The Shanks, myth or mystery

[Duffy]

Hi All,

You may recall a recent thread I posted about the shanks and how I had a really really bad case of them. Well. They went away. What the hell is this thing they call the shanks? Mystery? Myth? Illness? Idiocy? Went to the driving range with my pro to get straightened out and to my surprize, I was hitting solid shots for the first time in weeks and it still cost me 80 bucks for the lesson. Remember Ian Baker Finch and his case of the shanks? It got so bad that nobody wanted to be paired with him for fear of catching what ever he had that gave him the shanks. It continues to be a mystery to me. It showed up and then left just as abruptly as it came.
It may sound odd but I think it's about time we started researching this phenomonom. We may be able to get a federal research grant devoted to curing this dread diease.

[James_Black]

what are "the shanks"?
When you shank a shot?
or is it nerves?

[shortstop20]

I'm scared just from reading this thread. The shanks spread faster than radiation.

[kris]

good lord, I hope I don't catch them just from reading this thread.

[kfowler]

I had the shanks early in the season. Took some lessons. Turns out I had too much of my weight on the balls of my feet. During the down swing, unless I timed it right, I would basically fall toward the ball causing the "shank". Drove me nuts.

End the end I think shanks are caused by a variety of things. Why they come and go is the same reason your swing is on one day and off the other. So many moving parts.

[James_Black]

Oh.
Now I know what your talking about.

Recently I've been shanking my iron shots out of bounds.
It's really embarrassing when you hit a 250 yard drive and than can't hit your next shot.

[Smoke]

Read "The Little Red Book" by Harvey Penick
In it he has solutions for nearly every golf sickness
including the dreaded s-word

[MiniMoe]

are they as bad as the swine flu? Don't cough on me.

[motsco]

Id rather have the flu then the shanks!

I have had the -S- with my irons latley, I even put tape on my irons to see where the ball met the club face. IF YOUR SCARED LOOK AWAY NOW!: The ball was dead center of the club face! on what i felt was a very good swing, that ball went streight to the right. WTF?????

this weekend I got my irons good, better then good, My wood game is now suffering from the S.

I think I will take my woods out of the bag until they heal, dont want my irons to catch the S again.

its wierd.

[Lefty-Golfer]

This thread should be banned and you should be removed from the forum for posting it.

[Duffy]

Hi All, Lefty may be correct. I didn't realize how dreaded it was to even mention the S word, let alone create a thread dedicated to it. I'll try to use better judgment in the future. How bout a thread on putt pulling?

[shortstop20]

Id rather have the flu then the shanks!

The clubface must be dead open if you are hitting the ball in the middle of the face but the ball is going off to the right. That's not called a shank by the way, that's a "fan shot".

[ISC03]

I just went through it for the past month, couldn't hit anything good.
Went through everything in my swing all the way to the basics trying to
figure it out....nothing....Then just as easy as it came, I went out the other
day and was hitting everything just fine. Its extremely frustrating.

[Lefty-Golfer]

Hi All, Lefty may be correct. I didn't realize how dreaded it was to even mention the S word, let alone create a thread dedicated to it. I'll try to use better judgment in the future.

I have no problem with putt pulling....pushing them out to the left....time after time...hole after hole....ready to break putter over muy head...I don't know anything about that either

[RS22]

There was a guy on my golf team in junior college who was our #1 player the first year and the second year he got the shanks so bad. He was shooting 88s consistently in college tournaments and at state he made a 12 on a hole and we had to keep his score. If he would have made an 11 there would have been a playoff, 10 we would have advanced.

I just never understood how you couldn't just stand farther away from the ball if you are shanking it. A shank is hitting the ball off the hozzle so if thats the problem, step back a little bit and hit it off the toe. It's better than shooting a ball directly to the right (left for us leftys) into a house.

[jake_h]

i have them now (hosel rockets)... if i remember correctly, some time ago i found that moving the ball a little closer fixed it, strangely enough. nothing worked for me at the range the other day, not even putting the ball a good 4 inches further out from where i normally place it.

i really don't think it's much about ball position at all, otherwise it would be an easy fix.

it makes me want to swear really loudly when it happens.. and of course the anger and tension build-up is just awesome..

[Andrew Rice]

Shanks are caused by the arms and thus the clubhead being further from the body at impact than at address. One of the worst things a shanker can do is to get further from the ball - this just accentuates the arms getting away from the body.
I would recommend that you move closer, strengthen your grip (this will help to square the face coming into impact) and hit balls with an empty Gatorade bottle - back from and just outside the ball. In order to miss the bottle you'll need to approach the ball from the inside a little more.
Give it a try!

[jake_h]

thanks a lot for that.. i will give that a try. it has crept in and a couple of weeks ago i had a lesson and the coach was getting me to move the ball away and address it right on the toe.. this is contrary to what i found myself a few years ago that by moving the ball closer i fixed it myself.

by far the best fix, in my opinion, is something that you find yourself on the range.. as long as you have a good swing and an understanding of the fundamentals of the swing (which i do).

but i'm not the type to argue with my coach and tell him he's teaching me the wrong thing.

you gotta love this game... you really do!