Only shanking from 20-30 yards from green

[mesquite2]

Hi all, I have a friend that hits the ball fine with her irons until she gets about 20-30 yards to the green, then she is shanking everything, any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

[ShortGolfer]

20 yards is a partial swing.  She may need to learn how to do partial swings.

If I have a clear path I may use an 8H instead of an iron or wedge.

 

It may be useful for her to go through her bag and experiment to see what works best for her.

 

Edited April 24 by ShortGolfer

[MonteScheinblum]

2 common causes

 

Too much lower body movement

Too much acceleration 

[stryper]

I’ll be watching this one closely.  Doesn’t happen to me all the time, but often enough to get my attention…rarely shank anywhere else. 🤔

Edited April 24 by stryper

[Peterman6068]

I’ve had this happen to me before. For me it was because I have an inside takeaway and on the short chips like that, I didn’t have time to make corrections for it because of the length of the swing. Taking it back on a steeper plane helped me. 

[DaveGoodrich]

For me, when it happens, it's usually that I am swinging out at the ball without turning through the shot. Even though it's a short shot, it can't be an "arms only" swing. 

[Hawkeye77]

Good news, if you intend to "teach" her (not recommending that, but that's where these usually lead) you'll probably need to hold her hips and have her get the feeling of less hip movement.  It's totally a pro move - Monte held mine that one time at Chicago camp!

Edited April 25 by Hawkeye77

[mesquite2]

Thanks to all, some good things for me to work on with her, keep them coming.

[Rbsiedsc]

19 hours ago, MonteScheinblum said:

2 common causes

 

Too much lower body movement

Too much acceleration 

Interesting. I tend to also go through bouts of the shanks and I am/was a player that controlled distance with acceleration down. I have since tried a clock system with allows for my consistent contact but still learning the distance the ball will travel and trusting it to not slow down in the downswing. 

[SNIPERBBB]

32 minutes ago, Rbsiedsc said:

Interesting. I tend to also go through bouts of the shanks and I am/was a player that controlled distance with acceleration down. I have since tried a clock system with allows for my consistent contact but still learning the distance the ball will travel and trusting it to not slow down in the downswing. 

Its not quite a fine line but there's line between making an aggressive swing with your pitches/partial wedges and getting jumpy with it.

[brick101]

Different shot requires a different swing. 

 

I.e, it's not just a slower version, or shorter version, of the full swing. 

 

Practice ball back, 1/3 backswing, ball first, no follow through. 

 

 

[Maine Golfer]

I sometimes give up on the follow through , leave it open and bad things happen! But yeah its not a full swing, so the person is doing something silly 

[Ripper212]

On 4/25/2024 at 8:51 AM, Hawkeye77 said:

Good news, if you intend to "teach" her (not recommending that, but that's where these usually lead) you'll probably need to hold her hips and have her get the feeling of less hip movement.  It's totally a pro move - Monte held mine that one time at Chicago camp!

And I suspect he'll enjoy it a lot more than Monte did!

[ldchristopher]

The shank comes from lurching onto one’s toes on the downswing. Hence the hosel rocket result. Just remind her to keep her weight on her heels on partial swings. 

[Pepperturbo]

On 4/24/2024 at 12:02 PM, mesquite2 said:

Hi all, I have a friend that hits the ball fine with her irons until she gets about 20-30 yards to the green, then she is shanking everything, any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

Best advice, do NOT teach her.  She would be better off and learn more from a qualified woman golf instructor.

[RacineBoxer]

I use to struggle with this problem. Would never, ever hit a shank with a full swing but for some reason I'd get into the 30-60 yard range and hit them periodically. Way too frequently for the level of golf I was playing. What I eventually figured out was that I was trying to "hit" the ball with mostly just with my arms. I'd bring the club back about halfway (little to no body rotation) and then in the downswing I'd feel like I needed to add power with my arms, so I'd kind of lunge or throw my arms at it. Think about it- if you only take about a half backswing with no body rotation you have no power there, so your brain will try to compensate and really the only option is to get really forceful with the arms. 

[SNIPERBBB]

13 minutes ago, RacineBoxer said:

I use to struggle with this problem. Would never, ever hit a shank with a full swing but for some reason I'd get into the 30-60 yard range and hit them periodically. Way too frequently for the level of golf I was playing. What I eventually figured out was that I was trying to "hit" the ball with mostly just with my arms. I'd bring the club back about halfway (little to no body rotation) and then in the downswing I'd feel like I needed to add power with my arms, so I'd kind of lunge or throw my arms at it. Think about it- if you only take about a half backswing with no body rotation you have no power there, so your brain will try to compensate and really the only option is to get really forceful with the arms. 

Hmm i would suspect you actually did have some shoulder/upper body rotation in the backswing and when you tried to add speed, your arms got out of sync and disaster followed.