Cure The Shanks , Once And For All.

[aftford]

Hi Friends.
There cannot be a more destructive shot in golf than the shank. It can strike anybody, tour pro's , low handicappers and begginers, nobody is immune. It has even lead to some people giving up the game completely.
There are a number of reasons why the shank occurs:
* our weight falls forward onto our toes during the downswing.
* severe out-to-in swing path with an open clubface
* Even a simple thing like gripping the club too tightly can lead us to shank.

The Cure.
Place a ball on the ground and a couple of inches indside it, place another ball.
Take your set up and address the outside ball, be aware of your posture, alignment and grip( don't grip too tightly ).
Take your backswing and on the way down i want you to focus on and hit the inside ball .
Once you can hit the inside ball without striking other you will have cured your shanks for good.
Incorporate this drill into the start of your prctice sessions and i guarentee the shanks will never return.
This is also an excellent drill for people who slice the ball becuase it stops you from swinging out-to-in, the main cuase of a slice.

Good luck

aft

[chessbum]

Re: Cure The Shanks , Once And For All.

Hi Aftford,

I don't understand the drill that you are describing. If I address the outside ball and swing for the inside ball, it seems to me that is creating an outside to inside swing. isn't that exactly where the slice and shank come from??

Now if it were the other way around, I could understand it. That is, if you lined up on the inside ball and swung for the outside that would make sense to me.

Can you help me understand the drill??

Thanks,

Chessbum....

[Rackster]

Re: Cure The Shanks , Once And For All.

Hi Aftford,

I don't understand the drill that you are describing. If I address the outside ball and swing for the inside ball, it seems to me that is creating an outside to inside swing. isn't that exactly where the slice and shank come from??

Now if it were the other way around, I could understand it. That is, if you lined up on the inside ball and swung for the outside that would make sense to me.

Can you help me understand the drill??

Thanks,

Chessbum....

Chessbum

With the shank the arms and body have moved out away from the original target line. By hitting an inner ball you are training the arms to keep closer to the body through impact. If you did it in the way you are describing you would end up overstretching to the ball and worsening the shanking tenedencies. You can also cure the shank by addressing the ball out of the heel of the club, you will then need to re-route your swing so the arms are working closer to the body through impact to hit the ball centre face. Fuzzy Zoeller does this on every shot.

[aftford]

Re: Cure The Shanks , Once And For All.

Chessbum

With the shank the arms and body have moved out away from the original target line. By hitting an inner ball you are training the arms to keep closer to the body through impact. If you did it in the way you are describing you would end up overstretching to the ball and worsening the shanking tenedencies. You can also cure the shank by addressing the ball out of the heel of the club, you will then need to re-route your swing so the arms are working closer to the body through impact to hit the ball centre face. Fuzzy Zoeller does this on every shot.

Hi rackster
thanks for the clarity. The last thing i would want , is to confuse people.

cheers pal.
aft

[aftford]

Re: Cure The Shanks , Once And For All.

Hi All
As a quick fix if you suddenly start to shank on the course, just address the ball off the toe of your club.
This is not a cure , just a quick fix to get you round the course.

cheers
aft

[mtngoat]

Re: Cure The Shanks , Once And For All.

This is also an excellent drill for people who slice the ball becuase it stops you from swinging out-to-in, the main cuase of a slice.

Aft,

If you slice would you switch the drill? Line up on the inside ball and try to hit the outside ball. Just curious.

Thanks
goat

[aftford]

Re: Cure The Shanks , Once And For All.

Aft,

If you slice would you switch the drill? Line up on the inside ball and try to hit the outside ball. Just curious.

Thanks
goat

Hi Pal

Like a shank , a slice has a out-to-in swing path, so the idea is to hit the ball on a in-to-out-to-in swing path. To be totally truthfull i have never experimented with this drill to cure the slice, but if you are willing to try i would be grateful if you could let me know the results.

cheers

aft

[Rackster]

Re: Cure The Shanks , Once And For All.

Aft,

If you slice would you switch the drill? Line up on the inside ball and try to hit the outside ball. Just curious.

Thanks
goat

In my opinion- no hitting the inside ball should reroute your swing so you attact from the inside. If you go for the outside ball you risk attacking the ball from the outside so you will still slice.