Horses for Courses
Filed in archive Golf Instruction by Chris Henry on September 09, 2008
Manuel de la Torre. Courtesy: Golf.com
My most recent post on Stack and Tilt elicited a few comments. But the most eloquent came from Ed LeBeau.
Ed wrote that Stack and Tilt can be traced back to the teachings of Ernest Jones who learned to play golf and then teach the game with just one leg.
It happened to be his left leg and he was a right-handed golfer. So you can see how Mr. Jones learned a golf swing that didn't involve a weight shift to his right side.
Whether Bennett and Plummer agree that their method is the direct descendent of Ernest Jones' method doesn't matter at all. It would be too easy to become involved in and trapped by a semantical argument of technique.
What is important is how a lack of weight shift to the right side doesn't deter a golfer but can result in a superior shot for that golfer.
Ed points out at the end of his comment that Jones' teaching method inspired one Manuel de la Torre to adopt and teach the same principle.
De la Torre happens to be one of the finest teachers in the world. His view is as simple as that of Jones and perhaps Bennett and Plummer, as well.
The golfer uses a swinging motion rather than a hitting motion. De la Torre also refers to the downswing as the "forward swing" and emphasizes that the club travels toward the target.
In this whole discussion of which method might be the Holy Grail, let's not forget one critical point: there are many paths to God. In this case, God is the 250 yard drive down the middle. If one path leads you to that golfing heaven, why bother to dissect why it works better than another method?
Is there one style among painters? Writers? Architects? Of course not. Yet there are wonderful painters, great writers and amazing architects.
I like to shift my weight on the backswing. I feel I can get a lot more oomph into my downswing and therefore into the back of the ball.
But there's no disputing that Ernest Jones and Manuel de la Torre discovered other ways to move the ball a long way down the middle.
They cannot be overlooked.
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