S&T vs. Foley - Differences and Similarities

Iacas:

I'm not sure if Sandtrap accepted my last response post so I'll try posting again.

1) This presume I am standing straight up by I'm not.  I bend forward at the hips, keep my back straight, and take a traditional setup.  Using the pole analogy, the pole goes through the top of my head, down through my torso, and touches the ground behind me.  That's what I feel I am turning around.  As I do so, my shoulders turn on a downward angle towards the ground.  If I try to turn my shoulders more horizontal to the ground, I feel tightness and pain in my right back near the shoulder.  The pain disappears if I turn my shoulders on a natural downward plane.  This is consistent with Sean's instruction to turn your shoulders on a steeper plane.

2) "Right temple" is a common description for the right temporal bone.  I was using the "right temple" term because I presume that most people reading this forum are not doctors.  I apologize for my erroneous presumption.

Finally, I would like to point out a distinction between S&T; and Foley's method that most people overlook.  I have read the S&T; book and noted the backswing requires a straightening of the right leg, which results in the spine tilting towards the target, thereby providing the "tilt" part of the backswing.  Under Foley's method, you don't straighten the right leg but keep it rather flexed.  This allows me to keep my centered position.

A great illustration is swinging on an upside down Bosu ball.  If straighten my right left, my sternum and ultimately my weight shifts to the left.  However, since I am standing on an uneven platform, I lose my balance and fall to my left. By keeping a flexed right leg, I am able to complete my backswing without falling off the ball.

But that's not what I see in the Stack & Tilt book. I forgot what page it is, but there is a picture showing the backswing from behind. The author drew a line in the middle of the back, starting from the waist up to the shoulder. The line slants to the left. This image, in conjunction with the straightening of the right knee, demonstrated to me as the customer that as I make my circular backswing and straighten my right leg, my spine slants to the left and I achieve the "tilt" part of the swing.

Now if I got the wrong impression from the picture and misinterpreted the instrucction, isn't the burden on the S&T; authors to provide a different explanation? After all, they are in better position to explain what I need to be doing.

Additionally, you state that Foley does indeed advocate decreasing the flex in the right knee on the backswing. But That's not what I take from his instruction. From his Golf Digest lecture on the On Demand, Foley states that as you make your centered backswing, you'll feel the muscles in your right leg contract and put pressure into the ground.  When I put this into practice, my right leg ends up staying relatively flexed. And when I'm in this position, I feel like I am in a better position to make the transition from the backswing to the downswing.  This instruction, along with the other ones he presents, has helped me achieve better ball striking.

Now do both Foley's and S&T;'s teaching methods actually achieve the same movement? I'm not a golf professional but if we presume Foley "stole" from S&T;, then the answer would be yes.  However, the most effective method in explaining this movement to me as the customer was Foley's terminology and not the S&T; terminology.

From what Ive seen Foley does teach somewhat of a lateral hip move into the ball. He basically wants your leading thigh over your leading foot at impact and your center point of chest to stay in place. To me theres only so far you can go foward with your hips when you keep your center point of your chest over the ball/centered in place and your leading foot planted.

Well yea, he obviously teaches hip slide. However, he doesn't teach as much as S&T.;

yea, from what you wrote I think you gave a pretty good breakdown of the differences. The slight feeling in the inner back leg on the backswing Im not too into. To me its not really nessasary to try to get this feeling.

It's interesting that you say this because I was second guessing my thoughts when I saw some highlights from Dubai and notcied has closed he was.

Would you say that this is the reason why he has been blocking shots the last couple of tournaments?