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Bir-r-r-rdie finish! Ni-i-i-ice nice nice! Taken a 2 shot lead into the final...









Tiger who?

I found the Golf Digest article very helpful.

I remember the day when I figured out that I needed to get my weight to my left side ahead of the club. What a wonderful discovery. I almost didn't even care that I was hitting my irons out of bounds over the greens.

The hard part then was that the only way I knew how to do it was to lean, shoulder-first, towards the target. You can imagine how much inconsistency this led to.

Then i figured out I could get the same effect by leading with the hips. But it has still been hard getting that timing down.

After reading this article, I really feel like this may be the solution to one of my swing problems: just keep your weight on the left side to begin with. Why has it been ingrained in our heads that we have to shift our weight onto the right foot? We correct beginners who sway, telling them that their power comes from the unwinding (and not the shifting) motion. And yet we keep a modified form of it ourselves.

I'm going to give this a shot and see if I'm not more consistent. I'm betting that I am, and I'm pretty excited to try it. Thanks for the discussion and the link.

i've tried the stack and tilt on the range just for fun. i think it does promote more consistent contact with my irons. i haven't worked that much on it because i'm still not fully sold. i also don't have enough confidence and practice to actually try and put it into use on the course but i think i'm going to try it out a bit more.

After practicing twice at the range, I decided to try the Stack and Tilt out on a course. On the range, I felt like I was CRUSHING shots. My balls flew consistently straighter and LONGER than anything I ever hit with a standard swing.

Thursday - Course trial #1
I had the stack and tilt workinas far as getting the ball off the ground through the nine holes I played by myself. I had a few top outs on the first 2 holes, but after that it was smooth sailing. Occasionally I had a ball drift off to the left, but other than that just boring straight shots.

The one problem was distance...I wasn't hitting the ball as far as I was at the range. I was making the solid stack-and-tilt contact, but the ball just didn't seem to go as far. There wasn't really any wind to speak of either.

Today - Course trial #2
Today, the stack and tilt didn't go so well. I had trouble getting the swing together and getting my ball off the ground....both off the tee, and on the grass. I went out with a partner this time, so I might have had a little pressure, but not much. It went so bad, I decided to use my "standard" swing by the 3rd hole.

One thing I found though....some of the keys to the stack and tilt helped me in my regular swing. I started keeping my head still, and still stayed a little "stacked" over the ball. Instead of the usual slice to the right I used to get, my regular swing now produced a nice, high, long ball flight.

I'm glad the stack and tilt worked out for some people. When it works, it is an easy and CONSISTENT swing to reproduce. I got a little discouraged with my outing today, and I'm not sure whether I want to take time away from developing a standard swing by using the stack and tilt.

I have a few questions for the people still doing the stack and tilt...

1) Any ideas on why I kept topping out?
2) Any ideas why my distance wasn't as far with the stack and tilt when I tried it on the course?

1) Topping the ball with the S&T swing is pretty much the same as with any other swing. That is usually connected with lifting your head and standing up too quickly.
2) Don't know about your distance issue. That could be a number of things... off center hit, slower swing trying to meet the ball, hitting grass before the ball, etc.

None of this has anything to do with the S&T. When the S&T is performed the right way, swingpath, ball flight, trajectory and distance works in unison.

This golf swing, as with any other golf swing cannot be conquered in a few days time. It will take time just like the standard swing. When I don't get to play the course or hit the range, I practice parts of the stance and swing in my livingroom while watching a ballgame. Uhh.. no full swings though!

I found a good article that may help explain the S&T in a different, and possibly easier way.
See if you get anything out of it.

Understanding the "Stack and Tilt" Golf Swing

Has anyone been on Aaron Baddeley's website? I just checked it out. He's got some video of his swing with a driver. There's a front view and two side views and a side/rear view. You can also play in slow motion as well as grab the video bar and drag along at your own speed.

