Whats the best quick fix for a shank? (Video) - by Pete Styles
Whats the best quick fix for a shank? (Video) - by Pete Styles

Now shanking the golf ball; clearly one of the most destructive shots out on the golf course. A shank is hit from too near to this part of the golf club, on the hosel of the golf club. Now, the problem with the shank is that it’s actually very near to being a good shot. If I just can take a ball and show you that that ball could fly beautiful high and straight land on the green, that ball could fly sideways into a hedge and cost me a double bogey. So clearly the shank is quite an important shot to avoid out on the golf course. Now the problem with the shank is that it’s caused from a number of varying different areas and a lots of people will tell you that, oh that’s the cause of a shank, or that’s the cause of a shank. The reality is, over 25 years of watching people play golf, I’ve seen people shank the golf ball from every different part of the golf club, every different part of the golf swing. So there is no one cure fixes all.

Here is a couple of really nice checkpoints to make sure you’re avoiding the shank in the best possible way. The first thing to do when you are in address position is make sure you are setting yourself up with enough space. If you are too near to the golf ball, your hands have gotten no room to come back past your legs, and that is a sure fire sign that your hands will try and find some room in the downswing and shank the ball. So we are going to take up a setup this time, moving ourselves a little bit further back, so that when the club head – sorry, so when the club handle rests on my left side, it lands two inches above my left knee cap. That’s creating enough space between myself and the golf ball to feel like I can bring the club back down and avoid the shank. The other thing that I m going to focus on here in the address position is my balance. I don’t want to be too far onto my toes, I don’t want to be too far onto my heels, I want to be nice and comfortably balanced, so that during my swing I can maintain my balance. And now join my backswing face, I’d like to bring the club straight back along the target line and nicely up to the top. If I can achieve that straight backswing path, I have probably got the best chance of returning it back down that line, to hit the ball from the centre of the clubface. Taking the club outside the line this way, that’s going to deliver the heel onto the ball instinctively, but also taking the club too flat and around, could force the club, too much from the inside to push out too much to the outside, and we see a lot of people shank the ball from there as well. So if you’ve got the shanks and you want to try and eradicate them, initially have a little look at your distance away from the ball, your balancing position so you are not so much on your toes and your heels, and then just try and work on taking the club straight back away from your golf ball on your backswing, and that should improve your accuracy and reduce the shanks. 2015-03-31

Now shanking the golf ball; clearly one of the most destructive shots out on the golf course. A shank is hit from too near to this part of the golf club, on the hosel of the golf club. Now, the problem with the shank is that it’s actually very near to being a good shot. If I just can take a ball and show you that that ball could fly beautiful high and straight land on the green, that ball could fly sideways into a hedge and cost me a double bogey. So clearly the shank is quite an important shot to avoid out on the golf course. Now the problem with the shank is that it’s caused from a number of varying different areas and a lots of people will tell you that, oh that’s the cause of a shank, or that’s the cause of a shank. The reality is, over 25 years of watching people play golf, I’ve seen people shank the golf ball from every different part of the golf club, every different part of the golf swing. So there is no one cure fixes all.

Here is a couple of really nice checkpoints to make sure you’re avoiding the shank in the best possible way. The first thing to do when you are in address position is make sure you are setting yourself up with enough space. If you are too near to the golf ball, your hands have gotten no room to come back past your legs, and that is a sure fire sign that your hands will try and find some room in the downswing and shank the ball. So we are going to take up a setup this time, moving ourselves a little bit further back, so that when the club head – sorry, so when the club handle rests on my left side, it lands two inches above my left knee cap. That’s creating enough space between myself and the golf ball to feel like I can bring the club back down and avoid the shank.

The other thing that I m going to focus on here in the address position is my balance. I don’t want to be too far onto my toes, I don’t want to be too far onto my heels, I want to be nice and comfortably balanced, so that during my swing I can maintain my balance. And now join my backswing face, I’d like to bring the club straight back along the target line and nicely up to the top. If I can achieve that straight backswing path, I have probably got the best chance of returning it back down that line, to hit the ball from the centre of the clubface. Taking the club outside the line this way, that’s going to deliver the heel onto the ball instinctively, but also taking the club too flat and around, could force the club, too much from the inside to push out too much to the outside, and we see a lot of people shank the ball from there as well. So if you’ve got the shanks and you want to try and eradicate them, initially have a little look at your distance away from the ball, your balancing position so you are not so much on your toes and your heels, and then just try and work on taking the club straight back away from your golf ball on your backswing, and that should improve your accuracy and reduce the shanks.