Stack and Tilt: Teaching Pros Chime In

Filed in archive Golf Instruction on May 16, 2007

One Last Time: Bennett and Plummer Flanking Baddeley
Courtesy: Golf Digest

I have heard from three different "swing doctors" regarding the new Stack and Tilt golf swing that is the subject of a major story in the June issue of Golf Digest.

Mike at GolfTipsForU.com posted a comment which I think might sum up the problems amateurs will have trying to emulate Aaron Baddeley and other pros who use the swing developed by Mike Bennett and Andy Plummer.

Mike said, and I quote, "...it worked really well with my irons but I couldn't hit my driver to save my life".

Since the predominant downswing in Stack and Tilt is steeply down onto the ball, it's no wonder Mike could hit his irons crisply.

But the driver calls for a sweeping motion upward, as I have been taught, and I don't know how that's possible with Bennett and Plummer's swing.

Paul Wilson, creator of Swing Machine Golf which emulates Iron Byron, was very succinct when I asked him to comment.

"I don't see how it relates back to Iron Byron", was all Paul would offer. Let's remember that, for many years, Iron Byron was the robot used by the USGA and various equipment manufacturers to test balls and clubs.

Iron Byron was used because it produced the perfect golf swing. Stack and Tilt looks nothing like Iron Byron.

The most detailed reply to my queries came from Roger Fredericks whose DVD instructional series, "Roger Fredericks Reveals Secrets To Golf Swing Flexibility" is apparently the best-selling golf DVD on the planet at the moment.

In addition to being a swing coach to many top name touring pros, Roger is also an expert on the physiology of the golf swing and what it does to the human body.

Roger told me that he has seen Bennett and Plummer working with Steve Elkington who also uses the Stack and Tilt swing method.

He is detailed and precise in his thoughts.

"First off, there are a LOT of ways to swing a golf club effectively, and
there are a few great players that played that way. The truth is:
"anatomically" the method of keeping the head still is against the law of
the body's design and function. That doesn't mean that it can't work. The
human body is a 2 pivot axis machine because we have two hip joints on which
the muscles support the weight bilaterally. Staying primarily on the left
side forces the muscles to compensate and place more load bear pressure and
torque on the body - primarily the lower back. If you look at the majority
of great players throughout history who kept their head still and swung that
way, most of them ended up with back problems - Nicklaus, Couples, Palmer,
etc. Moving the weight of the body into the right hip takes the load bear
pressure off of the spine and gets the body moving naturally and freely.
Another negative to that technique is that a player will not achieve proper
"segmental velocity" (that is the rhythm of the weight shift back and
forth). Imagine a baseball pitcher that didn't rock into a windup, but
rather just stayed on his front foot. He simply won't be as fluid in his
motion as a player who flows with gravity. They also made a statement in
that [Golf Digest] article where they pointed out that Nicklaus "supposedly" kept all of
his weight on his left foot. That's simply not true. In fact, I gave a
seminar at the World Golf Fitness Summit two weeks ago, where I showed
videos of how Nicklaus lifted his left foot off the ground higher than
anybody that I've ever seen. I've worked with Jack, and he's told me that
lifting that foot too high was one of his problems! How did he load his
right hip so deep - lift his foot very high off the ground and still keep
all of his weight on it?

Now, having said that, there are some definite positives:

Keeping more still and over the ball, will create less Center of Gravity
fluctuation. In layman's terms, there is much less margin of error. High
handicappers have way too much movement in their swings (usually because
they are not flexible enough), and therefore end up with too much activity
going on. This method will eliminate a lot of excessive and unnecessary
movement that the higher handicapper doesn't need.

In summary, I feel that golfers who are anatomically functional should allow their bodies
to shift their weight the way that nature intended them to, and for higher
handicappers to incorporate more stillness."

End of story? Probably not. I'm sure we'll be hearing from Bennett and Plummer refuting the charges that their swing is a non-starter.

In the meantime, I'll stick with my swing - which, for what it's worth, has gone completely south...