Stack and Tilt Golf Swing Experiment Part 1

I've heard a lot about the Stack and Tilt swing over the past few years and at first I must admit I was very sceptical. Most of my information at the time came from commentators and coaches who were very keen on criticising the swing.

I decided it was about time I investigated the technique for myself.  I was vaguely aware of the main principles behind the 'Stack and Tilt' but when I read Michael Bennetts and Andy Plumbs book I was really surprised that some coaches were giving it such a hard time. 

For those of you who know nothing of the stack and tilt golf swing it is based primarily around the geometric principles set out in Homer Kelleys 'The Golfing Machine' this is a very old book that has some great information regarding the physics and geometry of the golf swing, although it's not really an easy read.

The main principles of the stack and tilt is that the two major pivot points of the swing don't move. Simply put your shoulders turn around a fixed axis and your weight starts on the left foot and doesn't shift back to the right on your backswing. 

The name stack and tilt was given by PGA tour player Charlie Wi who  described it as the feeling he had when he swung the club. The stack being the weight staying on left side and the tilt being the feeling that you tilt your spine towards the target as you swing back. 

The feeling of tilting spine towards target is not new however. As you can see above, Tiger Woods has this very position at the top of his swing. All biomechanics agree that there is a spinal tilt towards target on backswing in an athletic swing. Tiger also doesn't shift off the ball with his upper body, he turns his shoulders but doesn't make a lateral move. The only real difference is that Tiger does shift his weight with his lower body and hips and creates resistance by keeping the right knee flexed, something which is not done in a Stack and Tilt swing.

On way through Tiger maintains more principles contained in book, he keeps his shoulder axis in the same point, he drives his hips towards target and he has good arm extension and strong wrists though the ball. All of these are key points in the book. And most of these key points are observed by top players such as Woods, McIlroy etc. 

The main real difference I see is the lower body movement on the backswing,  which in stack and tilt means keeping weight on left foot and allowing right knee to straighten to allow more hip turn. The second major difference is the feeling of holding off forearm rotation on way through ball, i.e. rolling clubface. This change results in a curtailed finish. 

I have decided to conduct an experiment with my swing to test the merits of the method. I will be writing about how I get on in a future blog but if you'd like to check on a video record of my progress please checkout my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/JrGolfAcademy, I have videos of my normal and my developing stack and tilt swing so far on the page. 

My initial thoughts on the movement are that helps to create good positions, especially in those less flexible people and I already can see some of my faults associated with my 'normal' swing being removed. I'll give a more detailed report in my next blog.

Check out my website http://www.jrgolfacademy.co.uk/

Pros and Cons of Video to improve golf swing.

The introduction of video analysis for golf swings brought about a whole new dimension to swing improvement. Coaches and pupils are able to examine every aspect of their game and break everything down to the smallest degree. The question is: Is video analysis making people better?

Video gives coaches the opportunity to firstly look more closely at areas of the swing they can't see fully with the naked eye. This helps to take any guesswork out of coaching. 

I find the most useful part of using video is not for my own analysis of the pupils swing but to be able to use the video to let the pupil see what they are doing. They soon discover that 'feel and real are rarely the same' 

Pupils will often believe they are over exaggerating whatever change you are implementing into their game, but once they look on camera they realise that what to them feels like an enormous change of movement is actually not as much as they need. 

It also helps to get the pupil to be able to see how the work he is putting in is paying off by not only seeing improvements in striking and ball flight but also in the changes to the shape of his swing. Golf lessons become more enjoyable for the player.

These are the positive aspects, however there are also some negatives to the introduction of video.

Golfers can become obsessed with the mechanics of their own game and spend time trying to replicate their favourite player or the latest book they've been reading. There are some benefits to imitation but you also need to build your own swing which suits your bio-mechanics and build. 

You also need to develop your own feel and learn to create shots and be able to manipulate the club-face and path to hit a variety of shots. The obsession with mechanics is made even worse when the player has only a limited knowledge of the golf swing. Often a player who videos himself will pick something to work on and this might have an adverse effects of his results, he will then move from change to change getting worse like a driver losing his way.

In conclusion video has some real benefits to improving your game but only if used in conjuction with quality coaching to let you focus on what needs actually needs changing and how. For more info and to book a golf lesson visit www.jrgolfacademy.co.uk

The 3 Planes of the golf swing.

Tiger and Dustin.

With so much being talked about and written regarding the golf swing and with video technology readily available on phones and other devices there is a ever growing number of people who are going DIY on their golf swing.

Now I don’t have any problem with people sorting out their own games, I believe learning about what works and doesn’t work in your game is one way you can grow as a player.

What is a problem is making changes to your swing without having a full understanding of the mechanics. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. The first area people need to understand is the swing planes and wrist set.

Club Plane

Most people focus on one area, the club plane. Obviously this is the most important part as it is what makes contact on the ball. Unfortunately people strive to get this onto the perfect plane without any idea of what influences this. The club plane is mainly influenced by three other elements; the wrist set, the arm plane, and the shoulder plane.

