I’m sure most golfers are now familiar with the issue of hitting the balls from the heel and particularly with an iron. When you hit the ball from the heel of the golf club you do get that dreaded shank very occasionally where the ball will pipe off sideways almost 90 degrees and that will probably go quite a long way sideways and generally there is going to be a pond over there when you get those dreaded shanks. So we need to look at the issues that are created to cause the shank and what we can do about them.

So one of the first things I would like to consider is that I see a lot of people shank the golf ball when they have their legs a bit too straight and they lack knee flex and knee bend. So when we set up to the golf ball it’s important we establish the correct amount of knee flex. In fact, if you’re setting up to the golf ball with your leg straight that’s something that golfers do to feel like they’re getting further back away from the ball, they feel that by standing further back they’ve created more space. The reality of this though is actually they put a lot of body weight on their heels.

Now, your body weight won’t want to stay on your heels and you definitely won’t go further back because you’d actually fall over. So what will happen from this position, at some point during the downswing, they’re going to start rocking forward to the middle of their feet, that delivers the heel of the ball and then we get the shank. So it’s really important that as we set up to the golf ball we have that little set, that little knee flex, so we don’t lock the legs and get the body right on the heels, but a nice bit of knee flex. Don’t feel like you’re getting near to it like this, but flex and keep your distance away from the golf ball.

Next then we’ve got to consider is I do still want you to hit the ball with a bit of confidence and a bit of aggression. We often see when golfers start shanking the golf ball they’re so timid, they’re so shy, they’re so afraid of the ball in case they shank it that they don’t commit to it. When they don’t commit they don’t turn through the ball. When you don’t turn you don’t clear your left side. If you don’t clear your left side you don’t have any room for the club to swing and you’re going to get a bit scared of it and push your hands and arms away and that actually exacerbates the shank a little bit more.

One last little checkpoint in case you have been shanking your irons is just move your ball position a little bit further forwards in your stance. That actually creates a little bit more room and allows the golf club just to start traveling back to the inside off of it. As sometimes we see golfers with the ball so far back in the stance, the club is attacking very much from the inside, but we’re actually leading with the heel at this point and we shank it. By having the ball further forwards the club has more chance to square up and will actually start traveling a little bit left and should just encourage the middle of the club or even the toe of the club to contact the ball first. Implement those three little changes and hopefully you’ll stop shanking the golf ball and start sticking it nicely out the middle.