Orikoru's Swing Thread (with videos)

[Springveldt]

Thanks - I have a feeling I've already seen both of those, but will watch them again.

Pulling the right foot back was a bit of a 'quick-fix' attempt I guess - it's almost trying to make me pull it into the target line rather than swinging out to in across that line. I think I need to just get back to a conventional set-up but really focus on getting the takeaway correct and not pick the club up outside the line and steep. At the driving range last night, when I really worked on this takeaway move (feeling left shoulder more under my chin) I did hit it better. But it feels unnatural so at some point in a round I stop doing it without realising.

I think we've all been there with pulling the right foot back, I remember when I used to do it but it led to a 2 way miss for me. Bizarre as it sounds opening the hips at address (eureka golf style) actually helped more than pulling the foot back. Golf just doesn't make sense at times.

Practice those setups with your left arm having the elbow pointed out and the right elbow pointing at you hip, I bet it helps. It's what I concentrate on most at address with the driver now and it's helped me loads as I find it really hard to have that flying right elbow at the top of the backswing which helps in not coming over the top as much.

 

[Orikoru]

I think we've all been there with pulling the right foot back, I remember when I used to do it but it led to a 2 way miss for me. Bizarre as it sounds opening the hips at address (eureka golf style) actually helped more than pulling the foot back. Golf just doesn't make sense at times.

Practice those setups with your left arm having the elbow pointed out and the right elbow pointing at you hip, I bet it helps. It's what I concentrate on most at address with the driver now and it's helped me loads as I find it really hard to have that flying right elbow at the top of the backswing which helps in not coming over the top as much.

You may remember I tried the Eureka set-up for a while last summer - it really helped my club path in everything except driver. I think with driver, because of my tendancy to hit out to in, I was setting the feet open and then swinging along my foot line, making the slice even worse. I couldn't get it right from that set-up*.

Agreed - I am trying to pinch my elbows a bit closer together based on something Garyinderry said to me, so that's a similar idea.

*Just a related point, but I've had so many well-meaning amateurs that I play with tell me I'm aiming too far left on the course. It's such a catch-22, because my answer is typically yes - I know - but if I aim down the middle I'm going to hit it into the right hand trees a third of the time. People have this idea that aiming left makes a slice worse, and I know how it can do, but if you're fading every drive you don't really have much choice.

 

[Orikoru]

Also this guy on one of Danny Maude's video highlights the exact same thing with the shoulders/arms at setup.

I actually I hadn't seen this one, didn't realise it was a new one. I found it interesting and it actually explains driver set-up in a way I've never seen before. I don't think my set-up was quite as bad as his 'bad example', but I will give it a think when I'm playing tomorrow and see if I can improve it by doing something like what he said.

 

[Beezerk]

Is it my eyes or is your swing plane really high? Have you tried shallowing it a bit?

 

[Orikoru]

Is it my eyes or is your swing plane really high? Have you tried shallowing it a bit?

This is a product of the takeaway/backswing issue that I mentioned (either in this thread or the swingweight thread, can't remember now). I pick the club up outside the line on the takeaway which I believe is why it goes so steep and causes me to swing out to in all the time. I'm trying to work on a more inside, deeper takeaway and backswing so I can swing more out to in. It's hard though. Whenever I think I'm getting somewhere, I take a new video and realise nothing has changed.

 

[Springveldt]

This is a product of the takeaway/backswing issue that I mentioned (either in this thread or the swingweight thread, can't remember now). I pick the club up outside the line on the takeaway which I believe is why it goes so steep and causes me to swing out to in all the time. I'm trying to work on a more inside, deeper takeaway and backswing so I can swing more out to in. It's hard though. Whenever I think I'm getting somewhere, I take a new video and realise nothing has changed.

Nothing worse when you video your swing and you try something new that feels totally alien and you've definitely changed something only to look at the video and it looks the exact same as your last 15 swings.

 

[Springveldt]

You may remember I tried the Eureka set-up for a while last summer - it really helped my club path in everything except driver. I think with driver, because of my tendancy to hit out to in, I was setting the feet open and then swinging along my foot line, making the slice even worse. I couldn't get it right from that set-up*.

Agreed - I am trying to pinch my elbows a bit closer together based on something Garyinderry said to me, so that's a similar idea.

*Just a related point, but I've had so many well-meaning amateurs that I play with tell me I'm aiming too far left on the course. It's such a catch-22, because my answer is typically yes - I know - but if I aim down the middle I'm going to hit it into the right hand trees a third of the time. People have this idea that aiming left makes a slice worse, and I know how it can do, but if you're fading every drive you don't really have much choice.

Totally get you but aiming left with your shoulders while aiming right with your hips can't be helping either. I'd give the setup a go from the Danny Maude video on the range next week and try to hit a hook with it. Keep strengthening the face until you start hitting snap hooks and then dial it back a bit.

 

[sjw]

Quick tip in case you weren't aware - you can step through YouTube videos frame-by-frame with . and ,

This'll allow you to watch the head of the club in tiny detail

 

[sjw]

Also, don't fall in to the trap that I did (and still am doing, at the moment), which is holding on to the loft because you're trying to hit up on the ball. That should be an inherent part of the swing and not something you have to force

 

[VVega]

FWIW, take a shorter backswing, your current one was OK for John Daly, but is a root cause of your slice.

