Cannot stop shanking for the life of me

[Tyler_is_Rippi]

As the title suggests I cannot stop shanking the ball.

 

i worked very hard to fix my over the top move. And ever since i did that I have been a consistent hosel machine.

 

Ive tried many “fixes” to no avail. 

 

 

 

 

 

[iacas]

Start by getting your weight out of your heels.

 

[GungHoGolf]

I'd recommend a setup change first. You're way back on your heels here, so nowhere to go but forward. Center of hip joint should be above center of ankle joint (green line, instead of your current red line). Ankles should be more flexed (knees more forward, closer to toes). Drill to work on this is to stand up straight with your back to a wall, with your heels 2-3" away from it, then take your setup with butt just touching wall.

 

When you come forward, you get jammed-up coming into impact, leading to shanks:

 

Edited June 11 by GungHoGolf

[NoTalentLefty]

Hate those side lateral shots

[Moarbutter]

I'm going to go against the grain and say that I don't think you're too far over your heels. I mean, in a perfect world you would have your hips more over your ankles with more ankle flexion, but the underlying reason why being on your heels is bad is when it moves your center of gravity too far into the heels and unbalancing you; which causes people to throw their chest down and club down at the ball and stall hip rotation, none of which are symptoms you are showing. You are clearly balanced in your swing and are making a really great move at the ball. 

 

I suspect that your feet are too close together or your ball is too far back in your stance. It's really hard to see from a DTL view, but I suspect that because you're making a great weight transfer into your lead leg, too narrow of your base would make your body try to compensate by dumping your trail shoulder under to keep from falling over. Having the ball to far back would mean that you're contacting it too high up on the D plane. 

 

Try widening your stance and playing the ball further forward. Inside of heels to outside of shoulders for stance width and ball under your left knee if you're right eye dominant or ball under shirt emblem in you're left eye dominant (same ball position, just the different way it looks depending on eye dominance) and take another video head-on

Edited June 11 by Moarbutter

[FormerBigDaddy]

One quick fix that always works for me if I'm in a bind and I'm about to tee off...

 

Try to intentionally hit the toe.

[KD1]

My vote counts for relatively very little but I'm with iacas and gungho on this. Your swing looks like mine. Your setup too far over your heels gives you no where to go but toward the ball.

 

Your setup doesn't allow you to use your pelvis correctly and your lunging your trail side to the target line which pushes the hosel out to the ball.

 

I feel my right hip work away from the ball in the back swing, and then keep it back while working the left hip away in the downswing. If my shanks are really stubborn that day then I have to feel like my shoulders never get closer to the ball. When my hips or more so my shoulders spin out early it's shank city... Lots of back to the target longer and Justin Rose drills.

 

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ctxplh0uBns/?igsh=cWZzZTEzNWZtdXh1

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3x9dAUva7q/?igsh=MmVoNnN0YzkxcDRl

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C13PLEjrPCV/?igsh=MWp0NmY4aGp3eW1jMw==

 

 

Edited June 11 by KD1

[MonteScheinblum]

Aside from setup that’s been mentioned, which includes standing too close to the ball.  Hip sequencing is way off.  You reach max hip turn almost before you start taking the club away then the right hip fires before your backswing is complete.

 

Hips need to turn later in backswing and downswing.  
 

Do this drill as well.

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6T93u8RgTr/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Edited June 11 by MonteScheinblum

[golferdude54]

Uh, no one really brought up how shut his clubface is at P2 and P4??? It's like his body subconsciously knows that it's super shut so it tries to bring the heel of the club down onto the ball to stop it from going miles left.

[ac6]

13 minutes ago, golferdude54 said:

Uh, no one really brought up how shut his clubface is at P2 and P4??? It's like his body subconsciously knows that it's super shut so it tries to bring the heel of the club down onto the ball to stop it from going miles left.

 

I suspect it's a grip issue which a face-on shot would confirm. From what I can see I think the trail hand is extremely strong and then the lead hand is weak and too far across the palm. To me it looks like OP is gripping it like this so there's no pressure/control from the lead hand heel pad on top of the grip. If so it's hard to get the hands working together that way, the trail hand wants to rotate the face shut and the lead hand just rotates and does nothing to resist it:

 

 

OP also appears to be a normal height so unless there's some other reason for it he should stop choking down 2" on the club and stand up taller and further from the ball

[nikos74]

If the weight starts off from setup at the heels then it has to be maintained that way through-out the swing.  Moving it to the center of the feet or toes later on moves the body closer to the ball and the hosel or heel will make contact. 

