Take a leap of faith to help put an end to the dreaded shanks! 

Fault: Catching irons out of the hosel

Fix: Address the ball out of the shank

Put simply, you hit a shank because the club reutrns to the ball further away from you than it was at address. For that to happen, either your weight is moving outwards – into your toes – during the downswing, or your arms are somehow re-routing to swing back down further from your body. 

Of course, the huge temptation is to move the ball further away from you, into the toe of the club. But if you do that you’re forcing yourself to reach for the ball, encouraging those shank-inducing movement patterns. So instead, take a leap of faith and move it closer to you and follow this plan. 

Down At The Heel

Stand your regular distance away from the ball… but address it out of the hosel of the club. This will feel counter intuitive, but consider what moes you would need to make during your swing you swing to put the sweetspot on the ball from here. 

Arms Down, Not Out

By moving the ball closer to you on the club head, you will instinctively encourage your arms to swing down closer to your body. This reverses the usual shank loop of throwing the arms out and away from your core, and helps move contact away from the heel.

Pipe Work

Hit 10-15 shots with the iron that’s causing problems, addressing the ball of the hosel each time. By encouraging movement that moves the club closer to you – as opposed to further away – it can undo patterns that are causing that dreaded pipe. 

Weight Shift

The shanker typically moves their4  weight outwards, towards the ball. But with the ball already off the hosel, the golfer will be forced to send it more over the heels. This creates a much more effective weight movement that pulls the hosel away from the ball.