Wrist Set

The wrist set is one of the most common errors I see in the golf swing, people don’t realise how the wrist should set in the swing and will bow, bend, cup and rotate their wrists in all kinds of positions. The wrists can influence clubface position, arm plane, club plane and even shoulder plane. I will talk about proper wrist set in a future blog as it is a subject in itself. Suffice to say proper wrist set is essential to correct club plane.

One final point on the wrist set is that it in itself is often performed poorly as a result of incorrect hold and also the setup position of the hands at address so ensure this is correct before anything else.

Arm Plane

The way the hands rotate around the body have a huge influence on your shots. People who have a flat club plane can have a steep arm plane. This is a very popular mistake. The club gets dragged around them by a poor wrist set or shoulder plane and as a result they lift their arms to correct the swing.  Alternatively they take club up steep and drag hands around their body. Both of these errors can cause all manner of poor shots.

Again, you must check other areas of the setup and swing to see whether these are influencing the arm plane.

Shoulder Plane

Shoulders turning around too shallow or too steep can attribute to the same effect on club and arm plane. It can also have the opposite effect as these planes often change to compensate for the poor shoulder plane.

Remember poor shoulder plane can be caused by posture, wrist set and arm plane and also lower body action.

The key to improving your golf swing is not just identifying the faults but also the direct cause/causes of these. The skill a golf professional has is to identify these. Where DIYers go wrong is they identify one fault but don’t fix the cause of it. Therefore actually making things worse. It’s a bit like replacing the gearbox on your car when its only the clutch that has gone!

If you would like more swing tips/ videos and other ways to improve your game or would like a golf lesson either onsite or online please visit my website www.jrgolfacademy.co.uk

Course Management - How to score at golf.

Ever stood on the first tee and been drawn with someone who swings it like he's a step down on the eveolutionary chain, he hits a scabby runner off the tee whislt you happily rip it 100yds past him. Does this story end with him finishing six shots better than you?

The best players can get it round even when they're not swinging well, they know their strengths and weaknesses, accept them and play to them.  The driving range ball striker doesn't, he attempts shots beyond him, he focuses on getting as close to hole as possible on every single shot from tee to fairway to around the green, as a result he wastes shots and frustrates hiimself.

When I play with a player who strikes it well and I see them always trying to hit with the club that will get them as close to the green as they can, even it the green is out of reach. I ask them "Why aren't you confident with your wedge?" The reason for this is that most golfers practice on a range hitting full shots and most of the time a full wedge is a comfortable shot that puts you at worst on the green. They don't normally spend as much time working on the closer shots (which is a whole new post to come!). Why not then just leave yourself a full wedge in, its probably going to be as close as, if not closer than a 30yd flick over a bunker. If you think that way then any problem tee shot only requires a second shot that gets you to 100yds, which takes out the number of times you'll need to hit that low rising 3 wood with a 30yd fade that you never practice but decide to try in the monthly medal!

This is just talking about shot choices when a long way from the whole, when it comes to short game, course management is as much as an issue as technique. That;s something I'll go into in a future blog.

For more help with your golf visit www.jrgolfacademy.co.uk

Putting. What works best?

There are numerous books and magazine articles about putting. Some of which are over 400 pages long. This seems like a lot of information for a process that involves moving the club back and forward over a total journey of around a foot.

Some of the information found in these books is useful, some essential, but most of it is a page filler or just interesting without any real benefit.
My thoughts on what is essential are:

• That the putter is aimed where you think you are aiming, and that your shoulders are square with the putter face.
• That your hands directly oppose each other, ie palms facing and back of lead hand square with putter face.
• Your lower body and head remain steady until impact.
• That the rhythm of your stroke remains constant.

Other than these fundamentals the main thought you need is about line and pace. Jack Nicklaus wouldn't take the putter back until he saw the ball following his line and falling in the hole in his mind. Ever notice how you can tap the ball in from 4 feet one handed but miss it from 2 when you're trying. That is when your focus on everything but putting that ball  in the hole.

Get your fundamentals checked by a pro, then get focussing on line and pace, use your imagination and drop those putts. I'll be adding more information on my website soon so check out www.jrgolfacademy.co.uk  for more ways to find your game.

Golf Clubs: How ill fitting irons can cause poor Driver shots.

