How Do I Stop Shanking The Ball (Video) - by PGA Instructor Peter Finch
How Do I Stop Shanking The Ball (Video) - by PGA Instructor Peter Finch

After you have identified which version of the shank that you have, you then need to move on to the point of how am I going to fix it. Now there are a couple of very quick drills that you can use to try and find the centre of the club face again, because the shank shot is just as much as mental as it is technical. You can actually make a very good technical change but still find yourself drifting towards the heel of the club because you are that worried about it.

Now simple way, let us take the ‘out to in steep example’ and you can switch this drill around and use it exactly the opposite way. If you are going to setup to a shot and you are coming in this direction so the heel of the club is contacting the ball first and squirming off to the right hand side, the whole point of this next shot that we want to be doing and the shape that you want to be seeing is moving the club from the inside of the body to the outside and we can use a drill like the foot-back drill or draw that [rifle] back a little bit we close the shoulders and we start to move that club a little bit more from the inside like this. It is exactly the same if you swing it too much from the inside, you can open up that body and feel like you are moving the club a little bit more left, but here is where that comes in. If that doesn’t quite work which it often can do, if that doesn’t quite work what do you want to be doing then? Well there is a very quick drill and you can use a counter intuitive drill and you can also use more of a quick fix drill. Now the counter intuitive drill. Sees the player identified their problem so out to in for example, using the drill so she has the rightful back drill and actually addressing the ball right out of the heel, and as they come through the shot obviously that’s not something that they want to hit so you often see the player re-route enough to find the centre of the golf club. If that doesn’t quite work, then you can do the opposite. So you can get the club set up so that the toe is very much on the inside of the ball, so just as it is here swinging it back and then moving it out to hit the ball, both those drills, both those different feelings will give the impression and will give the golfer the sensation of being able to control the club head a lot more through the point of impact. So identify which is your issue are you more into in, are you more into out, use the drill which will see you swing more right if you are coming from out to in and more left if you are coming from in to out and then try both those, the counter intuitive drill and then one where really focused on getting that toe on the inside of the golf ball. They are both very good drills to use and can change the golfer’s out on that shank very, very quickly indeed. 2016-09-02

After you have identified which version of the shank that you have, you then need to move on to the point of how am I going to fix it. Now there are a couple of very quick drills that you can use to try and find the centre of the club face again, because the shank shot is just as much as mental as it is technical. You can actually make a very good technical change but still find yourself drifting towards the heel of the club because you are that worried about it.

Now simple way, let us take the ‘out to in steep example’ and you can switch this drill around and use it exactly the opposite way. If you are going to setup to a shot and you are coming in this direction so the heel of the club is contacting the ball first and squirming off to the right hand side, the whole point of this next shot that we want to be doing and the shape that you want to be seeing is moving the club from the inside of the body to the outside and we can use a drill like the foot-back drill or draw that [rifle] back a little bit we close the shoulders and we start to move that club a little bit more from the inside like this.

It is exactly the same if you swing it too much from the inside, you can open up that body and feel like you are moving the club a little bit more left, but here is where that comes in. If that doesn’t quite work which it often can do, if that doesn’t quite work what do you want to be doing then? Well there is a very quick drill and you can use a counter intuitive drill and you can also use more of a quick fix drill. Now the counter intuitive drill. Sees the player identified their problem so out to in for example, using the drill so she has the rightful back drill and actually addressing the ball right out of the heel, and as they come through the shot obviously that’s not something that they want to hit so you often see the player re-route enough to find the centre of the golf club. If that doesn’t quite work, then you can do the opposite.

So you can get the club set up so that the toe is very much on the inside of the ball, so just as it is here swinging it back and then moving it out to hit the ball, both those drills, both those different feelings will give the impression and will give the golfer the sensation of being able to control the club head a lot more through the point of impact.

So identify which is your issue are you more into in, are you more into out, use the drill which will see you swing more right if you are coming from out to in and more left if you are coming from in to out and then try both those, the counter intuitive drill and then one where really focused on getting that toe on the inside of the golf ball. They are both very good drills to use and can change the golfer’s out on that shank very, very quickly indeed.