LPAS Training Aid

I got an early Xmas gift as my mom paid for the LPAS (Laser Putting Alignment System) training aid. I've actually wanted a laser alignment system for quite some time, but back when I was really playing golf (about ten years ago), all laser alignment training aids went for around $500. The LPAS goes for $40-$50. The double sided adhesive tape is a bit cumbersome. Eventually, you learn how to get the paper off the double side tape, but it's not the stickiest substance. However, according to the instructions, you can use other types of adhesive tape instead of the tape that they provide you.



The top level instructors tend to go about laser alignment in a different fashion. They will put a little mirror on the club face and then shoot a laser from the target to the mirror on the clubface and see where the laser points to off the reflection. That's a bit more of an efficient way of doing it, but the LPAS should be fine. David Orr recommends it and Science and Motion (the makers of the SAM puttlab) endorse it as well.



One of the many things I really agree with Dariusz Jędrzejewski (author of the Biokinetic Theory of the Golf Swing) is the importance of the head and eyesight in the golf swing. Particularly on the dominant eye and how it plays a roll in your game. Posting with Dariusz on the GolfWRX.com forum, I asked him more about the dominant eye and he mentioned that right handed golfers whose dominant eye is their right eye tend to aim left of the target (left aim bias). On the other hand, right handed golfers whose dominant eye is their left eye tend to have a right aim bias.



I would have to imagine this is true. I'm the rare case in that I'm in the latter scenario...I'm right handed, but my left eye is my dominant eye. And for years I've had issues with aiming too far right of the target. Ben Hogan supposedly had a left eye as his dominant eye and he used to aim right of the target. And I'm willing to bet Snead's dominant eye was his left eye (by the way his head is positioned throughout the swing) and he aimed right of the target.



Furthermore, there's David Orr's research that says that 54% of golfers he researched had a left aim bias and 26% had a right aim bias and 20% had a straight aim bias. Most right handed golfers have a dominant right eye (usually your dominant eye is on the same side as your throw with). So if Orr's research show that the majority of golfers have a left aim bias and the major of golfers also have a dominant right eye, then logically one could deduct that:



Right dominant eye = left aim bias

Left dominant eye = right aim bias



Anyway, it doesn't take much to be misaligned. 1 degree off and you'll see a noticeable difference in alignment. David Edel of Edel putters (http://www.edelgolf.com/) believes that the putterhead, hosel and alignment markers along with other factors effect alignment greatly and that's why he has roughly 30 million different combinations for his putters.



Fortunately I've got about five putters laying around with different hosels and clubfaces and I'll try them out and see what works for me.



As always, if you really want to improve your putting I suggest checking out Orr's Web site forum at http://www.orrgolf.com/. There's a lot of great information there. And I got my LPAS at their Web site, http://www.thesmartergolfer.com/











3JACK