A Cure for Shanking

NEVER SHANK AGAIN

Anytime you get your hips moving towards the golf ball during the golf swing you are narrowing the room for your arms to swing freely past your body through impact. Also, you will be restricting the body turn motion leading to an inconsistent swing path/arc. A shank can be the result, as well as the ball being struck towards the heel of the club quite often.

I am using a cane to show you what it looks like when your hips move (early extends) towards the ball during the golf swing. It can happen during the backswing or even the downswing. Either way, it is not a good move to have in the bag!!

 

• My set up looks fine with a decent posture and the weight nicely balanced in the balls of my feet.
• My rear is resting lightly on the cane.
• Arms are hanging freely down and away from my body.
• As I start to take the club to the top of the backswing the pelvis has moved in towards the ball.
• My rear has moved from off the cane.
• Weight moved out towards the toes.
• This creates less room for your arms to swing past your legs in the downswing.

 

• Now I have narrowed the space for my arms to swing freely past my body through impact.
• My weight has also moved onto the toes and by the time I reach impact I have pushed and moved the swing arc further away from me resulting in a shanked shot.

THE SHANK CURE

You can easily cure shank shot by taking care of a few things. A good way to get the sense and feel that you are holding your “angles” much better in the golf swing is to place a cane into the ground so that when you make your set up to the ball, your rear is resting lightly on the cane. Not pushing into it.

As you make your backswing feel that you are softly pushing the cane away from you as you rotate up to the top of your backswing, this is just a feeling that I want you to have, to help keep your hips back. During the downswing, it is very much the same feel that you are keeping the cane pushed back as you rotate into impact. This will keep the weight moving correctly through your feet and will also give your arms the room to get back to the ball. The result should be a well struck centred shot. When you start doing this drill/exercise start with a few full swings that are at 50 percent of your normal pace and effort so that you capture the desired feeling. After a few of those, you can then crank the pace up to your normal speed.

Rear resting lightly on the cane at the address position.

 

As you swing up to the top of your backswing, keep your rear pushing lightly into the cane.

 

As you swing down, focus on keeping your rear pushed into the cane and all the way through impact, this will ensure that you keep your swing arc in the correct place resulting in a great centred strike.