How to Cure the Shanks in 3 Steps
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The golf shank is the ugliest, nastiest, rottenest, and most frightening shot in golf. If the shanks hijacked your swing or they happen to sneak up on you, I have some good news for you… In this video, I’ll show you a 3-step process that identifies what kind of shanker you are and the corresponding drill you need to end the shanks once and for all. Check out this video now to cure the shanks and start enjoying golf again!
- Evaluate what sort of shank you are experiencing
- Fine tune your release
- Correct your path and body movements
- Shanks are gone forever
Today we're going to we're going to get rid of that embarrassing problem once and for all, the shank. I'm going to walk you guys through a three step process on how you're going to get rid of the shanks once and for all and never deal with it again, never embarrass yourself, never embarrass your friends and certainly never put yourself in danger. Let's go ahead and get started.
Fore.
All right. So if you've ever been plagued with the virus of the shanks, I'm going to go ahead and walk you through the first step of correcting it and that's being able to understand what kind of shank you have. Okay. And I've drawn three very critical lines on here for us and I'm going to go through what these lines mean. The first one being on the left hand side of the screen here, this one going up from the hosel through the elbow is going to be a plane line here, it's going to be an elbow plane. The second line here is going to be called the knee line and the third line is going to be called the tush line.
Okay. So I'm sure you've probably heard of the tush line and you've heard of the elbow plane line, but the knee line is going to be different here. All right. So I've drawn both those lines on here for Chuck and our student that has a little problem with the shanks at this point that we're working on. And I'm going to go ahead and work through into a position here where we're going to be able to identify what kind of shank you have. All right. So let me back Chuck up just a little bit.
So we're virtually in the same spot here as far as positions are concerned. You're going to notice a couple of things here. First thing I want you to notice is is how low the club head is in relation to this plane line, where Chuck's club head is actually tracing perfectly down this plane line. Okay. And this is a common thing, this is, this is a shank from the inside. This is a very common area for people that are known as hip spinners, people that like to spin the body wide open and that makes the club come into the plane line shallow.
And now what's happened as well, the most important part is that this right knee has broken through this line which has caused his body to get closer to the golf ball, the right side of his body is going to be closer which means the hosel of the golf club is now working into that area where we can strike the golf ball. Also take note that his tush has come off this line which is another indicator that he's moved closer to the shot and thus leading the hosel in.
So you can see over here the difference is that Chuck has got his tush still up against this line and his right knee has not broken through at all. And if I were to go through another frame or two here past impact, you can see that his right knee is well in front of this right knee line. You can see how Chuck's knee has still stayed past, where it stayed behind it and his tush is still up on the line, where his tush has come way off of it. And this is going to be a shank all day.
So this is a shank from the inside. Now if you notice from the position, this position, that your club is on top of this line then you're going to be an over the top shanker. And that's why I want you guys to understand there's two separate drills that I want you to understand that you can work on to correct these, but you have to understand what kind of shanker you are at that point.
So admitting that we have a problem is the first, first thing. Step number one to the correction process is to evaluate it. And then let's go ahead and head out to the range and get started by giving you some drills. All right. So hang tight, we're going to head out to the range. I'm going to show you a couple of really important drills that are going to help you get over this once and for all. You can put those hard hats away and get out there and enjoy the game.
Okay. So now that we've looked at the first step on how to identify your particular style of shank, whether it be over the top or inside the line, I'm going to go ahead and give you step number two which is going to pertain to both golfers.
And I think this is one of the most critical steps and it's one of the most important videos on the site, and you're going to hear me say that a lot, that five minutes to a perfect release in the downswing section is going to teach you how to release the golf club properly because both shanks, whether it be from over the top or whether it be from the inside, is going to have a hung onto release.
So you're going to have the hosel of the golf club leading into the golf ball. So you really want to go ahead and fine tune your release. That's going to be step number two. I want you to spend as much time as possible working on that. And make sure you get yourself an impact bag and when you're working on left hand only and hitting that bag you want to make sure that your left wrist is good and flat, the club face is good and square and you have a limited amount of tension within the forearm and the wrist. Okay. You're going to be having a golf club in your left hand quite a bit throughout this correction process. But that's step number two. I want you to really pay close attention to five minutes to a perfect release.
Let's move on to step number three and get these things handled once and for all so we don't have to be an embarrassment on the golf course any longer.
