Golf Basic Tips

There has been a lot of talk over the past few years about the so-called stack and tilt golf swing. Apparently about two dozen PGA Tour players have adopted it, including some champions like Rick Weir and Zach Johnson, as well as Aussie Aaron Baddeley, among others. This article will explain where the terms stack and tilt come from and what is going on with this approach to the golf swing.

So What’s With “Stack and Tilt”?

It is really a catchy little phrase that has worked well for the people who promote and teach it. If you are like I was, you are asking yourself, “what is stacking and what is tilting”? Well, here’s an explanation I found while viewing some videos in trying to search for an answer. And by the way the answer is not obvious, in case you are wondering why you can’t figure it out for yourself.

Here’s the deal- the stack and tilt golf swing basically says that most of the golfer’s weight should be kept on his left side during the swing (about 60%), and also that the player’s head should remain pretty much in the same position throughout the swing rather than swaying backwards. His left side should not move backwards much during the backswing but should stay pretty much in the same position it was during set up. In addition, his swing is a bit more upright than flat.

So what does that have to do with stack and tilt? Not much, but here’s the explanation I found. When the golfer has completed his backswing using the guidelines mentioned, his shoulders are vertically in line with each other approximately over his left hip. So his shoulders are said to be “stacked” at that point. (All discussion in this article refers to a right handed player, so lefties just need to reverse things.) Also, at this point the golfer’s back is more or less facing the target, and if his head has been kept in the same place it was at the start of the swing, his spine will necessarily “tilt”.

So there you have it, stack and tilt. If you think that explanation is a bit obscure, I couldn’t agree more, but then again, who cares? It is a catchy little phrase, and the fact that this swing has been adopted by some of the PGA Tour’s top players means that it must be bringing something to the party. Let’s discuss now why this approach has been adopted and if it should be used by weekend golfers like you and me.

Why Players Go to the Stack and Tilt

A lot of swing instructors teach that during the backswing it is OK for the head to move backwards a bit, or sway, especially for the driver. Some of these teachers even advocate keeping the head behind the ball to generate more power. The problem with this approach is that sometimes a player cannot fully transfer his weight to the left side at impact, and the club strikes the ball with the face open. Obviously this means a pushed shot to the right. All this is true with the other clubs in the bag as well, not just the driver. So if you are a player who seems to consistently push shots off to the right, this approach might be worth a try.

Who Should Not Use the Stack and Tilt?

As we all know, some recreational golfers don’t have the prettiest or the most effective swings (to put it in the form of understatement). Some in fact keep way too much of their body weight on the left side as it is. So here you have some players that already have too much weight on the left side and who cannot get through the ball squarely at impact. Trying to exaggerate this even more will not help those golfers. So you have to be aware of your weight distribution at set-up, how squarely you get through the ball, and whether you are prone to pushing shots.

Give it a Shot

So if you are in fact a golfer that has a problem with pushing a lot of shots, it is easy to give this swing approach a try. Don’t worry about “stacking” and “tilting”, just address the ball with about 60% of your weight on your left side. Imagine there is a stick or something touching your left hip at address. Keep you left side touching that stick throughout the swing, and you have just tried the stack and tilt. Think about not moving your head backward during the backswing, and this will help. Try it on the range first, of course, and develop a little muscle memory. Despite the name, the stack and tilt is not a big mystery and is easy to try.

One last word, there a lot of short videos on YouTube which discuss the stack and tilt golf swing. They are worth a look if you want to pursue this.

By: Walter Ballenberger

About the Author:

Caffeinated Content

There are almost as many theories about the golf swing as there are instructors. And one of the least understood aspects of the swing is the rotation of the hips to an “open” position just before impact.

Most contemporary golf instructors believe it is necessary to “clear your hips just before the point of impact” in order to get your hips out of the way of your hands. According to this theory, if you don’t “clear your hips” your hands and arms will be impeded and will not be able to attack the ball with power.

This is sometimes used as an explanation for why an overly “vertical” stance is not a good thing. According to this line of thinking, when you stand too close to the ball your hands will not be able to make a clean pass in front of your body because on the way down your hips will get in the way.

But while hip rotation is very important to the effectiveness of the golf swing, it is not because the hips are in the way of anything. In fact I can’t see that this idea of “clearing the hips” makes much sense. Your hips are not in the way of your hands. In fact, rotating your hips towards the target pushes your backside out further towards your hands and puts your hips more in the way than if you did not rotate them.

