The shanks in golf occur when the ball strikes the hosel—the small connection point between the clubhead and the shaft—sending the ball sharply out to the right for a right-handed golfer (or to the left for a left-handed golfer). Yes, you absolutely can cure the shanks, but it takes focused practice and fixing the root cause, not just the symptom.
Deciphering the Root Causes of Golf Shanks
The shank is not just a bad hit; it is usually a signal that something major is wrong in your swing motion. To eliminate golf shanks, we must first know why they happen. Most shanks come from poor clubface orientation or an improper swing path.
Swing Path Issues Leading to Hosel Strikes
A primary driver of the shank is an over-the-top downswing. This is where the club comes outside the target line too early.
The Outside-In Dilemma
When the club travels too far outside the target line, the hands often flip or try to rescue the shot. This action pulls the clubhead far away from the body, causing the hands to get in front of the clubhead at impact. This geometry forces the shaft, or specifically the hosel, into the ball first.
- Poor weight transfer shifts the golfer too far toward the target too soon.
- An early extension of the arms forces the hands too far away from the body.
- Casting the club (releasing the wrist angles too early) can also push the club outward.
Contact Points and Clubface Awareness
Another major factor involves where the hands are relative to the clubhead at impact.
Hands Ahead of the Clubhead
For solid contact, the hands should guide the clubhead through the ball. If the hands slide too far forward, the shaft leans severely toward the target. This lean pushes the hosel closer to the ball. This is a key aspect of golf iron contact problems.
The Pull Back Reflex
Once a golfer shanks a shot, they often panic on the next swing. They subconsciously try to pull the club back toward their body. This overcorrection can pull the hands too far inside, but the resulting swing path often still results in the club opening too soon or the hosel hitting the ball.
Fixing the Swing: Core Adjustments for Shank Correction
To achieve consistent contact and golf swing fault correction, focus on making your path move from the inside.
Promoting an Inside-Out Golf Swing Path
The magic key to hitting the sweet spot, especially with irons, is creating an inside-out golf swing path. This means the club approaches the ball slightly from the inside, sweeping up through impact.
Drill 1: The Gate Drill
This drill helps train the right swing path.
- Place two headcovers or alignment sticks down.
- One stick should be slightly outside the ball, pointing toward your target line.
- The second stick should be slightly inside the ball, pointing slightly toward your body line on the backswing.
- Your goal is to swing the clubhead between these two guides without hitting either one. This forces an in-to-out motion.
Drill 2: The Towel Under the Trail Armpit
This drill forces connection and prevents the hands from sliding too far away from the body.
- Place a small, rolled-up towel or glove under your trail armpit (right armpit for righties).
- Keep the towel wedged there throughout the backswing and downswing.
- If the towel falls out, it means your trail arm has disconnected, usually causing an outside swing path or severe early extension. This forces better synchronization.
Managing Wrist Action at Impact
Wrist action directly influences where the clubface points and the path of the clubhead.
Preventing Premature Release (Casting)
Casting is releasing your wrist lag too early. It often leads to poor compression and pushes the club out toward the target line, promoting shanks.
- Focus on “holding” that lag angle deep into the downswing.
- Imagine a string attached to your wrists pulling them slightly back toward your trail hip as you start down. This keeps the hands in front of the clubhead longer.
Correcting Overactive Extension
If your arms straighten too aggressively toward the ball, you push the hosel into play.
- Feel like your arms are swinging around your body, not at the ball.
- Maintain flex in your lead arm (left arm for righties) slightly longer through impact. This keeps the swing circle wide and prevents the hands from lunging forward.
Golf Equipment Adjustments for Shanks
Sometimes the problem isn’t entirely the swing; the equipment might amplify the fault. Golf equipment adjustments for shanks can offer immediate relief while you work on mechanics.
Lie Angle Check
The lie angle determines how the sole of the club sits on the ground at address.
- If your clubs are too upright (too much toe-up), the heel will sit lower than the toe at impact. This makes it easier for the shaft to hit the ball slightly toward the heel or hosel area when the swing path is slightly off.
- If your clubs are too flat, the toe points too much at the ground, often leading to toe contact, but a poor swing path can still cause a hosel strike.
