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Date Posted: 21:31:38 07/04/08 Fri
Author: matt french
Subject: shanking

was hitting my 1iron's very well down to par most of the time,
but the shanks started today , cost me 10 strokes.
years ago i gave up the game because of this...any help...m

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Replies:

[> Re: shanking -- Marc J, 18:09:50 07/05/08 Sat

Usually means your either too close to ball or moving forward (closer to ball) during downswing. try putting weight just back of balls of feet or standing half a step away from ball. Also clubpath is a little to inside


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[> Me too - here's what I'm working on -- Kelly, 20:27:58 07/06/08 Sun

Hi Matt.

The heal strike is my most common miss. It takes very little change in my swing to turn this into a bout of the shanks (this is particularly true of my wedges - 1 Iron wedges or otherwise). I have suffered a really bad bout of the shanks in the past month, so I feel your pain. I lost about $20 to a friend on the course two weeks ago; I shanked about 15 shots during the round. When I paid him the money he said, "Shank you very much."

Apparently there are a few different causes for a shank, so a single diagnosis and fix is difficult. I have three swing tendencies, all of which lead to a heal strike. Any one of them can lead to a case of the shanks, so I work through each of them one at a time in the hopes of finding the problem. I don't work with all of them at the same time because this can be WAY to many things to think about.

1. The first thing I check is to make sure that I am balanced in the swing. I have a tendency to fall forward onto the toes. I do two thing to try and combat this. I pretend that I am standing on a loose gravel path, which demands that you remain quiet in your lower body. I consciously try to "sit" a bit more at address, and feel the weight spread more evenly across the souls of my feet. and to keep this feeling through the swing. I think that this promotes better balance and weight distribution during the swing. (By the way, I find this very uncomfortable, but it seems to help my ball contact.)

2. The second thing I check is my swing plane. I have a tendency to take the club back inside, which results in being really flat at the top. I find this quite comfortable and it can really create some good power. However, it is also difficult to square the club face at impact from this position. Currently, I'm concentrating on taking the club back lower and more along the line, and getting my hands into a better position at the top (including a slight pause, which, again, is very uncomfortable for me).

3. Finally, I concentrate on not letting my hands get away from my body on the downswing. I will sometimes let my hands "fly out" and around, rather than keeping the right elbow tucked, and keeping my hands inside. I visited one guy's website in my quest to get rid of the shanks and he describe the downward move as imagining that you are driving a stake into the ground. I have been having some success with this visualization, though I have to concentrate on not dipping my right shoulder or I hit it fat. (I also have to really concentrate on releasing the hands or else I block it right.)

Another thing to think about is aligning the ball toward the toe of the club. This is something I have done ever since my golf instructor found (using impact tape) that I was consistently striking the ball toward the heal. David Lake suggests (I think in his book) extending your arms straight out to establish where you will make contact. I have had some success doing this and have incorporated this into my regimen at address. I extend my arms for just a second or so to establish the distance to the ball, and then drop my hands back into my address position. This results in a toe address. I seem to be making good contact with this approach.

Finally, I think as much as anything, like all shankers, my worst tendency when having a shank problem is to picture shank when I'm standing over the ball (I have went as far as to tell people standing to the right of me to stand back). Jack Nicklaus said that he never took a swing before he saw and felt the perfect shot in his head. You tend to create the swing you imagine. Unfortunately, when you are fighting the shanks, a shank is the shot image you have. Voila. Much of golf is played between the ears. When I was fighting shanks with my wedges about a year ago, I went out and bought the F2 56 degree wedge (I subsequently bought their 52 and 60 degree wedge). I loved them because they took shank out of the equation. I played them for awhile and then went back to my regular wedges and the shanks were gone (actually, I'm not even sure why I put them away because they are pretty nice wedges). Nothing changed in my swing, I just didn't think about shanks anymore. It was totally a confidence/psychological thing.

P.S. I put these last two thoughts as an addendum because I have never had any luck with them, but maybe you will. Both get at the psychological aspect of shanking. I had a friend who taught golf and he said that whenever anyone came to him with a shank problem he would bet them that they couldn't shank a shot for him. He told me that most of them couldn't. Along the same lines, a website I read said to align the ball with the hozel and try to shank the shot. It claims that your body/mind won't let you do it. (I actually tried this and didn't shank it, but I'm not sure what this did for me. I was just afraid that I would be successful.) As I say, I just put this here for your interest. I'm not sure there is any value to it.


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[> [> Re: Me too - here's what I'm working on -- matt french, 19:01:09 07/07/08 Mon

Kelly, thanks fore [pardon the pun] all your useful information, the shanks had me give up the game 5 years. when i go bad i really go bad. i will give all this in fo a try...god bless...m


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[> Re: shanking -- Joe (retired guy), 10:43:58 07/07/08 Mon

in my opinion, two things cause the shanks - standing too close or not getting your left shoulder under your chin on the backswing. good luck.


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[> Re: shanking -- matt french, 19:53:43 07/12/08 Sat

read Kellys reply, was coming to far to the inside. caught it on tape, shanks are gone. [thanks Kelly] had my first par round, i believe this is because of the 1 iron system.
THANKS TO YOU DAVID LAKE!...m


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