My shank thread

[golfndawg]

I CANNOT get rid of them.........

I've kind of got it boiled down to half swings. Full shots, eh! everyonce in a while but still not good.......

Pitch shots, punch shots aweful.........I had to say fore on the range sunday (had those tin cup shots that travel down the rope line)......Because where I was at, a little 30-40yd target was to the right of me and I was shanking down the line. INCREDIBLE

Today was the same thing..............I've done the right foot back and on the toe drill(shank) I've made sure my hands are ahead of the club(shank).........Everytime I shank one I look at my finish, and look at hips,shoulders, where they end up,nothing looks or feels different.

Today I made sure that my shoulders stayed on plane because I thought I might coming up out of it.(shank)

I thought I might be getting ahead of the ball, so kept my head back and released eveything else.(shank)

Why would it be with the less moving parts with the pitches and punch shots those are the ones that are killing me the most.......I had a pretty decent short game not to long ago(NO WORRIES ABOUT SHANKS).

Some of these shots would squirt right and some I would top and squirt right(with a wedge!!!!!!) How the hell do you top and shank a sand wedge with it back in you're stance? Some of these might be toe shanks too.

I just don't get it!!!

I am waiting for the pro around here to call me back and schedule something........Who know's

[BrianW]

Re: My shank thread

Dawg,

I came across this video recently. It gives good advise on shanking

Golf: How To Stop Shanking (Sports & Fitness: Golf)

The guy is a bit cheesy though

[takinitdeep]

Re: My shank thread

Ok, try this one thing:
Keep your head centered over the ball throughout your swing; I know this exaggerates keeping the head still but it may prevent you from getting too far ahead or behind the ball which I believe is causing your s***s

I CANNOT get rid of them.........

I've kind of got it boiled down to half swings. Full shots, eh! everyonce in a while but still not good.......

Pitch shots, punch shots aweful.........I had to say fore on the range sunday (had those tin cup shots that travel down the rope line)......Because where I was at, a little 30-40yd target was to the right of me and I was shanking down the line. INCREDIBLE

Today was the same thing..............I've done the right foot back and on the toe drill(shank) I've made sure my hands are ahead of the club(shank).........Everytime I shank one I look at my finish, and look at hips,shoulders, where they end up,nothing looks or feels different.

Today I made sure that my shoulders stayed on plane because I thought I might coming up out of it.(shank)

I thought I might be getting ahead of the ball, so kept my head back and released eveything else.(shank)

Why would it be with the less moving parts with the pitches and punch shots those are the ones that are killing me the most.......I had a pretty decent short game not to long ago(NO WORRIES ABOUT SHANKS).

Some of these shots would squirt right and some I would top and squirt right(with a wedge!!!!!!) How the hell do you top and shank a sand wedge with it back in you're stance? Some of these might be toe shanks too.

I just don't get it!!!

I am waiting for the pro around here to call me back and schedule something........Who know's

[golfndawg]

Re: My shank thread

Dawg,

I came across this video recently. It gives good advise on shanking

Golf: How To Stop Shanking (Sports & Fitness: Golf)

The guy is a bit cheesy though

Right on being kinda cheesy............

Going by what he said about the club getting behind , eh, I don't really think that's it, and have swung the club with my hands closer to my body , and that might the reason for the toe shank.......My swing before, I couldn't swing out to right field enough....(solid)......Now if I swing out to right field (shank) something has changed in my swing and I'm not sure what it is.

[BrianW]

Re: My shank thread

Right on being kinda cheesy............

Going by what he said about the club getting behind , eh, I don't really think that's it, and have swung the club with my hands closer to my body , and that might the reason for the toe shank.......My swing before, I couldn't swing out to right field enough....(solid)......Now if I swing out to right field (shank) something has changed in my swing and I'm not sure what it is.

I think you may be pulling the club too far inside on the backswing and probably allowing your forearms to roll over in the takeaway. This will make you swing on an excessive in to out path that will catch the ball with the hozel.

Look at your takeaway and make sure the butt end of the club never points outside the ball to target line during the swing.

[jamesh]

Re: My shank thread

I looked to Leadbetter for help and it worked, alteast for me. Is your weight too far back.....

[Neil18]

Re: My shank thread

A quick question Dawg:

Were you working on anything particular when the shanks appeared (no matter how small)?

I'm hoping you'll say you were trying to feel like you were getting your hands ahead at impact! If not, I'll shut up now and you can ignore me!

[golfndawg]

Re: My shank thread

Ok, try this one thing:
Keep your head centered over the ball throughout your swing; I know this exaggerates keeping the head still but it may prevent you from getting too far ahead or behind the ball which I believe is causing your s***s

I have worked on this especially in my house(chipping)through the hallway and have hit the a wall a bunch.

[golfndawg]

Re: My shank thread

I looked to Leadbetter for help and it worked, alteast for me. Is your weight too far back.....

