reason for shank attack

[barrycuda]

ive been playing golf for 14 months now, my last 3 rounds have been 80,82,81. handicap has not been adjusted yet.
now and then i get a shank attack, my luck this has only happened on the driving range and playing 9 holes so far.
i hit a draw with all clubs, occasionally i hook the driver/3wood.

once i hit a shank, i just cant correct myself. i have to go home, and the next day i would play the best round i ever have(no sign of a shank).

when i start shanking, i shank everything, from driver/3wood,irons, even 10 yard pitches. im just so puzzled by this phenomenon. every video i see on the net says a different reason for shanking. lifting head,inside out swing, outside in swing, lateral weight shift, leaning too far
forward etc etc. i presume iam swinging back on the inside too far on the backswing then out too far on the follow through(since i normally draw the ball). but if i test this by swinging outside then inside on the follow through i still shank.

i guess its good that overnight the shanks dissapear again, but i would really would like to know what causes them so it can be corrected when it happens.

any advice is appreciated.

[andre112]

once i hit a shank, i just cant correct myself. i have to go home, and the next day i would play the best round i ever have(no sign of a shank).

This is happening to me as well. I get a really bad day at the range, and the next day I'm good again.

I have a fast hip. And sometimes it gets so ahead, my upper body can't catch up. So my club head is way open that I shank. I thought I fixed this problem last month but it just creped back in. Did you have an old bad habits that you thought you already fixed?

[Shindig]

I've hit a great many good shots in my time playing golf, but I haven't always hit them consecutively. There have been some (perhaps many) less-than-optimal shots in between, as you can gauge by my handicap.

You, too, have hit a great many good shots in your day, and can string them together far better than I can. But, as you say, every now and then a truly terrible shot comes your way.

I wonder, if it happens during play, why do you try to correct it? Shrug it off as one of those bad shots we get every now and then, pick a different club , and go back to hitting the normal way. Don't go thinking about the last shot. That one is in the past. Try this one. Walk to your ball, think about your footsteps. Seriously, try to focus on the sound of your footsteps as you walk to the ball. Take a sip of water (or Gatorade, or beer, or whatever you're drinking during the round). Determine the right club for this shot you now face. Go through your pre-shot routine. Forget that last shot: it's in the past. Hit the ball.

Same thing on the driving range. Clean the club. Put it away. Clean one or two more. Take a sip of water, switch gloves (they get sweaty at the driving range after too many consecutive shots), pull your favorite club, go through your routine, and hit that one.


The shanks you describe aren't the same shanks that a player who shoots in the 150s has. Bad shots happen. In a tournament towards the end of '06, I saw Jeff Sluman - a man who has won a major - top the ball from a great lie in the fairway and send it dribbling only a few yards forward. He proceeded to put the club away, walk up to his ball, and determine the right shot from there. I seem to recall him putting it on the green and sinking a putt.

The reason the shanks aren't back the next day is because it was a rare occurrence.

[Golfme]

I have to agree with shindig, the shank attack usually occurs because your shank has you so mentally frozen, so freaked out that you ruined that perfect drive, the shank put you in the rough and now ur scared the next shank will put you in the other fairway.

you have to shake off the shank soon as it happens

[ClintonM3]

Are you hitting the hosel(dart out to the right)? Or just having a wide open club face (super wide slice)?

If you have an open club face, there are plenty of tutorial and drills that teaches you to return your hands to square at impact. Mainly, try to relax, swing don't hit. That might be the most important factor, at least for me. Cause if you are hitting, your muscle tense up and your hands don't turn over to square at impact.

Someone correct me if I am wrong. But hitting on the hosel is a swing path issue.

[TommyD69]

You guys are freaking me out!!!!! Just talking about hitting it off the "Hose-EL" makes me "pucker"!!! I'm gonna do the "politically correct" thing here, and tell you to "go see your PGA professional". The Sh... Sh... Sh.... anks get EVERYONE!!! Even PGA tour players once in a while wack one off the neck!!!! I can do it just by HEARING the word, never mind saying it (or typing it)... Watch the movie "Tin Cup".... that cure for the "laterals" is just as good as any other solution. I'm not gonna be right for a week now!!!

[barrycuda]

Someone correct me if I am wrong. But hitting on the hosel is a swing path issue.

most of the time they come right off the hosel,sometimes half-half. i think im probably sliding towards the target on the downswing combined with an already inside-out swing does it.

yes the best thing would be to film it and get the pro to take a look at it, but who knows when it will happen again. i used to play over-the-top quite badly and slice everything, starting the downswing with shoulders/upper body. maybe this comes back once in a while and combined with draw/hook swing now encourages a shank.

[Chilidipper]

ive been playing golf for 14 months now, my last 3 rounds have been 80,82,81. handicap has not been adjusted yet.

Fatigue might be the cause

[barrycuda]

ah its hopeless. its not fatigue, first ball on the range today was a shank, and all the rest that followed aswell. looking at the divot it points right of the target indicating a inside out swing. within a week i went from over-the-top all the time to inside-out all the time now.
its just funny how i can go from shanking everything one day, to scoring 80 the next, to shanking everything again the next day. so i dunno, take a few days off then try again and hope iam cured.

[Shindig]

ah its hopeless. its not fatigue, first ball on the range today was a shank, and all the rest that followed aswell. looking at the divot it points right of the target indicating a inside out swing. within a week i went from over-the-top all the time to inside-out all the time now.

It's hopeless if you think it's hopeless. Negative thinking is very effective. What did you do between shots? What were you thinking of on the second shot? Was it mechanics? Was it "inside out"?

[andre112]

today at the range, i remembered that my pro said something about "reaching" in my setup. so i tried standing a little bit farther from the ball and reaching out a little bit just enough to make me think the ball is slightly to far away from my body. (probably less than 1/2"). I was hitting great shots. A lot more consistant than before i was shanking. Maybe that's something you can try.

[barrycuda]

i had another go at solving this problem. after trying numerous tips for solving the shank from the internet 2 swing thoughts seemed to work.
1. focus on turning the right shoulder back on the backswing.
2. when starting the downswing, focus on the toe of the club, you want the toe of the club passing the heel at impact and not the heel leading the club into the ball.

[Shindig]

i had another go at solving this problem. after trying numerous tips for solving the shank from the internet 2 swing thoughts seemed to work.

Good. You know your fix. Sorry mine didn't help, but I'm happy that you found what you needed just the same.

Hopefully you can get more enjoyment out of a round now.

[barrycuda]

ive pracitsed abit more since my last post. my fix this time was something totally different to what i posted last time.
i did not have to have any swing thoughts and the only thing i changed was my left foot position. it appears i was getting the left foot way in front of the right foot (closed foot position) which i had adapted as a rememdy to fix my over-the-top swing, which worked btw. after pulling back the left foot like a third of its lenght, i hit everything of the middle of the club, even towards the toe a little, which was great to see.

[golfchief]

Glad to hear you fixed it. Very easy to over fix a problem and that will make a new one.

[RichF]

ive been playing golf for 14 months now, my last 3 rounds have been 80,82,81. handicap has not been adjusted yet.

Yep - this is what's been happening to me steadily over the last month....to the point where yesterday I played a round on a 9-hole Par 3 course and every tee-shot was shanked: from 3-Iron to SW...I didnt get frustrated or gave up...I just had to see the funny side of it.

However, I'm a bit tentative about trying to sort it out what with the old 'paralysis by analysis', so I don't know whether to lay off golf for a week or two....