The Science Behind Muscle Memory: How to Develop It with Every Putt

Have you noticed that some golfers seem to be naturally smooth and consistent with a putter in their hand? It’s like they entered the world making 10-foot putts for show. Why do certain golfers take to putting more easily than others? 

Muscle memory plays a vital role in accelerating your putting skills. Why? In short, the muscle memory you teach to yourself serves as the foundation of your putting fundamentals, which in turn, gives you a baseline of skills you can work on.

If you develop muscle memory properly, then you can achieve a solid fundamental foundation off which you can add more and more putting skills.

What is Muscle Memory?

By definition, muscle memory is the ability to reproduce a particular movement without conscious thought, acquired as a result of frequent repetition of that movement. When it comes to putting, muscle memory gives you a baseline of skill that you can begin to work with. In other words, it allows you to repeat the same fundamentals until you master them.

For example, let’s think about a meadow, knee-high grass as far as the eye can see. If I were to drive a wagon, car, etc. through the meadow, making sure to run on top of my previous tracks each time, what would happen? Well, the weight of the vehicle will eventually cause ruts to form in the meadow. These ruts are carved out of the ground by the repetition of the car traveling over the same area again and again.

Think of your putter as the car and the ruts as your putting fundamentals. Creating a baseline of “ruts” or fundamentals will allow you to putt the same way every time you address the golf ball. This leads to consistency of putting stroke, which is the single best way to instantly improve your putting skills. 

Everything I just wrote is great, but why is it that muscle memory matters so much when putting? 

Putting is very much an art of sorts. There is no perfect answer to putting well. That’s why pros use vastly different putters, training aids, etc to help their game. They hope to gain any advantage they can. But what they don’t tell you is that to improve your putting the fastest, it’s all about developing that muscle memory. 

Think about the pressure of making a tough putt. That pressure doesn’t exist if you have proper muscle memory because muscle memory can take over for you when you are feeling outside influences.

Similarly to how a basketball player shooting free throws needs muscle memory, so does putting.

Building Muscle Memory Through Putting

So we have discovered that putting requires excellent muscle memory to be successful. Now, how do we reach that consistency? 

For starters, we have to putt with a purpose. Repetition and feedback will help you the most. The most damaging way to practice is by simply going through the motions. With every stroke, you need to evaluate yourself for consistency and feedback.

Feedback is how you know you are learning. By looking at things like alignment, contact, and follow-through, you will start to feel what a good and bad stroke feels like. This only enhances your ability to build muscle memory. 

Using putters designed for training while you play on the course is best for this method. Putters like our putter, the Optimum, have these muscle memory builders built into their design so you can achieve your best stroke, the fastest.

Last but not least, intentional practice vastly outgains random practice when it comes to building skills. Rather than going out to the putting green to just putt some random balls, have some intention while out there. Play a game. Run a drill. Or, if you hate the putting green, go play. There’s nothing like real game situations to help you get better.

How Focalpoint Putters Accelerate Muscle Memory

Much like how muscle memory gives you a foundation of fundamental putting skills, so does our putter, the Optimum. We designed our putter to integrate features that would help you to train while you play, and give you that foundational baseline of skills every putter needs.

For example, we designed the putter to have a simple alignment system that anyone, even those who are slightly visually impaired can line up our putter with ease due to its squareness and lack of alignment marks. Combining these features with the weight, center of gravity, and shape of the putter helps to start you off with a solid putting foundation.

Our putter was designed to be used on the course so that you can take these real-life situations and get the most out of building muscle memory. If we can do more training while playing, I think we can isolate muscle memory better, in order to keep building that foundation of putting skills.

Practical Tips for Developing Muscle Memory with Every Putt

The first concrete thing I would do to help build muscle memory is go to the putting green, and practice a handful of 3-5 foot putts, making sure to focus on correct alignment and stroke mechanics. As you feel confident, you can keep backing up further and further.

Next, I would get on the course and play. While playing, try not to focus too hard on any fundamentals. Instead, when you address a putt, develop a routine for yourself and then just putt. See what happens. 

Conclusion

Muscle Memory is one of the most important skills to build while learning to putt better. As you improve your muscle memory, you will find it much easier to putt with the same stroke every single time consistently. 

With repetition, feedback, and a putter like the Optimum, you will become a better putter in no time. Get out there and start building your muscle memory today!