Tiger Woods First Day With Chris Como

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This video was shot on 12/3/2014 at the Tiger Woods Hero Challenge at Isleworth during the practice round. It shows some of the changes that Tiger maybe working on with Chris Como and discusses how they will effect his swing.

  • Tiger Woods is working on getting his hands more elevated for more power and leverage
  • This can reduce the stress on his now-fragile back post Sean Foley


All right guys. Here's your first sneak peak at the return of Tiger Woods at the Hero Tiger Woods Foundation Pro Am today at [inaudible 00:00:14]. I got a couple videos for you, one over here on the right that I'll let loop for a little bit here, of Tiger warming up on the range. That's Chris Como there blocking our view. For those of you that don't know yet, Chris Como is Tiger's new coach right now. What makes this interesting is that Chris is working on his master's in biomechanics. While Shawn Foley also claimed to be a expert in biomechanics, of course, that opinion may vary depending on who you ask there. Many years ago when Tiger first started working with Foley I predicted that Foley's mechanics were going to injure Tiger's back, and of course, not only did that happen but Tiger ended up having surgery because of it. You can watch that video. It's one of the recommended videos on the right side of your screen now if you want to watch that video. It was back from 2009, I believe, 2010.

                What's interesting is trying to figure out, of course, what Chris is working on with Tiger. If you watch the interview, or heard the interview, read the interview, that what Tiger was talking about his changes with Como is that he's trying to kind of get back to how he used to swing. They actually went back and looked at a lot of his old footage. What's interesting is what I was watching Tiger do on the course today, and that's this video over here on the left. What's interesting is note the massively higher position of his hands. Of course, for those of you that are RST guys and you've seen the five minutes of perfect back swing video, those arms and hands and shoulder position look identical to what I'm demonstrating for you to do on that video, so another recommended video for you to watch if you haven't seen that already, is the five minutes to perfect back swing.

                It looks quite obvious that Tiger's trying to get his hands into a much higher more leveraged position than what he's done in the past where his arms, and if we look at what he's still doing in his swing, obviously our practice swings and our real swings don't always quite match up just yet. With Foley he got really short and his arms are really deep and flag. See his hands are way back behind his shoulders, and here he's trying to get his hands right above his shoulder, again, exact positions that I demonstrated in the five minutes to perfect back swing video. Also, how much higher his shoulder elevation is, and again, another video on that, how much shoulder elevation do you need in the swing.

                You'll notice that now his right elbow, guess what, is right at the base of his peck. Exactly like I talk about in the how much shoulder elevation video and the five minutes to a perfect back swing video. Here what he's still doing, obviously he's not going to change this overnight, is his shoulder or his elbow is quite a bit lower still. Again, getting rid of a lot of these bad habits that he developed with Foley are going to take some time, but it so far it looks like Como may have Tiger on the right direction. If the ball striking that he was demonstrating today is any indication, I was very, very impressed with what [inaudible 00:03:07] let this play for a second so you can see his drills here. Very impressed with how little curvature there is on the ball now compared to what Tiger had been doing in the past four years where he's hitting massive, massive cuts. These balls were literally cutting with the driver two or three yards, were striped and hit much, much more consistently than before.

                Again, a lot of this looks like some of the changes he's trying to make are going to put him right back in line with RST and protect his back. Obviously if Como knows anything about biomechanics and physics he's going to understand that getting Tiger's hands much higher and staying in front of his body will make it much easier for him to generate a lot more leverage from this position than it will from this position, and that's just basic physics and leverage 101.

                I did see that Tiger was not hitting the ball as far as he used to back when he was with Haney. Definitely he lost quite a bit of distance over the years with Foley. It was averaged the shortest off the tee that he'd ever averaged on his career in the PGA Tour. Hopefully as he starts getting his hands back up into this new RST position he'll start to pickup some of that club head speed as well. I know that's one of his key goals.

