Feeling out of room in the swing and shanking

Hello all,

Ive recently been having a bout of pushing my irons straight right, instead of my usual draw/over-draw/hook. Then today on the range I was shanking it off the hosel.

I managed to work out a bandaid solution by feeling like I was swinging well inside the ball. A good inch or so.

But I still feel so cramped and out of room in my swing.

Any ideas what might be causing this feeling and the tendency to bring the club down further outside than my address? I still feel cramped standing further from the ball at address.

Thanks

I posted this on another thread about pivot points. However, it makes me feel like I have tons of room to get to the ball.

Here's my (terrible) swing from yesterday

Sorry about the awful camera angle.

Thanks for the advice, I will give these drills a go!

Generally speaking the hips of most amateurs move closer towards the ball on the downswing. This cramps your arms for room and raises the likelihood of shanking. In my opinion this is the number one fault in golf. You very rarely see the hips move closer to the ball in swings of touring pros.

This is the case of the op’s swing. Coming way off the tushline and hips too close to the ball at impact.

The video in post #2 of this thread addresses this issue really well. It’s precisely what I work on when early extension creeps into my swing. Need to feel like the right hip is the pivot point on the downswing.

The initial cause is right knee is adding flex and right hip isn’t getting back enough to begin with.

Youre supposed to lose flex in the right knee , not add and that allows your right hip to get deeper.

Have to fix that first. Then you will likely have to keep the right hip and knee back longer in transition.

2nd drill is really good for the home office! In one of those "had to be there" moments, I gave this a try and I misread it as left palm being able to touch wall, since it is the left palm facing the wall, a good foot above the head and I was thinking who the F can do that!?! I am pretty flexible and no way I can get my left palm a foot above my head! I re-read it and oh...right hand, yes, much easier.

Monte, I struggle with exactly this problem. Tonight, I just felt like I kept my right hip back & deep while firing everything else at the ball. It worked incredibly well. At least for today, it turned me around like flipping a light switch.

Ive got an online lesson pending with you, and am now incredibly geeked up about what else you might say! (No pressure. This was already perfect.)

I had a lesson with a pro and what has got me back on track was taking a stance further from the ball and straightening the club a little tilting the shoulders a little more forward at address for the irons and behind the ball more for my hybrids/woods/driver. He also advocated keeping a little flexion in the knees at address and maintaining a little bit of flexion in my rear knee - not completely straightening it. Whatever its doing to me biomechanically speaking, its working. Hitting the ball further and straighter than I ever have at the moment, and I feel like I have a heap of room.

He has a good way of explaining things in simple terms, rather than getting bogged down by the intricacies of biomechanic talk leading to paralysis by analysis. Knee flexion/extension, hip rotation, angles - doesn't work for me.

I have this issue with standard length irons, specially with short irons. It makes my posture horrible and way too bent over at the waist. From there all kinds of bad things happen. weight too far on my toes and I can't rotate properly. Put an iron 1/2-3/4" over standard in my hands and it's night and day difference. It feels comfortable and much more natural.

Monte, wouldn’t you be just a concerned with the wrist conditions going back? The geometry is wild. He has a decent enough downswing if his geometry with the arms matches what you prescribe going back with the lower body.

Or do you think much of that would blend with the lower body action of a proper backswing?