Hey SagutoGolfers! Tom Saguto here and I've got
a special vlog episode for you highlighting my experience at the Stack and Tilt golf swing
camp in Miami, Florida. What an amazing experience learning the golf swing alongside
some of the best golf instructors in the world including Andy Plummer, the creator
of the Stack and Tilt swing system. What you're going to see in this video is the
highlights of my week-long adventure diving deep into the golf swing. I can't wait to share
my journey with you so let's get started! Day one was pretty simple and straightforward
fly from Myrtle Beach to Fort Lauderdale. Thank goodness that wasn't my golf bag on the
baggage slide though -looks like that passenger decided not to include the luggage spa treatment
with their purchase.
When I arrived I got settled in at the Residence Inn Marriott across the
street from the Marriott Turnberry Resort. Really awesome room – even had a kitchen built
in – and I really don't mind cooking Italian so that was awesome. The hotel staff recommended
this restaurant just around the corner called 800 Degrees and it was so good. I had this out
of the world burger and some Thai chili wings and it was like tasting something for the first
time. I swear that burger had new flavors to it. I was able to figure out their secret blend so
if you ever want to know a really good blend for a burger you do 50% chuck, 25% short ribm and 25%
skirt steak – so that's a heck of a burger. Okay back to the room before we start getting really
hungry. I had to prep for this massive instructor learning day the next day. No joke, it was going
to be nearly 10 hours of golf swing learning so I had to make sure my brain had enough hard drive
space to process all of this new information. It's amazing there's a pot of gold right
there! instructor training day started with a lovely sign in the sky, a rainbow.
It
was so close you could see the pot of gold and Stack and Tilt is gold for your golf game
so this was a great sign to kick off our camp. I didn't take much video on day two because I
was processing so much information but I can tell you that I wrote down 25 pages worth of notes.
Thank goodness I brought along some extra paper. We spent a large part of the day inside learning
and discussing the most important components of the golf swing – so looking at the individual
pieces of the swing and their movements. We even took a look at a Stack and Tilt tool
called the grid which is a tremendous tool for describing and understanding your golf swing
as well as ball flight and then we went outside for about an hour to see the grid applied
in action where Andy Plummer hit a variety of golf shots – draw being the preferred shot –
but we also learned how to hit fades and change the trajectory of golf shots just by modifying
the grid and using the grid to your advantage.
We kicked off day three by talking about
the golf swing and most importantly the key Holy Grail concept of the golf
swing – the hips – discussing in-depth GEARS swing data on how the
best players in the world move their hips toward the target in the backswing
and even more forward in the downswing. This is a huge power move and one of the best moves
you could ever make in your golf swing. Then, it was time to go outside hit
some golf balls and Andy was selecting some instructors to have as lesson models
while we observed him giving them lessons He would also give us tons of feedback on key
points to look for in the golf swing as well as how to best analyze the golf swing. Rafael's
lesson was first and he has a really nice golf swing. After analyzing it, Andy determined that
Rafael's club was getting too low in the downswing resulting in his club path being too much into
out – so hitting a lot of hooks push hooks and pulls. He's essentially got too much of a good
thing going on in his golf swing.
They began working on removing the excessive inside out
path by restricting the lower body's forward movement in the downswing. essentially Rafael's
hips were moving too far forward in the downswing and this would cause him to drop the club too
low and to the inside and that was causing that big hook or that big hook tendency. By the way, if
you're a slicer this is an excellent fix for the over-the-top golf swing – you need more hips
moving forward or laterally in the downswing to get the club to set on the proper inside path.
But, if you're an expert player and you have too much inside to out path that's when you start
hooking the ball so Andy is reeling Rafael back into a path that's less inside so he hits a little
bit of a draw not too much.
The drill Rafael was working on was very effective in removing his
excessive in-out swing path and he was able to hit the ball crispier and finish with his arms lower
and left at the exit which is more efficient and powerful instead of being inefficient casting and
having that club drop too low in the downswing. While hitting these shots he was still drawing the
ball – and that's the kind of finish you want to see.
