The Stack and Tilt golf swing was thrust onto the golf scene in 2007. One might have thought that Mike Bender and Andy Plummer had lost their mind.
They were telling golfers to stack on their front side, tilt their shoulders and swing, all while keeping the head centered?
Golf swing instructors everywhere were taken back and started to blast the swing. Negative comments were made, but the Stack and Tilt golf swing continued to spread or at least numerous elements of the swing remained visible in golfers swings even on the professional tours.
Mike Bender and Andy Plummer had set out to build a system. One that would help golfers with their three main fundamentals:
- Controlling the low point (better contact)
- Controlling the start line and curve of the ball (accuracy)
- Create a powerful enough swing to play the course (distance)
Overall, they set out to create a consistent golf swing, after all, most golfers spend their entire golf journey searching for the secret to make the swing consistent and repeatable from round to round. We have all played a great round followed by a terrible round. Or we have all been in the middle of a really bad round and all of a sudden start striping the ball down the middle of the fairway.
Either way, Bennet and Plummer had experienced their same issues with the game and wanted to create something for themselves and other golfers struggling with similar consistency problems, especially around start lines and curve of the ball.
Below, I will dive into what similarities and difference exist between the Stack and Tilt Golf Swing vs the Traditional Golf Swing:
Stack and Tilt vs Traditional Golf Swing
- What is the setup like for both swings
- What is the backswing like for both swing
- What is the downswing like for both swings
- What is impact like for both swings
- What is the follow through like for both swings
Stack and Tilt vs Traditional Golf Swing: Setup
Traditional Golf Swing
In the traditional golf swing the golfer is set up with the weight evenly distributed 50/50 on both legs. The weight is fairly neutral with the right shoulder slightly lower than the left shoulder with the head slightly behind the ball. The grip could be strong, weak or neutral, both most instructors would encourage the neutral grip. You will see a slight bend in the knees with the chin up off of the best.
Stack and Tilt Golf Swing
In the Stack and Tilt golf swing the golfer is set up with 55 to 60 percent of the weight on the frost side. The weight is definitely on the front side and will remain there throughout the swing. The head is centered with the chin more down in the chest. There is more of a sloppy looking setup compared to the traditional golf swing.
Stack and Tilt vs Traditional Golf Swing: Backswing
Traditional Golf Swing
The golfer will start the swing by attempting to take the club more on a straight line going back while keeping the club face square to the arch. The golfer begins to shift his or her weight to the inside of the back leg. The leg for many golfers will remain flexed to limit some of the hip turn.
More recently, more traditional golf instructors are encouraging the straightening of the back leg to encourage a bigger hip turn, this may be a result of the work of Plummer and Bennet with the Stack and Tilt golf swing. At the top of the swing the arms could be in numerous positions, some will be more flat, while others will be more upright. Often times the head has shifted slightly off of the ball as the centers have moved back from their original spot.
Stack and Tilt Golf Swing
The golfer will start the swing by creating the first part of the arch on the backswing. The club is encouraged to start a bit to the inside as it is following an arch on the backswing. The club face will start square to the arch as the golfer turns. The golfer will straight his or her back leg as the golfer gets about halfway through the backswing.
As the golf clubs starts to work its way to the top of the swing, the club head swings through the right bicep and stays relatively flat. The wrist have hinged. All of this occurred with the head staying centered through the tilt and turning of the body. There are three dimensions to the swing that include turning, tilting and extending. These three are done in combination to keep the head centered.
Stack and Tilt vs Traditional Golf Swing: Downswing
Traditional Golf Swing
At the beginning of the downswing the golfer will transfer their weight or pressure back to the front side. The hips hit return back to the starting place or slight forward as the hips turn and fire away. The golfer either throws their arms or uses a body driven swing to create speed in the swing. The golfer has returned the majority of the weight to the front side and uses body rotations or forearm rotation to create the power needed to play the course.
Stack and Tilt Golf Swing
At the beginning of the golf swing the golfer begins to turn, tilt and extend to create a consistent swing that maints the arch and helps the ball start to the right of the target line with the goal of creating a draw shot that never over curves the target line.
One of the keys is the forward movement of the hips to keep the swing moving to the right on the arch to help create a push draw. Once the hips stop moving forward the club will start moving left creating a path more to the right. During the downswing the golfer will increase the amount of weight on the front side and reach around 90% of the weight on the front side by impact.
