How a Cardboard Box Can Transform Your Golf Swing

Shanks are one of the most frustrating swing flaws in all of golf. You’re inside 50 yards from the green and all you need to do is hit a simple wedge to safety and start putting. But sure enough, the ball zips off way to the low right side because you hit it with the hosel instead of the face – a hosel rocket shank! In this video we’ll show you exactly what’s causing your shank, and how to fix it within a single bucket of balls on the range.

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One of the things when somebody comes to me and um they’ll say man you know I’m hit my driver pretty good but my irons are a disaster and I said well what’s going on well they’re all going to the right and um I’ll say are they going

High right or they going low right and usually they say Well they’re going pretty low they’re like a 45 degree angle over this way and uh they’ve got the thanks and uh it’s a dreaded disease most golfers will tell you good players get them bad players get them pretty

Much happens to every player at one time or another I’m going to tell you what causes them there’s several things uh that could be the culprit but uh you’ll need to figure out which one is you and I’ve got some that you may not think about so I think you’ll really enjoy

This video most higher handicap when they are hitting this shot for a right-handed player that’s going straight to the right most of them believe that they’re hitting the toe of the club blows my mind frankly how many people tell me that that’s where they’re hitting it the other people think that

Their Club face is really open and they’re coming through like this to hit it to the right um that’s rarely the case as well um when you have the Shanks they go low and to the right um if you were doing it because your face was in this position it would

Go high into the right so you should be able to tell by the ball flight that that’s not what’s happening on a rare occasion I see somebody that does in fact hit it off the toe and deflect to the right so that’s entirely possible but it’s it’s rare that I see that

Almost everybody that I see they’ll have a white marks on this part of the club and I’ll show that to them that this is where you’re hitting the other thing that I’ll do the the first way to cure them this is the best way to cure them

That I’ve ever found and it’s very simple um and it doesn’t cost very much money just go into your golf shop and ask them for an old empty box that the clubs come in and you just need to set up and put the ball so close to the

Box that you maybe just have a eighth of an inch between the toe of the club and the box and where the ball would be centered on the club face undoubtedly when I do this with somebody that has the shanks their first swing literally will slam into that box a foot

Or two behind the ball and so that’s the number one thing that I see that most people shank it because their club path on the way down is too much outside to inside okay whether they’re left-handed or right-handed too much out to end gets the club head away from them and then

Exposes that hosle most people in fact that I see the club fa is actually closed as well even though the balls going to the right the ball hits the hosle never hits the face and in a split second goes to the right you can tell if that’s you as well because if you’re

Shank shank shank and then you don’t hit the hosle your ball’s going to go 25 or 30 yards to the left so I see that all the time so this box will tell you if you’re making a path mistake that’s causing you to hit the hosle so

You can do that two ways outside in hits the Box before the ball and then inside out would hit the box after the ball and either direction can cause you to hit it on the hosle I would tell you though 75 80% of the time what I see is too steep

Outside in for most players that are hitting the hosle so what what makes you do that well a couple things so um before I tell you this box though is the way to learn go to the driving range hit a bucket of balls put this box down especially if

You’re a pretty good player that’s played for a long time and a bucket of balls you ought to be able to figure out how to hit the ball not the Box um and that’s very important I think the more you think about technique and try and not to shank most players end up

Shanking worse so I like things that make you do what’s correct with not much thought hit the ball don’t hit the Box pretty simple but it’ll it’ll probably in my experience be the best way to learn other players you know you can see I have an alignment stick here

Um that doesn’t work it sits too low to the ground you can still come outside in and shank it and not hit this alignment stick on the ground doesn’t work you need something pretty tall that’s why this cardboard even a shoe box will work but I like a pretty long box have the

Ball pretty much in the middle of it and it’ll make all the difference in the world if if if you have the the swword so that’s what I would tell you so use this box it’ll really really really improve you immediately little off the subject this is probably one of the best

Training aids for driver too use a box tee the ball up have your toe or your driver almost touching the Box just an eighth of an inch maybe away have the ball teed up to where you have Center contact UM great driver practice too so