                Anyway, sneak peak at it for you today to see exactly what's going on with Tiger's changes. We'll keep an eye on things and see if he keeps moving Tiger in the right direction. In the meantime, check out the related videos on the right to get you into much more powerful leverage positions, and of course, if you've lost club head, as I mentioned, Tiger's lost a lot of speed, and he did so for the exact same reasons that I talk about in the video How To Maintain Club Head Speed As You Get Older. Check out those videos and then we'll keep seeing you on the other side.

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JARRETT
I know he's not a real human being but it still makes me happy that he has to earn his myelin like the rest of us. 2015 will be one helluva year for golf drama when he gets this down though.
December 6, 2014
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Jarrett. Yes, it looks like Tiger is on the road to recovery! Tiger may seem like the Terminator from time to time, but he still has to learn like the rest of us.
December 6, 2014
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Vic
Did anyone notice that Tiger's setup is now fixed? Weight over the ankles, less forward bend, more balanced. The last few years he has been on his toes, bent over way too much. He's still struggling to get that shoulder elevation, but for the most part he is striking it great. He had a couple of chili-dips yesterday, and his putting was awful.
December 5, 2014
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R.J. (Certified RST Instructor)
Vic, Yeah, it'll take him a couple months to be in full form, but I suspect that Tiger will win at least one major with Chris Como in 2015. R.J.
December 5, 2014
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Saibun
Why can't I open the video of Tiger Woods First Day With Chris Como?? Please help. Thank, Saibun
December 5, 2014
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R.J. (Certified RST Instructor)
Saibun, Try deleting cache and cookies and then restarting the browser R.J.
December 5, 2014
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Vince
He's currently in DFL with a couple holes to go todays, 10 strokes off the lead. Started bogey-bogey on a course he's shot 59 at.
December 4, 2014
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R.J. (Certified RST Instructor)
Vince, Like any golfer going through swing changes or coming back from injury, it will take some time to get back into the swing of things. I am fully confident that Tiger will return to form. R.J.
December 5, 2014
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Peter
Back (from the Back) in 6 months!! Iwish I were 38 again. At twice his age, 70, I'm resigned to 18 months. That's not kept me from a set of steel-shafted Calloway forged's-with 3 iron, and Taylor Made "woods". I can dream, can I not? Guys, show me a professional golfer who's not had back troubles, and I'll show you someone on the Senior Tour. God Bless 'em!!!! p.s. Tiger, for all his wealth, councillors, and assets, still has to deal with his issues of 2006. That takes perhaps more time than a back-op.. pk
March 12, 2015
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William
What happened between Quinton and Sean Foley? I'm feeling some bad blood there. Anyway, congratulations on being so right at the beginning of the Woods/Foley relationship. You nailed it!
December 4, 2014
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R.J. (Certified RST Instructor)
Bill, To my knowledge, Chuck just isn't a fan of what Foley has taught his professional students. I think it's more of a disagreement about the philosophies of the swing than it is personal animus. R.J.
December 5, 2014
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Boris (Certified RST Instructor)
I was looking at his swing on the golf channel and what I noticed was that he was snapping his front leg like he use to do. Could that lead to same problem he had with his knee? I will say that his swing looks more athletic and powerful.
December 4, 2014
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R.J. (Certified RST Instructor)
Boris, It depends on how he's moving the joint. If he's jamming it backwards with the quad and calf muscles, then yes, it will lead to issues with that knee, but if he's exploding/pulling upward with his glute (hamstring), it could be done very safely and still look like it's a violent movement. It's the same push/pull debate with all muscle groups of the body. Push with quad and calf will cause injury, pull with glutes will be safe. R.J.
December 4, 2014
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Boris (Certified RST Instructor)
Thanks R.J.
December 4, 2014
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R.J. (Certified RST Instructor)
Boris, You're welcome. R.J.
December 5, 2014
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Daniel
