5 minute read
October’s Tip of the Month Breaking the Shank Curse
BY RYAN WILLIAMS PLAYER DEVELOPMENT PROFESSIONAL
We’ve all done it. You address the ball. The feel for the shot is there. You make a beautiful turn in the backswing and get ready to deliver the club for the strike. As you hit the ball and turn to see where the ball went, a terrible sensation rings up the shaft. Something is horribly wrong. When you pick the ball’s flight, you see it’s going nearly 90 degrees to the right. Then, the realization sets in that you hit the ball off the hosel. Let’s just say it, you shanked it.
Cheech Marin’s character in the classic golf film, “Tin Cup,” famously said, “The shanks are like a virus. They just show up.” Not to disparage one of my favorite movies, but I wholeheartedly disagree with his notion of a helpless lack of awareness and that all one can do is pray them away or doubleknot his left shoe or turn is hat around backwards. There are concrete technical elements that cause shanks. I call them Shank 1.0, Shank 2.0, Shank 3.0. The students that I see struggling with heel and hosel strikes fit at least one version, but it is common for the issue to a be combination thereof. My goal for this month’s tip is to eradicate the mystery get rid of your shanks forever, heaven forbid you catch the dreaded virus.
Shank 1.0:
When I was younger, I always found it odd that better players struggled with shanks more than higher handicappers. In particular, young and talented junior golfers could be very prone to strikes near the inside part of the club. With these players, a shank comes from getting excessively “stuck.” This when the lower body outraces the hands and arms to the finish and the arms are trapped behind the body with no place to go but too far out away from the body, thus moving the strike more toward the heel.
These players often need to feel that their lower bodies are much more stable while their hands and arms win the race. This was a feel Tiger Woods played some of the best golf of his career employing. The drill that I feel works best for this is to go to the top of the backswing, pause for a two-count, and then gently swing down.
Shank 2.0
The second version of a shank is caused by the player posturing the ball with too much bend in the waste thus getting their weight too far out on their toes. This causes an “over-the-top” move where the player swipes at the ball from outside-to-in to such a degree that the ball is struck off the hosel. Unfortunately for the player, he or she will often move farther away from the ball at address which only gets their weight farther on the toes and necessitates the swipey move even more. In other words, the natural quick fix of moving farther away only “feeds the beast,” as Dr. Greg Rose from the Titleist Performance Institute says.
These players need to stand taller and closer in what I’ll often describe as a “free throw posture;” most feel their weight is much more on their heels when first doing so. I also will often use avoidance drills with this type of shanker in which I’ll put headcovers down around the ball at such an angle that a path that is more inside out is encouraged.
Shank 3.0
The third version has to with a certain condition at address or a lack of turn in the backswing. That certain condition is when the shoulders and hips are open at address, thus creating a “lack of room” for the hands, arms, and club to get back in front of the body. That “lack of room” can also be created by lack of turn in the pelvis or hips away from the target in the backswing.
Fixing address is easy (relatively). A more neutral grip and getting the shoulder, hip, and feet alignments less left (for a right-handed player) goes a long way toward getting the strikes to the center of the club. Improving backswing pivots are trickier and more dependent on the flexibility and athleticism of the player. That said, if it becomes obvious for whatever reason that the player cannot functionally turn deep enough in the backswing with their hips, I will often have them play shots with the right foot back away from the target line. This creates the necessary “room” for the hands, arms, and club to back in front of the body.
Hopefully, we shed some light on the mystery of the shanks and your days of helplessness are behind you! If you’d like clarification on this topic’ or any other for that matter, please reach out to me or stop me any time! Have a great October!
