Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro
Well the most destructive shot for any golfer is a shank. A true shank comes completely off the heel of the club and it's really demoralizing to be hitting that shot. But remember it's only a quarter an inch movement along the club phase so that you get an absolutely perfect shot. So what we’re going to do to improve that and to stop hitting the ball off the heel is look at the causes for why that would be happening. One of the main causes for why you’d be hitting off the heel is you're actually standing too close to the golf ball. So looking this way on, if you're standing too close to the golf ball and the end of the club is too close to your body, as you swing back in you’ll want to create some room for your arms and you’ll throw the club forward, meaning that you’ll present the hozzle and the heel of the club to the golf ball, rather than the center. So double check your distance away. A good test would be that if you place the club so the handles inside about, stand up normally and you should be able to get a nice wide hand span-in between the end of the club and yourself. If you're too close, move yourself back. So nice hand span and that would be a much more appropriate distance.
The second reason that you might hit a shank and hit the ball out of the heel of the club would be to do with your balance. So that as you swing in the club, you're actually off balance. When you start, check where you feel the weight in your feet. It should feel really evenly spread both on your left and your right foot but also between your toes and your heels. If you're back on your heels as you're hitting, and then you move forward onto your toes, that’s going to present the club in a more forward position and again the ball’s going to come out of the heel rather than the center. So as you swing your golf club, make sure you're keeping your weight really even. So still in the middle of your feet here, now the toes nor heels, you come back into hit, it's pretty centered again and as you go through you still got really good balance. So double check when you start that you’re not back on your heels and then as you swing through moving on to your toes which would throw the club forward and make you hit from the heel. Have a go with those two tips and you should see that you hit a much better shot out of the middle of the golf club.
2013-06-06 Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro
Well the most destructive shot for any golfer is a shank. A true shank comes completely off the heel of the club and it's really demoralizing to be hitting that shot. But remember it's only a quarter an inch movement along the club phase so that you get an absolutely perfect shot. So what we’re going to do to improve that and to stop hitting the ball off the heel is look at the causes for why that would be happening. One of the main causes for why you’d be hitting off the heel is you're actually standing too close to the golf ball. So looking this way on, if you're standing too close to the golf ball and the end of the club is too close to your body, as you swing back in you’ll want to create some room for your arms and you’ll throw the club forward, meaning that you’ll present the hozzle and the heel of the club to the golf ball, rather than the center. So double check your distance away. A good test would be that if you place the club so the handles inside about, stand up normally and you should be able to get a nice wide hand span-in between the end of the club and yourself. If you're too close, move yourself back. So nice hand span and that would be a much more appropriate distance.
The second reason that you might hit a shank and hit the ball out of the heel of the club would be to do with your balance. So that as you swing in the club, you're actually off balance. When you start, check where you feel the weight in your feet. It should feel really evenly spread both on your left and your right foot but also between your toes and your heels. If you're back on your heels as you're hitting, and then you move forward onto your toes, that’s going to present the club in a more forward position and again the ball’s going to come out of the heel rather than the center. So as you swing your golf club, make sure you're keeping your weight really even. So still in the middle of your feet here, now the toes nor heels, you come back into hit, it's pretty centered again and as you go through you still got really good balance. So double check when you start that you’re not back on your heels and then as you swing through moving on to your toes which would throw the club forward and make you hit from the heel. Have a go with those two tips and you should see that you hit a much better shot out of the middle of the golf club.
