Shanking the Ball

I wanted to circle back to this thread to provide an update.

Since posting the above, I did a lot of study on shanking and the causes. What I found in my case is an excessive in to out path. I thought at one point I was coming over the top, but since then I checked my swing and found I was getting too flat in the backswing. Or, I took the club back on a flatter plane, THEN laid it off even more to start the downswing. That move sends the club outwards. Since then, I have worked on trying to shank and yep, that's the easiest way for me to shank. I can stand on the range and shank all day...LOL.

The fix for me is backswing extension, and extension to the point I feel like the buttons on my shirt are pointing to the sky. As such, my swing plane is steeper, and the club shaft is now over my trail shoulder at the top, or just slightly flatter than being directly over from a down the line view. From that position I naturally want to shallow the club because it's starting from a steeper position. Conversely, starting from a flatter position without extension led to an even flatter swing. That flatter swing also contaminated my short game shots.

My new feel is the club shaft is my buttons point to the sky, and the shaft is "over my head" at the top because videos show the shaft over, or nearly over, my trail shoulder. The only way to get to that position is by extending during the backswing, at least for me. Plus, I've gained a ton of driver distance with extension, and +10-15 yards with irons. And my angle of attack is now back to taking bacon strip divots.

Hope this helps others.

@Russell Hogue, PhD - That's a pretty slick on-course tactic with the cigar. I love it! Are your playing partners/opponents on to you yet???....😆

@GolfLivesMatter I went through this when I first started golfing…it got bad. I completely cured the issue because I had a 3D swing analyzer. I went to the range and hit a bullet. Then the next shot, rattled off the peeler. Well, I had both shots on a swing track. They looked identical. What? How could that be? First shot pure as I can hit it. Second, shank. That’s when I realized, it had NOTHING to do with my swing. Nothing. Simply put, path moves out toward ball about 1/2 inch and you got it. From centered to peeled. Now, almost every time I go to to the range, I place something just outside my ball. Usually, I just drop a headcover 1 inch outside the ball. Hit the ball from inside and miss The cover….pure as can be. Swing over it, hit headcover…shank. On the course. If I feel it coming on, I might throw my cigar down just outside the ball…as long as path is good, the bad shot won’t happen. Regardless of if your path is too in to out or too out to in…this drill can fix it.

Update on shanks. #1, I "say shank" now and really don't give a crap because the shank is not some mysterious anomaly that is impossible to control, it's mostly due to bad weight distribution and lousy shoulder turn.

Shot back to back 78's recently, with several stupid putts. No shanks. What I found is I was taking the club too low and wide on the backswing. I have yet to see an online video that addresses this as a potential problem. But it was my problem. The shoulder turn backswing gets the club up more quickly, and that turn keeps my weight stacked over the ball. The low and wider backswing shifts too much weight to the trail foot. From that position, the right knee and right hip "wants" to kick-out towards the ball.

@GolfLivesMatter if you could summarize in a few words the shank cure what would it be?

Yep - like a ticking time bomb. A little bit of a pull. Then a little bit thin. A hint of a block. And then....CLANK! WTF was that?????? And then your well described death spiral begins....

Sh**k Monster Update. Range Yesterday. 240 balls. No sh**ks. Impact tape on face of irons showed dead center hits 95% of the time. Day before yesterday....sh**ked every other shot.

Culprit found...and it's the same old underlying swing fault, just repackaged...I was "faked out" AGAIN by the crafty swing demons!!! The positive aspect about sh**king is it forced me to go back to basics. That said, I believed everything I thought was causing the sh**ks would fix the sh**ks. It can be a perilous journey if the fixes are added to a faulty foundation.

After shanking almost every ball during range sessions thru last Saturday, I hit the range yesterday and hit 240 balls without a sh**k. That didn't happen on it's own, and IMO, thank goodness the shanks just didn't "go away" because then I would never know when, or why they might come back in the future. So here's a quick story that I hope might help others because sh**king is a progressive, final bad outcome, spawned by what I now know to be gradual departures from the primary "must have" movements prescribed in S&T.

Upon reviewing notes on my phone, I was working on getting my left shoulder under my chin prior to the sh**ks. Good idea...nothing wrong with that. Even recently, I was still blaming the sh**ks on my left shoulder movement, or not doing it "well enough", and then I also blamed my right foot heel lift up movement on the downswing. I'd go to the range thinking fixing these two things will end the sh**ks. Not. I was lost at that point. I even thought I might be rolling my wrists or taking the club back too far inside, but even after checking those positions the sh**ks continued. Now I'm going insane.

Then yesterday I got in front of a mirror to check my positions. I didn't see any major problem in the mirror. But then I found out something that the mirror could not detect, or a possible root cause of the sh**ks. During this session (no club, just movement) found I had at least 60% of my weight on my right side at the top, maybe even 70%. Worse, the weight was not inside my right foot which can at least act like an anchor, it migrated to the outside of my right foot. I could see my right foot (bare feet) actually twisting outward on the floor. Then I did a down the line look and saw my left knee move backwards and my right knee moving forward on the downswing...what's called a "scissors" move that is REALLY bad because that throws the club outward in the death zone.

