Hi Consistent Golfer,
Should be an exciting finish to the players championship today with Tiger, Garcia etc in the mix.
The last two holes are awesome to watch.
Expect to see some drama.
Speaking of drama...
I had many consistent golf subscribers say they missed the article on curing the shank. So I have repeated that below for all of you that missed it. Also, below you'll find some answers I've given to some common questions I get asked.
Enjoy....
Cure For Hitting The Ball Sideways
By Tracy Reed
By Tracy Reed
The sideways shot, sometimes known as a shank, is the most upsetting event in golf. Everything will be just fine and dandy and out of the blue....kachunk!
The golfer usually stands stunned while the blood runs from his brain to his stomach, wondering what he did to displease the golf gods.
Sometimes it happens once and sometimes it stays for a while. I've gotten calls of distress in the middle of the night from golfers who were sleepless because of the sideways shot. (I don't like the other word for it.)
The sideways shot is like a bad relative who just shows up on your doorstep and wants to stay indefinitely. No golfer is immune to this shot, but instead of living in fear of it, you should understand it so you can stop it in its tracks if it shows up on your doorstep.
Where does this shot come from?
For most golfers, it seems to just show up, but after hearing stories from many distressed golfers, I have a theory about the origin of the beast. Let me explain.....
The reason golfers hit the ball with the hosel of the club is that the distance from the shoulders to the ball changed between set up and impact.
How is this possible?
If the arms and the upper body don't stay in time with each other, it can effectively change that distance.
The biggest cause I see for the sideways shot is that the golfers involved take the club back with only their arms or start the club back with their arms and then add body turn after the arms have moved part way through the backswing.
This movement changes the position of the arms relative to the body and either shortens or lengthens the relative length of the arms, depending on the swing path.
If your swing path with this movement is out to in, you'll hit the ball on the toe. If your movement through the ball is in to out, you'll hit the ball with the hosel.
Both situations are caused by the same take-away but, believe it or not, the hosel shot indicates a better club path through the ball.
The next question is how does this shot sneak into our lives?
After talking to many golfers, I would look at short game practice as the cause. It's easy to chip or putt with an all arms stroke and not realize it because it is such a short stroke.
When the practice moves to pitching or full shots, suddenly everything seems to have gone haywire because the brain was used to starting the arms without moving the body.
The cure for the sideways shot is to make sure the take-away is controlled by the body turn through connection and not initiated by pulling back with the hands. Since it creeps in during the short game practice, it is especially important to keep connection when putting or chipping.
A good drill to use when practicing your chipping is to chip with towels under your armpits. Don't drop the towel and you will keep connection.
What if you're doing all of that and still hitting the ball sideways?
Well, again it is all in the length of the arms and club. If that length changes between set up and downswing, you won't hit the ball in the center of the clubface.
The only other reason you would get closer or farther away from the ball would be a balance problem.
If you set up with the weight on your heels and make the downswing with your weight on your toes, you will shorten your distance from the body to the ball and either take a massive divot or hit the ball sideways off of the hosel of the club. If you set up with your weight on your toes and make the downswing with your weight on your heels, you will be farther away from the ball and either hit it off of the toe or miss it all together.
Needless to say, balance is very important if you wish to strike the ball on the center of the club face.
As long as the triangle made by the hands and the elbows doesn't change shape during the swing, connection is kept through the swing, and the swing is made in balance, the effective length from the shoulders to the ball shouldn't change and the sideways shot should stay away.
If you've gotten to this point, and you're hitting this shot, don't panic; go to the beginning ofthe Golf Swing Control course and review the setup and backswing with attention to detail.....you just missed something important.
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