The "S" Word: How to Understand and Cure the Shanks

One minute you're playing fine, the next you're hitting shots that shoot off at a 45-degree angle, barely getting airborne. It's so shocking and so different from a normal miss that it can completely shatter a player's confidence.

But here's the thing: a shank is not some random, mystical event. It's a physical action with a clear cause. And if it has a cause, it has a cure.

So, what is a shank? It's when you hit the golf ball not on the clubface, but on the hosel—the round, socket-like part of the iron where the shaft connects to the head. When the ball makes contact here, there's no control. It glances off the rounded surface and fires off to the right (for a right-hander).

Why the Shank Happens (It's Not as Random as You Think)

A shank is simply a matter of the centre of the clubhead being presented about an inch or two further away from you at impact than it was at address. That's it. Your club has moved closer to the ball. The question is, why?

• The Forward Lunge: This is the most common cause. During the downswing, your weight moves aggressively towards your toes, or your hips lunge towards the ball (a severe form of early extension), or your head and chest move closer to the ball. Any of these forward movements will push your hands—and therefore the club—further away from your body, lining the hosel up perfectly with the ball. This is often caused by a poor sense of balance at address.
• An Extremely In-to-Out Path: If you get the club way too "stuck" behind you, your swing path becomes excessively from the inside. From this position, as the clubhead travels out to the ball, the hosel can sometimes lead the way, especially if your hands are pushing out towards the target line instead of rotating.
• Setting Up Too Close... or Too Far: This sounds odd, but both can cause it. If you set up too close to the ball, you leave yourself no room. Any slight forward movement will cause a shank. Conversely, some players set up too far away and on their heels. Their natural balancing move during the swing is to fall forward onto their toes, which again, pushes the club out and into the shank zone.
• An Open Clubface: Sometimes, a player will come into the ball with the clubface wide open. In a last-ditch effort to square it, they push the handle and their hands toward the ball, which exposes the hosel.

How to Banish the Shanks for Good

The key to curing the shanks is to create space and restore your balance. You need to stop that forward movement towards the ball.

• Feel Your Weight in Your Heels: This is a fantastic immediate fix. If you're hitting the shanks, chances are your weight is on your toes. On your next practice swing, feel like your weight is set in the centre of your feet, or even slightly back towards your heels. During the swing, try to keep it there. This will stop you from falling or lurching forward.
• The "Hit the Inside" Drill: This is a classic. Place two golf balls on the ground. The one you intend to hit should be the outer ball (further from you). Place the second ball just inside and behind the first one. The goal is to hit the outer ball without touching the inner ball. This will force you to keep the club coming from the inside and prevent you from lunging forward.
• Line Up on the Toe: This is more of a mental trick, but it works. At address, deliberately line the ball up with the toe of your club. The fear of missing the ball completely will often cause your body to make the subconscious correction of not moving forward, and you'll end up striking it right in the centre.
• Feel Your Arms Stay "Connected": Feel like your upper arms are lightly connected to the sides of your chest. Make some swings where your arms and body turn back and through together. This prevents the arms from getting disconnected and thrown out and away from you on the downswing.

The shanks are horrible, but they are fixable. They are an exaggeration, a sign that your balance and distance from the ball are off. Don't panic. Go to the range, give yourself room, work on your balance, and make some slow, deliberate swings. You'll get the feeling of centredness back, and the dreaded hosel rocket will be a thing of the past.

Fixing the Shanks Recap

The shank has a way of getting into your head. One hosel rocket and suddenly every swing feels like defusing a bomb. Here’s the calmer way to see it: the club’s sweet spot missed the ball because the swing arc moved closer to the ball than normal, letting the hosel arrive first.

• Common precursors
• Standing too close at setup, then early‑extending so the handle moves outward.
• Ball creeping too far forward, nudging the chest toward the target and crowding the strike.

• Narrow stance and off‑balance backswing that sends you toward your toes.

• Re‑establish space with fundamentals
  Go back to a neutral, athletic stance – stacked joints, balanced weight. For irons, the ball belongs slightly forward of centre (back of ball roughly one clubhead inside the lead heel).

• Why shanks often show up in streaks
  Once you get one, fear pushes you even closer to the ball or makes you stand up. That’s the opposite of what you need. Keep your distance, feel your glutes back and chest down through the strike, and let the club pass without your hips lunging at it. Early extension brings the hosel closer; staying in posture keeps it away.
• Quick reality check
  If your last few setups were casual, measure them. Small changes at address snowball into big misses. Standardize ball position relative to the lead heel, keep stance width consistent per club, and the arc stays where you expect it. Do that, and shanks fade back into golf folklore where they belong.