The second point, you need to find a "feel"/focus point that would force your body to do the right thing... It's very difficult to follow some mechanical instruction (shallow the takeaway etc.) If you played any racket sports/cricket - imagine that you are trying to hit the ball with a racket to the right that should get the club path to in-to-out...

 

[SteveW86]

Probably nothing's changed since the last ones, but January feels like a good time to put up another couple of swing videos. Don't expect many people to watch them, just anyone who's bored enough to give their two pennies worth, it will be appreciated.

Sorry that the angle isn't perfectly down the line, I didn't check this until afterwards when I watched the videos back. I also realise it's hard to see the ball flight, but if any of them sliced right or did anything unusual I tried to indicate it with my hand afterwards.

8 iron

Start with a positive - I actually think my iron swing is probably the best it's ever been at the moment. I've been trying to shorten my backswing - when I watched this back I realised it hadn't shortened at all really, but maybe the thought process of thinking about the backswing and possibly slowing it down a little is having a positive effect anyway. (If you see my videos from 2022 on my channel, I used to have a very short backswing, but I just can't seem to do it anymore. Albeit that was probably too short back then.)
(The one where I made a downwards patting motion with my hand means I fatted it, wasn't sure how to indicate that otherwise, haha.)

Driver

Now the problem child. (Video is really long, sorry, you can just pick a couple out, they're probably all the same.)

Since the last driver video I've changed my set-up - I previously had my stance quite open due to a flared left foot, I've now gone the other way and moved the right foot back to slightly close my stance if anything - I'm finding this a little bit helpful in not slicing the bloody thing. If I was to critique it myself, it does look as though I pick up the club a little on the way back - which is something I've always done but thought I'd improved on this - but I do find it difficult to take it back more on the inside as it feels like my head turns away from the ball. This might be contributing to the fact that my driver swing is eternally out-to-in no matter what I do.

I'm not trying to hit draws at the end of the day, but keeping a consistent fade and killing off the massive slices would be ideal. On the plus side, I don't see myself swinging massively over the top here, which is something I've occasionally done out on the course producing the EXTREMELY MASSIVE slice. I feel like the problem is just being slightly out-to-in and leaving the face a little bit too open to that.


Again, thanks to anyone who does watch and comment. Even abuse is welcome if it makes me laugh.

After the second shot in the driver video, did you give yourself the universal w ️ sign?

 

[Orikoru]

After the second shot in the driver video, did you give yourself the universal w ️ sign?

Because it was a rubbish drive obviously! Think I half topped it or duck hooked one, can't remember now.

 

[Tashyboy]

That is a photo from your video of your down swing. It was very similar to what I saw on my video when I realised I was coming “ over the top”. If you have a look at your back swing the club looks on a nice angle at the top but I don’t know what is causing you to come over. Others have mentioned right elbow but I have a feeling that line of hitting the ball isn’t going to help.
Be interesting to see what others think.

 

[Orikoru]

That is a photo from your video of your down swing. It was very similar to what I saw on my video when I realised I was coming “ over the top”. If you have a look at your back swing the club looks on a nice angle at the top but I don’t know what is causing you to come over. Others have mentioned right elbow but I have a feeling that line of hitting the ball isn’t going to help.
Be interesting to see what others think.

Cheers. I was actually getting somewhere in my weekend round, so I think I'm going to do another video at the range tomorrow and see if I've genuinely changed my swing or whether I'm just imagining it again.

 

[Orikoru]

Update

So here's me with driver again today. This honestly feels like I'm taking the club away so far behind me. Whereas on video, it maybe looks a tiny bit different to before?? This is how I was swinging at the weekend when I actually drove it quite well. It feels like this is the most I can turn without being so far round I might as well be blindfolded. The third shot on the video was the best in terms of resulting direction and flight.

The one thing that's really annoying me watching it back though is why the hell is my backswing SO LONG?? I am not feeling that at all, I'm trying to keep it shorter but it looks absolutely wild. I used to have such a short swing, but now I'm swinging like John bloody Daly and can't seem to do a thing about it. I'm genuinely really trying to shorten it but it does what it wants. Baffling.

8 iron here - I don't think any change is visible really, trying to do the same as above and make sure I turn and keep my backswing inside, but for what it's worth I struck these pretty well and I don't feel like I have a big problem with irons at the moment. Again though, the only annoying thing is that I think I'm trying to shorten my backswing and yet it is absolutely massive.

@garyinderry @Springveldt


I really think if I can shorten my backswing to a more normal place, then everything will sort of fall into place and I'll have an acceptable driver swing. But I don't know how to do that clearly.

 

[Orikoru]

My god, that is a freezeframe of the top of my backswing - what the hell am I doing??

 

[Eesat 90210]

Practice swing freezeframes in sequence:

Backswing:


Downswing:


Pre-impact:


Post-impact practice:

 

[Eesat 90210]

Real swing in sequence:

Backswing:


Downswing:


Pre-impact:



Easy to spot, good luck fixing it for real, let me know the key if you do

 

[Orikoru]

@Eesat 90210 Sorry, I wasn't sure what point you were making? Are you suggesting I do something different on the practise vs real swing? If so I can't spot it - I thought they were both pretty equally bad.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

View attachment 56909

My god, that is a freezeframe of the top of my backswing - what the hell am I doing??

If my swing wasn't so ugly I'd post it on here and we could do a side by side. It would be like when Dan Burn used to walk alongside Ryan Fraser at Newcastle games . I have half a swing, you have a swing and a bit extra . I admire it for your flexibility alone