So Rafael did an awesome job – good work
Rafael and Andy! Next up on the chopping block we had Jess Frank of the Jess Frank Golf Academy.
You may have seen the episode we recently filmed together on the most important golf swing
key – low point control, controlling your contact point – and we filmed that video
here in Miami at the Stack and Tilt Camp. Jess has a nice golf swing too! And, he used to
have a swing issue where his hips would move too far forward in the back swing and this would cause
his downswing to be too much into out so we're looking at the similar situation of more hooks
push hooks big draws and pulls and a lot of thin shots because if you're swinging really shallow
the club tends to skip off the ground and not dive into the ground – creating that beautiful
divot.
Jess took a lesson from Andy recently so they spent some time working on eliminating his
old swing habit which involved him pre-setting his shoulder tilt a little bit more down so his left
shoulder more down this would help his shoulders stay stacked over his hips and not have the hips
move so forward in the back swing to help him have cleaner contact. And, just as a side note,
the key to striking the golf ball really well is making sure your shoulders and hips are stacked
over each other at the top of the backswing this stacked position gets you over the ball and gives
you a greater chance of making clean contact. If you're not stacked, you've got to play
the timing game, and we know that's no fun. Next, Andy started improving Jess's contact with
the golf ball making it extra crispy so what he did is he took Jess's clubs and chucked them into
a deep fryer and that really helped – of course I'm just kidding – but what they really did was
they were working on the same drill Rafael was doing to eliminate too much of an into out swing
path because once Jess got his hips figured out, they had to get the club on a little
bit of a steeper descent into the ball but at the same time swinging into out so still
having a little bit of draw but crispier contact and when Jess was doing this
drill he was striping the ball crispy with a beautiful push draw –
he looked like a new man out there. After Jess's lesson Andy was looking for one more
instructor to get on the chopping block so here was my chance I jumped in there and I was looking
forward to getting my swing torn apart – let's go! Actually, since this is my first Stack and
Tilt lesson, I was really curious to see how well I was doing the motions because I've
been using this swing self-taught since 2013 with help from the Stack and Tilt red book and
watching tons of Charlie Wi videos.
Overall, Andy said I got the idea which is really good!
I had the centered pivot, the weight forward, the hands in, and the shoulder down, awesome!
I was pretty nervous up there because I hadn't hit a golf ball at least a week. As you know
this swing doesn't need a whole lot of timing so it's easy to travel with and you can take
weeks off without worrying if you're going to lose your swing in the process – that's
what I love about this swing system. After a few warm-up swings I got settled in and
started hitting some really crispy ones. Right on, just a little thin.
It was close to uh pretty close. Now, it's my turn to get chopped. My miss is
a huge hook especially with the 3-wood and I really want to have a good relationship
with my 3-wood but our relationship is currently on the rocks at the moment –
we've tried counseling that didn't help. Except that one. Actually, I striped that first
one. That's not supposed to happen but maybe I play better when people are watching.
Right, so
the janitor, I mean the sweeping exactly. Okay now it's time to get on the real chopping block
– yes beat me up Scotty and here we are again the same problem as Rafael and Jess. Club getting
too low on the downswing the path going too much out to the right too in to out – it makes perfect
sense because on occasion I've been known to hit a post pattern hook that starts 50 yards right at
the target and finds the middle of the fairway Believe it or not this club getting too low
on the downswing business has caused me to swing 20 degrees yes 2-0 degrees in to out.
This is why I could never fade the ball well, I was swinging too much into out. I never minded
drawing the ball anyways because I spent the first eight years of my golfing life slicing the
heck out of the golf ball like the best of them. Okay off of the chopping block.
Time to work on that drill. It's good to know that the
long arms are not a problem, So just a chip shot like that? Yep.
