Why do I consistently hit off the heel?

[sublime_ndg]

I feel like I've tried everything. Some things work for a day then I go back to heel strikes and occasional shanks. I'm hitting a 54* wedge here, but I have other examples with driver, 3 iron and 7 iron if needed.

[alfriday]

How to stop Shanking

[Nels55]

Yes. Adam Young cured my shank tendency. I still get my shot pattern on the heel once in a while and I have to work to get it back out where it belongs but knowing what is happening has made the fear go away.

One drill that I have never seen fail is to set up normally to the ball and swing three times missing the ball on the inside every time. Then go ahead and hit the ball without moving the stance at all.

[sublime_ndg]

Cool, thanks, I'll check that out.

One concept I'm also looking into is "lagging the sweetspot," which I think is a Brian Manzella term. Anyone have success with that?

[Fuscinator]

Your downswing looks more like your backswing in reverse rather than an actual downswing. At the wrong moment, it looks like your right hip gets in the way of your right arm pushing your club forward which means the heal is going to hit the ball.

This is from your downswing...

Here's Mcilroy (sp?) at roughly the same spot...

[sublime_ndg]

Thanks. So what's the fix or drill there?

[Fuscinator]

Well, understanding what you're trying to do, instead, is the key. In this video, your downswing is just a reversal of your backswing (at least, that's what it mostly looks like to me). What you need to do instead, is to start the swing with your lower body, and once that lower body move increases the torque between your hips and shoulders, swing the arms. Think of baseball pitchers. Their throw is different from their windup. Some of them are still winding their upper bodies back while their lower are moving towards the plate (like Matsuyama). In addition to increasing the torque between hips and shoulders, it also changes the angles.

So, if you throw well, or swing a bat well, those moves will feel noticeably different from your golf swing and could serve as a model for a better concept for your golf.

[sublime_ndg]

Was wondering when the comments about my flops would come haha. Trust me, this happens when I wear shoes (which is every time I actually play) too.

[sublime_ndg]

I've seen that drill and tried it many times. Sometimes it helps me find the center of the face when I address a ball normally, and sometimes it doesn't. What I struggle with it what's going on that's making me do this? If I knew the drill would help permanently I wouldn't worry about it

[sublime_ndg]

Here's me doing the miss the ball drill then actually hitting it. Contact was indeed center of the face.

What's different (other than that I put my flops to the side)? I notice that I kept the tush line better, but not sure why.

[Nels55]

@sublime_ndg, We can think of golf as having two components, skill and technique. Skill always wins. To me your technique is fine and has little bearing on where on the face you hit the ball. So I believe you would be smart to spend your time building your skill. One way to improve your skill at hitting the middle of the face is to practice hitting balls off of the toe and the heel of the club. You can also try to hit the ball low on the face and high on the face. When you gain control over where on the face you are hitting the ball you will have more skill at hitting the middle when you want to.

[sublime_ndg]

I'm a little out of focus but here you go. Let me know if you need something better.

[sublime_ndg]

I'm now seeing how my upper body drifts forward on the downswing. Could keeping my head back be a key for me?

[sublime_ndg]

Here I am actively trying to keep my head behind the ball. Got this one close to center, even towards the toe a bit. This is 3 iron by the way.

[Nels55]

In that vein Ron Sission has a ton of videos on youtube here is a starter:

The Frankel brothers are true disciples of Earnest Jones possibly the only ones who teach it correctly. The sell a video and book on golf's one motion which are pretty good: http://frankelgolf.com/

I also have de la Torre's book and video along with a Ron Sisson video I paid for.

Then there is Larry Rinker who teaches that for most golfers an 'arm swing' is the correct way to swing and he has a number of videos on youtube also: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=larry+rinker+upper+core+swing

I have investigated and tried to apply all of these and at the moment I am mostly going with what the Frankel brothers teach. Of course it is my interpretation of that! Of the three I had he least luck with Manuel de la Torre's stuff.