Addressing the ball question...looks weird but works. Opinions please

[avantix]

Hi everyone,

new member here. I've been playing golf for about 20 years and there's been some ups and downs. I'm a 14 handicap and have been fighting the shanks all year. My clubhead ALWAYS wanders further than my starting position which ends up with a hosel strike. I've tried everything and while one fix would make them go away they would inevitably crop back in. All I had to do what think about shanking a ball and I could do it on command albeit unwillingly. So here's where it gets a little weird. Recently I started addressing the ball normally with proper distance although the clubhead would be INSIDE of the ball at adress. I would then swing normally while always focusing on an invisible ball on the inside of my ball never actually looking at the ball.

Result is a pure strike each and every time with my normal distances. Anyone ever hear of this? I'm worried if I keep doing this it may make things worse down the road. 

[pganapathy]

Am assuming inside means on the left side of the ball for a right hander.  If that is so, how do you take the club in your backswing without touching the ball.  Provided you can repeat the same shot everytime and you have pure strikes, keep doing it.

[iacas]

10 minutes ago, pganapathy said:

Am assuming inside means on the left side of the ball for a right hander.  If that is so, how do you take the club in your backswing without touching the ball.  Provided you can repeat the same shot everytime and you have pure strikes, keep doing it.

I think inside means toward his feet.

[avantix]

Yes I mean inside towards my feet, an imaginary ball stuck on my real ball except on the inside towards my feet. I also had a tendency of releasing early that I could never get over. I've noticed that by swinging towards an imaginary ball located closer to my body it subconsciously forces me to come in from the inside out producing a draw on 95% of the shots and increased distance due to lag being held longer. I used impact tape to see where I was striking the ball using this new address position and it's slightly just inside of the sweet spot 50% of the time and dead on the other 50%. If I forget to address the inside it's an occasional shank.

Maybe I'm on to something here?

[collapse]

1 hour ago, avantix said:

Hi everyone,

new member here. I've been playing golf for about 20 years and there's been some ups and downs. I'm a 14 handicap and have been fighting the shanks all year. My clubhead ALWAYS wanders further than my starting position which ends up with a hosel strike. I've tried everything and while one fix would make them go away they would inevitably crop back in. All I had to do what think about shanking a ball and I could do it on command albeit unwillingly. So here's where it gets a little weird. Recently I started addressing the ball normally with proper distance although the clubhead would be INSIDE of the ball at adress. I would then swing normally while always focusing on an invisible ball on the inside of my ball never actually looking at the ball.

Result is a pure strike each and every time with my normal distances. Anyone ever hear of this? I'm worried if I keep doing this it may make things worse down the road. 

 

If I understand this correctly ,the clubhead at address is closer to your feet than the ball,the ball being outside the clubhead.This being a normal address position otherwise.....sorry,very odd sounding.Fixes like this (bandaids) are not the route to go IMO.I can only guess that at address your weight may be more on your heels which I have found to work for awhile...a Johnny Miller W.O.O.D swing-works only one day.I have found gripping the club too close to the body, rather than at least one fist away,opens the door to shanks.

[natureboy]

This seems a constructive approach:

 

[No Mulligans]

@avantixMy guess is this compensation is due to some fundamental swing fault.

If you would post videos in the MySwing section of this forum you'll probably get some good and specific to your swing advice from some of the experts on this forum.

Edited November 24, 2015 by No Mulligans

[Patch]

I have seen this fix before and it worked for the folks I saw using it. However, I think for the most part it was a temporary fix until they figured why they were shanking inthe first place, and cured those swing issues. 

I would keep dong what you are doing for as long as it holds up for you.