger is where I should start my putt. I wanted to start with this detail because it requires the most practice of any part of the system.

I use the level to find 6 spots on the putting green with the following slopes: 0. Once I have found these slopes, I rotate randomly between them, trying to train my brain to identify each of them. Using this guess and check method helps me get an idea of what different percentage slopes feel like.

When reading the slope with your feet, you should stand with your feet about shoulder width apart. Although there are a few exceptions 5 feet and in, double breaking putts, etc. If the putt is a foot right to left breaking putt, you would walk to 7. What next? You would line the left side of your pointer finger up with the middle of the hole, and your aimpoint would be the red dot shown in the picture below. Before you will be able to read the green effectively with the Aimpoint Express system, you must determine the speed of the green.

There are two ways to calibrate with Aimpoint Express. The first way is to straddle the ball and adjust the distance of your hand from your body for different green speeds. It takes no longer than 30 seconds to complete.

It is a very reliable athletic method that will add consistency to your green reading. Just remember its more an art to get the exact slope and finger positions. One of the major skills in putting is learning how to read greens properly. If you are lacking in green reading ability, first off, you have come to the right place and chances are you are frustrated with your putting. Statistically golfers miss most of their putts on the low side. Reason being they are not playing enough break.

When you look up to watch the ball roll it is often past this foot mark thus overtime this section of the putt is never taken into consideration when factoring the amount of break. Rather than relying so much on visual input, the aimpoint express read involves using your feet to judge the slope of the green.

Immediately after impact the slope of the green will start pulling the ball.