Club Lie Angle

One of the frustrations of being a golf professional is that sometimes when you give people advice they assume it's because you are trying to sell them something. Now although I do provide custom club making and fitting at my facility www.jrgolfacademy.co.uk this is not the core of my business. My business is making people achieve their golfing goals. An easy way to help yourself do this is by playing with the correct equipment. I have numerous stories of golf club members and pupils of mine who come to me with a big grin telling me how they just bought a new set of irons for their local golf superstore or via the internet and talk about what a bargain they got. My first question to them, after they've told me, without me asking, how much they paid/saved on these clubs, is 'did you get them fitted?'. They either answer with a no, but i hit them on the range and they were the best. Or they will tell me how the guy in the shop (usually a 18 handicap golfer like themselves who's had a couple of hours training) watched them hit balls and said they look about right and custom fitting would be a waste of time.
There is so many things wrong with this it's untrue, and if you think being a beginner means that it won't make a difference to you then you are very wrong. Lets break down this down and talk about iron sets first.
Iron Sets
Lie angle
This is the basic adjustments you need to make according to a persons individual setup and physical profile. For an experienced golfer this will take more into account their current setup and swing to match how they address the ball. If the lie of the club is wrong then the player will not be able to get the whole of the club face on the ball as half of it could be in the air at address and impact. Having the correct lie angle (the way the club sits on the floor) on your irons is a fundamental of good iron play. A poor lie angle can lead to:

Inconsistent distance controlErratic strikingPoor shot direction Another aspect of a poor lie angle that is often overlooked is the detrimental effect it can have on your golf swing. An incorrect lie angle can ultimately aim the club poorly at address, forcing the golfer to make adjustments during their swing to correct the initial alignment.In general a golf club that is too upright (toe up) for a player will aim left at address and a club that is too flat (toe down) will aim right. Also, an upright golf club will promote a toe strike whereas a flat club will encourage a strike towards the heel.Add to this the uneven impact with the turf and you can appreciate how important lie angle is. One of my clients had a club that was 5' too upright for him this meant his clubface was aiming 15 yds left with a 6 iron. This meant that he had to compensate in his swing by holding the club open through impact. This created a swing in which from his backswing he should have been hitting a nice draw but he had to compensate for his clubs and hold it off to hit straight. This swing obviously continued through to his woods which meant he sliced those way right. Once we got him the right lie in his irons he could actually release the club and create his draw without fear of it going left. After a couple of goes on the range he then began to translate this to his woods too and his whole game move forward massively. 
He actually stated afterwards that before when he went to range with his driver only he could draw the ball, but once he used his old irons and moved back to driver he couldn't get it to draw. His statement to me after the results he saw from his fitting was "how on earth can people expect to improve when playing with the wrong equipment?" My answer is with great difficulty. 


Beginners and juniors(Parents) should take note ill fitting clubs when starting the game is the worst choice you can make. It will force you to develop a swing with terrible habits that can be almost irreversible. Lie angle is just one of the factors to take into consideration there are even more areas that can have just as detrimental effect if not suited to you or your game. GO AND SEE A PGA PROFESSIONAL! GET FITTED OR WASTE YOUR MONEY AND TIME, its you choice. 

Does length make courses tough?

Yesterday someone asked me for my toughest courses. They were surprised when I named my home course which measures 5500yds as one of them. Truth is if you hit the ball above average distance then length is much less of a value of course difficulty. Recently I played a course off the black tees which measured just shy of 7100yds. The course had wide fairways and huge greens which meant accuracy was not at a premium, provided you can putt. Also long courses generally have 4 or 5 par fives, which most will be reachable. Ashridge for example has 5 par fives all of which reachable with hybrid or lower (5 very good birdie chances). Shorter courses usually have less of these holes. Plus at Chartridge we have narrow fairways, small undulating greens which puts a massive premium on accuracy and distance control. The greens are surrounded by small bunkers which mean hitting a bunker can often leave you an uneven lie. The course is such that although you are hitting wedges on a lot of holes these wedges need to be pinpoint accurate to allow good scoring as the undulating greens make for some tough 30 footers. 

I'm not saying all short courses are tough or long courses easy, what I am saying is that people make judgements of a course based on looking at the scorecard or course guide. I think people often choose a course to play or join based on ego rather than reality. Length isn't everything!!

Tomorrow I'm playing at Langley Park in Beckenham this course is just 6400yds but only par 69, promises to be a real challenge. Maybe this will make my toughest list.

Can playing Tiger Woods on consoles improve your golf? Question.

This is the first blog I've ever done so I apologise in advance for the extreme boredom that may occur during this post. As a golf professional I work every day trying to improve peoples golf games, including my own. The thing that I love about this is that you are always learning something new. I've played for just under 20 years and coached for 15 and still I feel that every day brings a fresh improvement to both areas. That is the beauty of the game.
In my own case I thought my mental approach to playing was pretty sound, until I started to analyse my rounds more. Not just the physical stats but also my state of my and thoughts over shots. I compared my shot choices on Tiger Woods on XBox to my shot choices in a real round. The area that stood out was that I would actually play more sensibly on the video game than in real life, especially when it came to choice of club of the tee. I was happy laying back to 7 iron distance in TW but when out playing I would always think 'lets get it as close as possible to green' in spite of the risks, and the fact my iron play is the strongest part of my game. The number of shots I dropped hitting driver on holes of around 400yds  where a 220-230 yd hybrid will leave me a 6 or 7 iron in is numerous and stupidity itself.
Now I've decided to approach the game with a brain as opposed to an ego, I'll have to let you know if it has the results I hope to achieve.