 

Also the hips are out of sync with the shoulders and arms in that they move earlier and faster.  Rotation is pretty good though.

Edited June 11 by nikos74

[iacas]

4 hours ago, Moarbutter said:

which causes people to throw their chest down and club down at the ball and stall hip rotation, none of which are symptoms you are showing. You are clearly balanced in your swing and are making a really great move at the ball.

 

I disagree. He's moving the center of mass and the center of pressure throughout his backswing:

 

6 hours ago, iacas said:

 

1 hour ago, ac6 said:

 

The faded grip is the good one. The red one is tragic and literally almost never see that. The more solid one is not very good IMO, and yet very common. The more solid one you can't get pressure down with the heel pad either, because the heel pad is too far on the side of the grip.

[LinkLow]

1st off, we have very similar swings. I also developed shanks after making a change to an over the top swing.

 

Just out of curiosity, why are you choked up on the club so much? Do your club lengths fit you correctly? 

 

Either way, I have the occasional problem with shanking the ball, and it always happens when I'm playing at the very top of my ability somehow. Lots of really good players have struggled with them. I actually quit golf for a few years after getting my handicap to a +4 and then randomly started shanking EVERYTHING. I tried everything that anybody would tell me, and nothing helped or worked. I'd leave the range or course very discouraged, even depressed....So #1 is to just keep your head up. 

 

3 things I'll suggest. 

 

Setup. You have a lot of weight on your heels, which is understandable when you're trying to cure the shanks. Try to get your weight more centered. Get on the insides of your feet instead of thinking about your toes or heels. Your brain thinks you need to reach for the ball since you're leaning away from it.

 

 

#2 is another setup tweak you can try. Instead of standing further away from the ball (which would be completely understandable to try), move closer to it. This will help you get the feeling back of not reaching, which just gets worse if you moving further from the ball.

 

#3 Take a few practice swings with no ball and let the club touch the grass. Don't even try to swing at a certain spot, just see where the club touches the grass with your natural swing. It will be further away from you than you think.  This may be where you need to play the ball at for awhile.

 

Not trying to overwhelm you, but one or more of these may help you out. Let us know how it goes

[Nicknomates]

On 6/11/2024 at 6:40 PM, MonteScheinblum said:

Do this drill as well.

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6T93u8RgTr/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Edited Tuesday at 06:41 PM by MonteScheinblum

A few weeks ago I suddenly developed some shanks occuring for several shots in a row.

The drill above helped cure them. Another one is to address the ball with the hosel!

Someone did suggest addressing the ball with the toe. This used to be my standard address position the theory I suppose is that on the down swing the club speed will drag the path out. But now I address the ball centre or even towards the hosel and feel as if I am slightly reaching out to the ball (a feel compared to my previous setup ).

So also necessary to go back and check fundamentals.

[ChaosTheory]

Saw the headline and came to ask, do you have your weight on your heels.  I see better minds have already said the same. 😀

 

If you do, during your swing your body will move towards balance.  Which moves you towards the ball.

 

 

[Tyler_is_Rippi]

Late response— my apologies for that.

 

i am still shanking, but the frequency is going down some (when i initially posted this I was shanking around 70% of my shots)

 

this is probably closer to the 30% range now. They’ll be gone for a good 30-40 min into a practice session but then I’ll hit one and it sends everything spiraling.

 

Hope these two angles help 

 

[Tyler_is_Rippi]

One of the big things I noticed as well (outside of my set up--hip behind ankles, etc) is that if you draw a line of my hands I have a bit of a reverse slot move (if thats the name of it)

Im shallowing the club but my hands are flying straight at the ball-- would set up and incorrect weight distribution be the main cause of this?

 

@MonteScheinblum

[Tyler_is_Rippi]

On 6/13/2024 at 8:08 PM, ChaosTheory said:

Saw the headline and came to ask, do you have your weight on your heels.  I see better minds have already said the same. 😀

 

If you do, during your swing your body will move towards balance.  Which moves you towards the ball.

 

 

 

It doesnt feel like it when I set up, but looking at videos and pictures it seems that I am. the dreaded feel vs real that is golf. The crazy thing is these came out of no where and arent leaving quite as fast as they showed up.

