stack/tilt, hips, and elbow action.

this is a bit long-winded. apologies in advance.

so. i took my first golf lesson in a couple of years about a month ago, and the guy videotaped me and drew the usual lines and said that i looked to be on plane from start to finish and was very well balanced throughout the swing, no reverse pivots or anything, but that my hips were just Way too active, he felt. this, he said, was likely the culprit behind my primary problem - push fades. he also suggested i try a stronger grip (this comes up later on) and said that he'd like to see me hitting down on the ball more and taking a divot in front of the ball. as such, he was trying to sell me on the "stack and tilt" method, which, sure, i'm willing to give it a go. he walked me through several drills, which i have very studiously worked on at least 30 mins a day in the weeks since my lesson. the results have been as follows: shank, shank, fat shot, shank, hard push straight right, shank, skull, fat shot, duck hook, shank, skull, skull, shank... (repeat ad nauseum).

this came to a head this past saturday when i shot 95 on a par 67 course and i finally declared, you know what - i know the number one cause of people not getting better is they don't stick with what their golf pro suggests, but i just do Not feel like this is working. the stack and tilt approach (most notably the minimal hip turn) felt very tense and awkward, to say the least. so, saturday night, i looked up a video i had of myself making swings and compared it to sam snead's swing (i have come to think my swing shared some fundamental similarities with sam's), and my natural hip turn looks to be approximately the same as snead's, so i'm inclined to rule out that i've got "too much" hip action. now i'm thinking, okay, if it worked for snead, why wouldn't it work for anyone else as long as they executed everything else correctly as well? why should i have to convert to stack and tilt and silence my hips?

so i decided sunday i would say to hell with stack and tilt and go back to the board and try modifying my old swing myself. i did this by doing two things - what had always felt natural to me was a weak grip, but i went ahead and rolled it over into a neutral-leaning-on-strong left hand grip. secondly, i began starting my swing with my left elbow. at address, i have hogan's fundamental "elbows pointing at hips" position, but instead of taking the club back with the body or shoulders or arms or whatever method, i put the club in motion by turning my left elbow out, in the general direction of the target, which in turn causes my arm to roll over and my left hand to bring the club back and in a bit. mind you, i keep my arm straight while doing this. i don't bend my elbow out and get a chicken wing or anything. i turn it in such a way that, in the backswing, i practically *can't* bend my left arm. anyway, i use that elbow motion as a spring-board for the rest of the swing, letting the arms and body take over from there. the club face was consistently square halfway back and at the top as well, and all of my shots had a very nice trajectory - maybe slightly high, but definitely acceptable. my 6-iron, for example, was going approximately 160 yards with a 3/4 swing in 45 degree weather. and i feel like i'm generating more lag than previously as well. with my elbow remaining turned out throughout the swing until immediately before impact, it feels like i couldn't get off plane if i wanted to, and it feels extremely powerful.

anyway, i spent the better part of the round experimenting with this, trying to find the perfect timing for it and understanding what it is i need to be doing, and wound up at 13 over for 23 holes (sun went out of the sky about then). i feel like i've stumbled across something very vital to executing a consistently good golf swing, but i worry that it's just a fluke that won't last and i just happened to get a decent round using cheap trickery. is this elbow move something that's well-known, maybe even fundamental, and i've just somehow completely missed the elbow boat for the past 5 years?

Lol... sounds like you tried "Stack and Wilt" not "Stack and Tilt".

From what I have seen, read, and discussed with numerous instructors, the stack and tilt swing is good for a limited subset of players, as it is designed to attack a very particular problem among many better players swings. You are not the first person to try Stack and Tilt and start hitting fat shots and shanks like a 120 shooter. I did the same thing trying it.

As far as that elbow action goes, you might try instead focusing on the left forearm (although the elbow probably works just as well), turning it clockwise on the backswing (not too much mind you) and releasing it left on the downswing. How much body turn you make, your grip position, and how you release the club will determine how much and when you need to turn it back counterclockwise on the downswing in sequence with your turn to get the club square. The good thing about using the forearm (or elbow) is that it doesn't tend to pull the clubhead off line like using the wrists does.

Try this drill, starting with a 6 or 7 iron. Line up three balls. With an easy tempo, try to hook the first, hit the second straight, and slice the third. Done over and over this will help you get the timing correct. Later you can try to draw the first, straight the second, and fade the third all onto the same target. Kinda fun actually.