How to stop your wrists breaking down when you putt

Ask a room of golfers why they missed a short putt and you will hear about the read, the green and the grain. Ask a coach and the answer is often simpler: the hands took over. When the wrists hinge and flick through the ball, the putter face moves, and a putt you started on line finishes on the edge.

This guide explains what wrist breakdown is, how to check whether you do it, and four drills that hand the job back to your shoulders.

What "wrist breakdown" actually means

In a good putting stroke, your shoulders rock and your arms and the putter go along for the ride. Your forearms, wrists and the shaft stay in roughly the same relationship from start to finish. Coaches call that the triangle: your two arms and the line across your shoulders.

Breakdown is when that triangle stops being one piece. Most often the lead wrist (the left wrist for a right-handed golfer) bends backwards through impact while the trail hand pushes the putter head past the hands. You will hear it called flicking, scooping, or the wrist "breaking down".

Why it costs you putts

• The face turns. Where the ball starts depends mostly on where the putter face points at impact. A flick usually closes or opens the face by a degree or two, and on a three-footer that is enough to miss the hole.
• The loft changes. When the head passes the hands, you add loft. The ball can hop and skid instead of rolling, so pace becomes hard to judge.
• It changes under pressure. Small muscles in the hands are the first to get twitchy when a putt matters. A stroke driven by the shoulders holds up far better.

How to check if your wrists break down

Film yourself face on from waist height, or ask a friend to watch. Hit a few five-foot putts and freeze the video just after impact. Look at the angle between your lead forearm and the shaft. If it is the same as at address, your wrists held. If the shaft now leans back toward you and the putter head is ahead of your hands, they broke down.

A second clue: if you finish with the putter face pointing at the sky, or your hands seem to stop while the head keeps going, the wrists are doing the work.

Four drills to fix it

1. Lead hand only

Hit ten short putts holding the putter in your lead hand only, with your trail hand behind your back. It feels awkward, which is the point: the trail hand is usually the one pushing the head past the hands, and taking it away shows you how a quieter stroke feels.

2. Hold the finish

After every putt, freeze in your finish until the ball stops. Check that the shaft still lines up with your lead forearm. This turns every practice putt into a check, and it stops the habit of looking up early.

3. The arm-lock check

Hold an alignment stick against the grip so it runs up the inside of your lead forearm, gripping both together. Make slow strokes. If your lead wrist bends, the stick comes away from your arm and you feel it straight away. This is the same idea arm-lock putters use, without changing your putter.

4. Sticks up both arms

The strongest version of the drill joins both arms to the putter. Two alignment sticks are fixed to the shaft just below the grip and run up the outside of your arms into your armpits. Now the only way to move the putter cleanly is to rock your shoulders. If your wrists flick, the sticks lift away from your arms on that stroke, not three putts later.

That is exactly what Pendulo is for. It clips onto the shaft below the grip and holds two standard 8 mm sticks in a V, so you can practise the full triangle on the green or the carpet.

A simple practice plan

1. Five minutes of feedback: 10 putts from three feet with your chosen drill. Hole all 10 before you move back.
2. Then 10 from six feet, still with feedback.
3. Finish with five putts with no aid at all, trying to copy the feeling.

Short, regular sessions beat one long one. Three or four sessions a week of ten minutes will change more than an hour on a Sunday.

Keep reading

If you want to understand the stroke you are aiming for, read the pendulum putting stroke, explained simply. For more ways to use the sticks you already own, see six alignment stick putting drills.

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