Badds.com - The Official Site of Aaron Baddeley

Click on "Practice Tee" then click "Check Out Badd's Swing".

The guy can play! I think we're eventually going to see a side of Aaron Baddeley that will rival the best players out there.

I'm reading into this very interested in wanting to learn it, but the article really kind of doesn't explain anything good. What in the heck does it mean "hands move inside" (step 2 http://content-golf.live.advance.net...ourswing25.jpg) ?

and why is it called "stack" and "tilt" I really don't get it

also on the first page the whole bunch of pics through baddeley's swing..when his arms are down the club is still parrelel..how's he get it to come through right holding the wrist cock that long? my old swing is nothing like that

"Hands move inside" (during take off) means flat swing. In a steep swing hands would move rather upward. When you stack 60 % of your body weight on the front leg, you might have an excessively downward club motion, which might cause too fat shots. In S&T you compensate this by flattening (i.e. making a more horizontal) swing plane.

The name is not too important, but I think it's called stack because you stack most of the body weight on the front leg and rather keep it there during stance, back swing and follow through. Actually there's a weight shift, because at finish you will note that 100 % of body weight is on the front leg. But the main idea is: no weight shift to the back leg (as opposed to mainstream instructors who always teach to shift weight to back leg and then to front leg).

It's called tilt because during back swing you feel that your spine angle is tilted to target, instead of perfectly vertical. The Gold Digest article exaggerates this a lot and includes a photo where the spine is ridiculously tilted to left. I think that you just feel your spine is tilted, but it's actually vertical, at least that's what I can see in Aaron Baddeley's real swing videos. This conflicts with most modern instructors who often teach to tilt your spine to your back side. And of course spine is always more or less inclined to the ball, no matter what method you follow!

As for Baddeley holding the wrist cock for so long, I think the reason is that he generates an incredible swing speed. He's a pro, he's young and he's flexible as a whip. But I can say that S&T eases swing speed even when you're not Badds.

Some more remarks about the tilt thing (quotes from the Golf Digest article on Stack and Tilt):

Contradictorily next phrase literally says: "This tilting toward the target happens continuously during the backswing". GD means "this feeling tilted toward the target happens continuously during the backswing".

Commenting this photo, the article says:

So Aaron is not doing his usual swing in the photo, he's just illustrating how you should feel.

Another important remark is the photo's foot note:

So spine must be vertical but you feel it's tilted to target.

This photo is also very exaggerated and only illustrates feeling.

As for this other photo, well I think everybody can figure out it's a plain ridiculous exaggeration and that's what it's supposed to be. It just illustrates feeling, so don't try at home .

I have to question the wisdom of this whole article. WHY? For one thing they show Aaron Badderley using this swing in the photos. But at the US Open last week, they showed a super slow motion video of Aaron, and "he's not useing the Stack and Tilt. It is very clear in the slow mo, that his spine is tilted to the right, not to the left. If Aaron is the "Poster Boy" for this new tour swing, and he's not using it, What does that say about the swing?

OnePutt, Baddeley went completely out of his element during the last round. He mistakenly combined both swings, which did not work at all. He was all over the field. If you watched him closely, though I doubt you did, during the whole contest he did use the S&T for every swing, and he did very well with it. How do you think he got to the top? Being paired with Eldrick on the last round got to him and he went out of his comfort zone. Nerves.

Otherwise, yes, he is the poster boy for the S&T. Give him some more time to grow. He will start winning contests against the big boys.

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I cannot think of a bigger cause of casting than the idea that the axis tilt should be more vertical.

All the S&T really does is force the upper body to do more work and slows down the lower body. That seems all fine and dandy for people who make a living out of drawing lines. But the potential for speed is decreased. Sure some people may hit it slightly more solidly for a while and see a slight improvement for a while.. but eventually you'll see low smother hooks and trapped spinners to the right. It will become even more difficult to hit your longer irons with the S&T.