Shanks or Chunks... what would you choose?

[TheWOAT]

I am a recovering slicer/chunker (its a disease, not a habit). To remedy the chunkiness, I went to "mid body" hands, and copied Hogans grip from 5 Lessons EXCEPT I strengthened the top hand a tad. Soo now my miss is down to a shank, alot of shanks...

My old grip was more perpendicular to my forearms, and I was more crouched down, which resulted in chunks, but the sweetspot was on a path to the ball

My new grip is more inline with my forearms, making me stand taller, and the chunks are all but gone, but I keep hitting the hosel.

Ive tried setting up with the ball off of the toe, even with wedges, but I then tend to reach out to the ball, and shank :bang:

Ive tried the Brian Gay setup with your forearm on plane deal, but my arms feel too far away from me, and I cant find my backswing.

I could go back to the old setup, and try to get rid of clubhead throwaway and try to lag the clubhead, but, that just sounds way too hard to do.. I am a hacker, hackers dont do lag.

Im sort of stuck on where to go from here.

 

[Augster]

Chunks can really only happen when you don't get your weight to your left side.

The idea is to get your weight behind the ball on you backswing, then get the weight ahead of the ball, your left leg, on the downswing.

This weight shift moves the bottom of your swing arc ahead of the ball. So you contact the ball on the way down, hit the ground slightly ahead of the ball, bottom out further ahead of the ball, then come up.

If your weight stays behind the ball, the bottom of your swing arc follows and you hit the ground before the ball.

Try some Stack and Tilt drills to keep your weight more centered, or moreso, to make sure your weight ends up ahead of the ball.

And don't allow your weight to go "forward" toward your toes and the ball. That is where the hosel rockets start.

Practice swinging with your toes raised inside your shoes for the entire swing.

I hope that helps.

 

[Pa Jayhawk]

And don't allow your weight to go "forward" toward your toes and the ball. That is where the hosel rockets start.

This is the majority of what I hear to be the top cause, and early this year I developed them for the first time. Concentrating on keeping my weight of my toes fixed the problem.

I have always had a tendency of striking the ball out towards the toe on my mid irons, and after trying numerous swing fixes, I just setup with the ball towards the hosel and have done so for a couple years without shanking the ball. Just a matter of monitoring that I am always making consistent contact in the center of the face.

Not saying to do this yourself, as that is just something consistent with my swing. Although I do want to point out that by setting up with the ball towards the toe, you are likely simply compounding the issue by thinking you will have to reach, hence putting more weight on the toes, hence more likely to exhibit the top reason for the shank. After working with proper balance and keep the weight in the arches of my feet, the shanks went away and I now still setup with ball towards the hosel for proper contact with my mid-irons. To be honest, I think that I put the ball in towards the hosel to account for the swing flaw has probably kept me from shanking the ball before this year.

 

[FATC1TY]

I've slowly stopped the chunking.. But lemme ask this while it's on my mind, and people are in the same train of thought.

I'm $hanking mostly just my 9, PW, 52 and 56 on full hard shots. I don't use a full shot for my 60* so it doesn't rear it's ugly head. When I go for a full hard scoring club into the green, or a recovery shot, I get so lost in my set up, making a full turn and bring it all back.

Sometimes it's just a straight shot right, most the time it's a shank. Sometimes I'm fine and can hit them great.. But as of late, I can't. I'm having to 3/4 or 1/2 swing them, and go with a longer club and accept that my ball isn't going to really spin back, or check harder than I want.

I've tried setting up open to get my left side out of the way to make a full turn. I've tried playing it back in my stance more. Close to my body, farther away...

Nada.

 

[BrandonM7]

I've slowly stopped the chunking.. But lemme ask this while it's on my mind, and people are in the same train of thought.

I'm $hanking mostly just my 9, PW, 52 and 56 on full hard shots. I don't use a full shot for my 60* so it doesn't rear it's ugly head. When I go for a full hard scoring club into the green, or a recovery shot, I get so lost in my set up, making a full turn and bring it all back.

Sometimes it's just a straight shot right, most the time it's a shank. Sometimes I'm fine and can hit them great.. But as of late, I can't. I'm having to 3/4 or 1/2 swing them, and go with a longer club and accept that my ball isn't going to really spin back, or check harder than I want.

I've tried setting up open to get my left side out of the way to make a full turn. I've tried playing it back in my stance more. Close to my body, farther away...

Nada.

You said earlier that you had been working at shallowing out your swingplane -- maybe you shallowed those short clubs too much.

 

[Pa Jayhawk]

I've slowly stopped the chunking.. But lemme ask this while it's on my mind, and people are in the same train of thought.

I'm $hanking mostly just my 9, PW, 52 and 56 on full hard shots. I don't use a full shot for my 60* so it doesn't rear it's ugly head. When I go for a full hard scoring club into the green, or a recovery shot, I get so lost in my set up, making a full turn and bring it all back.

Hard to say, but just thinking about this logically, you are talking about your shorter clubs. To get the club to the ball, you have to account for the difference in club length. You can either bend your body more at the knees or waist, or possibly widen your stance a bit, otherwise if you take a normal stance, you are going to have to lean forward. If you lean forward, where are you putting your weight?? Refer to prior post.