Oops I probably exactly yep this is that's the bowler part of it
i'm trying to get to that by doing arms. As you can see I wasn't doing so well my
urge to swing too much into out was coming up and that's normal when you're making a swing
change when you're in a lesson you're there to make a change you're always going to want to
revert back to the old habits so we've really got to beat the old habits out of the system then we
had another problem when I started trying to swing less into out my downswing started to get steep
and over the top this is because I was relying on the lateral hip move to drop the club a ton in
the downswing great golf lessons bring out the demons in your swing I'll tell you what thank
you Andy for exercising these golf swing demons my urge to swing over the top and steep was still
there but it got better by the end of the lesson I had to learn how to swing under from the
top instead of over while keeping the club finishing low and left in the follow through
that allows for really tight crispy push draw alas that last swing was really good and
unfortunately my lesson had to get cut short because a thunderstorm was rolling in really fast
if you know Florida is the lightning capital of the world so don't play around with lightning that
puts a wrap on my third day in Miami I was really exhausted from being on my feet all day but also
from processing everything I'd learned in the past two days like mental overload so instead of going
out to eat I went to the local store and picked up some snow's red clam sauce never tried it
before but get an extra can of clams just because you know you'll love it and I got some
linguine too cooked that up in the hotel room and had some really good Italian eats that
night and that meal fed me for two and a half days now it's time for stack and tilt camp which is
a three-day stack and tilt training program that works on all areas of your golf game from full
swing to chipping pitching putting bunker play and more amateur golfers and golf instructors from all
over the world attend these golf camps to improve their understanding of the golf swing and most
importantly improve their golf games Andy kicked off stack until camp with a presentation on the
grid the tool that describes the how's and whys behind ball flight and helps you to understand
the golf swing on the deepest possible level if you want to know your golf swing learn the
grid and attend one of these stack and tilt camps so what I'm saying is that is if you don't learn a
thing from this camp that's what you need to know okay I'm going to say it a lot of times
good okay that's right the significance of the grid is that it provides a three-dimensional
description of the golf swing and also ball flight to sum up Andy's presentation on the grid golf
is a game played on a tilted angle and that naturally forms an arc on the ground so we take
the club around our body because we are simply tilted over towards the golf ball this also means
that the golf swing is a circle with two centers we have a shoulder center and a hip center and if
we can keep these centers stacked over each other turning in a perfect circle the club will
trace a perfect circle as well and on the downswing we'll hit the golf ball first take a
beautiful divot in front of it every single time the key concept here is that
the base stack and tilt setup the weight forward the hands forward and
lead arm straight automatically presets the golfer to hit a beautiful push draw
every single time and that's really fun oh that felt crispy oh man there's a lot more pieces in the grid that
i could explain to you but i really want you to see this and experience it first hand whether it
be through a stack until camp with an authorized stack and tilt instructor or by watching the stack
and tilt dvds and let's take a brief intermission to show you this massive lizard that just showed
up on the driving range and yes he was tilting it's a beautiful day in Miami Florida and I'm
just going to be showing you what I'm working on you saw the lesson I went through with Andy
yesterday working on getting the club to finish more around my body here taking that left arm
and going ripping it across my chest this way you see what that does to the club path brings
it down right through the middle of my trail forearm here the magical position to come
through so right through the middle part of my back instead of going too low through
my butt here let's let's do some practice well that felt good that was crispy when you're
making a change things feel weird and awkward let's try a couple of the drill see as we remember from the lesson my hips wanted
to jump out too far ahead now most of you most of you don't have enough of the lateral hip movement
most of you don't move the hips toward the target enough and so a lot of you will need to do this
get enough right side bend put your club in the proper position on the way down deliver the
beautiful club package to ups right here to the golf ball so most of you need lateral to
start downswing properly right here but if you do too much like me you need to actually curb
that so what I'm doing is I'm breaking my hips braking isn't slowing down preventing them from
jumping out too much I've got enough hip slide I just don't want them being too active because they
get too active you do too much club will just fall fall fall all day long causing problems that's
the drill right there lead arm across the chest you can see the back of my club face you
should be able to see that no turning over I'm just gonna do it really slow here
because it's a new feeling completely new now arm across lead arm across my chest
cold face facing you perfect let's hit one okay you know what i think that accomplished
it right there because i'd hit the big hook that was actually more of a straight
ball with a slight cut at the end of it it means i did the opposite i think i didn't
do too much of that did more of the right stuff probably more over this way let's put the cut
spin and i probably was a little bit steeper caused the ball to go club to go out to
end put some of that rightward curve on it oh this grass is beautiful i don't want to
mess it up but it's so nice it's like the grass you'd make out of carpet in
your house oh that felt better wow oh that felt good see my finish this foot's not
really over rotating or anything it's because I'm curbing the hips I'm breaking the
hips from another standpoint tremendous amount of speed here the hips aren't going with the i mean
the club in the body aren't falling down together you're actually braking the hips and
what happens is the hips slow down and the club whoosh right through with a
high rate of speed it's just catapulting and because as that the lower body
is slowing down you can feel it as it starts breaking the arms start accelerating bam some serious serious speed wrath of god
times 10.