Part of the power source in the golf swing is the extensions through the ball as the front leg straightens and the golfer moves the left shoulder up and out to create a powerful movement. This is similar to how a field goal kick in football kicks a ball over 50 yards. The use of circular motion to create a powerful, yet simple swing.
Stack and Tilt vs Traditional Golf Swing: Impact
Traditional Golf Swing
At impact the hips are turned pretty open along with the chest. The golfer has relied a lot on the rotation within the golf swing to generate power. At impact the head will be behind the ball with the open hips and shoulders. The percentage of the openness between the hips and shoulders will vary from golfer to golfer. Oftentimes the right arm will still have some bend in it at impact and then fully release past the impact position.
Stack and Tilt Golf Swing
The golfer is continuing to extend as the hips stop moving forward to create power in the swing. The club just past impact will start to move left and keep the front side of the arch. The amount of turn at impact is less than the traditional swing as the shoulders are more square when compared to the traditional golf swing. The head has stayed centered and is slightly behind the ball. This helps start the ball to the right of the target line.
Stack and Tilt vs Traditional Golf Swing: Follow Through
Traditional Golf Swing
The traditional golf swing has a more complete follow through with the hands and arms completing a full follow through. One that we have all seen a million times.
Stack and Tilt Golf Swing
The Stack and Tilt golf swing has a more abbreviated golf swing where the arms stop more at a 3 quarters follow through. This braking component is one of the ways the swing produces power. The instructors believe in being less open both at impact and the follow through when compared with the traditional swing
Next Steps: The 10 Words of Stack and Tilt
If you are someone looking to test out the Stack and Tilt to see if it is a quality swing for you, I would recommend attempting to carry out these ten key words:
- Weight Forward
- Shoulder Down
- Hands In
- Arms Straight
- Hips Tucked
Do I have to use all of the components of the Stack and Tilt?
In their book Plummer and Bennet talk about using all of the system or simply using certain parts. A simple adjustment of moving some weight forward might help control the low point in the swing, especially with your irons. The solid contact that can follow from a simple movement of some weight forward at address might help you reduce your score by several shots.
If you want the complete overview of the swing I would highly recommend their book. In the book they provide a very detailed overview of the swing with some great pictures, comparisons and how they arrived at the swing.
Who is Stack and Tilt best for?
I would recommend any that appreciates the engineering side of the golf swing or things in general. Plummer and Bennet pretty much reversed engineered the golf swings under the three fundamentals that they thought the best golfers were able to control:
- Controlling the low point (better contact)
- Controlling the start line and curve of the ball (accuracy)
- Create a powerful enough swing to play the course (distance)
They found out that many of the all time greats had different grips and alignments, so how could these be considered the fundamentals. As they studied the swing, they soon realized that all of the great golfers were able to control the three elements above. From there they got to work, studied all the swing and produced a system that can be used by all golfers.
One last group of people that the Stack and Tilt is great for is those that have always wanted to hit a draw and maybe still fight the slice. The weight forward component of the instruction along with the emphasis on the swing arch can be a major step in getting you to finally hit that sweet looking push draw!
What other swing instructors would you recommend?
If the Stack and Tilt swing is not for you, no problem! I would recommend the following golf instructors, as they have a great amount of online videos to help you grow your knowledge of the golf game. Here are our top online golf instructors:
- Shawn Clement (For those tired of positions)
- Mike Malaska (For those that want a simple, directing of the momentum golf swing)
- George Gankas (For those that seek a powerful, complete turn golf swing with perfect match ups)
Final Thoughts: Train for Speed
Regardless of what swing you pick for your journey in the game of golf, I would highly recommend checking out SuperSpeed Golf and their overspeed training system. This three club system that utilizes the science behind overspeed training by providing training clubs that are 20 and 10% lighter than your driver and one that is 5% heavier can help you gain 5-8% increase in distance as early as your first training session!
Check out the current pricing on SuperSpeed Golf here.
Could you imagine having an additional 20-30 yards on the course. You will hit your driver further, you approach shots closer and make new putts all from 15 minutes every other day of committing to increasing some speed in your swing!
The great news is that his overspeed training can work whether you are a Stack and Tilt follower or a traditional golf swing person! Get to work today!