So we’ve established previously that one of the biggest reasons for shanking the golf ball is actually addressing the ball and being too near to it, so we get golfers who stand too close to the ball. Some people do this because they want to be really near to it because they feel I’ll get more control, if I stand here, I’ll have loads of control over it. But they’re now so close, there’s literally no room for them to swing the club. The club goes over here to find some room and they get a shank.

Here’s a great way of making sure you’re the right distance away from the golf ball every time with each individual club. Now you could sometimes utilize a friend to help you do this exercise but I’m just going to use a club. I’m going to just position it behind me. I’ll show you how to do this in a second. So we’re going to set up to the golf ball but without a club. So I’m going to have my hands and arms just hanging nicely down in front of me. Now actually that ball shouldn’t be there, just yeah let me knock that out of the way.

I’m going to set myself up, my hands and arms are just hanging nicely down in front of me in my normal comfortable gripped position. Then I’m going to bring the club end and get my hand in a good position there, then there, and then that is how far away the golf ball should go from me. So rather than me setting up to a ball position, effectively the ball is setting up to where I’m comfortable. So if I did that again, no balls just yet. I don’t think I would feel comfortable having my hands and arms this close to me. They don’t hang naturally.

If I let my arms relax they move away to there. So that would be where my hands should be, good distance away from my body of course. Then I bring the club to that position. I can now mark my position on the ground, put my ball there and set up to that. And that gives me a much bigger space away from the golf ball than where I might have been before. And if you’re going to establish that as a bit of a routine that your hands and arms hang, then the club sets up to the floor and then the floor is where the golf ball should be, that might be a bit of a better routine for you rather than walking up to a ball, standing too near to it and then trying to adjust your position to that.

It does take a little bit of practice and like I say you can just balance the club behind you or even get a friend just to bring the club into you but you set yourself up comfortably, hang your hands and arms down, bring the club into that position and that’s where the ball would be. Get used to doing that drill and exercise then take it onto the driving range and implement that and clip a few balls away and then take it onto the golf course with the confidence that you know you’re not going to be so close to the ball that you’re going to struggle to shank it. You’re going to be further away, loads of space and that should eradicate the shanks. Work on that exercise, get the right distance away from the ball and get rid of those shanks from your game.