Most amateur golfers need their clubs checked for proper lie angle fit. A professional fitter can determine if your shoes or stance require adjustments to the club’s lie angle.
Shaft Length Considerations
Very long shafts can sometimes promote an over-extension as the golfer tries to manage the length, pushing the hands out and encouraging shank contact. Conversely, very short shafts can cause the golfer to stand too close, leading to a steep angle of attack that also might graze the hosel. This is often minor but worth noting during a professional golf swing analysis for shanks.
Grip Modifications
Your grip dictates how easily you can rotate the clubface.
- A weak grip (turned too far to the right for righties) often forces the golfer to try and flip the face square at impact. This flipping motion brings the hosel too close to the ball path.
- Strengthening the grip slightly (turning it slightly more to the right) can encourage better squaring action through impact without flipping. Be cautious not to over-strengthen, which causes hooks. The goal is neutral release.
| Equipment Factor | Potential Shank Cause | Adjustment Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Lie Angle | Too upright | Bend clubs flatter slightly |
| Shaft Length | Too long (promoting extension) | Test shorter shafts or adjust setup |
| Grip Strength | Too weak (forcing flip) | Strengthen grip slightly for better rotation |
Specific Scenarios: Shank Cures Beyond Full Swings
The shanks don’t just show up with your driver or long irons. They can plague your short game, too.
Chipping with Shanks Cure
When chipping with shanks cure is needed, the issue is almost always related to poor wrist stability and trying to manipulate the face rather than making a smooth pendulum stroke.
The Pendulum Practice
For chipping, treat the putter and wedges similarly regarding hand action:
- Keep the Hands Quiet: The stroke must be driven by the shoulders and arms moving as one unit. Any manipulation of the wrists (flipping or scooping) will introduce face instability.
- Address the Ball Position: Ensure the ball is not too far back in your stance, which encourages a downward chop and can lead to steepness that scrapes the hosel.
- Use a Mirror or Alignment Aid: Set up so you can see that the hosel is not sitting too close to the ball at address.
Putting Stroke Shank Prevention
While less common, shanks can happen with a putter, especially if the putter face rotates too much or the golfer has an extreme arc that pulls the putter head far outside the path early in the stroke.
Putting stroke shank prevention relies on centering the putter head on the ball (sweet spot contact) and maintaining a consistent path.
- Use a two-ball drill: Place one ball directly on your intended line and another ball one inch outside it. Hit the center ball, aiming to keep the putter face square relative to the inner ball’s line. This prevents the putter from getting too far outside on the takeaway.
Analyzing the Swing: When to Get Help
If drills only work temporarily, you need a deeper look. Professional golf swing analysis for shanks is often the fastest route to permanent correction.
What a Professional Sees
A teaching pro or certified fitter uses high-speed cameras to capture impact mechanics precisely. They look for things hard to see in real time:
- Attack Angle: Are you hitting down too steeply?
- Hand Position: Are the hands lagging correctly or lunging forward?
- Rotation: Is the body stalling, forcing the arms to quit and flip?
The analysis helps distinguish between fixing slice vs shank. A slice often comes from an open clubface combined with an outside-in path. A shank is almost always a structural failure at impact that physically brings the hosel into contact, regardless of the ball flight (though shanks often result in straight, terrible shots).
Trusting the Process Over the Result
The biggest hurdle in curing shanks is fear. After hitting one or two shanks, the golfer becomes terrified of the result, leading to tension and manipulation, which restarts the problem.
- Commit to the Fix: When practicing the drills, commit 100% to the feeling required by the drill, even if the first 10 shots are mis-hits.
- Focus on Feel, Not Score: During practice sessions aimed at shank correction, forget your score. Focus only on achieving the correct feeling of connection and inside path.
Key Swing Feels for Shank Eradication
Once you grasp the mechanics, translating them into feel is crucial. Here are specific feelings to chase during practice.
Feel 1: Keeping the Trail Elbow Connected
This is vital for stopping the club from swinging too far out away from the body.
- Imagine you are trying to keep a handshake with the inside of your trail bicep against your side throughout the downswing.
- This promotes rotation rather than sliding or lunging.
Feel 2: The “Catch and Release”
This addresses the timing of the clubface release.