I have done drills ,where all the weight is on the left foot(shank)

[golfndawg]

Re: My shank thread

A quick question Dawg:

Were you working on anything particular when the shanks appeared (no matter how small)?

I'm hoping you'll say you were trying to feel like you were getting your hands ahead at impact! If not, I'll shut up now and you can ignore me!

I don't think I been trying to work on anything different, it's just something has crept up and won't go away.My hands are always ahead of the clubhead(too much?I don't know)I don't really think so,especially when I 'm not taking full swings.

[Neil18]

Re: My shank thread

At the risk of this being an essay, I'll put to you my experience of the shanks. My apologies, in advance!

About 18 months ago I suddenly developed the shanks. I had never had them before. I was shanking it so much that I distinctly remember piping 4 shots in a row out of bounds from the middle of a fairway with a sand wedge from about 60 yards. I was totally dumb-founded.

Over the last 2 years I have been working on my swing and started to get some things in my swing that I didn't have before.

Like it or not, the fact remains that something HAS to have changed for you to suddenly be hitting the ball off the limit of the heel.

Have a serious hard think about what you've changed, even if it's something that you changed 8, 10 or 12 months ago. Changes in a swing can breed new movements that can develop over time.

Having gone through my checklist of stuff I'd changed during my swing development I was totally stumped. I wasn't standing too close. That was obvious. I didn't feel like I was coming OTT and that was apparent in my video's I reviewed. But, the result remained and I hated it.

I stumbled across two things which, I am happy to say, have cured me of my fear of killing my playing partners.

1) I was indeed coming OTT, but not in the classic, obvious sense. From down the line my club would go back just under plane, get parallel to it halfway back and finish around the right place at the top, except that it was a little too low and too far behind me (i.e. my hands were just outside my heel line at the top).

Considering that we want everything in the swing to occur on "our side" of the ball-to-target line, there was something that was causing my clubhead to move outside the ball on the way down.

As a right hander, I have always felt a natural tendency to want to get my right side into the shot. To have a powerful strike, it's necessary. But getting my right side into the shot at the correct time was not something I'd considered.

From the top, with my hands stuck a little behind me, I would employ my right shoulder straight away. From the view down the line, I was not getting the club above plane immediately in my downswing due to this because I had been learning how to drop the club inside at the same time to stop the dreaded slice. Hence why I thought I was on plane.

Nearing impact was the tell-tale moment thoough. With my upper body turned more aggressively and my arms and hands dropped low, the only place for my clubhead to go was away from me. Consequently, because my right side was already in the place my hands and arms wanted to go, there was only ever going to be one result. Right arm and wrists straighten in an attempt to square the clubface and "BADOOOOOING"!

Have a look at that. Make sure your body is giving your arms and hands room to swing without them having to deviate away from you.

2) The lesser known (and seen) cause for the shanks is having a waaaaaaaaay open clubface coming into impact so that your brain is thinking that the shaft is the middle of your clubface. This can be a result of trying to retain lag on the way down. I know. Guess what? Been there too! This was spotted by my coach. He strengthened both my left and right hand. When he did, it felt incredibly uncomfortable and I thought it looked like I was gripping it like Paul Azinger.

In reality, having been fed some BS surrounding a "neutral grip" I had actually gotten weak. I strengthened my grip so that I could see the nails of my right hand when they were on the grip, and at the same time closed up all the gaps in my fingers so I couldn't see the portion of the grip I was holding. Weird-looking from when you're standing there looking down at it yourself, but it looked fine on tape.

Have a look at that too.

It may all sound long-winded and too complex to solve a seemingly simple issue, and the two things I have outlined that worked for me are covering only minor movements. How can such minor things cause such a calamitous ending? Well the centre of the clubface is only an inch from the hosel. Basics are great. We all love the basics and should religiously stick to them, but sometimes the problems are in the weirdest, smallest and most un-obvious places.

I hope this goes at least some way to helping a) because I feel for you mate! Been there! And b) this post has to be useful to someone! I've been typing no-stop for 25 minutes and am now devoid of finger prints.

[golfndawg]

Re: My shank thread

At the risk of this being an essay, I'll put to you my experience of the shanks. My apologies, in advance!

About 18 months ago I suddenly developed the shanks. I had never had them before. I was shanking it so much that I distinctly remember piping 4 shots in a row out of bounds from the middle of a fairway with a sand wedge from about 60 yards. I was totally dumb-founded.

Over the last 2 years I have been working on my swing and started to get some things in my swing that I didn't have before.

Like it or not, the fact remains that something HAS to have changed for you to suddenly be hitting the ball off the limit of the heel.

Have a serious hard think about what you've changed, even if it's something that you changed 8, 10 or 12 months ago. Changes in a swing can breed new movements that can develop over time.