Okay. Here we are at step three, the correction process of getting rid of those shanks once and for all. We're almost gradated, we're almost putting those things to bed and never seeing them again.
Now let's go ahead and get you guys a couple of good solid drills that are going to help you, give you some time to correct those paths that we talked about in that step one. But make sure that you understand that there's a lot of information in five minutes to a perfect release that needs to be held onto as we're starting to fix these other problems. Okay. So five minutes to a perfect release better be nailed down before we start working on these drills.
One of the things that is very common, aside from the release, is that the shoulders like to spin open into impact and they can cause a lot of the shanking problems as well. So both styles of shank, over the top and inside the line, make sure that your shoulders are nice and square at impact.
Now I'm going to go ahead and give you guys a drill for those inside the line shankers. And I've gone ahead and set myself up here an alignment stick, I'm going to have my toes right up on it and I've got myself an impact bag. All right. So I'm going to go ahead and work this drill a bunch. I'm going to load up to the top, I'm going to shift left and then I'm going to hit the bag. And I'm going to try to keep my knee from not moving in front of this line, as we talked about in step one. If you see that your knee is covering this line on the ground, then chances are you've spun yourself open and you've got that heel leading into the golf club again. So now if you think about it this way, you're moving closer to the golf ball, the heel of the golf club is going to lead and that's the danger zone, that's where you start to put that hard hat back on and everybody yells fore right.
Okay. So that's a great drill for you guys to try out. I'm going to show you guys one more time. Make sure that you stand right up on this line, okay, toes right up on it, load up to the top, shift left, hit the bag and make sure that that knee does not go in front of the line.
All right. So now for the over the top shankers. For you guys we can do a very simple drill here and what our, what the objective is is that we're trying to get more of an inside out path. There's a great video on the website that Clay did called the "Over the Top Stick Drill," so you can use that video in conjunction with this drill. This is going to help you work more of an inside out path. It's going to help you keep from spinning everything wide open, get that club throwing away from you and having it being dead across the line into Shankville, Indiana.
Okay. So when we go ahead and set up here what do we want to do? We want to keep everything regular as far as all of our RST fundamentals with set up and posture. All right. So we're going to take our set up here and then what we're going to do is we're going to drop our right foot straight back. And when I drop this right foot back I'm trying to keep the same amount of width that I had in my normal stance width. Okay. So just guesstimate. You want to have that right foot back behind the left and you want to keep ... this is the most important part of the drill, is that we want to keep both feet very flat on the ground. Okay. If you notice that that right foot comes up, all right, when you get to the top and that right foot comes up, that's going to give you a chance to get everything spinning back open. So your checkpoint is to keep both feet really flat on the ground and you're going to just hit some shots. Okay. So you can't shank it from that direction.
For those of you that want to try to put more power to this, you're going to run into the opportunity where you can push off that right side and then we're back into that shank territory.
Okay. So now we've got a three step process that's going to help you correct these shanks and put them to bed and never see them again. Start out, make sure you evaluate your shanks, work on five minutes to perfect release and then try these drills out and never use ... or never have a shank ever again and embarrass yourself and make your friends put their hard hats back on.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Why do I shank?
The first step on how to identify your particular style of shank, whether it is an over the top shank or inside the line shank. A shank from the inside is a very common area for people that are known as hip spinners, people that like to spin the body wide open and that makes the club come into the plane line shallow. When the heel of the club is moving across your target line, and your swing is too steep, the outside to in club path is going to cause a over the top shank.
How do you get rid of Shanks forever?
To get rid of the shanks, it starts by determining what kind of shank you have, and that starts with identifying three lines that impact your swing: the tush line, the elbow plane line and the knee line. Step number one to the correction process is to evaluate it and then practicing drills at the driving range to correct the problem, and we’ve got some very effective drills to transform your swing.
How do you stop the shanks in golf?
One of the things that is very common, aside from problems with the release, is that the shoulders like to spin open into impact and they can cause a lot of the shanking problems as well. So to stop both styles of shank, over the top and inside the line, make sure that your shoulders are nice and square at impact.
What causes a shank?
We've got a three step process that's going to help you correct over the top and inside the line shanks and never see them again. Make sure you evaluate your shanks, work on a perfect release and focus on alignment with our drills to help you cure the shanks in 3 easy steps.
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