How to Stop a Shank Golf Shot

Nothing sends a chill down a golfer’s spine quite like the shank. That sickening clank off the hosel, followed by the sight of your ball shooting sideways at a 90-degree angle, can crush your confidence in a single swing. This is the definitive guide to understanding why you shank the ball and, more importantly, provides clear, actionable steps and drills to eliminate it from your game for good.

What is a Shank, and Why Does it Happen?

Before we can fix the problem, we need to understand it. A shank is not a mystery, it’s a simple case of impact physics. It happens when the golf ball makes contact with the hosel of the golf club - the part where the clubhead connects to the shaft - instead of the clubface.

Think about your setup. You address the ball with the center of the clubface positioned perfectly behind it. For a shank to occur, something must happen during your swing that moves the clubhead - specifically the hosel - considerably closer to the ball at impact than it was at address. Your entire body, your arms, or the club itself shifts outward, toward the ball, somewhere between the top of your backswing and the moment of impact. The rest of this article is dedicated to identifying what causes that outward shift and how to stop it.

First, Check Your Setup: Common Pre-Swing Faults

Often, a swing flaw is just a compensation for a poor setup. Before you start overhauling your entire motion, let's make sure you're not doomed before you even take the club back. Here are the most common setup mistakes that encourage a shank.

Are You Standing Too Close to the Ball?

This is the most common and simple cause. If you set up with your hands and club too close to your body, you leave yourself very little room for error. The natural rotational forces in the golf swing require space. Without it, your arms have nowhere to go but out and away from your body during the downswing, pushing the hosel directly into the path of the ball.

The Fix:

At address, after you take your grip, let your arms hang naturally down from your shoulders. There should be a good hand's-width of space (about 4-6 inches) between the top of your thighs and the end of your club grip. If your hands are jammed up against your body, you’re standing too close. Take a small step back and let those arms hang free.

Where Is Your Weight in Your Feet?

Your balance at address dictates your balance in motion. Many amateurs who shank have a tendency to set up with their weight heavily on their toes. When your weight is already forward, it’s much easier for your momentum to continue falling forward - toward the ball - during the swing. This forward lunge is a primary cause of the hosel meeting the ball.

The Fix:

Feel your balance centered over the middle of your feet. You should feel grounded and stable, able to wiggle your toes slightly inside your shoes. A great check is to have someone gently push you from the front or back while you're in your stance. If you lose balance easily, you're not stable. Adjust your posture by sticking your bum out a bit more and feeling your weight settle back off your toes.

The In-Swing Culprits: Why the Club Moves Outward

If your setup is solid, the cause of your shank lies within your swing motion. Typically, it’s not some random, flailing action but one of a few very specific, repeatable swing flaws. The golf swing should be a rotational action, with the club moving around the body in a circle. When that circle gets distorted, shots like the shank appear.

1. The "Over-the-Top" Swing Path

This is the most frequent swing fault in amateur golf. It happens on the transition from backswing to downswing. Instead of the club dropping down on an inside path, the golfer throws their hands, arms, and club "over the top" of the correct swing plane. This action shoves the club outward, away from the body, creating a steep, outside-to-in path that puts the hosel on a collision course with the golf ball.

• What it Feels Like: It feels like you’re chopping down on the ball with your right shoulder and hand (for a right-handed player).
• What Causes It: It’s usually a strength-based impulse to hit the ball hard, using the upper body instead of rotating the torso and hips.

2. Early Extension: The 'Hips In, Hands Out' Move

Early extension is a slightly more stealthy, but equally destructive, shank-producer. It describes a motion in the downswing where a player’s hips and pelvis thrust forward, toward the golf ball, instead of rotating back and out of the way. When your hips move in, your arms and hands are forced out to make room. This "hips in, hands out" sequence radically changes your arm path from address to impact, pushing the hosel into the hitting zone.

• What it Feels Like: You'll feel your weight shift to your toes on the downswing, and you'll often finish standing very tall and off-balance.
• What Causes It: It can be a reaction to an inside takeaway, a lack of core stability, or simply a misunderstanding of how the lower body should rotate in the downswing.

The Drills: Your Action Plan to Cure the Shanks

Understanding the theory is great, but now it's time to put it into action. These drills provide exaggerated feedback that will retrain your brain and body to keep the club on the right path.

Drill 1: The Two Headcover Gate

This is the classic, go-to drill to fix an 'over-the-top' swing path and is a favorite among coaches.

1. Set up to your ball as you normally would.
2. Place a headcover (or a second golf ball) about two inches outside your ball, just beyond the toe of your club.
3. Place a second headcover about two inches inside your ball, just behind the heel of the club.
4. Your goal is simple: swing the club through the "gate" created by the two headcovers without hitting either of them.

If you have an aggressive over-the-top move, you'll hit the outer headcover. This drill gives you instant, undeniable feedback and forces you to feel the club approaching the ball from the inside.

Drill 2: The Chair Against The Glutes

This drill is the best way to directly combat early extension. It teaches you how to maintain your posture and keep your hips back as you rotate.

1. Grab a golf bag or a chair and place it so it's just touching your glutes when you're in your golf posture.
2. Begin taking slow, half-swings.
3. The goal is to feel your right glute (for a righty) stay in contact with the chair during the backswing, and your left glute rotate back into the chair during the downswing and follow-through.

If you're an early extender, your immediate impulse will be to thrust your hips away from the chair on the downswing. Maintaining contact throughout the swing forces your hips to rotate properly, giving your arms the space they need to swing on plane.

Drill 3: The Right Toe Pulled Back

Here’s a fantastic in-swing drill that clears your right side and helps promote a better downswing sequence without needing any equipment.

1. Take your normal setup.
2. Before you swing, pull your right foot back about 6 inches, so your toes are in line with the heel of your left foot.
3. Hit shots from this "closed" stance.

This setup makes it physically difficult to swing over the top. It forces you to rotate around your spine and clear your right hip, effectively pre-setting an inside swing path. You will immediately get the feeling of the club dropping "into the slot" on the downswing, a sensation that is the polar opposite of shanking.

Final Thoughts

Shanking is a frustrating but fixable problem. It's almost always a symptom of your club path moving further away from your body at impact than it was at address, caused by setup issues or in-swing movements like extending early or swinging over the top. By systematically checking your setup and using the drills above, you can build a more stable, rotational swing that keeps the club on plane and sends the hosel packing.

If you find yourself on the course and the shanks suddenly appear, getting instant feedback can be a game-changer. That's why we built Caddie AI.You can describe your problem shot or even snap a photo of a tricky lie, and I can give you personalized, tactical advice on what might be going wrong and suggest a simple fix to get you through the round. It provides the objective, expert opinion you need to identify the root cause, so you can stop guessing and start playing with confidence again.