- Instead of “hitting” the ball, focus on “catching” the clubhead slightly before impact, letting the body rotation naturally square the face just after you strike the ball.
- This encourages a slight draw shape swing path, which is the antithesis of the outside path that causes shanks.
Feel 3: Shallowing the Club
Shallowing means the club drops slightly below the swing plane on the downswing.
- During practice swings, try to feel like the clubhead is dropping behind you slightly just as you start down. This helps the club approach from the inside, eliminating the outside-in movement that contributes to hosel strikes.
Troubleshooting Common Practice Errors
When working on fixing shanks, golfers often introduce new problems while chasing the cure.
Error: Over-compensating by Swinging Too Hard from the Inside
Some golfers get the inside path feeling but swing so hard from the inside that they pull the club across the line violently (a severe pull or hook).
- Correction: Slow down. Focus on the path being correct first. Speed comes once the path is reliable. Ensure your weight transfer is still smooth, not just a massive lateral push.
Error: Grip Pressure Too Tight
Tension is the enemy of good contact. A tight grip restricts the necessary subtle movements of the wrists and arms at impact.
- Correction: Use a scale of 1 to 10 for grip pressure, aiming for a 4 or 5. The club should feel secure but relaxed. This allows the clubhead to release naturally rather than being forced.
Error: Focusing Only on the Downswing
If you set up incorrectly, you are fighting an uphill battle from the start.
- Correction: Spend 50% of your practice time on setup. Ensure your ball position is correct for the club you are hitting. Make sure your posture allows your arms to hang naturally without reaching or crowding the ball. Proper setup reduces the need for heroic rescue moves later.
Long-Term Strategies for Shank Immunity
Curing the shanks is a process of rewiring motor patterns. It won’t disappear in one session.
Consistency Through Repetition
Golf drills are most effective when repeated consistently over time. Short, focused practice sessions (20-30 minutes, 3-4 times a week) focusing purely on shank correction drills are better than one long, frustrating session.
Visualization Techniques
Before walking to the ball, visualize a perfect strike where the center of the face meets the ball solidly. If you start visualizing a hosel strike, stop, reset, and visualize the correct impact. This primes your brain for success.
Integrating Practice into Real Play
Once you feel good with an alignment drill, move to hitting balls without guides, focusing only on the feel you learned. Only after you can consistently hit 5-7 good shots in a row without guides should you take the new swing onto the course.
Remember, the shanks are often a defense mechanism built by the body trying to avoid a bad shot (like a major slice). By building a solid inside-out golf swing path and maintaining excellent connection, you eliminate the need for the body to defend itself with a hosel strike. Consistency in practice is the only true quick fix here.
Frequently Asked Questions About Curing Shanks
What is the quickest way to stop a shank immediately?
The quickest immediate fix is often physical awareness: hold your lead arm straighter (for righties, the left arm) through impact, feeling like your hands stay slightly closer to your body. This stops the hands from lunging forward and pushing the hosel out. Also, slightly strengthen your grip can sometimes help square the face faster.
Is fixing a slice related to fixing a shank?
Yes and no. Fixing slice vs shank requires different primary adjustments. Slices usually need path correction (moving from outside-in to inside-out) and/or closing the face. Shanks are more about where the club hits the ball—the hosel—often due to excessive forward hand slide or an excessively steep angle of attack. While fixing the path helps both, shanks require specific attention to connection and extension.
Should I change my ball flight when practicing to cure shanks?
When first working on shanks, focus purely on center face contact, even if the ball flies straight up in the air briefly. If you focus on the flight (draw vs. fade) too soon, you might revert to old habits. Get the sweet spot contact first; path correction follows.
Can old or damaged wedges cause shanks?
Yes, slightly damaged clubs can contribute to golf iron contact problems. If the sole of the club is significantly warped or the ferrule (where the shaft meets the head) is loose, it can slightly alter the geometry at impact, making consistent contact harder and potentially leading to hosel interaction.
How does my weight transfer affect shanking?
Poor weight transfer, specifically failing to shift weight onto the lead side (left side for righties) during the downswing, causes the lower body to stall. This forces the upper body to fire too early, pushing the hands out away from the body, which strongly encourages the shank.