Shanks have a variety of causes, but nearly all of them are swing path related. Whether you shank the ball by coming over the top, or letting the club drift away from you at impact – your swing path is ultimately the source of your problems. In this drill, we focus on a shank that is caused by a club that is travelling along an in to out swing path into the ball. This fault is most commonly caused by a poor weight shift, improper wrists rotation through impact, or a poor impact position (especially with the shoulders).
Golf Drills
The Backswing Sequence
Learning the proper sequencing of the backswing takes time and plenty of practice. Many players, in attempts to combat a slice, revert to a swing that use very little body, and lots of arms. These types of swings are characterized by a complete lack of weight shift, poor contact, and a suffer dramatic power loss. If you find yourself at the top of your backswing with the club very close to your shoulders – you’re likely a victim of this fault.
The Swing Path Pump Drill
Your swing path is one of the major contributors to the starting direction of your golf shot. Getting your swing to the point where your swing path is consistent is one of the best ways to take your game to the next level. This consistency helps eliminate pull and pushes from your swing, and helps you improve your overall ball striking. Sometimes, visualizing the proper path is difficult – that’s why today we’re sharing with you this great drill that enables you to “see” your path more effectively.
A Lesson in Accuracy
Accuracy is a characteristic we all are looking to have in our games, especially with the shorter irons. Apart from some fundamental keys, like solid balance, there is one particular swing trait all accurate golfers seem to have adopted. On their downswing they get their shaft in line with their lead arm.
If you can emulate this technique in your swing… you will notice how much easier control and keep the ball on-line. Although, some advocates of the two-plane swing may disagree, I like to see my students get into this position as it makes the rest of the downswing incredibly easy and automatic. It allows you to make a more aggressive move into the ball, guarantees you do not need to make any last minute swing manipulations to your swing to ensure you’re coming into the ball on path and in-line.
Get Compact For Control
It’s always been a major battle, distance vs. control… the players that have some degree of both dominate the tour. In most cases however, the long ball hitters lack the control and consistency of the shorter hitters. Lately we have been seeing a different trend, which allows for players to hit the ball a mile, while having a compact and controlled swing.
Using J.B Holmes for example, has been a the top of PGA tour average driving distance list, and has a very short and compact swing, which makes his swing more consistent and repeatable. The truth is, as long as you can make a full shoulder turn and fully cock your wrists, there is no reason why your swing needs to be longer than 10 o’clock (well shy of parallel).
The average player can really benefit from a shortened swing as this helps to increase the total stability of the golf swing. With fewer movements, the swing becomes a lot simpler to perform and harder to screw up. An elongated backswing tends to force some players to lift their front heel off the ground… which means, your it has to be replaced on the downswing often wreaking havoc with contact. Furthermore, a longer backswing tends to force your body weight to creep to the outside of your trailing foot – which decreases the stability of your lower body and increases the chances of an unwanted hip slide.
Simple creates repeatability. When working on shortening your backswing, it helps to have a friend let you know at what point your club is actually stopping. It’s rarely where you think. Practice shortening your swing with a short iron and focus on keeping a consistent tempo… quite often I see my students rush their downswing when they try and shorten things up.
The next time you hit up the range, remember this tip, shorten your swing while keeping a full wrist cock and shoulder turn – and you should see a dramatic increase on your distance and consistency.
The Importance of a Shallow Bunker Stroke
The best players in the game employ an out to in swing path for their bunker shots. Much like Furyk’s “loopy” swing (but less dramatic) good bunker players swing out to in to attack the pall from an ideal angle. A normal swing path tends to produce an angle of attack that is too steep, and can result in either skulls, chunks and the occasional perfect shot. A shallower swing path will help produce a more consistent results from the sand… and ultimately this means you have a “go-to” swing to rely upon when on the beach. A shallower swing will take less sand, which create more backspin and control. Here’s how to do it:
3 Simple Yip Cures You’ve Likely Never Tried
I hate the yips. It seems that every two years or so, after missing a couple of short putts – my mind goes into “don’t miss it” mode, and I’m faced with another couple weeks of awful, yip-filled rounds of golf. Now I guess I really shouldn’t complain, I’ve heard the horror stories of players quitting the game because their yips got so bad, or even people whose yips have progressed to affect their chipping and full-swing shots. I’m glad I’m not suffering that bad.
With all this said, I’ve spent countless hours on the putting green working on different things to help cure myself of the yips. I’ve tried different putting strokes, different setup routines, different putters and various drills – you name it, I’ve tried it. Oddly enough, I’ve found that some of the simplest changes to my putting stroke have made all the difference. In this post, I’m going to share with you those simple changes – so that you too can benefit – enjoy.
Fix Your Push From Your Knees
This particular drill can be used for two completely different purposes, and trust me, it is very effective for both.
The Putting Yips Reboot
For those of you who suffer from the yips, it doesn’t seem to matter what “cure” you try, because nothing works. What you have to realize is that the yips is a mental issue, not a swing fault. Your brain is telling your wrists to twitch before impact, because your brain is not 100% sure of the putt you’re about to make. What you need to do is re-boot your brain thinking process when it comes to putting. Forget all the missed short putts, and lost strokes are start the learning process over again. A great way to do this is to forget about the hole entirely.
Lets face it the hole is a small target, too small, and you need to think BIG. Work on your basic putting setup and alignment to a range bucket or towel from 10 feet away. Your successes will improve… and so will your confidence in your putting. With this approach, you can start trusting your putting stroke again and your yips should go away. Once you become more confident with your fundamentals, and you have successfully re-booted your putting stroke using the larger target… slowly work your way down to the hole again.
Chipping with Control
When faced with short chip shots around the green, you should be getting up and down with ease. I like to consider a short-chip shot like this, as a modified putt.
Here are some suggestions to help make these short chips more automatic.
1) Choke Down – For this short shot, you will need the added control and reduced power that a choked down club produces. This forces you slightly closer to the ball and should help you judge distances more accurately.
2) Acceleration – The number one fault of amateurs around the green is the deceleration. It’s hard to notice if you’re not looking specifically for it, but if your chipping is extremely inconsistent, I’ll put my money on it that you’re deceleration .
Even on these short shots you must be accelerating! Let the length of your backswing dictate the amount of power your chipping stroke generates, never the speed of your follow-through. Far too often do I see players “chipping” with long backswings that are slowing down as they near the ball. For pretty much every kind of chip, you must follow-through to ensure the ball gets out cleanly… acceleration ensures this happens.
3) Putt It – When chipping, your stroke is identical in length and style as a putt to the same target. With a proper chipping setup, the ball will be positioned slightly further back in your stance, resulting in a downward blow that pops the ball over the long grass and gets it rolling soon after it hits the green. Apart from ball position, the stroke is identical to a putt.
Practice this swing and use these tips and start saving your strokes guys!