How Can I Stop Shanking The Golf Ball? (Video) - by PGA Instructor Dean Butler
How Can I Stop Shanking The Golf Ball? (Video) - by PGA Instructor Dean Butler

Okay, there should be an 18 specific on this one because it has all to do with the work shank. Well we all know what a shank is or perhaps you're not sure but if you are shanking the ball, how do we stop it. And I say it is difficult because if you are in the club house and somebody starts talking about a shank and you’ve had the shank so you know it’s like the fear of God goes in you and as any golfer knows it’s the one shot that is crippling. A shank is when you set up to play a conventional golf shot straight on to the target and it comes right out of the hosel here and it shoots almost at right angles. Shoots straight over there; it’s the most damaging golf shot imagine going up a whole plain two shots over 500 yards and I've got a 20 yard shot and all of a sudden I shank the ball, it’s devastating, it really is. So now you know what a shank is. Let me tell you what causes it normally. There are lots of different things but the number one reason is this. If I was to set up to the ball and I was to swing what tends to happen is that as I come into it the club tends to move this way. It tends to move out so as if the ball starts in the middle of the clubface and the club starts to be pushed out this way because its coming too much from the inside this way then of course you can see what’s going to happen, the ball is going to hit this area here and get squeezed out to the right hand side. So a shank would normally come from someone who kind of goes into here and then and kind of too much from the inside and catches that ball out the heel.

So to cure a shank if I was to say to you set up two balls, set up on the outside ball here and concentrate to swinging the club back and then concentrate on actually hitting the inside ball, you can see what we’re trying to do here, we’re changing the swing path. It was the swing path that caused the shank in the first place. So if I was to set myself up for these two balls and I’ll do it this way where I’m setting up for the outside ball and I'm going to swing that club back and I'm going to hit this ball here so I set myself up, I swing the club back and then from here I've hit the inside ball and the ball is going exactly where I want it to go direction wise. And there’s a very, very simple tip of getting rid of a shank. So next time you go to the golf course think hang on a minute, let me go into the practice area first, put two balls down set up to the outside one and then from there concentrate on hitting the inside ball. Remember the shank came because you came too much this way and this way from the swinging and hitting the outside ball and making contact with the inside ball you’re changing your swing path. It’s a very, very simple exercise; something that you can actually do just literally in 20 30 minutes but concentrate on that and boy kiss goodbye to that shank. 2014-08-04

Okay, there should be an 18 specific on this one because it has all to do with the work shank. Well we all know what a shank is or perhaps you're not sure but if you are shanking the ball, how do we stop it. And I say it is difficult because if you are in the club house and somebody starts talking about a shank and you’ve had the shank so you know it’s like the fear of God goes in you and as any golfer knows it’s the one shot that is crippling. A shank is when you set up to play a conventional golf shot straight on to the target and it comes right out of the hosel here and it shoots almost at right angles. Shoots straight over there; it’s the most damaging golf shot imagine going up a whole plain two shots over 500 yards and I've got a 20 yard shot and all of a sudden I shank the ball, it’s devastating, it really is. So now you know what a shank is. Let me tell you what causes it normally. There are lots of different things but the number one reason is this. If I was to set up to the ball and I was to swing what tends to happen is that as I come into it the club tends to move this way. It tends to move out so as if the ball starts in the middle of the clubface and the club starts to be pushed out this way because its coming too much from the inside this way then of course you can see what’s going to happen, the ball is going to hit this area here and get squeezed out to the right hand side. So a shank would normally come from someone who kind of goes into here and then and kind of too much from the inside and catches that ball out the heel.

So to cure a shank if I was to say to you set up two balls, set up on the outside ball here and concentrate to swinging the club back and then concentrate on actually hitting the inside ball, you can see what we’re trying to do here, we’re changing the swing path. It was the swing path that caused the shank in the first place. So if I was to set myself up for these two balls and I’ll do it this way where I’m setting up for the outside ball and I'm going to swing that club back and I'm going to hit this ball here so I set myself up, I swing the club back and then from here I've hit the inside ball and the ball is going exactly where I want it to go direction wise. And there’s a very, very simple tip of getting rid of a shank. So next time you go to the golf course think hang on a minute, let me go into the practice area first, put two balls down set up to the outside one and then from there concentrate on hitting the inside ball. Remember the shank came because you came too much this way and this way from the swinging and hitting the outside ball and making contact with the inside ball you’re changing your swing path. It’s a very, very simple exercise; something that you can actually do just literally in 20 30 minutes but concentrate on that and boy kiss goodbye to that shank.