Coaching Clash: How World’s Top 2 Coaches Differ

Only in golf would the world’s top 2 coaches have such different methods. In this video, I look at how Sean Foley and Pete Cowen see the golf swing differently. If you want to understand your golf swing a little better then taking guidance from these giants of the game will go a long way.

Related Videos
▶ Sean Foley’s Swing Model: https://youtu.be/RWRXd4CBF-o
▶ Pete Cowen’s model: https://youtu.be/iAzZDxNJSKU

Time Stamp
00:00 Introduction
00:30 Background and personalities
02:20 Cowen’s spiral staircase
03:00 Foley’s stretch phase
04:05 Cowen’s spinning right arm down
05:00 Foley’s speedboat analogy
06:30 Cowen’s Pressure fade release
07:20 Foley release
07:45 Energy and sequence
08:48 Cowen’s BIG MISS
09:22 Ground reaction forces
12:00 The GOLD

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Thank you to the Visual Golf YouTube channel for the Champ & Stenson footage:
https://www.youtube.com/@VisualGolf3

the two giants um of the modern era in terms of coaching and tour victories and and um you know major wins these are the two best coaches of the modern era by far um but their coaching philosophies are not entirely the same and in fact in many ways are completely out ODS with each other so in this video I thought it’ be quite fun and educational to see if we can take a look at the core differences between the Pete Cowen model and the Sha Foley [Music] philosophy okay first up then is their is their personalities so um Pete Cowen always wears black um I don’t think he owns anything other than black trousers black jumper jacket and his black Callaway hat a a Yorkshire uh has has a reputation for telling telling things absolutely straight and as they are and if you’re not getting it right he will let you know that um where he gets his his information from has developed his philosophy I’m not entirely sure there’s no sort of obvious link but clearly through through years of experience and working with with players at the highest level he was also a really good player in his own right so no doubt you know has a whole history of of information and wisdom that he’s carried on into his own coaching and then there’s Foley who has a slick haircut um and a a more kind of colorful image and he uh he was originally um born in the in Canada made his way to the states and had some success with some medium ranked tour players before he got the big gig with Tiger Woods um he would he is definitely um has taken a major influence um from into his coaching from Sports Science he he um I think he’s got a masters in in biomechanics himself but he has taken influences from motor learning motor control um certainly the big one is biomechanics he’s um you know works a lot with um with Sasha McKenzie and our own Dr Mark bull who contributes regularly to the channel talks about his time spent with neuroscientists so you know he has a much more rounded and holistic approach to coaching than Cowan who is you know straightforwards and down the line okay let’s get let’s get into their swing models but I’m going to keep it really concise otherwise this will be you know an incredibly long video If you want to get more into the uh into the you the main kind of Concepts and how they differ then I’ll provide some links down below but this is going to be a Whistle Stop tour into the key differences between the two philosophies okay let’s get going with with the back swing then um Peak Howen is famed for his uh his model of the spiral staircase so rather than thinking about turning in the back swing um he uses the spir staircase as his analogy and that is the idea that as we as we’re rotating we’re also extending the right side so he talks about the energy of the Swing going from your lead ankle to your Trail Shin lead Shin to knee knee to mid thigh thigh to hip Etc all the way up the body so that as we’re as we’re turning the right side is getting higher and then the opposite would happen in the down swing in transition we’re getting back down down that spiral staircase while that that the same thing is true for the leg action in foolies model he talks more about the the stretch phase which is quite unusual I think and must have come from from from biomechanics so rather than rotating as such as a you know as as a feel or an intention he talks about the stretching of the arms away from the body and that in turn putting that that rotation into the into the rib cage and as he gets this stretch phase you can see how my spine is in is in flexion I.E it’s still tilting a little bit to to the right that is a big a big deal for him absolutely no extending of the spine this way and keeping the head too still and the analogy he uses is the uh is the passing of sandbags along a line of people he says imagine you’re imagine you’re in a flood and you’re passing sandbags from one side to the other hence the the stretch phase the body chest flexion and that kind of lateral motion the down swing then is probably their their big point of difference this is where this is where Cowan um has his whole whole philosophy around creating downwards pressure everything in in um C’s model is about not getting the club stuck behind you and applying downwards pressure onto the ball so having got to the correct back swing the he talks about the the right arm spinning down or the trail arm spinning down and applying that downwards pressure so the wrist is still in extension and the right arm drive down we talked about loading the shoulders and getting that downwards pressure which in turn kind of VES a response from the body but in for him it is arms in front of you and getting some downwards pressure and he seems to allude to the idea that that that is the the kind of um motor control center of the Swing the coordination Center if you like if you can get that that motion of the right arm spinning down and applying that downwards pressure the body is going to react it’s going to extend it’s going to rotate but it all comes from getting that correct motion of the the right arm applying that downwards pressure arms in front of the body and downwards pressure Foy on the other hand and well he has his speedboat analogy so so this would have come from this would have come from um biomechanics and in particular a a paper um from Sasha McKenzie I think about 10 years ago where where um Dr Sasha McKenzie modeled the swing and um and and and this is the whole kind of philosophy the idea is that the club Center of mass let’s call it Club head needs to be behind the hands at a point where the shaft reaches horizontal on the way down and if it can do that it’s a very simple motion then to slow the handle down and start rotating and then the passive forces on the club are going to swing out and square and square it so we’re pulling the club down