stack and tilt

For comprehensive instructions for S&T, see the link for Golf Digest here:

http://www.golfdigest.com/instruction/stackandtilt

Be sure to look at each of the "Related Links" at the bottom of the page.

This is the GD article that featured Bennett and Plumber, so it's right from the gurus. An interesting link is the critique by other instructors.

Oh, I've tried it, with some success, but never stayed with it.

Ted

I use a bastardized version - I stack up on my left side for full swing irons; more like 'stack and rotate'.

I have been doing this as well, and it has knocked about 9 strokes off my typical score. I don't know whether what I'm doing is the "official" S&T or not; I just know that it works for me.

The basic elements (for irons) are: I start with my weight *slightly* forward. On the backswing, I stay there, with my weight stacked over the front leg. The left knee bends and the right leg straightens to achieve a hip turn. Then on the downswing I turn and my weight moves forward even more. My right foot is always "light" on the ground. See Shawn Clement's one-legged swing drill video (). The swing is compact and whippy through impact, and I strive for the "head on pillow" effect as my hips turn through. It works great for me with the irons, and I get respectable distance.

With the driver, I don't start with weight forward; I just try to stay centered through the backswing. Otherwise it's the same: my right foot is light on the ground, and I'm moving forward through the downswing.

This is very different from how I used to hit the ball. I always had a tendency to shift my weight too far back, and leave it there, resulting mostly in thin shots and skulls. I could feel my weight rolling onto the outside edge of my right foot. I worked on bracing into the inside edge of my right foot, but it was a losing struggle. Sometimes I'd get it right and get a good shot, but I couldn't do it consistently.

It was experimenting with that one-legged drill that opened my eyes. If, as I found, I could strike the ball well, and with good distance, standing just on my left leg, using my right leg only for balance, then the whole shift-back, shift-forward concept was clearly not only unnecessary but destructive. It was adding just one more moving part to my swing, and therefore one more thing for me to do wrong. I know there are some who can time that weight shift well, and consistently. I'm not one of them.

This swing isn't complicated. I have no intention of getting the DVDs or reading a lot of stuff about it. It's simple: Start forward, move forward. Turning the hips through is easier with the weight forward; almost impossible with the weight stuck on the back leg.

__________________
Todd
Philadelphia, PA
USA

The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing. ~Phyllis Diller

Todd

Youre the second person I know who used the ideas of S&T to find something that is keeping you centered on the BS rather than swaying. I can see how many people who would sway off to the right would sense this by feeling like you turn around the left leg rather than the right

Stack and tilt is about a reverse pivot, what youre doing is stacking and turning - just like you should!

As Ben says 2 posts below - it should just be called stack rather than stack and tilt

I agree. The whole "tilt" thing is very misleading. There is a forward tilt, but it's not a reverse pivot. It's a slight tilt of the whole body, to achieve the forward weighting. It's very slight, but you can see it.

Here's a quotation from Tommy Armour, in 1953 ("How to Play Your Best Golf of All Time"):

"To hit a good iron shot, your club must contact the ball before the sole of the club gets to the bottom of its arc. Tis get backspin on the ball, eliminates hitting behind the ball, and gets the hands ahead of the ball as the shot is hit. Having the weight borne more on the left foot than on the right as you´re coming into the ball is the way of getting the correct downward path for the iron."

"Impact on the long iron shot: Weight is still on the left foot (as it was in address and throughout the swing)."

I don't claim that my ball-striking is perfect, but I do claim that this change has made a tremendous difference, and it hasn't been one of those things that works for a while then disappears. In fact, if I start hitting bad shots, I find that I'm either (a) tired and shifting onto my right foot again, or (b) overcooking the S&T, setting up too far forward. It's now part of my setup routine to set my weight so that the forward weighting is the *minimum perceptible* amount. But the nice thing--and I am indebted to that Shawn Clement video for it--is that the "light" right foot is easy to be aware of. I take my practice swing mainly to rehearse that light right foot and the "turning under" of the hips.

Shawn Clement is an advocate of the one-leg drill and the feet-together drill. I've tried both, but the one-leg drill is the one that really worked for me. At first I couldn't do it; couldn't keep my balance. Then I started hitting very nice shots, with good distance, balanced on my right tiptoe. That drill makes it relatively trivial to execute a clean "stacked" swing.

__________________
Todd
Philadelphia, PA
USA

The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing. ~Phyllis Diller

The small circle (hands) speeds the big circle (clubhead). That's what these drills are doing.

Me too. Just a stack and smack kind of thing.

It was interesting to watch Na-Yeon Choi at the Evian Masters who looks like she lines up on the back foot every time (regardless of the club used) and has this funky hip jerk over to the left side at impact. She went 15 under for the tournament so I guess it's working for the moment. It looks clunky though.


Tim.

ubizmo and lowpost,
I think you both are on to something with your versions of Stack and Tilt. Staying more centered with less weight shift seems to elicit better contact when I adhere to it. I have a tendency to hit a lot of heavy or fat shots when I shift my weight back and forth. I cannot get the weight shifted in time for crisp contact and a divot after the ball. I thought about getting the DVDs as I have been reading a lot of posts about people's experimenting with S&T prior to them coming out. Thanks for the helpful feedback.

Here's some long, long ago information on instruction I recieved too many years ago to count. But before I share this with you, please know that I have no idea what the present day "stack & tilt" is. I have heard about it, but have not paid much attention to it.

When I was learning to hit pitch shots, the instructor would tell us to "stack" our nose, sternum, and pants zipper in a straight line to a spot just in front of the ball which was already centered in our stance. The second part to this pitching instruction was to "tilt" our upper body just a little forward towards the target. The term "Stack & Tilt" was never mentioned. I still hit pitch shots, and other longer iron, full swing shots this particular way today. It has served me well. This kept the weight forward, and allowed for a down swing that made for a crispy impact. In other words very few fat shots.

Probably not the same "S&T" as what the other posters are talking about in this thread, so take it with a grain of salt. GJS

http://videos.syracuse.com/post-stan...ennett_on.html

S&T made sense to me when I read it. Being a new golfer I am always looking for ways to practice correctly. My striking has been greatly improved with S&t. Perhaps the best thing I leared is to practice trying to hit the ground in front of the ball consistently. It works. Though I do have difficulty with the driver.

This was my first seanson golfing. I'm 46, been playing baseball all my life. Injuries forced me off the field and onto the course this year. I played about once per week, all summer and practiced in the yard when I could. I was not able to break 100 until I discovered stack and tilt. I went immediately to low 90's and if my putting were not so awful I'd have been into the 80's. Stack and tilt has me hitting the ball solidly more consistently than how I was taught to swing by the local pro. Keeping the weight forward works well for me.

joe