Having gone through my checklist of stuff I'd changed during my swing development I was totally stumped. I wasn't standing too close. That was obvious. I didn't feel like I was coming OTT and that was apparent in my video's I reviewed. But, the result remained and I hated it.

I stumbled across two things which, I am happy to say, have cured me of my fear of killing my playing partners.

1) I was indeed coming OTT, but not in the classic, obvious sense. From down the line my club would go back just under plane, get parallel to it halfway back and finish around the right place at the top, except that it was a little too low and too far behind me (i.e. my hands were just outside my heel line at the top).

Considering that we want everything in the swing to occur on "our side" of the ball-to-target line, there was something that was causing my clubhead to move outside the ball on the way down.

As a right hander, I have always felt a natural tendency to want to get my right side into the shot. To have a powerful strike, it's necessary. But getting my right side into the shot at the correct time was not something I'd considered.

From the top, with my hands stuck a little behind me, I would employ my right shoulder straight away. From the view down the line, I was not getting the club above plane immediately in my downswing due to this because I had been learning how to drop the club inside at the same time to stop the dreaded slice. Hence why I thought I was on plane.

Nearing impact was the tell-tale moment thoough. With my upper body turned more aggressively and my arms and hands dropped low, the only place for my clubhead to go was away from me. Consequently, because my right side was already in the place my hands and arms wanted to go, there was only ever going to be one result. Right arm and wrists straighten in an attempt to square the clubface and "BADOOOOOING"!

Have a look at that. Make sure your body is giving your arms and hands room to swing without them having to deviate away from you.

2) The lesser known (and seen) cause for the shanks is having a waaaaaaaaay open clubface coming into impact so that your brain is thinking that the shaft is the middle of your clubface. This can be a result of trying to retain lag on the way down. I know. Guess what? Been there too! This was spotted by my coach. He strengthened both my left and right hand. When he did, it felt incredibly uncomfortable and I thought it looked like I was gripping it like Paul Azinger.

In reality, having been fed some BS surrounding a "neutral grip" I had actually gotten weak. I strengthened my grip so that I could see the nails of my right hand when they were on the grip, and at the same time closed up all the gaps in my fingers so I couldn't see the portion of the grip I was holding. Weird-looking from when you're standing there looking down at it yourself, but it looked fine on tape.

Have a look at that too.

It may all sound long-winded and too complex to solve a seemingly simple issue, and the two things I have outlined that worked for me are covering only minor movements. How can such minor things cause such a calamitous ending? Well the centre of the clubface is only an inch from the hosel. Basics are great. We all love the basics and should religiously stick to them, but sometimes the problems are in the weirdest, smallest and most un-obvious places.

I hope this goes at least some way to helping a) because I feel for you mate! Been there! And b) this post has to be useful to someone! I've been typing no-stop for 25 minutes and am now devoid of finger prints.

Thanks Neil for the post,

This may sound odd..........

One thing that I am concerned on is my wrist hinge/cock......If there is a thing that I might have changed,that could be it........

With my stronger grip I may have been hinging/cocking to much........I looked up some old videos of myself, compared to now and I hinge more now than before.

So one thing could be is that if I am hinging more and keeping my hands ahead of the club, that could well be a little much, especially if I cannot get my lower body out of the way.

When I was puring the ball on video at 9:00 position the club was vertical(12:00) or just shy, now it is facing more towards 2:00 which is more hinge than normal for me.......I was swinging the club here at my house today and felt the difference..

Don't know if there's any truth in this hinge deal but there could be.

[golfndawg]

Re: My shank thread

I think you may be pulling the club too far inside on the backswing and probably allowing your forearms to roll over in the takeaway. This will make you swing on an excessive in to out path that will catch the ball with the hozel.

Look at your takeaway and make sure the butt end of the club never points outside the ball to target line during the swing.

The more I think about it and look at things, this could be along the same things as I was telling Neil......

My forearms (I believe)are rolling over and that could be causing me more wrist hinge (or faulty)than normal for me.

Thanks

[jamesh]

Re: My shank thread

I played around today and afterwards,I went to the hitting nets, with your post to mind. When addressing the ball, I had my weight towards my heels. Shot after shot I shanked. Later, I had my weight balanced -- no more shanks.



James H.

[golfndawg]

Re: My shank thread

I played around today and afterwards,I went to the hitting nets, with your post to mind. When addressing the ball, I had my weight towards my heels. Shot after shot I shanked. Later, I had my weight balanced -- no more shanks.



James H.

Thanks man, but if anything I have weight more towards the balls of my feet...........I have messed with that at one time and had the club coming in with heel down divots........., I'm believing this is a wrist deal.I was chipping here a bit ago and it felt like before all this BS happened.

Maybe you or someone can describe or remind me of wrist break?

When I was playing good I got my right hand in there a bunch.....When the shanks came around I'm seeing and feeling as of now that it might be too much left hand in my swing.......

Thanks