So can we expect to see Tiger have the same elevation with his wedges and irons as we see him demonstrating on the video that's on the left with his driver? The reason I ask is bc with his wedges he likes to use many different trajectories on his approach shots. The less elevation the shallower the swing the lower the trajectory and visa-versa?
December 4, 2014
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R.J. (Certified RST Instructor)
Daniel, We'll have to see. It's hard to tell as there is limited video on Tiger's new swing thus far, but I would imagine that he would still have a shorter swing for his wedge shots, much like he has most of his career. R.J.
December 4, 2014
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andrew
Saw the instagram video the other day and was thinking RST in process with new/old swing. Thanks for being proactive and commenting. Other thoughts: -Hasn't his axis tilt changed at set up (for the better) vs. his old stacked over the left side with Foley? -Arms almost look "too high" vs. RST suggested. Where is the ideal for the left arm to be at the top (isn't your ideal having the left arm lining up closer to the right shoulder blade?) -Comments on other articles mentioned he is no longer as aggressive snapping the left leg straight thru impact -Videos I've seen - First thoughts are his rotational speed thru the ball has slowed. Your comments here would be appreciated. Good use of ground force and arm height, but rotational speed slower then the past (maybe a sign of age?)
December 3, 2014
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R.J. (Certified RST Instructor)
Andrew, Question 1: Hasn't his axis tilt changed at set up (for the better) vs. his old stacked over the left side with Foley? Answer 1: Stack and tilt is never a good option. Tiger never really had that much of a stack and tilt, but with Foley he did get too much hinge from the hip getting his spine angle too low. Question 2: Arms almost look "too high" vs. RST suggested. Where is the ideal for the left arm to be at the top (isn't your ideal having the left arm lining up closer to the right shoulder blade?) Answer 2: The camera angle could have an affect on how high his hands look. Also, the length of the arms relative to the body. You want to focus on where the bottom of the right arm is. If the bottom of the right arm is even with the bottom of the pectoral muscle, then your elevation is proper. If a person has longer forearms, then it'll appear as if their arms are too high. Question 3: Comments on other articles mentioned he is no longer as aggressive snapping the left leg straight thru impact Answer 3: Just like I was explaining to Boris above, it depends on what muscles he's using to straighten his leg. Is he using the quad to "kick" the lower leg forward as it is stuck into the ground, essentially throwing the knee back into the locked position, likely going past the stretching threshold for the joint? Or is he pushing the leg into the ground by pulling up on his body with the glute/hamstring. The latter will not allow the knee to move past the stretching threshold of the joint, even though it might be done rapidly. Question 4: First thoughts are his rotational speed thru the ball has slowed. Your comments here would be appreciated. Good use of ground force and arm height, but rotational speed slower then the past (maybe a sign of age?) Answer 4: It's likely that Chris Como is having him decelerate his rotation as he comes into impact, which will make the rotation look slower, but in all actuality it will increase club head speed because he'll be transferring his energy up the core. Let us know if you want to know anything else. R.J.
December 4, 2014
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andrew
Thanks R.J. Great feedback!
December 4, 2014
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R.J. (Certified RST Instructor)
Andrew, You're welcome, sir. R.J.
December 5, 2014
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clifford
What are the differences between RST and Foley's approach? To my "untrained" eye, I thought there was a lot of similarity?
December 3, 2014
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R.J. (Certified RST Instructor)
Clifford, Foley had him using way too much secondary axis tilt/side bend and he wasn't upright enough. Foley also shortened up Tiger's swing considerably and had him getting too deep into the depth plane in the backswing. Tiger then had to muscle his way back into the good positions that he was conditioned to be in throughout his entire career. Foley's golf instruction has literally ruined the latter stages of Tiger's career. If Tiger was with RST, at the very least, he wouldn't have been getting injured the past 5-10 years. Foley claims to be a biomechanics expert but based on everything he's taught Tiger over the years, it seems more like he's a biohazard expert. http://www.rotaryswing.com/videos/tour-pros/tiger-woods-swing-changes-sean-foley R.J.
December 4, 2014

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