Constant Heelside Strikes

[brmil]

I was hoping to get some input from you guys with regards to my swing. I hit at least 5 shanks in yesterdays round and I think I need to make some changes to improve strike location.

To start off, I hit everything on the heel. I'm sure that isn't true 100 percent of the time, but I would say it is the vast majority. It doesn't matter what club. I do tend to get bad cases of the shanks at times. I won't hit any for weeks, but then I'll have rounds where I'm constantly shanking shots (like yesterday). Also, I don't know if it is related, but I have been topping a lot of shots lately with my driver / 3w from the tee box. I unfortunately do not have a video of me swinging either of those clubs.

I have 2 videos of my swing from the round yesterday. In the "down the line" video, I'm not quite framed correctly. I didn't notice it until after I left the course. Hopefully the videos are good enough so that y'all can look for swing flaws or things that might be impacting my strike location.

Front Angle - This was a shank


Down the Line - This strike was very far on the heelside, but ended up with a decent result on the right side of the green


I'd like to hear people's observations about my swing and things that I may be able to work on!

Much appreciated.

 

[InTheRough]

It's early extension - a common problem. On the downswing you get your elbow stuck because you're not clearing your hips sufficiently. This is causing you to come out of posture between P6 and impact (P7). You stand up about half a head so you can make room for your elbow to rescue the shot.

Do some slow mirror work at home if you have room. If you don't have room to swing a club, buy a kid's club on Amazon or someplace. I have a 26" long kid's club I use for this because I can see the orientation of teh club face and it allows me to make full movements with an 8' ceiling.

 

[Drumdog]

I'm no expert but using the power lines behind you as a reference, your head drops down quite a bit. Then you try to rise as you get to the ball.
You might want to work on keeping your head a bit more still.

 

[McLovin]

to me it looks like during your backswing, your head is moving farther toward your toes/the ball. this is shifting your low point closer to the ball. try to feel like your butt is pressing against a wall during the backswing, and into the downswing feel like your first move is for your butt to smash against the wall.

 

[radiman]

I would agree that you seem to be early extending. Hard to see on the face on video, but in the down the line, you appear to be standing up a good deal through impact with your hips moving closer and closer to the ball. I have struggled with this off and on for years. A lot of it comes down to hip mobility. But, in my experience, the fix has always been to integrate more hip turn in your downswing. This should keep you from standing up through impact as well as getting the club to work around your body more. Should assist in creating more shaft lean at impact as well. I wouldn't say that it looks like you are flipping necessarily. But, there isn't much shaft lean at impact. Do you find that you are picking the ball and hitting it high with a tendency to catch it thin at times?



I really like to use this drill to get the feel of turning through impact rather than swinging (if that makes sense). I use slow dedicated swings to "feel" the move and even hit half shots this way. I use a driveway marker from Home Depot in the end of an old 6 iron I have lying around. I saw this drill years ago. It was some PGA Tour player doing it. I can't find that old video anymore. But, this is essentially the same explanation. So, for me, it has helped with my early extension, using rotation as the engine of my swing, keeping my hands low and ahead of the ball at impact, rotating my forearms instead of getting wristy, and really helps a guy make sold ball first contact. I think it's called the Punisher drill. So, you can likely find other sources if you look.




This is what I use in my basement to try and feel that move. Again, just making slow movements ensuring that I use my body rotation to square the face vs using my hands. Often times, I will just stop the clubface right at where the ball would be to ensure the face is square.

 

[WLG1952]

When I shank a shot, I was either standing to close to the ball at set up, or I took my rear swing path back too far inside, which brings my forward swing path from too far inside. Sometimes a combo of both.

 

[brmil]

I really appreciate all the replies. I'll probably keep this thread updated with the progress of my swing!

I ended up hitting a bucket of balls (which is rare for me) before I played my round. I also decided to opt into getting a driving range pass for this season.

I tried to incorporate some of the suggestions that you guys have suggested, but specifically I tried to work on a few things (because I don't think my brain can handle more than 2 new swing thoughts at a time ). I was first of all trying to focus on moving my head a bit less through my backswing and start of the downswing. I was also trying to move slightly more towards target when starting the downswing rather than towards the ball. This was in an attempt to oppose the motion that I seem to have to move towards the ball in the downswing, as @McLovin pointed out.

A few of you mentioned that I wasn't using my hips properly, so the other swing thought I was incorporating was with my hips. I tried to feel like I was firing my hips before my arms when starting the downswing.

It took me about half of the bucket of balls, with a lot of really bad shots, before I hit one that felt like.. "that was how it is supposed to feel." I was really starting to hit some good shots towards the end of the range session. This "new move" feels completely different to what I was used to, and it feels AMAZING I properly execute the technique. And guess what else.. On properly executed swing, I was hitting it out of the middle of the clubface which was so foreign to me.

The actual round started pretty bad. I definitely need some more reps at the range so that I don't have to think "okay, what are my swing thoughts" over the ball every time. I definitely felt the added pressure of trying to shoot a good score while I was on the course. You hit one or two bad shots and negative thoughts start creeping in, which is when people normally abandon new swing thoughts. After the 4th hole or so, I decided to quit keeping score and just focus on hitting good shots using the new techniques. After that I started playing much better. My bad shots with the new technique seem to be slightly thin cuts for whatever reason (if anyone has an explanation for that, I'd love to hear it). Also, trying to use the new technique when not on level ground kind of boggled my mind a bit (ball below or above my feet).

I came out of the day really optimistic with the techniques. Unfortunately we are supposed to get about a foot of snow today, so I won't be able to practice again for another week or two (which SUCKS). I plan to use some of the indoor drills that were recommended in the meantime and focus on some of the other things that you guys have mentioned. I wish I had taken more video for you guys to analyze while I'm stuck inside waiting for the snow to melt.

I appreciate all of the input everybody has given me.