Stop Shanking: Hit the Ground Closer to Improve Contact

If you fight the shank, the problem is often simpler than it feels: the club is bottoming out too far away from you. When that happens, the strike shifts from the center of the face toward the hosel, and the ball can rocket off sideways. This drill teaches you to move the club’s ground contact closer to your body without moving the low point behind the ball. That matters because you do not want to fix a shank by creating fat or thin shots. The goal is to keep the same forward low point while changing where the club contacts the ground in relation to your feet.

How the Drill Works

The idea is to give yourself a clear reference for where the club is contacting the turf. A yoga block works well, but any safe object or visual boundary can help. You place the toe of the club near the object at address. If your swing sends the club farther out toward the ball, you will run into that reference. If you swing in a way that brings the club’s ground contact slightly closer to you, you avoid it.

This is especially useful if your shank pattern comes from moving your pressure too far into your toes, lunging your body toward the ball, or throwing the arms out too early. All of those patterns tend to push the club’s bottoming-out point farther away from you. The hosel gets exposed, and center contact disappears.

The drill trains the opposite pattern. You are trying to feel:

• Your body staying more balanced toward your heels
• Your torso working slightly away from the ball through impact
• Your arms not firing outward too early
• The club still reaching the ground in front of the ball, not back behind it

That last point is critical. You are not trying to pull the club inward by backing up and dumping the club early. You are trying to keep the low point in a good place while changing the strike location from the hosel back toward the middle of the face.

Step-by-Step

1. Set a reference just outside the toe. Place a yoga block, headcover, or even the edge of the rough just outside the toe of the club at address. The reference should show you when the club is contacting the ground too far away from you.

2. Start without a ball. Make small, rhythmic practice swings. Your task is to hit the ground closer to you than where the club started. At first, exaggerate it. Try to move the contact point inward by an inch or two.

3. Use body balance to create the change. As you swing through, feel your pressure stay more toward your heels rather than your toes. Let your body work slightly away from the ball so the club does not get thrown outward.

4. Delay the arm throw. If your arms and hands rush outward too soon, the clubhead will move away from you and the hosel will lead the strike. Feel as if the body rotation carries the club through while the arms stay quieter for a moment longer.

5. Do it three times in a row. This is where the “three times closer” idea comes in. Make three consecutive swings where the club hits the ground progressively closer to you without crashing into the object outside the toe.

6. Refine the motion. Once you can exaggerate it, make the adjustment smaller. Instead of trying to move the contact point several inches, try to shift it only a half inch or less. This is where real control starts to develop.

7. Add a ball and set up off the hosel. Now place a ball down and intentionally address it so it looks almost lined up with the hosel. This gives you an exaggerated starting point. Your job is to make the same “closer” motion and turn that setup into a centered strike.

8. Hit soft shots first. Start with short swings and small shots. If you can move the strike from the hosel toward the middle on a partial swing, you can then build toward fuller swings.

9. Check that the low point is still forward. You should still be brushing the turf in a normal impact location relative to the ball. If the club starts bottoming out too early, you have traded one problem for another.

10. Use a course-friendly version. On the course, you can use the edge of a tee box, the border between fairway and rough, or any visible line on the ground as your reference. Set the club near that line and make a rehearsal swing. If you clip the line or rough outside the ball, you know the shank pattern is showing up again.

What You Should Feel

The best part of this drill is that it gives you a practical feel instead of a pile of swing thoughts. Different golfers will solve it in slightly different ways, but there are a few sensations that usually show up when you are doing it correctly.

Pressure More Toward the Heels

If you tend to shank, there is a good chance your pressure moves too much toward the toes in the downswing. That pushes your body closer to the ball and sends the club outward. A better feel is that you stay more centered over the arches or even slightly toward the heels as you rotate through.

Body Moving Away from the Ball

This does not mean standing up wildly or leaning backward. It means your body is not diving down and out toward the ball. Through impact, there is often a subtle sense that your hips and torso are creating room so the club can bottom out closer to you.

Arms Staying Patient

Many shanks happen when the arms extend too early and the clubhead gets pushed away from the body. You may feel as if your arms are staying in front of you a little longer while your pivot keeps moving. That can help the strike shift away from the heel and back toward the center.

Same Low Point, Better Strike Location

This is the checkpoint that matters most. You want the club to contact the ground closer to you, but not earlier. If your divot starts moving behind the ball, the drill has gone off track. The low point should still be in a good forward position even as the strike location improves.

Center Contact Feels Suddenly Available

When you exaggerate the setup by placing the ball near the hosel, a centered strike feels almost surprising at first. That is a good sign. It means you are changing the geometry of impact enough to eliminate the shank pattern.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Moving the low point backward. If you back away from the ball and throw the club early, you may stop shanking but start hitting fat and thin shots.
• Standing up too much. You want to create room, not lose posture completely. Too much early extension can create a different kind of inconsistency.
• Only manipulating the hands. This drill works best when the change comes from pressure, body position, and timing—not a last-second hand flip.
• Practicing only with full swings. Start with slow, small swings so you can clearly sense where the club is contacting the ground.
• Ignoring setup. If you address the ball extremely on the heel, even a better motion can still produce poor contact. Make sure your normal setup places the ball near the center of the face.
• Rushing past the exaggerated phase. The big exaggeration helps you break the old pattern. Once you own that, then you can refine it into a subtle on-course feel.
• Failing to use an external reference. The object beside the toe, or a visible line on the ground, is what gives the drill its value. Without that feedback, it is easy to guess wrong.

How This Fits Your Swing

This drill is not just a shank fix. It is a low-point and strike-location calibration drill. The reason it works so well is that it addresses the geometry of impact directly. If the club is contacting the ground too far away from you, the heel and hosel become dangerous. If the club contacts the ground slightly closer to you, the center of the face becomes much easier to find.

That is why this drill connects to several bigger swing themes at once:

• Contact control: You learn where the club is interacting with the ground.
• Body control: You improve your balance and avoid lunging toward the ball.
• Arm timing: You stop throwing the club outward too early.
• Low-point management: You maintain a forward strike without pushing the club away from you.

For many golfers, the shank feels mysterious because the ball can go bad so suddenly. But the pattern is usually predictable. The body moves toward the ball, the arms extend early, the club bottoms out farther away, and the hosel takes over. This drill gives you a direct way to reverse that chain.

It also gives you a simple on-course reset. You do not need a complicated mechanical checklist when the shank appears. You just need a quick way to ask, “Am I letting the club hit the ground too far away from me?” If the answer is yes, you can rehearse the “closer” feel and immediately restore a safer impact pattern.

Used consistently, this drill can turn the shank from a panic-inducing miss into a manageable feedback signal. Instead of guessing what went wrong, you will know what to look for: where the club is striking the ground, where your pressure is moving, and whether your body is creating space or crowding the ball. That clarity is what allows solid contact to return.