Stack & Tilt: Visualizing the Tilt

In learning the Stack & Tilt swing, I had the most trouble visualizing the tilt. At first, I felt as if I was going to fall on my face. Also, my right foot would sometimes come up off the ground in the backswing making me unstable. Looking at Stack & Tilt tour players and watching the instructional DVD wasn't getting the stable, tilted platform I needed to hit solid shots. I finally found it by reaching back to a little known tour player of the 1950's era.

In 1958, Golf Digest published the swing sequence (above) for Jerry Barber's "Shiftless" golf swing. In looking back, Golf Digest thought it was the precursor to the modern Stack & Tilt Swing. For me, the important part of the Barber swing sequence was the final image (lower right--actually, he goes back past parallel but I'm not that flexible). When I'm in that position at the top (very tilted, left knee out and right leg straightened--see Step 4 of the Six Steps to Stack & Tilt), I hit the best shots. For me, it's all about the tilt and Barber's almost-at-the-top position is my mental image.

However, my swing starts with the tilt, not with the arms moving back as Jerry Barber does with an early wrist set. What I do with my arms on the way back is covered in a previous post but they start moving after I have started to tilt. This type of tilt move (tilting forward then swinging backward) may be difficult for some players but for me it seems to set almost everything else up to happen properly. I still have to concentrate on a few things in the downswing, but that's a topic for another post.