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My birthday wasn't long ago, and one of my gifts was the Stack & Tilt instructional DVD set (4 DVDs).
I started doing something like what I thought was the Stack & Tilt some months back, and it had done more for my ball striking than anything else I'd ever tried. But I got to it by trial and error, so I was curious to see if the DVDs had any important things that I might have overlooked.
Suffice it to say that I think that the Stack & Tilt golf swing, while not really "new" and revolutionary, is something that a lot of golfers will find a lot of value in.
The DVDs are pretty awful. They convey the S&T information, yes, but in a way that is almost painful to watch. They are tedious and repetitious. There are long stretches of nothing but Mike Bennett standing in various positions while Andy Plummer walks around, points to various things, and lectures. In four DVDs there are hardly any shots of actual full swings of golf balls being struck. It's hard to believe, but true. Mike Bennett mights as well be a golf mannequin, the way he's used in these videos. Moreover, if you took out the repetition, all of the material would fit onto one DVD, or at most two. And despite there being four DVDs, some important issues are not touched on. One of them is the difference between hitting with the irons and the driver.
The S&T golf swing is all about the first two "skills" in the "three skills" golf instruction book (see the separate board in this forum). That is, it's all about hitting down into the ball and coming at it from the inside. In some ways, then, it's a perfect counterpart to the three skills (well, two out of three), since it supplies the geometry and mechanics that make the three skills possible. This will be of special value to those who, like myself, find that the three skills knowledge and drills aren't sufficient to make it happen. But if you need a lot of video demonstration of the swing, you'll be disappointed.
Having said that, hitting down isn't what we want to do with the driver. This doesn't mean that the S&T swing can't be used with the driver; it can be. But it means that the ball position must be adjusted, more forward than many golfers are used to. This point, thought not mysterious, isn't discussed in the DVDs; it certainly should be.
The fourth DVD, dealing with chipping, is pretty much exactly what Stan Utley teaches in his book, "The Art of the Short Game."
To sum up: The information is good; the presentation isn't so good. The approach they take would actually be better suited to a book with lots of static diagrams and photos. The video medium is largely wasted. But until that book is published, I guess the videos are the best way to get the information, and golf geeks will appreciated the extremely analytical approach taken. Those who just want to get to the point, learn what it's all about, and then start working on it will just want to watch the first half of the first DVD.
I started doing something like what I thought was the Stack & Tilt some months back, and it had done more for my ball striking than anything else I'd ever tried. But I got to it by trial and error, so I was curious to see if the DVDs had any important things that I might have overlooked.
Suffice it to say that I think that the Stack & Tilt golf swing, while not really "new" and revolutionary, is something that a lot of golfers will find a lot of value in.
The DVDs are pretty awful. They convey the S&T information, yes, but in a way that is almost painful to watch. They are tedious and repetitious. There are long stretches of nothing but Mike Bennett standing in various positions while Andy Plummer walks around, points to various things, and lectures. In four DVDs there are hardly any shots of actual full swings of golf balls being struck. It's hard to believe, but true. Mike Bennett mights as well be a golf mannequin, the way he's used in these videos. Moreover, if you took out the repetition, all of the material would fit onto one DVD, or at most two. And despite there being four DVDs, some important issues are not touched on. One of them is the difference between hitting with the irons and the driver.
The S&T golf swing is all about the first two "skills" in the "three skills" golf instruction book (see the separate board in this forum). That is, it's all about hitting down into the ball and coming at it from the inside. In some ways, then, it's a perfect counterpart to the three skills (well, two out of three), since it supplies the geometry and mechanics that make the three skills possible. This will be of special value to those who, like myself, find that the three skills knowledge and drills aren't sufficient to make it happen. But if you need a lot of video demonstration of the swing, you'll be disappointed.
Having said that, hitting down isn't what we want to do with the driver. This doesn't mean that the S&T swing can't be used with the driver; it can be. But it means that the ball position must be adjusted, more forward than many golfers are used to. This point, thought not mysterious, isn't discussed in the DVDs; it certainly should be.
The fourth DVD, dealing with chipping, is pretty much exactly what Stan Utley teaches in his book, "The Art of the Short Game."
To sum up: The information is good; the presentation isn't so good. The approach they take would actually be better suited to a book with lots of static diagrams and photos. The video medium is largely wasted. But until that book is published, I guess the videos are the best way to get the information, and golf geeks will appreciated the extremely analytical approach taken. Those who just want to get to the point, learn what it's all about, and then start working on it will just want to watch the first half of the first DVD.
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