FYI, if you bend to much at the waist, the natural tendency will be to have a more over the top swing and you will likely pull the ball a bit on the shorter clubs. From talking to a few instructors, this is a fairly common occurrence for people. I tend to try and bend my knees a bit more as pulling my wedges becomes common when I get tired or lazy. Easier to bend my waste or lean forward as opposed to bending the knees, which requires exerting more energy.

Do you feel off balance when you finish a full shot with these clubs?

When I started shanking clubs earlier this year it started out with my 64*, then 60* and worked it's way up through even my 5i in time.

 

[TheWOAT]

FYI, if you bend to much at the waist, the natural tendency will be to have a more over the top swing and you will likely pull the ball a bit on the shorter clubs. From talking to a few instructors, this is a fairly common occurrence for people.

This sounds right. My old swing had more waist bend, more over the top, and chunky.

To fix the old swing, I did try not getting on my toes, and I increased my feet action to ensure I get to the front side... It helped, but still I scraped too much of the ground...

As for how I swing now... I took some practice swings indoors and I noticed that I was coming from the inside to the ball... So that means either its TOO inside, or the face is too open coming down.

But as I said before, the old swing "squared up" the face, just too low, and the new swing is the right height, but too "OUT"... It just seems like there is a simple fundamental fix here.

 

[Stanters]

Try swinging with your feet together to find a nice rhythm and also get to feel just how far you need to stand away from the ball. It could be as simple as being too close.

This way you should at least get a feel for a good even tempo and proper set up position. Sometimes we look for the most complex solution when the answer is very simple. Maybe this may help - it's worth a try.

Good luck.

 

[bames]

For my game shanks or chunks occur when I do not have a stable base. Shanks happen when I lean slightly into my toes and chunks when I sway back. This year I have been focusing on maintaining spine angle by feeling a solid connection to the ground through my feet, especially the instep of my right foot. Then I maintain a solid spine angle by having good knee flex and the proper waist bend. This has improved my ballstriking considerably. If you think about it, maintaining a solid base should return the club to the address position.

 

[TheWOAT]

Ill try the ball placement thing again, along with a different bottom hand grip... BUT aside from that...

I think I just have a naturally shallow (elbow plane or one plane) swing, and standing taller with a more upright backswing forces me to be more upright at impact, but the club wants to move away from me, back towards the One plane (elbow plane) swing.

Sooo Ill try:

1. Weaken bottom hand OR
2. ball placement OR
3. Drop arms into slot to get back onto lower plane

 

[Augster]

I think I just have a naturally shallow (elbow plane or one plane) swing, and standing taller with a more upright backswing forces me to be more upright at impact, but the club wants to move away from me, back towards the One plane (elbow plane) swing.

Standing taller to the ball is counter-productive to a one-plane swing.

For a 1-plane, you need to bend over more at the hips. Your spine angle needs to form somewhere around a 45* angle. Jim Hardy has it all laid out in his book.

 

[TheWOAT]

Standing taller to the ball is counter-productive to a one-plane swing.

For a 1-plane, you need to bend over more at the hips. Your spine angle needs to form somewhere around a 45* angle. Jim Hardy has it all laid out in his book.

I was using the term "One plane" incorrectly. I dont follow that Hardy method... I meant more in terms of shallow, and at impact, I am on the shallower plane, even though my swing isnt One Plane, or Rotary.

Hardy calls it "One plane, two plane", Manzella has a distinction of "Elbow Planer, Turned Shoulder planer", theres also "armsy" vs "big muscle" swingers. YOu can have a big muscle turned shoudler plane, two planer swing. Or an armsy, elbow plane, one plane swing.

Personally, I dont care to fit into anything, but categorizing how I swing couldnt hurt... So I have a somewhat steep backswing, plane shift in transitions, to the elbow plane. I use my pivot OK, not as good as I should, and I flip it too much.

 

[ezra76]

I know what causes both and I'll take chunking it any day of the week. I can correct a chunked shot on the very next swing. $hanks might take weeks and I'll still be nervous over a GD 115yd. PW. For me a $hank is caused by an underplane (shoulder plane) backswing and position at the top. The club comes in very shallow and introduces the hosel. It can rear it's head at any time. I'll never work on my swing again without hitting balls. I did a bunch of crap with a weighted club over the winter and really grooved a way too flat position at the top.

 

[295yards]

I'd way sooner have the chunks, easier to cure and you are not so penalized from the actual shot

 

[TheWOAT]

Well, I made an adjustment. I really, really tried to feel the trigger finger (aka #3 pressure point) at setup and waggle... and really focussed on that through the shot.

Shot my usual 97, but had....
4 pars (3 GIRs, 1 up and down for Par),
13 other holes where I was within 20 yds for an up and down (many from the fringe)...
1 hole that I saved double on...

I missed some GIRs because of 2 hooks, 1 shank, 2 chunks, 2 slight chunks (came up short), 2 badly selected clubs.

My putting from 5 ft and in was good.. missed some, made more... long putting was very bad, and the greens didnt help. But getting double bogeys (and a couple trips) from 10 yds off the green with a chance to save par really, really sucks.