I keep seeing his swings on Instagram and YouTube.

I am not going to tell you that I didn’t admire Fred Couples’ golf swing back in the day.  It was smooth, powerful and many consider it the sweetest swing action ever.

I wouldn’t argue with any of the above – except that what was once a romance flick now looks to me like a horror movie, especially in slow motion takes.

I remember hating the Stack & Tilt swing as far back as 2007 when I was starting on my journey of ball striking and studying my own moves to compare them to the great golfers’ swings.

Why would I hate on a swing model?

For a simple reason – mechanically-unsound swings are like fingernails on chalkboards to my eyes, and when Tiger Woods began to work with Sean Foley in 2010 (whose own swing philosophy was shaped by S&T principles) I called TW’s new swing the “Back-Breaker” and predicted bad things would follow if he kept swinging this way:

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The reason for this is because, when you set up with your weight biased to the leading side in order to make a full pivot and shoulder turn with your leading heel nailed to the ground (the more biased you get to the trailing side, the harder it is to turn the hips without lifting the leading heel), you are already in trouble for any club or shot that doesn’t involve a wedge.

For longer clubs and full shots, you are in trouble trying to set up biased to your leading side because you have to get behind the ball in order to make contact.

So, with Fred Couples, take a look at this video and note especially the ballet music indicating a work of perfection, or whatever it is it’s trying to impart:

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328 yard drive, it says, and I believe it.

But this swing sequence tells me everything I need to know about how Fred injured his back in the 90’s and why he struggles to remain able to play a few events per season on the Champions Tour:

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You see Fred’s head very centered, with the ball inside his leading heel, which is an impossible stance and ball position from which to make contact with the ball swinging a driver.

This is a wedge address position with the body, and the ball position is more long iron or fairway metal-wood.

So, you see what happens after Fred gets to the top with a reverse-pivot position (leaning to the target instead of away) – he has to drop his head and move his upper body to his right in order to make proper impact.

However, look at what happens to Fred’s lower back because of his setup:

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It is the same lower back crunch that you’ve seen Tiger doing for years before and after his back troubles, and yes, Tiger keeps requiring back surgeries because he keeps swinging this way.

Worse, when you look at his extension:

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… you see the upper body is left behind while his hips drive toward the target.

This is how Fred Couples destroyed his back in his mid-30’s, and however pretty and smooth it looks, it is an absolute death move for the lower back.