If we’ve understood that a shank is a really detrimental shot to a golfer, we now need to look at what are the causes of that? Why does it happen? So here are the three main reasons why I think golfers sometimes shank the golf ball. From a good address position, they swing back to a nice position and they slide. They slide too much to the left side. They slide laterally in front of the golf ball, the left knee particularly. If the right-handed golfer collapses forwards the hands then get thrown in front of them and the hosel leads in towards the ball. So a good set up here but laterally sliding, throwing the left knee forwards and the hosel hits the golf ball first. So we want to make sure there’s a good degree of turning of the left side. The left side moves out of the way to make sure the strike is better. So consider if you’re sliding into the ball.

Next thing is simply just setting up too near to the golf ball. Some club golfers get themselves so close to the ball they have no room to make the swing. So in a good address position here, I’d like to see that the handle of the golf club drops down so the club lands just one inch above your front kneecap, your left knee for the right-handed golfer, that therefore creates loads of space between your hands and your legs and allows you to swing through fully. As long as you’re standing in balance but a good distance away from the golf ball, that technique should work quite nicely for you.

There’s one last reason why I think club golfers shank the golf ball and itself perpetuating this one is the fact that they don’t release into the ball because they have no confidence, in fact they don’t release creates more shanks, creates less confidence again. So when we’re setting up to the ball nicely here, coming down into impact, we really want to let that club turn over and release. And a golfer that shanks the ball is often so nervous through this point, they just lift up and push their arms forwards which in turns throws the hosel of the golf club out towards the ball and blocks it and shanks it to the right hand side. So we’d like to make sure that a golfer has enough confidence to turn down and through the shot to square the club face up and to actually bring the heel back in towards the body rather than just hold it off and push the hosel out towards the golf ball. So if you can work on reducing those three elements in your swing and making sure that you’ve ticked off those three elements, that should help you reduce the number of those detrimental shanks that you have in your game.