How Can I Stop the Shanks? (Video) - by PGA Instructor Dean Butler
How Can I Stop the Shanks? (Video) - by PGA Instructor Dean Butler

Okay. Question regarding shanks, how can I stop them? Well, the easiest answer in the world is try and keep your hands closer to body. Let’s go into a bit more detail. What is a shank? A shank is basically a ball that actually comes out of this area here, between the face and the [hosel] where the shaft comes out in here. And when the ball hits, say for a right-handed golfer, it gets squeezed and it goes almost a right angle to the right-hand side. So, that’s what a shank is. Okay.

So, what causes it? Well, normally, it’s when the hands leave the body. So, if I set myself up here and I swing the club back and my hands leave my body, my hands are moving away from the body, in which case, I’m now moving the ball which was in the middle of the clubface into the heel. So, let’s do this again. My hands are nice and close, look where they are in relation to my body. I swing the club back, and as I come in, you can see now my hands have left my body. So, it’s pushing this area into the ball. And so, a wicked [Phonetic] [0:01:10] golf shot is a very punishing golf shot. So, we want to get out of it. How do we get out of it? Well, simply. When you set yourself up, keep your hands close to the body. Try and focus. You need to think, “Well, I’m trying that but I still keep shanking the ball.” The easiest thing to do is you can do a golf ball – I’ll put a golf ball there just outside that ball so you feel comfortable. Set yourself back up. Let’s bring that golf ball a little bit tighter to it. Put the golf ball where you feel comfortable to start with. Set yourself back up again. Keep your hands in the same position. Now, of course, because that ball is there, your mind is saying, “I must avoid that ball.” So, the likelihood is now, when you swing the club back and come through that the club would be coming more in towards your body or so it will feel. It will certainly won’t be doing this coming out because if you go out, you’re going to catch the second ball. Now, if you don’t feel comfortable with that, you could put hard cover down on the outside. You could put some tee pegs in there. But this is a very, very simple practice drill to get rid of the dreaded shanks, okay? So, a [wicked] shot but this really is as easy as I can possibly put it to say go out, put this into practice. And if you’ve got the confidence, put that ball there. And when you come in to that golf shot, the idea is to obviously hit this ball here and avoid that. If you shank, I’ll bet you anything that you’ll come in and you’ll catch that ball as the club moves out. So, you know what a shank is and you know now how to go about [curing] a shank. 2014-05-14

Okay. Question regarding shanks, how can I stop them? Well, the easiest answer in the world is try and keep your hands closer to body. Let’s go into a bit more detail. What is a shank? A shank is basically a ball that actually comes out of this area here, between the face and the [hosel] where the shaft comes out in here. And when the ball hits, say for a right-handed golfer, it gets squeezed and it goes almost a right angle to the right-hand side. So, that’s what a shank is. Okay.

So, what causes it? Well, normally, it’s when the hands leave the body. So, if I set myself up here and I swing the club back and my hands leave my body, my hands are moving away from the body, in which case, I’m now moving the ball which was in the middle of the clubface into the heel. So, let’s do this again. My hands are nice and close, look where they are in relation to my body. I swing the club back, and as I come in, you can see now my hands have left my body. So, it’s pushing this area into the ball. And so, a wicked [Phonetic] [0:01:10] golf shot is a very punishing golf shot. So, we want to get out of it. How do we get out of it?

Well, simply. When you set yourself up, keep your hands close to the body. Try and focus. You need to think, “Well, I’m trying that but I still keep shanking the ball.” The easiest thing to do is you can do a golf ball – I’ll put a golf ball there just outside that ball so you feel comfortable. Set yourself back up. Let’s bring that golf ball a little bit tighter to it. Put the golf ball where you feel comfortable to start with. Set yourself back up again. Keep your hands in the same position. Now, of course, because that ball is there, your mind is saying, “I must avoid that ball.” So, the likelihood is now, when you swing the club back and come through that the club would be coming more in towards your body or so it will feel. It will certainly won’t be doing this coming out because if you go out, you’re going to catch the second ball.

Now, if you don’t feel comfortable with that, you could put hard cover down on the outside. You could put some tee pegs in there. But this is a very, very simple practice drill to get rid of the dreaded shanks, okay? So, a [wicked] shot but this really is as easy as I can possibly put it to say go out, put this into practice. And if you’ve got the confidence, put that ball there. And when you come in to that golf shot, the idea is to obviously hit this ball here and avoid that. If you shank, I’ll bet you anything that you’ll come in and you’ll catch that ball as the club moves out. So, you know what a shank is and you know now how to go about [curing] a shank.