Stop the Downswing Slide (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles
Stop the Downswing Slide (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles

So if we’ve already established that one of the primary causes of the shank is a sliding downswing motion where a golfer from the top of the swing drives too much to the left side, the left knee particularly drives too far forwards for the right-handed golfer. The heel of the golfer then gets thrown out towards the golf ball. We’ve understood that’s an issue. Let’s understand how we can correct that issue and here’s a really great drill to help you with that.

Go ahead initially and just take your normal set up position then take the golf club and actually place it over your shoulders with your hands crossed over each shoulder, so your hands have swapped sides. Tilting forward to your golf ball you’re in a good posture. You make a nice rotation in your backswing and feel like it is a rotation rather than a lateral sway. So it’s a turn into your right leg and then reverse that motion with a turn back through to your left leg. And the right heel for the right-handed golfer, the right heel will left as we turn through. So it’ll be a small lateral movement to the left side. But as you’re working on turning your shoulders, let’s be really careful that we don’t have this big drive into this left side. We don’t want that left knee effectively to go forwards past the left foot or the shoe laces of the left foot. If it does, there’s too much forwards motion leading the heel into the ball and therefore shanking it out to the right hand side. So good set up with the club over the shoulders, rotate back, turn through and feel how there’s a real good balance in the follow through. We’re not dipping the knee forwards and sliding into it. We often see with golfers who shank the ball, they slide in here, lead in with the heel, present the heel to the ball, shank the shot and then take the little mini step afterwards and that step is a highlight they show as though they were off-balanced during the downswing. So turn back, turn through and super balance. And you can do this without even going to the range and hitting balls, just in front of a mirror or a patio door at home, focus on the rotational golf swing, not a sliding leg action. And hopefully if you can corporate that practice drill into your practice routine, the shanks will get less and less. 2015-08-11

So if we’ve already established that one of the primary causes of the shank is a sliding downswing motion where a golfer from the top of the swing drives too much to the left side, the left knee particularly drives too far forwards for the right-handed golfer. The heel of the golfer then gets thrown out towards the golf ball. We’ve understood that’s an issue. Let’s understand how we can correct that issue and here’s a really great drill to help you with that.

Go ahead initially and just take your normal set up position then take the golf club and actually place it over your shoulders with your hands crossed over each shoulder, so your hands have swapped sides. Tilting forward to your golf ball you’re in a good posture. You make a nice rotation in your backswing and feel like it is a rotation rather than a lateral sway. So it’s a turn into your right leg and then reverse that motion with a turn back through to your left leg. And the right heel for the right-handed golfer, the right heel will left as we turn through. So it’ll be a small lateral movement to the left side.

But as you’re working on turning your shoulders, let’s be really careful that we don’t have this big drive into this left side. We don’t want that left knee effectively to go forwards past the left foot or the shoe laces of the left foot. If it does, there’s too much forwards motion leading the heel into the ball and therefore shanking it out to the right hand side. So good set up with the club over the shoulders, rotate back, turn through and feel how there’s a real good balance in the follow through. We’re not dipping the knee forwards and sliding into it.

We often see with golfers who shank the ball, they slide in here, lead in with the heel, present the heel to the ball, shank the shot and then take the little mini step afterwards and that step is a highlight they show as though they were off-balanced during the downswing. So turn back, turn through and super balance. And you can do this without even going to the range and hitting balls, just in front of a mirror or a patio door at home, focus on the rotational golf swing, not a sliding leg action. And hopefully if you can corporate that practice drill into your practice routine, the shanks will get less and less.