Shawn Foley Solves Problems with Stack & Tilt and Width Swings

In a recent article titled Smash Your Irons, professional golf instructor Shawn Foley (Tiger Woods current swing coach) simultaneously solved two problems, one with the Stack & Tilt Swing (S&T) and another with the Width Swing. In this post, I'll run through the issues and Shawn's solution.

I have played extensively with both the Width and the S&T swings and recently had to keep switching back and forth because both old and new problems would keep cropping up. When I was using the Width swing, I would hit the ball fat (an old problem). When I was using the S&T swing, I would starting hitting the ball very low (a new problem).

Luckily, I had a third swing alternative given to me by teaching professional Todd Sinclair. When Todd saw my S&T swing, he didn't like my setup and encouraged me to setup with most of my weight on my right foot and then tilt (rather than "stack" and "tilt"). I tried this for a while but didn't understand why I was doing it and returned to S&T. Then, one of my golf partners read the Foley article in Golf Digest and asked if this wasn't what Todd Sinclair had been telling me. This time I got it!

In the two left panels of the graphic above, Foley demonstrates the difference between the conventional setup and his suggested modification. Here is his explanation:

Instead of trying to keep your upper body back, a few simple adjustments will help you accomplish that and still shift toward the target. First, address the ball with a slight tilt in your shoulders so your spine is angled away from the target. Your left shoulder should be higher than your right (above, left). Also, flare out your left foot a little. This will help you make a powerful body rotation through the shot.

But before you start rotating your hips on the downswing, shift them toward the target a few inches—this should actually start happening before you finish swinging the club back. This blend of lateral and rotary motion is the only way to shift forward correctly and have the power of your body behind the shot (above, right). Do this, and you've got the secret to great ball-striking.

This is an interesting explanation of how to do the "hip shift" which is mentioned in the LAWs of Golf book but never really described. Weight shift involves simply starting with the weight on you rear foot and shifting it to the left foot as you complete your backswing. In order to compress the ball, you need to have your weight stacked on your left foot on the downswing (the position in the right frame in the graphic above--when I do this, I end up with a little more rearward tilt in my back than the S&T prototype and I'll explain why that's not a problem below).

What has not worked for me is the standard S&T setup (left frame in the graphic above), nor the backswing position of the Width Swing (middle graphic) or the "hip shift" position of the Width Swing (right pane in the graphic above). When the weight starts on my left foot, I hit the ball too low. When the weight stays on my right foot, I hit the ball fat.

By adding Todd Sinclair's suggestion (start with weight on your right side then tilt), you end up in an excellent position to compress the ball on the downswing (it's a blended position somewhere between the Width Swing and S&T that produces excellent ball flight). When I do this, I also turn my shoulders more fully because I realize that I need a fuller shoulder turn to get into the stacked position. My head stays just behind the ball (rather then way behind the ball as in the Width Swing) and I can take a more aggressive downswing from the more fully turned position. With the fuller shoulder turn, it also seems easier to get width into my swing without the danger of swaying.

Here's the revised swing sequence:

1. Setup up with weight on your right foot, shoulders tilted, left shoulder high and a relatively straight line from your left shoulder down your arm to the club head. When you do this, the club head will appear open, but this is the right orientation because you are going to hit the S&T "push draw" shot. If this feels uncomfortable or doesn't work or you don't want to move too far away from S&T, you can start with your weight on the left foot but then lean your upper body back as Foley suggests.
2. I like to begin shifting my left hip slightly toward the target before starting my backswing to make sure I do the hip shift properly.
3. Since I know the S&T swing (see the summary here), I just think "Tilt" at this point and make sure to take a full shoulder turn so my back is fully facing the target. If I started out with weight on my left foot, I just make sure my left knee flexes out so I can do the stand-up move (the downward left knee movement starts my backswing and the aggressive stand-up move starts the downswing with the hands being the last to fire--I have the distinct feeling of pulling the club from behind me into impact as I stand up).
4. At the top of the backswing I just think  "swing out" to produce the push draw. I can swing very aggressively without loosing my balance.

One comment I should make is that Todd Sinclair encouraged me to maintain very light grip pressure to allow a full release ("shaking hands with the target"). This is not standard S&T, which encourages a "no-roll" release (see my last post here). I will have more to say about this in a future post.

NOTE: There is some confusion about spine angle and whether it changes or not during the backswing (see a summary here). What has helped me resolve the confusion is an understanding of the difference between the primary and secondary spine angles.

In the graphic above of professional golfer Steve Elkington (from a video here), the primary spine angle is the yellow line in the left panel (the angle of the spine from down the line) and the secondary spine angle is the yellow vertical line in the right panel (the spine angle face on). At setup, the secondary S&T spine angle is close to 0 degrees. Shawn Foley is suggesting a different secondary spine angle. The primary spine angle will be unique to each golfer and depend on body type but will be around 30 degrees. The secondary spine angle will also be unique to the golfer but can vary from 8 degrees at address to 25 degrees at impact (more discussion here). Shawn Foley is suggesting increasing the secondary spine angle more toward the final impact position at address. For me, this had a big positive impact!

Adding More Turn and Width to Heather's Golf Swing

Today one of my golf partners played a round at the Arizona Biltmore golf course in Phoenix, AZ with "the best women golfer I've ever seen." He liked her swing so much that he taped it and sent it to me asking for my analysis. After watching the video, I thought that a few improvement could easily take her game to the next level.

The first thing you will notice from the video is that she is really able to swing hard and generate a lot of club head speed. I wouldn't necessarily change any of this, although I'll talk about her release after hitting the ball below. The problem I see is in her backswing position. Adding more width to her swing would increase her swing arc and thus increase her club head speed.

Consider professional golfer Gary Woodland's swing and a recent article about it titled Woodland's Wide-to-Wide Driver Swing.

Compare the two positions above with Heather's position at the top (in the image below).

The NO! side of Gary Woodlands swing looks pretty much like Heather's position at the top. In order to get into the YES! Width position, Heather would need to turn her hips and upper body more, extend her left arm back into the width dimension and keep her left foot on the ground or at least tilted to the right rather than raised off the ground on her toe. These changes would create a bigger swing arc (imagine a circle from the extended green arrow at the top all the way around to the ball) which could generate more swing speed and power.

Heather's hand release (above) might look unusual given some conventional golf instruction where instructors will tell you to "shake hands with the target," but this is not the only way to release the club. E. A. Tischler in Secrets of Owning Your Golf Swing describes three release patterns: covering, cornering and extending, the last one being "shake hands with the target." 

Jeffrey Mann describes Heather's release as the "no-roll" release (here) and shows Mike Bennet's release from the Stack & Tilt video as an example. This is a part of Heather's swing I would not change and certainly contributes to her accuracy and obvious power. An interesting question is whether Heather would benefit from moving toward the Stack & Tilt swing (just in case she can't get into Gary Woodland's great backswing position). Forward tilt toward the target would help keep her left foot on the ground and allow her to turn her upper body more easily.


Finally, to return to Gary Woodland, my golf partner and I followed Gary during the Waste Management Phoenix Open Pro-Am this year and the video above is one I took of his iron swing on the par 3 12th hole at the TPC Scottsdale course.