Got a call for help. A 911 problem from lalo221. This is what he says: “Need urgent help surge. I started to use your Peak Performance Golf Swing system and my handicap decreased from 10 to 7, I have always been a single digit up to a 4. I am 57 years old 5′ 8″ and weigh 172 pounds . 3 months ago I started to 'SHANK' (Surge: What I sometimes call the “hosel rocket.”) with my wedges on short shots, which is the strongest part of my game. Ever since it got worse. Now I do it with all my irons. No problem with driver woods or hybrids. My handicap is 13 and increasing. I have lost all the confidence in my swing. Please, I need help.”
Well, he got an answer from Albert, which is a pretty good answer. And he said: “Check to see if the club face is open thru impact. If so, rotate the right forearm over the left forearm thru impact.”
Well, first off, I'm going to give Albert a good job done because he's talking about forearms and not wrists. Consequently, though, it's obvious that lalo221 is hitting of the hosel, not the clubface. Albert's answer would be if he was hitting solid shots. And lalo definitely is hitting it on the hosel. I don't think that apples, but if you were hitting true blocks, that would probably help square the clubface, getting it down the line.
But we really got a great answer from Tmedley2. He said something that I don't think most teachers would have thought of, and he is spot on. Tmedley said this: “I don't know if it will help you or not, but when I occasionally get into the shanks, I focus on keeping my right elbow close to the body on the 'through the ball' portion of the swing. Try it out at the range. I tend to shank when I allow the force of the down/forward swing to pull my hands and arms too much away from my body. Like I say, it works for me, hope it helps you.”
Wow, that's awesome. Because to swing, we want to keep our arms underneath the top of our neck, which is the center of gravity of the swing. The center of gravity of our body is at the base of the spine, so if we want to swing the club vertical, we need to keep it swinging up and down, basically under our neck or our chin. If you start allowing the hands to move away from the body, as Tmedley is talking, that's very likely to start pulling your shoulders too. And if it's pulling you outward from your balance point, you're definitely moving closer to the ball and you can , without a doubt, put the hosel into it.
That is definitely spot on as to possibly causing the shanks or, as I like to call it, the hosel rockets.
But I'm going to give you one other one. I find this to be probably, the times I've had golfers come to me with shanks, I think another number one cause is we tend to get into using our legs too much in the forward swing. We drive the legs, especially the knees, whether we're trying to make a lateral left bump or even just drive through the shot more. If you start bending your knees too far into the ball, what's happening? Your body is closer to the ball. And if you're moving closer to the ball, that means you've got a lot better chance of putting the hosel on the ball.
So try thing about, if you feel like you've been working on too much forward drive or knee drive or driving the legs though the ball, as well as you feel your arms are moving away from your body, work on keeping your knees more quiet until impact and keep your arms closer to your body.
I think we have two great thoughts about helping, whether it is blocks or pushes, and especially shanks, stay more still. Remember, that's part of the key to the Peak Performance Golf Swing. Quiet legs in the backswing and in the downswing to impact, and then you fire to the finish.
Take these two things and that should hopefully help 221 start hitting the ball more solid and straight.
The Surge!