Shank Golf Shot Problem Drill 1 (Video) - by Pete Styles
Shank Golf Shot Problem Drill 1 (Video) - by Pete Styles

For a lot of people a shank is a very well-known golf shot. Almost too well-known, not too well acquainted with the shank. If you don’t understand the term shank here’s a little video to explain that. They say the golf club has two parts on the club head. It has the toe and it has the heel. And this is often called the shank or the hosel of the golf club. Now, if the ball is hit from the curved parts around the neck here, the ball would shoot out sideways. For the right handed golfer it would generally go very low to the right hand side, the ball hits toward there. It might even double hit, where it hits the neck and the club face at the same time. And the board would shoot low out to the right hand side. Now, if it is a very severe form of the shank you might actually hit that side of the golf club as well where you hit the far side of the hosel and that makes the ball shoot very low to the left hand side for the right handed golfer.

Generally the shank is accompanied by quite a funny noise as well. It doesn't sound particularly good when you hit it. You can almost feel the double hit nature of the club hitting the shank and the face both at the same time. So it’s going to go low to the right, low to the left, sound a bit funny, not go very far, maybe even vibrates up to the shaft. And one of the things that you could look for is a little white marks, the residue of the golf ball being hit from the heel. You will often see if someone has hit more than a few shanks with one club, there’s a lot of marking in around the heel of the golf club which identifies the ball being hit from a shank, part of the club making the ball there very low to the right hand side.

So if you have identified that you are shanking the ball, hopefully the next section with the drills will really encourage you to reduce that shanking shot, get the ball striking better and get you enjoying your golf again a little bit more.

 2012-11-29

For a lot of people a shank is a very well-known golf shot. Almost too well-known, not too well acquainted with the shank. If you don’t understand the term shank here’s a little video to explain that. They say the golf club has two parts on the club head. It has the toe and it has the heel. And this is often called the shank or the hosel of the golf club. Now, if the ball is hit from the curved parts around the neck here, the ball would shoot out sideways. For the right handed golfer it would generally go very low to the right hand side, the ball hits toward there. It might even double hit, where it hits the neck and the club face at the same time. And the board would shoot low out to the right hand side. Now, if it is a very severe form of the shank you might actually hit that side of the golf club as well where you hit the far side of the hosel and that makes the ball shoot very low to the left hand side for the right handed golfer.

Generally the shank is accompanied by quite a funny noise as well. It doesn't sound particularly good when you hit it. You can almost feel the double hit nature of the club hitting the shank and the face both at the same time. So it’s going to go low to the right, low to the left, sound a bit funny, not go very far, maybe even vibrates up to the shaft. And one of the things that you could look for is a little white marks, the residue of the golf ball being hit from the heel. You will often see if someone has hit more than a few shanks with one club, there’s a lot of marking in around the heel of the golf club which identifies the ball being hit from a shank, part of the club making the ball there very low to the right hand side.

So if you have identified that you are shanking the ball, hopefully the next section with the drills will really encourage you to reduce that shanking shot, get the ball striking better and get you enjoying your golf again a little bit more.