How do people aim in minigolf? Do they have a supernatural ability to see when the club-head is exactly in 90 degrees angle against the line of the shot? Do they have a sixth sense? Or what?

Let us first consider some other sports, and think how the players aim in them.

A tennis player, how does he aim? When the ball is coming towards him up in the air, does he look carefully at his racket and start calculating angles? No. He does not pay any attention to his racket – he looks at the other side of the field, searching a suitable spot where to play the ball, and then he makes the shot... without ever looking at his racket! His playing technique is so automatic that he doesn’t actually “aim” at all. He just chooses where to hit, and there the ball goes.

What about minigolf then? How do people aim in minigolf?

In the beginning you certainly need to look very carefully at the club-head of your putter, worrying about its angle, and trying to point it towards the target that you are aiming at. Beginners need all their concentration for this task, and serious mistakes in aiming are common. The club-head may be pointing half a meter off-target, without the player noticing that anything is wrong in his aiming. So he plays the shot, and wonders why the ball missed the hole half a meter to the left or right...

When you get more experience of the game, all parts of your playing technique will become more and more automatic and unconscious – including aiming. You will become like the tennis player, only looking at the field, finding a suitable target to aim at, and hardly noticing that you have a putter in your hands! You just choose the target and play the shot, and there the ball goes. You and the playing equipment are one.

Let us analyze the details of aiming anyway, to get an idea of what you will soon be doing automatically and nearly unconsciously.

There are many ways how to aim a shot. The easiest one (on felt and eternite courses) is to look at the line behind the ball in the starting area, and place the putter exactly parallel with this line. If you do this carefully (and the line has been drawn carefully), your putter will point exactly towards the hole or gate – if these are at the center of the lane. Sometimes they are, sometimes not. (If not, the player may try to aim “a bit left of the line” or “just a little right of the line”. The accuracy of such aiming may sometimes be a bit questionable.)

The great advantage of this aiming technique is its simplicity and reliability. It is very unlikely that you make a serious mistake in aiming, if you compare the position of the putter with the line behind the ball. But this aiming technique has also great limitations, because very often you need to aim to other directions than straight ahead. There are no aiming lines to help you when putting, or when playing beton or open system courses.

Another option is to choose a mark on the lane (such as a scratch, dark spot etc.) some 20 cm ahead of the ball, exactly on the line between the ball and the target. Aiming at this mark, which is close to the ball, may feel easier than aiming at a target 10 meters away. You can see the aiming mark all the time, without turning your head, which makes it easier to compare the position of the club-head with the mark that you are aiming at.

This sighting technique already requires you to estimate when the club-head is precisely in 90 degrees angle against the line of the shot. It may feel difficult in the beginning, but after a while you will not notice at all that your brain is thinking about 90-degree angles when you are aiming! Only remember that it is forbidden to make your own marks on the lanes: you must use the scratches and stains that are already found on the lane. And make sure that your aiming mark is a permanent part of the lane, and not blown away by the wind or washed away by the next rain.

The most complex, and universally useful, aiming technique is the “tennis player” method, simply looking at the target and playing the shot, and there the ball goes. Without need for aiming lines or marks, or much thinking whatsoever. Just doing it. To learn this, you just need to play a lot with your standard playing stance and grip. In course of time you will get the feeling of where the ball will exactly go, when you position your body in a certain way, and grip the putter in the same way as you always do. Then you no longer need to worry about the club-head and 90-degree angles so much: you know and feel where the putter is pointing at, even without looking at it.

Aiming at a target several meters away is theoretically more accurate than the two “close-up” options: start line or an aiming mark. (Just like shooting with a long rifle is theoretically more accurate than shooting with a small handgun.) This aiming technique is also quite fast, and can be used in all possible situations, both when playing the first shot from the starting area, and when putting somewhere along the lane.

You should begin aiming already when you take your playing stance, so that your playing position will be optimal for the direction of the shot. If you first take your playing stance, and only after that start thinking about the direction where to play the ball at, the direction of the shot will sometimes be more to the left or right than your natural straight swing would suggest. This easily leads to an irregular asymmetric swing, some unintended spin, and increasing inaccuracy in the direction of your shots. Many top-class players memorize the exact location of their feet when practicing a lane, so that they can take precisely the same playing position in competition. This minimizes the risk of aiming mistakes and irregular swings caused by irregular playing stances.

Optical illusions

You should be aware of some of the most common optical illusions, which may sometimes disturb your aiming in surprising ways, so that your putter is not pointing into the direction that you believe.

Direct sunlight can create strong lights and shadows around your putter and ball. It might happen that the shadow of the putter points into a different direction than your putter, and you are mistaken to aim with the shadow and not with the putter! Top-class players never play a shot in such circumstances: they ask another person to stand behind them, to create a shadow over the whole aiming area of the player.