Most of us — whether we rotate a lot or not — are not in the habit of hitting our hips with our hands when we swing our golf clubs. The reason is simple: our hips do not get in the way of our swing, and to suggest this as an explanation of the importance of hip rotation is just plain misleading.

In my own research, on the course and in my basement “lab”, I have found that hip rotation does indeed put the club on a more powerful, more direct path to the ball coming into the point of impact. But as far as I can tell, this has very little to do with getting your hips out of the way of your hands.

What happens when you rotate your hips is that this allows you to get your shoulders and arms in the optimal power position. This happens because your upper body and lower body move in a synchronized way. In the golf swing, as in most other movements involving the human body, your upper body, including your shoulders and arms, moves in harmony with and in response to the movement of your lower body — your hips and legs.

Think of a power hitter in baseball. Those classic photographs of Ted Williams, Hank Aaron, Reggie Jackson or Barry Bonds making contact with the ball always tell the same story. Their arms are fully extended, hips are rotated to an open position, head is back, and they are perfectly balanced with most of their weight now centered over their front leg and hip. In fact they have used their front leg and hip as a pivot around which their upper body has rotated. Take that pivot away — swing with just your shoulders and arms — and you’re left with a much less fluid, much less coordinated, and much less powerful swing.

In the golf swing this connection of upper and lower body is less obvious because the golf swing is a combination of vertical and horizontal. But the principle is the same. The rotation of the hips pulls your upper torso around and gets your lead shoulder into the correct position (the left shoulder in the case of a right hander) at the point of impact. Ben Hogan described this hip movement as a matter of throwing your lead hip around and back against the wall — one of the most useful images in all of golf instruction.

Try it in slow motion. Place your club head along the swing path about 18″-24″ behind the ball (on the inside/out arc). Make sure your lead hand and arm are straightened as they should be in the impact position. Now rotate your hips so the club head moves towards the ball (keeping your hands and arms locked in the previous position).

Notice that when your club head reaches the ball, your hips will be “cleared”, and your lead shoulder will be rotated as well. Your lead arm will be in the correct “power position” with the arm and club shaft forming a more or less straight line down to the ball.

Now pick your club up and swing it more horizontally like a baseball bat. If you have had any baseball training at all, your hips will just naturally lead the swing and your shoulders, arms and “bat” will follow.

In fact trying to make an “all-arms” swing without hip rotation will feel awkward and unsynchronized. Your arms will not be able to follow the momentum that wants to carry them around to a natural finish. This is why golfers who do not “finish” their swing by rotating their lower body will often snap the club back to the starting position.

The basic principle here is one taught by golf teachers since teachers first started analyzing the swing: upper body follows lower body. Coming to a better appreciation of this principle can only have a positive impact on your golf swing.

By: Rick Hendershot

About the Author:

Create a video blog…instantly.

Today I want to share with you one of the biggest Secrets in golf that will transform your game. It is as basic and fundamental to human life as it is to your golf game. Quite simply is about the breath. That’s right breathing. It is how and when you breathe that will not only help you tap into the rhythm of life but also into the rhythm of your golf swing.  

Most golfers get over the golf ball and it into their stance, go through their routine, their set up and hold their breath throughout the golf swing. Unfortunately in holding their breath they lose their natural swing and cause themselves injury because they freeze the rib cage. By breathing in a particular pattern you free up the rib cage and your full movement and can play through the ball rather than to the ball.

When a golfers does the typical trying to hit the ball, they quite often pull back because they are playing to the ball. Even in micro movements this changes the outcome and can easily lead to injury as well slicing and hooking the ball, or even worse duffing it or top hitting the ball. The more poor shots you have, the more energy you use, the more tired you get. You get the drift.

A strong suggestion is that in your practice routine you practice breathing. Practice breathing in on the backswing starting from the time you start moving the club back to the top of the swing, then the natural changeover into the downswing is when you start breathing out in a nice even out breath, out through the ball and don’t stop breathing out until your club is pointing towards the target. So again, breathing in on the backswing and breathe out through the ball to the target.

Here is a hint. Play to the target not to the ball.

