Hitting all of my pitches off the heel (or even hosel), do you see anything?

[ctjuniorffldcounty]

Every half wedge shot is off the heel, and it’s completely ruining my confidence on these shots because my only thought is now to not hosel it. Does anything jump out here?

https://imgur.com/gallery/hfZylzr

[Valtiel]

Shanks, especially in the pitching/chipping realm, are almost always a case of managing a bad path and/or a bad clubface. In this case a bit of both:



You're taking the club back very flat and inside and it's getting too deep and behind you, creating a flat and inside path to the ball which exposes the hosel.



This is partially because and also exacerbated by the fact that you roll the club quite open here. It's hard to see, but the toe of the club is pointed directly up and even slightly left here. You've rolled your forearms excessively which both opens the clubface and gets the clubhead behind your hands too far (inside) and you're failing to properly hinge and set your wrists which continues to allow the club to get flat and inside going back while also robbing you of potential hand/wrist speed to better square the clubface in the downswing. In fact it looks like you're trying to do the Steve Stricker "one piece" kid of chipping move but that only works if you're very neutral back and through, which you aren't. It's also an approach that is frequently mistaught/misunderstood as it gets people stiff, flat, and with inactive wrists like this which frequently leads to shanks.

You need to get the club working up much more via a combination of more radial deviation (hinging the wrists upwards) and less forearm rolling getting the clubface open and inside. You want to feel that right arm staying inside your chest more like Tiger above and way less stuck out behind you while the left arm works up. The feeling should be that you're throwing the club head over your right shoulder, which is exactly where Tiger's would go if he just swung a little longer.

Edited December 30, 2023 by Valtiel

[ctjuniorffldcounty]

On 12/30/2023 at 8:23 AM, Valtiel said:

Shanks, especially in the pitching/chipping realm, are almost always a case of managing a bad path and/or a bad clubface. In this case a bit of both:



You're taking the club back very flat and inside and it's getting too deep and behind you, creating a flat and inside path to the ball which exposes the hosel.



This is partially because and also exacerbated by the fact that you roll the club quite open here. It's hard to see, but the toe of the club is pointed directly up and even slightly left here. You've rolled your forearms excessively which both opens the clubface and gets the clubhead behind your hands too far (inside) and you're failing to properly hinge and set your wrists which continues to allow the club to get flat and inside going back while also robbing you of potential hand/wrist speed to better square the clubface in the downswing. In fact it looks like you're trying to do the Steve Stricker "one piece" kid of chipping move but that only works if you're very neutral back and through, which you aren't. It's also an approach that is frequently mistaught/misunderstood as it gets people stiff, flat, and with inactive wrists like this which frequently leads to shanks.

You need to get the club working up much more via a combination of more radial deviation (hinging the wrists upwards) and less forearm rolling getting the clubface open and inside. You want to feel that right arm staying inside your chest more like Tiger above and way less stuck out behind you while the left arm works up. The feeling should be that you're throwing the club head over your right shoulder, which is exactly where Tiger's would go if he just swung a little longer.

Can't believe I missed this comment. Thanks so much for the thorough analysis. Going to work on wrist-rolling next few sessions! I have been working on clubface control recently, which has helped, so glad to see you point that out as well.