Are you prone to hitting shanks?
The dreaded ‘shank’. We have all suffered with them, some more than others…. and if you have them for long enough, they might make you want to give the game up!
Luckily, I’m going to give you a few tips to help reduce your chances of having them!
To put it simply, you hit a shank because the club returns to the ball further away from you than when you addressed the golf ball.
For that to happen, either:
- Your weight is moving outwards in the Golf Swing I.e into your toes, making the hosel of the Golf Club line up more with the ball
- Your arms are re-routing to swing back down further from the ball.
Now, this is where a lot of people go wrong when they try and cure the shanks. They try and move further away from the ball. (In your head this makes sense, don’t worry I was the same when I was younger!)
When you move further away from the ball, it forces you to reach for it. What this encourages is those shank-inducing movements.
What you need to do is the polar opposite. You are going to move closer to the ball.
By moving closer the ball, this will naturally encourage your arms to swing closer to your body on the downswing. This transposes the normal shank movement of throwing your arms away from your body and helps to move contact away from the hosel.
Another way to try it, is to align the ball up off the heel, the normal weight shift for a shank is towards the ball. However, if you are already lined up off the hosel, this will help you move your weight towards your heels, encouraging a better weight transfer and hopefully away from the hosel.
I wouldn’t wish the shanks on my worst enemy! If you are having problems, send me an email and I can help you further.
Have a great week.
Johnny