like so the club head is behind the hands and then it very easily swings out and if you’ve if you’ve ever made that move it is um it’s it’s just a fantastic feeling it’s almost like the club kind of whips off you and it squares up um almost on its own the speedboat part of the analogy then is as Foley would put it speedboat water skier and if they’re pulling in the same Direction so that’s the handle in the center of mass then they’re only ever going to go at the same speed and in the same direction whereas when the speedboat starts to slow down and and turn the corner that sends the water skier flinging out and speeding up as it kind of goes around the corner and that is that amazing feeling at the bottom of the Swing where the club kind of rotates in that manner Club head behind the hands at this point is definitely not um Pete cow and that is an absolute no no for him he wants it down and in front of him and then the release pattern um now if I get this wrong don’t don’t hate me but this is this is what I see going on with um uh W with Pete Cen he he loves pressure fade so his big thing is the pressure fade so that is the notion we’ve got the arms in front and through the ball he is keeping pressure on the club that’s that right wrist staying extended but as the body rotates the hands are going to rotate around to the left while keeping pressure on the club which presumably means to some some degree keeping that right wrist extended and then he’d s of work it around to the left while holding the face off so the hand hands would be going more round to the left and then upwards in this manner and that is his his notion of the pressure fade but with Foley he wants the club exiting uh kind of straight down the line and the arms staying more in front of you so he would say the only reason the arms go left is because the body is is turning left so the club head is behind the hands Midway down the club rotates so it rotates this way swings out in front and then continues to to kind of stretch out down the line with arm extension hip extension and not a great deal of of uh wrist motion uh involved okay last one and that is the kind of the the general energy and sequencing um in the swing from uh from his sciency back background then Foley um talks about Mya FAL stretch release stretch and shorten so that’s the you know the elastic um qualities of the body the muscles and the fibers which would stretch and then as they recoil there you know this huge kind of power in that motion so a simple a simple throwing motion has a has what’s called a kinematic sequence you move things in the right order it stretches the body and then it kind of gets released um so you would see you would hear Foley talking about ground reaction forces and and you know powering the swing in that way you would also see him doing step-in drills to see if you can really kind of build on that sequence and get the right kind of stretches throughout the system whereas Karen’s model is really built around and something he completely hates and that is the idea that the golfer has tried to rotate really hard you know back to our throwing an allergy and left the club um behind them unable well trapped on the inside still dragging the handle and unable to get any downwards pressure um it seems like his whole kind of philosophy is built around getting rid of that shot um I suspect in his playing history that was probably his Miss I don’t know that just a hunch um so you know he wouldn’t you wouldn’t talk you wouldn’t hear karon talking about trying to rotate the hips or use ground reaction forces I’m sure he acknowledges ground reaction forces but in his in his world the the you know the the body reacts to the way that we are trying to apply that downwards pressure and that is why we get these kind of this uh this kind of vertical forces and and indeed a lot of the rotation as well definitely not a sense of trying to rotate and leaving the club Behind for all these differences then you would think it would be really easy to um to see a Foley student and distinguish them from a from a peak count student but you know we need to remember that you know players go to go to see these coaches and they have their their own kind of long-standing patterns and the coaches are just kind of introducing ingredients if you like to try and re readdress the balance but when you have a player who’s worked with these coaches for a long time so that would be Stenson with um with Pete Cowan and I suppose Cameron Champ um with um with Foley then you can start to see as they’ve kind of you know um worked on these principles for a longer time so champ has this amazing sense of fluidity and power um which I I mean that a lot that’s genetic that’s that’s let’s be be clear but I mean the whole motion of the Swing is incredibly fluid there’s this huge rotation of the lower half lots of kind of drive from the legs and the club shallows behind him Center of mass is way behind him halfway down and then it whips out in front the body slows down at the appropriate time and we have this amazing kind of fluidity and speed that looks completely effortless for what is nearly 200 mph bull speed and and there is Stenson you know absolutely incredible player um not short by any any degree but the whole thing looks harder it looks more controlled he looks like he’s loaded his shoulders and he’s trying to apply pressure with his arm there doesn’t seem to be these kind of passive forces that are lining the club up and the and the same kind of deceleration forces that are applied with the with the foli model everything seems to be much harder with with stenson’s motion when I say harder I don’t mean more difficult I mean physically harder the muscles seem to be um more tense he is applying that pressure the shoulders are loaded and everything kind of slows down together whereas you know with with um with champ there are deceleration forces which in turn are speeding the club up and that’s that that beautiful kind of fluid um flowing balanced follow through so if your mind is anything like mine it will be taking you to a place where you’re thinking now should I be which one am I should I be more fluid and accelerating and you know all these kinematic sequencing or should I be more kind of controlled and and all about pressure well you don’t need to make that decision not not yet at least I I think the real gold in understanding these two kind of amazing coaches isn’t what they disagree on but it’s what they agree on imagine all the time they’ve spent all the wisdom shared between them if there’s real core fundamental principles that they both agree on then I think we should be paying attention so that is my next video linked down below and until you see until I see you next time keep practicing good luck play well