[Tyler_is_Rippi]

On 6/11/2024 at 5:12 PM, iacas said:

 

I disagree. He's moving the center of mass and the center of pressure throughout his backswing:

 

 

 

The faded grip is the good one. The red one is tragic and literally almost never see that. The more solid one is not very good IMO, and yet very common. The more solid one you can't get pressure down with the heel pad either, because the heel pad is too far on the side of the grip.

Posted a 

 

On 6/11/2024 at 4:32 PM, nikos74 said:

If the weight starts off from setup at the heels then it has to be maintained that way through-out the swing.  Moving it to the center of the feet or toes later on moves the body closer to the ball and the hosel or heel will make contact. 

 

Also the hips are out of sync with the shoulders and arms in that they move earlier and faster.  Rotation is pretty good though.

So this throws me off-- I def agree that I appear out of sync--but I was always taught hips first on downswing--it is certainly possible (and more likely than not) I am mis applying this though

[GungHoGolf]

Looks like your weight is still back at setup, then you come about 2” off your initial tush line at impact.

 

You turn your pelvis by moving the left hip forwards on the backswing, then your right hip forwards on the downswing–which is what takes you closer to the ball. This is backwards… it should be mostly right hip back on backswing, then left hip back to match it on downswing.

 

This video elaborates:

 

[MonteScheinblum]

Right hip firing too early and too hard.

[nikos74]

16 minutes ago, Tyler_is_Rippi said:

Posted a 

 

So this throws me off-- I def agree that I appear out of sync--but I was always taught hips first on downswing--it is certainly possible (and more likely than not) I am mis applying this though

The forces needed to perform the golf swing come from the ground(pressure shift) and move upward to the hands at the end.  The hips are impacted before the shoulders are, but the hips move about half as much as the shoulders do, 45 degrees and 90 degrees respectively.  That means shoulders need to move about twice as fast as the hips do to stay in sync. The arms attached to the shoulders are active but not dominant; they go along for the ride.

 

Don't consciously think about what comes first when swinging the club, think about moving all body parts simultaneously.

[KD1]

54 minutes ago, Tyler_is_Rippi said:

So this throws me off-- I def agree that I appear out of sync--but I was always taught hips first on downswing--it is certainly possible (and more likely than not) I am mis applying this though

 

"The hips lead in the downswing, but the arms are only .02 seconds behind. Since most golfers leave their arms way behind in the downswing, and because I have never seen a golfer who didn’t already lead with the hips automatically, trying to start the downswing with the arms is often a really good goal. You will still lead with the hips but you will also cut down on the gap between hips and arms." - @MonteScheinblum

https://www.instagram.com/p/CxJn9o2Peqi/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

 

[KD1]

48 minutes ago, nikos74 said:

The arms attached to the shoulders are active but not dominant; they go along for the ride.

 

Don't consciously think about what comes first when swinging the club, think about moving all body parts simultaneously.

 

Respectfully, this personally causes me to leave the arms behind and hit shanks.

[Kai Slater]

On 6/11/2024 at 12:33 PM, FormerBigDaddy said:

One quick fix that always works for me if I'm in a bind and I'm about to tee off...

 

Try to intentionally hit the toe.

Agree with this 100%.  This basically cured a case of the shanks that I had back in the day.  At my set up, I'll address the ball on the toe of my irons.  

[Tinkerer]

Ive been there the last month or so, played twice on the weekend only one shank but other problems happen when that’s in the head! My fault was bringing the club back too far inside, rather than pulling back straight and keeping it “more in front”. Essentially a straighter right arm on backswing and a drill with a smaller soccer ball between my forearms to develop initial muscle memory. I’d been playing ok prior, too much tinkering I suspect!

 

Good luck, I feel the pain!

[GoGoErky]

3 hours ago, KD1 said:

 

Respectfully, this personally causes me to leave the arms behind and hit shanks.

As it does for most people. Some keep posting bad info and act like it’s helpful

 

The arms aren’t along for a ride and that is old outdated thinking, but some will never change their beliefs despite how much data shows they are wrong. 

Edited Monday at 11:44 PM by GoGoErky

[iacas]

5 hours ago, GungHoGolf said:

Looks like your weight is still back at setup, then you come about 2” off your initial tush line at impact.

 

You turn your pelvis by moving the left hip forwards on the backswing, then your right hip forwards on the downswing–which is what takes you closer to the ball. This is backwards… it should be mostly right hip back on backswing, then left hip back to match it on downswing.

 

Yup.