Some players who normally wear eye-glasses, prefer to play minigolf without them (or with contact lenses), because they fear that they see objects in different locations with glasses than without them. It is true that eye-glasses change the direction of light, and if you move eye-glasses to the left and right on your nose, objects seem to be moving to the left and right. Nevertheless, this fear is probably exaggerated: you should see objects in the same locations, if you wear eye-glasses both in practice and in competition.

On lane no. 8 of beton courses, the green is shaped like a volcano, and the hole is 15 or 20 cm higher than normally. If you imagine that the volcano were made of transparent material, you could see the center of green and the hole in two different locations – the hole 20 cm above the center of green. Now take your playing stance, and prepare to putt a ball into the hole.

If your playing stance is such that your eyes are exactly over the ball when your are aiming, you would see the hole and the center of green precisely in the same direction, along the same straight line. But most players don’t have their eyes exactly over the ball, so they would see the hole and the center of green in two different directions: the ball, hole and center of green would not be along the same straight line! The center of green would be seen slightly on the left side of hole (for right-hand players), or on the right side of hole (for left-hand players).

To get the ball into the hole, you must putt towards the center of green. But if your eyes are not exactly over the ball, you see the hole in a different direction than the center of green! If you aim at the hole (which you see in different direction than the center of green), you may systematically miss the putt on one side of the hole, or even outside of the hole.

To avoid this optical illusion, some players aim the volcano putt into an aiming mark at ground level (chosen between the ball and the hole), rather than directly into the hole that is 20 cm above ground level. Some other players simply aim slightly off the center of hole, knowing that otherwise they would systematically miss the putt on the opposite side of hole.

SWING

Now that you have a solid stance and a well-oiled aiming technique, why not go and hit the ball?

Most experts of golf or minigolf teach that you must keep your head still during the putting swing, looking at the spot where the ball is, and not at the moving club-head of putter. Some top-class minigolfers do the opposite, though: they look at the club-head, and move the head and the entire upper body together with the club-head during the swing. Or then they look at the ball during backswing, but follow the club-head with their eyes after hitting the ball.

This is a matter of the general playing technique: some players prefer to keep their head and upper body still, playing mainly with the hands and the pendulum effect (especially in powerful felt shots). Other players prefer to keep their hands rigid and still (compared to the upper body), moving their entire upper body and head and hands in unison (especially in the most delicate slow shots).

Follow-through is an important part of the swing. Don’t stop the movement of the putter immediately after hitting the ball, but let the swing continue in a relaxed way far beyond the point where the ball was. No harm is done if your follow-through rises to the level of your hips or even your head, but much harm may be done if you stop the follow-through too short. The thumb rule is: too much follow-through is better than too little.

The length of backswing (backwards movement of the putter before hitting the ball) is a more controversial issue. The more force you need to the shot, the longer backswing you need, if you want to keep the swing relaxed and casual. Players who specialize in felt competitions tend to have a long backswing, sometimes more than half a meter. They use the pendulum effect of a wide swing to get force to the shot with little muscle effort. Some top-class felt players have an extremely short backswing, however. They need to use much more muscle work to create the same force as players with long backswing do. Many experts believe that a short backswing is more reliable and precise than a long backswing, at least in the most delicate slow shots.

A common habit among competition players is “feathering”: performing some test swings before making the shot, either over the ball, beside it, or behind it. This is done to ensure that the swing feels comfortable and relaxed, and there is nothing wrong in the playing stance or clothing. Most players do the test swing once or twice only. Among Austrian top-class players there has traditionally been a fashion trend of performing the test swing more than ten or twenty times...

It is not uncommon to see even on international top level some players, whose putter points to a different direction than where the ball will go when they play the shot. Their swing is “asymmetric”: the putter begins the backswing in a different angle than it finally hits the ball during the forward swing. The player unconsciously turns the putter during the swing, to the right or left, always the same amount (if the player is a good one).

Players with asymmetric swings have won medals in World Championships, but nevertheless it is advisable to avoid having such a swing. If your swing is asymmetric, and you unconsciously turn the putter during the swing, it might happen that you turn the putter more when you play harder shots, and less when you play slower shots. Or vice versa. An asymmetric swing may cause a lot of irregularity to the direction of your shots, especially when you change the force of shots.

It is best to learn a regular straight swing, so that when you keep the putter parallel with the start line, the shot will go systematically straight (to the middle of the hole or gate), and not systematically to the left or right. If you systematically miss to the left or right, you may feel tempted to correct this by turning the putter (pointing elsewhere than at the target), then letting your asymmetric swing turn the putter towards the target as you play the shot. Analyzing and correcting your swing would be more difficult, but also more rewarding in the long run, if you wish to become a top-class player.

The comments of your fellow players about your playing style may be valuable: you cannot yourself see how harmonous your stance and swing look like. When greater changes are in question, make sure that the person offering the advice is a top-class expert.