I'm always shanking the ball...why?

Question

Despite lessons etc changing my grip, loosning my grip I'm always shanking the ball with my irons......help

Answer 1

You need to get your weight back, make sure your not bent over to much. Your moving towards the ball. I need to see you swing. You can go to www.pga.com improve your game section and find some drills to work on. You have to get your confidence back. This is a hard subject for me to write about. Don't forget May is free lesson month with PGA pro's. www.playgolfamerica.com

Answer 2

2 answers that would be the simpler reasons:

1) standing too close to ball. move back 1/2 inch to 1 inch and see if you have the same problem. Try to set-up with the ball a little out to the toe.

2) clubface too open at impact. when you take the club back the face should open. If it is really open when you get to impact, the hosel will strike the ball before the clubface. (this is why I shank, by the way). I typically get the shanks in bunkers because when I open the face up I tend to rotate the club by turning my hands to the right instead of moving my hands towards my back foot (don't know how I picked this terrible habit up, my guess is laziness). Looking down at the club from this set-up, the heel is in front of the toe. Sometimes it is because my right hand is too strong (right thumb at 2 o'clock, sometimes between 2 and 3 o'clock on the side of the shaft). If I bring my thumb more on top of the shaft (say 1 o'clock) than the shanks go away.

Answer 3

There are way to many reasons you could be shanking the ball for that question to be answered here. Among those reasons are:
Spinning out with the hips
Coming over the top
Casting
Bad grip
Too close to the ball
approaching from the outside
hands too low at address
clubs not properly fitted to your swing

...among a myriad of other potential issues. If you really want to fix your shanks, spend a few hundred bucks and go see your local PGA pro for a series of lessons. You'd spend $300 on a new driver, why not get a better swing? A good reputable pro will be able to look at your swing, put it on video, and be able to give you a quick accurate fix to your problems.

good luck!

Answer 4

I just rated one of your answers with a thumbs up, but also wanted to ad my two cents worth. Golf is a very difficult sport, needless to say. I have seen any number of people take lessons, sometimes spending thousands of dollars in an attempt to learn to play, only to find that they barely improve. But I would say this is fairly rare.

Shanking the ball is very common and can be caused by a number of factors. I think the primary problem however goes straight to the release of the club. Regardless of what you do with the rest of the swing, if you don't release the clubhead at the proper time, and do it completely, the face of the club will not be in the proper place to connect with the ball. A shank is basically when the club face is still open when it approaches the ball and you hit the ball with the hosel of the head as opposed to the center of the face.
The problem with fixing this problem, if it is chronic, is that in order to get the club face in the proper place at the right time, you have to have a lot of other things working in the proper way as well.
A huge problem with most amateurs is leaving the weight on the back foot at impact. Its just impossible to hit the ball with any consistency or with any power when you leave yourself in this position.
Try this and it will help you to understand; pretend you are throwing a ball. If you are right handed, throw with the right hand, but instead of stopping yourself with your left foot, keep it in the air with your follow thru, keeping the weight on your right foot. You will find this to be extremely difficult and very awkward. The golf swing is just the same. As you begin rotating your shoulders around your body, your weight needs to start shifting back to the left foot, for a right hander. At impact, the majority of your weight needs to be on your left foot and stay there thru the follow thru. Watch a pro and notice how the right foot ends up on the toe, just being used for balance at that point. If you can master just that one thing you will go a long way to improving your swing.

Try a few exercises. Set up to the ball as you normally would, but, this is important, set up with the weight already on your left foot and do not let it move back to your right side, period. Keep the weight on the left leg and foot, make a half swing back, and smoothly swing thru the ball, again, keeping almost all the weight on the left foot. This will teach you what it should feel like at impact.

Another drill to teach you follow the correct swing path is this, although its easier to explain in person; stand at address and look out toward a target somewhere in the center of what would be the fairway. Imagine there is a baseball field out there, with first, second and third bases, with third base being somewhere behind your left shoulder, this again is while at address. Your goal is to then swing the club, not worrying about hitting the ball, but swinging the club along a path that will take the clubhead towards third base. Again, as the club comes thru and past the ball, the head should immediately find itself headed towards third base. Then just finish the swing by having your hands high above your left shoulder, your right foot on its toe, weight still primarily on the left foot.

Watch any pro on TV or watch the golf channel and regardless of what the swings look like, look at where every single one of them finishes the swing, hands high above the left shoulder, balancing on the left foot, facing the target. If you can find a way to get to that finishing point you will have greatly improved your swing and will go a long way towards eliminating the shanks.

Another comment, you have got to stop trying to "hit" the ball. The club will do that for you. I am betting that your practice swing is much better than the one you use to try to hit the ball. Why? Because you are "trying" to "hit" the ball, to steer the club head to the ball, and this just won't work. You have to swing the club to a finish point. If the swing is reasonably good the club head will close properly and you will hit the ball more consistently.

Enough, I could go on forever. I hope these tips help you to some degree.

Answer 5

Move away from the ball, set up more toward the toe of the club.

Answer 6

maby you are swinging the club to fast and you are opening the club face at impact. also a key to hitting irons is your body turn and not rushing through on your downswing

Answer 7

here's a link on ebay where you can read reviews of them by ebay members

Answer 8

your club speed is too fast