Shanks!

[shortgamewiz]

Devoted the last 6 months of my golf life to short game practice, and mainly trying to understand and execute Stan Utley's techniques. I had been happy enough with my long game and my distance and consistency, but was sick of not scoring any better for many many years.. perpetually stuck in the low 80s barrier.

So for about 6 months I averaged probably at least an hour per day of short game practice, overall. I didn't playl. Occasional driving range to make sure my long shots were still ok. Usually I would head over to the practice area in a public course near my house, in the AM before work, and then sneak again over there at lunch, for another session. Logistically I was lucky in that it's easy for me to get over there.

Yeah, that's a lot of practice. Some days I would skip, but I would go more often then not. I was able to grasp, absorb and improve my facility with Utley's various methods for chipping, pitching, putting, bunker and recovery. I read all his books and watched all his golf channel and youtube vids over and over again, religiously.

My technique improved. I often would find myself looking like a genius on the pratice area. But I started having a problem. It usually started when I would move to working on slightly longer pitch shots from tighter lies. I would start shanking-- often combined alternatively with fat shots. Horrible!!

It started to become a very consistent pattern... I would get to the practice area, hit a bunch of great shots and then at some point start shanking. I would gradually deteriorate, shanking more and more until I would eventually stumble on something that would make them go away, I'd hit great shots again and feel like a hero once more. I would think it was licked, only to have it return again, the very next day, usually as soon as I started trying the tougher lies again. Frustrating!!

Very very frustrating. Started to get me thinking about throwing in the towel. One who shanks doesn't deserve to play golf! The dreaded shank!! Most golfers don't even want to say the word!

I developed all sorts of theories as to what was causing them: 'Pitching from tight lies is hard and causes tension, and the tension makes me flinch and shank.' or 'I get tired and my swing stops working' or..'i'm too old (48) and golf is just too hard', or.. 'my setup is wrong, Im too closed, and if I try to swing on a single plane (i.e. flat) as utley advocates, then I'm misaligned and at that point I have to shank.'

I started laying down a club as a reference point for my allignment, and that helped, but wasn't a cure. They returned after I would stop using the club.

I firmed up my grip and left arm and increased my arm swing length somewhat and that seemed to help, but ultimately I knew that was a bandaid and sure enough they came back.

Finally I saw that they weren't going away completely. I would need to come to terms with them, or just stop playing. Then I started to think more about shanks in general, and decided that shanks had a bad rep that was undeserved; I convinced myself that a shank was no better or worse than a fat or thin shot, just different. An unfairly categorized mis hit. That kind of thinking oddly seemed to help and reduce the tension or whatever it was that was causing them to begin with, but they still didn't go away completely, and clearly I wasn't going to be breaking 80 very much with them being so "abundant".

Finally I decided that my only hope was to take it a step further. I decided I would truly welcome the shanks. I borrowed a method that I got from Tim Gallwey's golf book that I read long ago, called "welcoming the yips". Sure enough when I really allowed myself to shank and really started to feel and focus on what was actually going on, something really cool happened: I started focusing on the heel of my wedge. Without trying to control it, I just focused on it, to see what it was doing exactly. Then it happened: I felt myself leaning in towards the ball slightly during the process of the swing. And as soon as I became aware of it, the instability felt really noticable-- like a big ship teetering in the waves.

The cure seemed clear.. stop doing that leaning thing!! It made sense that the leaning could cause both shankin and the fat shots. But I knew from the inner game book that trying to avoid something doesn't nessesarily make it go away, and often strengthens it. So I focused instead on expressing stability during the swing, and kept on focusing on the heel of the club, and just noticing whether I leaned in or not and how much, without trying to control it.

Well-- in short, Bingo. No more shanks. I'm happy to report that I've been doing much better the last few days, and 'they' are being held at bay. I'm feeling much more confident now and I even think I'm getting ready to play again. Will keep you posted as to my progress. Dang shanks!

[sherwoodnatl]

Well-- in short, Bingo. No more shanks. I'm happy to report that I've been doing much better the last few days, and 'they' are being held at bay. I'm feeling much more confident now and I even think I'm getting ready to play again. Will keep you posted as to my progress. Dang shanks!

I had a similar situation over the summer...played alot and got shanks. I took a week off and played again and...POOOF. The shanks disappear. I think part of it is confidence and another part is overplaying. Playing so much made my swing out of sync and it took a week of no golf to fix...but hey. Whatever works

[zenchili]

Good job getting that fixed.

If that was happenening to me I would probably have taken a different approach. Here is what I would have done.

Since you would start out hitting a lot of good shots than start shanking, I would stop practicing after those few good shots to start off with. I would then work on putting or hit the driving range. See when you stop and you're doing well, that's what you remember. If you had 20 practice sessions in a row where you did this and had no shanks how would you have felt. I bet you would have felt a lot better.

