Finding your Eureka moment!

A few issues ago, Finding the Tips featured a tip from Rob Cheney Golf, who espouses the stack and tilt system of swinging the club. This system wants golfers to concentrate on getting their weight forward to their lead side throughout the swing.

Stack and tilt is somewhat controversial in the golf instruction world. It appears to fly in the face of the weight shift dynamics taught in the traditional swing:

• Shift your weight to the trail side early in the backswing

• As you near the finish of the backswing, shift your weight back to the lead side

• Start the downswing with your lower body and then clear your lead hip as you turn into ball, moving to a finish position that has 90% of your weight on your lead foot

I’ve been trying stack and tilt and I’ve found that, for me, it’s easier to assure ball then turf contact. That crisp, slightly downward contact with the ball produces more distance and accuracy with less effort. For me, it’s simpler. (And those who know me will readily agree that I am a simpleton. 😊)

But not only stack and tilt practitioners preach the importance of getting the weight forward at impact. In fact, only the most discerning viewers would be able to determine who is using stack and tilt just by looking at the impact position in the golf swing.

From my point of view, finding a way to consistently produce ball then turf contact is the holy grail of the golf swing. Do that consistently and you can’t help but play better golf.

Before I retired, I worked as an instructional designer. I was tasked with creating training that would help people complete work tasks efficiently. It was a challenge because I never once was a subject matter expert (SME) in the concepts and tasks that students needed to learn. I met with SMEs and watched them demonstrate. I asked a lot of questions. I listened carefully.

I’m the kind of person who needs a Eureka moment when I’m learning something new. The first explanation doesn’t always work with me. So I ask SMEs the same question several different ways. Eventually, I hear the answer that really communicates with me and which solidifies my understanding.

My inner voice shouts “Eureka!”

To that end, this issue of Finding the Tips focuses on the downswing weight shift. Two different coaches give us their take on the move. And in the third video, we take a slow motion look at the swing of the 1913 US Open champion. Much has changed since 1913, but as the old saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

I hope one of these videos helps you find your Eureka moment!

In this issue

• One easy tip to compress the ball

• The move that makes irons and driver easy

• The swing that shocked the world

• Next time in Finding the Tips

One easy tip to compress the ball

Johnny Miller burst on the golf scene on the PGA Tour and cemented his place in history with a historic round of 63 to win the 1972 US Open. After his playing days ended, Miller became one of the most iconic voices in golf coverage as a tell-it-like-it-is analyst for NBC’s golf team.

When asked to give his best golf tip, Johnny Miller says he wants our lead shoulder, which turns behind the ball on the backswing, to not only return to its address position, but also to move past that position toward the target by impact.

That ensures you hit the ball first and the turf second. Also, moving that shoulder past the address position, he says, eliminates the left side (for a right-handed golfer).

Concentrating on the lead shoulder is a novel way of looking at the downswing weight shift.

Is it going to be your Eureka moment?

The move that makes irons and driver easy

Rob Cheney Golf is back. In this video, he shows us how to maximize the feeling of moving the lower body toward the target in the downswing while minimizing the urgency to clear the lead hip.

If the downswing is a race between weight shift to the lead side and clearing the lead hip, he wants us to let the forward move win the race, then clear the lead hip.

To do this, he introduces a drill that we can do at home in a doorway, and then take it to the driving range where we can hit balls.

He shows swing videos of two of today’s best golfers, Brooks Koepka and Scottie Sheffler. Neither of them is a stack and tilt player. But both demonstrate the weight shift to the lead side, finishing well beyond the address position.

This is the move that powered my Eureka moment. Does it resonate with you?

The swing that shocked the world

If your Eureka moment is still to be found, going back in time might help.

Francis Ouimet was a caddy who was given a chance to play in the 1913 US Open at his home course, the Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. As an unheralded amateur, Ouimet outdueled vaunted British golfers Harry Vardon and Ted Ray to win the tournament in golf’s original Cinderella story.

In the video ((first published by Gary Bates Golf Academy in 2022), you see the huge turn Ouimet makes in the backswing. In the downswing, his lead leg and pelvis move well forward of their original positions while his head remains back in the swing for maximum power.

Some parts of the Ouimet swing are anachronistic today, but the weight shift on the downswing, with his head staying behind the ball, is timeless.

Remember, Ouimet was just 20 years old in 1913. Could it be that his downswing weight shift powered by his lower body was HIS Eureka moment?

More importantly, could it be yours?

Next time in Finding the Tips

I hope this week’s videos have provided you with some inspiration and even a Eureka moment.

In the weeks ahead, I’ve got plans to kick the newsletter into high gear. Keep coming back and find out more.

Meanwhile, it would really help if you could not only open the newsletter in your email every Friday morning, but also click at least one of the links in every issue.

And of course, feel free to share this newsletter with your friends.