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1 shank ruined my tournament today. Is there anyone outthere that has had them and went to a pga teaching pro and got cured? I need to know, it's killing my game and my confidence, not to mention my pocketbook,lol. HELP,

stagday

Sorry to hear that, stagday! Hard for me to respond because I seldom hit a shank. But when I do, at first I just can't believe my eyes, as I watch the ball squirt off at that horrid angle. The disbelief lasts for about 1 second. Next comes abject humiliation. I feel your pain.

Although I rarely hit shanks, sometimes I get into a rut where I'm hitting everything fat. Badly fat. Divots that I hope the Sierra Club doesn't hear about. In those times, I console myself with the belief that because I'm doing the same thing consistently, it's probably an easy fix, and is maybe only one little flaw (one with major consequences) that has somehow crept into my swing. I try stuff (for me, it's often a matter of simply remembering to keep my eyes on the back half of the ball right up till contact), and it goes away. A drastic solution is to not play for 2 or 3 weeks, to give muscle memory a chance to forget the swing fault it was trying to learn.

Regarding lessons, I took 5 lessons from 1 pro, 2 from another, and 1 from another. (All PGA teaching pro's.) Nothing lately, but I thought they all helped. Have to work on what they teach you, though. And, of course, expect your score to suffer as you're learning new habits.

Good luck! Keep us posted!

One shank? Is it a common or occasional or rare occurance? Read here and give some more info before we proceed.

I'm laffin' at your sig line, Jim...just one question...are you serious? :confused:

Shade

Shade[/quote]it's a major pain. everything is going fine, played all spring into the end of june, then with 2 holes to go on a par-3 in a tournament, wham, shank, just out of the blue it came, and it's been tough ever since. For me, i just lose confidence cuz i'm just not sure what i did, only thing i do know is, i tend to hit most iron shots on the sweet spot or towards heel, never on the toe.

complete frustration,

stag

geez, i just noticed i should have put this thread under golf tips,lol. see, these shanks really have me all messed up.lol.

stagday

Does it happen with any particular iron or just any iron, any time...also, how are the woods performing? Need to know a little more in order to zero in on a cure.

Shade

I used to have a problem with $hanks but did get help from a pro. He told my to just step farther away from the ball. Bacsically tryhaving your arms out farther not alot just a inch or so and c if it helps. But if it dosent a pro will help.

woods are fine, in fact better than ever. with regards to the irons, i will usually shank starting with the long irons, 3,4,5, and possibly 6 iron. i have had the trouble with short irons, but not lately, just the ones listed. for some reason i seem to reach or push out a touch with the irons but not with the woods, it just has me perplexed, but remember, i hit the ball with the irons moreso from the sweetspot in towards the heel, and the woods mainly on the sweetspot.
also, i can be playing fairly well, and then just all of as sudden, wham, i will shank, but it doesn't happen all year long.

stagday

shade: Dead serious. Have no idea who that guy is. Found the image during a Google search for "free avatars." Even has a golf-type hat. Will kick myself if it's someone famous I should know, like Jack Whittaker or Jim Flick. Don't think it is. Love the face and friendly attitude, which I try to emulate.

stagday: So, the longer the iron is, the more likely the shank is to appear? Could that be a clue to something? Could the fix be as simple as ball position or distance from the ball at set-up? I remain hopeful that it's a very simple fix.

Here's something from Ontario Golf Magazine. Will this help?
http://www.golfontario.ca/features/instruction.shtml

Thinkin' of ya, bud!

Never really bothered me before. Played today, and this thread popped up in my head a couple of times. Thanks fellas, that's just what I need to be thinking about during my address

LOL @ Keith....of course I've never met you, Jim, but your online persona fits the picture perfectly and I'm certain the masterful instructor Jim Flick wouldn't mind one bit. Nor do I, my friend...keep up the good work on this board.

stagday, it sounds to me like just when you need that solid mid to long-iron shot to pay off is when it happens. I believe this might be because when you try just a bit harder, you're extending your hands ever so slightly away from your body. If this is it, don't worry, it's not all that uncommon. Now you could just be aware of this and try to remember to keep the hands in close on these shots or you could do as suggested and simply back away from the ball a bit, but I think trying to think about your hands will detract from your concentration on the shot and, imo, backing away from the ball will only encourage you to reach more, creating more probs...my unprofessional advice at this point is to grip down maybe a half inch on these shots and use your normal swing...easy to remember and not too distracting from the task at hand. You would think that this would result in lost yardage but I think if you hit it solid you'll be more than pleased with the results. Remember, all it usually takes is a small dose of medicine (adjustment). Let us know how it goes.


Shade

I noticed that the case of the s's come when I get TOO close to the ball at address. A quick cure to this is to try hitting the ball off the toe.

Stagday - I was ready to quit it got so bad about 10 years ago. I paid for a lesson at a driving range with an instructor there who looked at my swing for about 30 seconds, told me some generic stuff like balance, etc, and had me hit a couple of buckets while he BS'd with some other people... that did not help.

Finally, years later, I took a 30 minute lesson with the pro at my local 9-hole course. He was an older guy with a great reputation as a teacher, but I guess he got some people annoyed at him so he was relegated to teaching and running the pro shop at this facility.

It took him about 5 minutes of watching me warm up and hit some balls. Basically he noticed that I took a lot of warm-up and practice swings holding the club solely in my left hand (I play right-handed). He told me never to do that again, that any one-handed practice swings should be with my right hand. He also said my swing plane was too flat. I was to try to get my swing more upright, and concentrate on going through with my right side.

It worked for me almost immediately. They still return now and then, but I can usually adjust.

There are probably as many cures for the sh**ks as there are causes. Good luck in finding yours.

thanks to all for the help. i do have a flat swing plane and a few yrs ago a teaching pro tried to get me more upright, but just not possible. i have a new thing i'm going to try next time out and hopefully it will help, if it does, i'll report back, if not, i'll just beat myself with my 9-I for awhile and wonder why i love this game so much.

btw, all suggestions have merit and are good. if not for me, maybe 1 or all of them will help someone else.

but i do know 1 thing for sure. if i don't get it solved completely, i'm going to simply rely more on my 7-wood and forget about the long irons. i think it takes a pretty fast swing speed to hit them anyway.

stagday in a quandry

just an update on my shanks.

i have used some of jcgolfpro's advice and it has helped, but what it did was find my real problem.

i was taking the club straight back with the back of my right hand going straight back also, which kept my right elbow out with a 45deg angle to the ground, then on my downswing i was pushing the club to the outside.

now when i take my club back, my right hand starts to turn so that when the club is parallel with the ground, the toe is pointing straight up, then i take it up and i get more wrist cock but the major thing is my elbow is pointing straight down.

another point here is, that when i do this, it really helps my lower body start 1st and i feel more flexible and i now hit irons crisply with more juice.

not saying this is a panacea for the shanks, but it's working for me.

stagday :)