Building up this confidence would have helped you. But that's just how I would have done it. I'm glad you figured things out. Keep us posted on your progress.

[shortgamewiz]

thanks for those comments, and for reading my diatribe! I actually did use the switching up method, and the taking a break method -- and they always work. I often switched to chipping, which I've become very comfortable with, and then after a while return to pitching. And I would always try to end the session on a positive note. More often than not, in the process I would come up with something that banished them and I would always then think they were conquered. But then they would come back at some point down the road. And when they returned it always confounded me how crippling it was!! I would so quickly lose all confidence. I don't remember ever having this sort of problem when I used to work on my full swing. So I really wanted to get to the bottom of it. Funny, after writing that original essay I realized that I didn't do everything I could have, in terms of inner game work, and I had more to do.. and that was identifying more precisely exactly where in my swing the imbalance was occurring. I seem to think that it is sort of half way through my back swing, but it would help to really be able to feel that.

As an update the new awareness is still working and I just had a hero session on the practice area again. Life is good !!! Happy Holidays!!

[walk18]

Been there. I'm not the type of person to just take a break and hope they don't come back though. The way I see it if I didn't find the cause and solution there would be nothing to stop it from coming back. Eventually I figured out to address the ball more on the toe. That, along with good posture solved it for me.

[pbillaa]

I have been fighting this for some time. I live in Minnesota and am now hitting balls in the golf dome. Every time i try a 50 yard pitch i shank it. It makes it impossible to practice, I have walked out on a full bucket more than once. I notice that all of the posters on this thread have a similar HI. Is there anything to that? Why is this happening? I can't remember shanking a ball on the course, only at the range..... WHY?????

[kevin.chan]

shortgamewiz

I have the same problem after i read Stans book on The Art Of Putting & Short Game.

Like you did, I leaned too much towards the ball without realizing . I used to have very decent short game and when suddenly the SHANK start to kick in , i really lost my confidence.

Now the shank is gone .

[thrasher]

Really weird, I was having this problem at the end of the summer when I really started ramping up my short game practice. Sometimes 1.5-2 hours per day. I also found that I would lean in and/or stand too close to the ball, presumably because it gave me better feel. Now I concentrate on maintaining a good, solid stance at a set distance from the ball and I haven't shanked one in probably 3 months or so.

[shortgamewiz]

I have been fighting this for some time. I live in Minnesota and am now hitting balls in the golf dome. Every time i try a 50 yard pitch i shank it. It makes it impossible to practice, I have walked out on a full bucket more than once. I notice that all of the posters on this thread have a similar HI. Is there anything to that? Why is this happening? I can't remember shanking a ball on the course, only at the range..... WHY?????

Dude.. I hear you. I feel your pain. I couldn't figure it out either. And I've been playing this game for ever. All I can say is check out "Inner Game of Golf" and the part where he talks about the 'yips'. I'll try to summarize it but reading Tim Gallwey's version would be awesome if you could do it.

The first step, insane as it sounds, is to stop trying to avoid them. You have to completely accept them, allow them to occur, and yes, actually try to shank it (or maybe more precisely, don't try not to shank it?). Let yourself shank, and shank again. This obviously is a tall order for most. It might mean completely letting go of all pride for a while. Yes-- others might see you shanking. A lot. But who gives a flying facunda??!?!!

Ok, so here you are, shanking away, fully allowing those buggers to exist in your life, completely unfettered.

Then-- see if you notice anything at all in your swing, if anything comes to your attention. Anything at all. No matter how small or seemingly insignificant. It could be in the setup, allignment, backswing, change in direction, finish.. anything at all.

The idea is, if we get out of our own way sufficiently, we have an amazing resource at our disposal, in our own selves for discovering both the cause and the cure to this sort of problem.

So, at this point, just keep noticing things and keep on allowing yourself to shank. When I got to this part I found myself focusing on the clubhead's heel, probably because I know that that's where the shank shot makes its contact, but you might be drawn to some other aspect of the process.

At that point, don't try to control what ever it is you notice... just keep feeling it and noting more information about it.

That's it. Once you can fully feel what is happening, it should become self guided in terms of correction.

This might take a few sessions on different days to fully sink in.. so don't get upset if it doesn't work the first time.

The two biggest obstacles to this method working are:

1) shame/fear of letting go of control ... so, it's best to do this alone but if there are other people there and your in a short game practice area, make sure no one is standing near you to your right (!) Also, you're gonna have to let go of what other people think when you shank away so get used to the idea before you even start, and make up your mind that's what your gonna do.
2) trying to combine this with another technique, tip or method. Yes, I'm afraid this stuff doesn't work if it's diluted. You need to be completely pure in intent. It might help here to be at your wits end like I was I think to be willing to try all this mumbo jumbo to begin with but that's another story.

Crazy, I know.. but it will work if you can force yourself to really do it completely in earnest.

Good luck.