I want to make sure i don't get steep get myself set up in my practice
station and then on the downswing place a stick behind the ball maybe a couple
feet that's about the angle of the shaft that's what I'm trying to do that type of thing so
just with a drill let's try it what's intimidating broke the stick check that out I hit the stick oh oh we have something there America whoa oh [ __ ] for me tempers that was a push straw most sought after shot in goth so Andy was
just talking about compression and where the club should strike the ball and go into the
ground you know we're doing this drill well you should have about as much dirt on the first
four grooves right there you see the dirt line it should cover the first four grooves
that tell you the club has gotten to the hit the ball in the center of the
face for maximum power transfer maximum kfc right in there four grooves so you
can see I've got four grooves worth of dart yes compressive i feel like a kid in a candy
store and you should too because this system works every single time you do it oh you got to do the
motions the right way once you do the motions set neck tilt right when I'm at the top my neck is
tilted to the left it's not in line right tilt it to the left of my spine as I keep my head down
okay if my head is too high and I don't have any neck tilting left right but never it'd be hard for
me to get my side trigger you see one all right right so we're really learning this trail
shoulder remember i told you it's set up to put this space in the sky that's a wrap on the first day of the stack
and tilt camp everyone was working very hard on their golf swings and i was really excited to
get some swings in to start improving my own game it's not perfect right now but i
really felt some great compression on the good shots you're going to get the chance
to see how my swing changes throughout the vlog so let's go over to day two
of the stack and tilt camp good morning it's another beautiful day five in
Miami in time for the second day of the stack and tilt camp we woke up to another session on the
grid and no matter how many times Andy does his presentation of the grid I always learn something
new in case you're wondering how many alignment sticks are needed for a complete grid start
with 12 and work your way up from there also do yourself a favor and buy some stock in home depot
because every time there's a stack until camp people rush to home depot to buy hundreds
of these driveway marker alignment sticks the best 2.19 you'll ever spend in your life Andy began explaining a common problem that
happens to better golfers as they start the downswing this is the same problem that I'm having
in my golf swing keeping the left arm glued to my chest too long in the downswing look what happens
if the lead arm stays glued there for too long the upper body begins tilting too much away
from the target and sends the club path too much into out resulting in big sweeping draws poles and
hooks this was a very valuable golf lesson for me next we had a session on creating power in the
golf swing by leveraging the shoulders I was surprised to find out the shoulder turn happens
naturally when you extend and tilt your spine in the backswing and the shoulder turn by the way is
really not a turn at all but more so it's learning to use the shoulder joints effectively to create
extra power and who doesn't want extra power this lesson shifted my mental image on what it
means to have a shoulder turn it's really not a turn at all just using your joints effectively
to move the club farther around the body when you incorporate the tilting and extending
of the spine you'll find turning happens and if you want more power you add the power of the
shoulder joints it was quite a golf lesson I took some time during the day to
practice and work on my golf swing building off of yesterday's progress to give you an idea of what my left arm and
hand were feeling as I was rehearsing this move it was like I was a ninja backhanding attackers
over my left shoulder the key indicator here is that the arms finish lower across my chest and not
so high with the club face pointed at the camera and also making sure that i don't rotate
my hands a lot in the follow through okay today was a tougher practice day but i made a
huge discovery towards the end of my session i was really trying to feel the left arm
coming off of my chest in the downswing and like all swing changes it's not an easy
feeling when you're comfortable with the old motion at the end of the camp day we spent time
inside where Andy was reviewing students golf swings and helping them understand
their golf swings on a deeper level just like when Andy does his grid presentation i
always seem to learn something new about the golf swing when he is analyzing another student's
swing so it was really nice to watch him dive in deep to particular areas of the golf swing
and describe fixes from those particular areas that wraps up the second day of camp coming up