The gradual migration of weight drift to the right side is VERY subtle if left unchecked. Here's why: While working on the "left shoulder down" movement, I didn't realize I was getting my left shoulder down by moving to the right to get it down. I could see my head moving about 2-3 inches to the right which means the weight of my head, shoulders, arms, etc, was moving over my right knee. My right side was actually supporting a LOT of weight. No wonder why I was sh**king every ball on the range...there was no way to recover...unless I got lucky. The migration occurs because my brain/body is still used to shifting to the right. I keep thinking I've beat the demons but the movement sneaks back little by little. This is why exaggerations of movements in the opposite direction are so important. So I went to the range and exaggerated my weight distribution to the left side.

First, I went back to watch Tom's takeaway videos (positions, etc) to level set on the basics, like playing scales on the piano, then I hit the range. The first thing I did was turn the left shoulder under the chin....check....but this time my weight was 80/20, even 90/10 at the top, or so much so that I could actually lift my right foot off the ground at the top. The other interesting discovery is my right foot started to "pre-roll" or "pre-bank" at the top because there was very little weight on my right foot, and also likely due to the tilting towards the target (feel) at the top which can slightly tilt the right foot into a banked position. Hmmm. Tom teaches the right foot banking movement but if I'm on my right side there's no chance of that happening, or if I add that movement WITH the bad weight distribution all hell would break loose...LOL. Plus, many instructors utilize right foot back swing drills (even for conventional swings) to emphasize hitting off the lead side. Now I understand why, and hitting off the lead side is "S&T 101".

Warning Signs. Prior to sh**king, I saw various early warning signs of something going wrong, but I couldn't put 2 + 2 together, and instead I just thought I was having an "off day", or I blamed some movement that had no bearing on the real problem...that's when things got worse. I'd hit massive push shots, sweeping 9 iron hooks, fat shots and thin shots...they all started to appear gradually, or one in every 20 shots to every 18, then 15, etc. What I didn't realize is while I was working on the left shoulder under my chin move I was actually doing it wrong and destroying my swing. I now understand that the onset of weird shots is likely NOT due to a "bad day", but more likely due to an erosion of a basic tenant of S&T.

But the good news is I now understand that the primary cause for bad shots are symptoms of moving off the ball to the right which is a huge battle for me, not so much a "bad day". I also think other folks do not realize how much they are getting on their right side, either early during the takeaway or later at the top because it's VERY subtle. Head movement to the right is SO easy to do if left unchecked. Plus, body parts and the head are heavy and thus when they get moving to the right all bets are off. As stated, my new checkpoint is to see if my right foot can be fairly easily lifted off the ground at the top. An exaggeration that will have to be an exaggeration until it becomes the new norm.

Well, here's an update about eliminating sh*&$king. I did some videos of my swing with the main focus upon getting my left shoulder under my chin...check. Then I went to the range and still shanked balls. So I went home and ran about 2 hours of total video working on various backswings and how they might impact the downswing. I believed I fixed the problem by (again) getting my left shoulder under my chin. Then I went out to play and sh*$%ed again. WTH?

So upon review of the videos I suddenly discovered the main problem and a secondary problem. First, my right heel was coming up off the ground at the start of the downswing, throwing the club outward. Then I went back over some old notes and found a Cogorno video about right foot movement for which the right foot banks or rolls left on the downswing.

The secondary fix was getting the club up to the top vs. low and around on the backswing. I have a habit of transferring weight to my right side and that movement pushes my weight to the right, and also sends the club deep behind me. I think my right heel moved up to throw the club back out in front of me. For the first time in weeks I actually hit draws again. The key for me is keeping the club out in front of the hands mid way back, or the club face feels like it's pointed at the ball on the way back. If someone has a flat swing this will "feel" steep.

Thanks Tom. After some eyes closed drills to feel my weight movement on my feet in the backswing, I think I found the problem. During the initial takeaway my left shoulder is moving out towards target line. In my experiment with my eyes closed, I can feel my weight transferring to the balls of both my left and right foot upon takeaway. If I simply turn the left shoulder down my weight stays back towards my heels up to the top. I believe the weight mass of my left shoulder moving towards the target line transferred my weight (or shifted my weight) towards target line (out of balance position). Plus, with the left shoulder moving towards target line I have no doubt that move created a flat backswing.

The right knee straight at address video you linked is a great idea, and it would definitely help provided I don't thrust my left shoulder out towards the ball on the takeaway. I think the shanks will actually help me in the future to understand what not to do. LOL.

@GolfLivesMatter - Have you confirmed through this diagnostic video that your issue is not related to the downswing path being too shallow? This can definitely cause shanks and blocks. If this is a potential culprit then there are a few drills immediately following related to Downswing "Problem #2" in the Fixing Common Swing Problems section.

With regard to your flexed right knee, here is a video in the school specific to the presetting that straightened trail leg. I call this the "Elkington Setup" because Steve Elkington played some Tour events that way when he was learning S&T. That fact alone should tell you that it's fine to use and you will not have any power loss.

I hope this helps!