If you haven’t been conscious or aware of it before notice your breathing and whether you breathe when you are over the golf ball. It is recognised in most sports that people are at their highest strength on the out breath. We see this most vividly in weightlifting, boxing and martial arts. The breath is a crucial key to high performance. In addition to allowing you to tap into your own natural rhythm, it keeps your physiology, your body in peak condition and movement for high performance.

Not only that, breathing is crucial in your shot routines including in helping you to manage your emotions and to stay relaxed. Have you noticed that whenever you become frustrated, angry, upset, or flustered on the golf course you breathe less. Your breathing becomes shallow, faster, you swing faster, you make more mistakes and spiral into your worst round. Your routines go out the window and you become inconsistent.

Breathing is a wonderful anchor within your routines. It will transform your golf swing. Interestingly by playing your golf swing to your natural breathing pattern your swing gets closer to the ideal ratio of 62% of time in the backswing and 38% in the downswing. It also allows the mind to be clear and your physiology to work as one moving towards a decision and your commitment to play to your target. Some of you who understand mathematics and physics will recognise this ratio referred to in ancient times as the Golden mean.

By: Roderick Fraser

About the Author:

Create a video blog

A very frequently asked question indeed; how to play the sand shot or the bunker shot.

Before we get to the bunker play tips, I have to preface what you are about to read with but one word… practice. Once you get the basics (which are forthcoming) you’ve got to take the time to practice and gain confidence in the execution.

Believe me; getting your sand play up to a decent level is well worth the time spent on it. With a decent sand game, it is actually more advantageous to be in a bunker around many greens than it is to be buried in the rough just a few yards away! And you’ll score better as a result.

For good bunker play you need to understand some basic techniques. Actually, before we discuss technique, you need to have a sand wedge in your bag… not a pitching wedge… I’ll tell you why in a moment.

First all, with your set up you want to open you stance, hips, and shoulders to the left of the target (right handed golfers) and the ball positioned slightly forward in your stance. Establish solid footing by digging into the sand just a bit.

With your setup to the left of the target, you now want to open the clubface (rotate the sand wedge so the more of the clubface is exposed).

As far as the swing path goes, you want your swing path to follow the alignment of your body just like you other shots.

With a sand shot you want you club to enter the sand a couple of inches behind the ball. I like to have people imagine that just underneath the ball in the sand, the golf ball is sitting on a tee; and what you are trying to do is clip the tee out from under the ball without disturbing the ball itself.

Keep your wrists firm until well after impact. You don’t want get ‘flippy’ with your hands when it comes to sand shots.

When you are first learning to play a bunker shot, strive to gain consistency with your entry point behind the ball and consistently extracting the ball onto a putt-able position on the green.

The next step for you will be to alter the distance of your bunker shot using your swing speed with you ‘basic’ bunker swing and shot. However, the first and primary goal is to gain a consistency with your swing tempo and your entry point. For the beginning sand player, gaining confidence in getting the ball consistently out of the bunker and putting is the first goal and the first building block. Just getting this first basic skill established fluently will save you strokes immediately. Don’t worry so much about variations to your bunker play… these can come later… just get comfortable and confident with that fact that you’ll be out and putting. Rome wasn’t built in a day… or something like that.

I touched on this earlier and now I want to give you a bit more detail on your bunker equipment (sand wedge) and why you must have one.

First of all, believe it or not, the sand wedge is designed for sand play.

Bounce – the sand wedge has a rounded sole that actually sits lower in comparison to the blade of the club. This feature allows the club to glide through the sand rather than dig into it.

Loft – greater loft that the pitching wedge – 55-60 degrees as opposed to 48-52 degrees. This gets you ball up and over the lips of the bunkers more readily rather than trying to ‘manufacture’ a shot with your pitching wedge.

Toe to Heel Design – this what gives the sand wedge the oval appearance – but more than this – it is what keeps the sand wedge from digging in and allows you to ‘splash’ the ball out of the bunker.

Bottom line – if you’re not using a sand wedge for your sand shots; you’re making things much more difficult than they need be.

Practice breeds confidence and confidence breeds relaxation over a shot. Particularly the sand shot. Tension and nervousness are shot killers. The basic sand shot is not at all a difficult shot to extract, it’s just that those who fear them are those who don’t take the time to practice them… think about it this way… it’s the only shot where you are going to actually purposely miss the ball!

So get out there and find a place to practice and get better. Remember first things first… just work to gain consistency and you’ll start improving your game.

By: Jeff O’Brien

About the Author:

Caffeinated Content