next is the final day of stack and tilt camp so let's make this an epic grand finale stack until
camp day three the last day it has been quite a week leading up to this point i was beginning
to feel very comfortable with Andy's description of the grid and all the information I've been
collecting over the past five days started to connect and click in my mind I definitely think
that these camps are the best way to dive deep into the stack tilt system because it is very
helpful to have not just the textbook knowledge but to also match up the visuals and golf swing
feels with the classroom learning for me it's all about seeing the swing pieces in action and
how i can connect them built in bro today we're going to go more in depth with the grid and also
learn how to use the driver with stack and tilt what did we learn with the grit today we added
power to it remember how the shoulder joints play a key role in adding power that's exactly what's
going on here it's also why Andy looks like he's surrounded by alignment sticks don't worry if
it looks like a spider web when you see this in person it makes perfect sense plus after seeing
the grid presentation for five days straight your mind starts to process this much
faster than when you started the camp the supinating coming down
would make the path go across as you can see the driver setup is quite simple
adding a little bit more weight forward to shallow the attack angle into the golf ball you cannot hit
down too much with the driver because this will cause the ball to come out too low and you won't
be launching the ball with maximum efficiency or maximum distance it's a common misconception
that you can't hit the golf ball high with stack and tilt and that the driver doesn't work well
I'm here to tell you that you can hit the ball plenty high and far you just need to make sure
you have the right setup adjustments to do so and keep in mind hitting the ball high and far
comes from adding power the more power you have the higher the golf ball will go the only
thing that changes is the setup the swing doesn't change at all between the irons and
the driver if you're having issues with the driver using this swing system there's probably
something wrong in your swing or your setup 99.9 percent of the time golfers swing too
steep with the driver and this causes slices no matter what swing you use you can't be steep
with the longer clubs they will never work it's time to practice again i was really
feeling good about my swing on this final day the level of compression was crispier than when i
started the camp i also noticed that i was using a lot less effort to hit the ball farther
because i was compressing the golf ball so well compared to before today i was working
on the same things but trying to tighten up and refine my swing so that there isn't a lot of
moving parts you'll notice how my swing is quite a bit shorter today than with my first lesson with
Andy less swing variables means more consistency and efficiency of movement which leads to
powerfully clean consistent and crispy golf shots I like I think uh my bowling technique has
improved since coming to this camp like my bowling was always straight on like
doing some drop kick I had a guy just comment he said I'm going to show this to all
my bowling guys in my bowling league did you make a video on bowler yes I
did oh nice I made a little one yeah it the consistency of this golf swing system
always amazes me you really just get set up and then tilt and extend you take what you have
at address to the top and back to the golf ball it never changes and that's why i love it check
out these really consistent strikes right here uh you can have this same level of compression and
fun all it takes is a few simple adjustments to your golf swing and you can be doing this in no
time there was a lot of crispy ball striking going on at the stack and tilt camp all of us were
compressing the golf ball so well that a team of outsider golf instructors sent a spy plane
to monitor what we were doing and they were trying to steal our secrets that wraps up the
final day of my stack and tilt camp experience sum it all up i had a blast learning the golf
swing for a week in Miami and became friends with some awesome golf instructors a special shout out
and thank you to Andy Plummer for his dedication and passion for the golf instruction craft his
work is helping golfers and instructors everywhere take their games to the next level
and play their best golf right now thank you Andy so it's back home to helping
you all make the most out of the game you love thank you for watching and like this video
and subscribe to my channel if you enjoyed this content and if you're looking for an
easy way to play your best golf right now check out my website segudo.gov where you can
learn this swing in a structured and simple golf game learning program have a rocking
week and I'll see you in a future episode