I like this I use this box a lot the other thing I would tell you I I find some really talented players um that can swing and not hit this box but they actually then would hit it off the toe or the club too much that they just make sure it doesn’t hit

The box if that happens to you just simply take a little hand towel or your head cover and um you can put that in this side and so now I have to swing um miss the box and also miss this tab tow I usually leave quite a bit of room here

So that the shaft doesn’t hit the towel but so that’ll be pretty good practice to to keep you from cheating and just swinging in here too much making sure you’re missing the Box the box is pretty intimidating at first I’ll warn you so so I can I make a

Mistake this way hitting the Box before the ball um um if I’m hitting the box after the ball it’ll start pointing that direction so you ought to be able to figure out pretty quickly whether you’re in to out too much or out to in but if I’m a

Bedding man I’m going to bed out to end cuz I’m going to win more money cuz 80% of the people are out to end I’m only going to lose two out of 10 bets so what causes us to hit the box it’s usually your takeaway so we’ve discussed

Takeaways in other videos but the biggest mistake that I see is too flat a takeaway so if you’re using my flashlight stick is a great training aid if you got the shanks because almost everybody that would shank it they’ll see this light is going to point way over here on the other side

And once I get too flat then my down swing is going to come over so usually what I find with most players is when they’re hitting the hosle is the their first move back is the club’s way too late off in this position here and once they’re here if they stay there

They’re going to go that way and shank it or they’re going to go this way and shank it and most people go that way and so takeaway is really important um you know as this handle hinges I need to have it to point at my target line or even steeper but at least

At the Target line if I’m pointing over the target line uh boy I’m in big trouble especially if I’ve been hitting it on the hosle the other thing that I see where people hit it on the hosle is similar but I see a lot of people that

Set up and then their hands as they go back work away from them and so once my hands get further away from my body than when I started well my club’s going to swing farther away from me on the way down it only has to swing an inch and a

Half farther away to hit this hle so I see that a lot where people’s hands go work work away from them they don’t really turn their body and then they get out here one of the things that helped me as an instructor and how I learned to

Teach was I worked at a public golf course called Mid Rivers Golf Links it’s a Housing Development now but uh in the John Da and the Tiger Woods boom um St Charles County Missouri was booming and all these people were moving out in our area and they wanted to

Learned to play golf they watched John Daly and they watched Tiger Woods in the early ’90s and we had a big rush of new golfers and so I would have as a public course I didn’t have people that played all their life and grew up with it I had

Construction workers that would come to me for a Lessing and they would have boots on and their tank tops and they’d been working all day and they’re coming from a golf lesson most of these guys were huge and ripped okay and so those guys are the toughest ones to teach to

Play cuz they almost all shank it at first they’re they’re so thick in their pecs and in their biceps and triceps that their arms get out way away from them and they have a hard time controlling that club head down at the bottom so I had to learn early on as a

Young pro how to get these guys to keep them from shanking because they would literally could shank 200 balls in a row at the driving range I mean nonstop and so I had to teach him what their arms and and and how to use those correctly

And then by using this box it use if they were stubborn enough to practice a little bit was the only way they could learn to not to do it uh big breasted women have the same issue and so what tends to happen with those big chested strong guys and big breasted women as

Their arms work out away from them as they swing cuz they’re trying to have some freedom of motion but they have a hard time swinging farther away from that so I try to get those players to feel that these arms are on top of their

Chest more at a dress more like this and so they can take the club back and their arms can stay in front of them a lot better but so women and and really strong men that’ll help you and so uh the other thing that I would tell you

With the shanks that’s often overlooked especially with really good players I I mean five handicaps plus two handicaps that get the shanks one of the things that I watch is I stand like where the camera is behind somebody I watch the bill of their cap if I can tell they

Don’t have a path problem but they’re still hitting the hle what’s going on most of the time is that they are their head on the back swing is going down and when that happens my shoulders and everything get closer to the ball and so I I stand from

Behind those players and I line up the bill of their cap or their forehead on something in the distance and I can watch and see if that head goes down and most of those good players when they shank it their head will go down and then they’ll stay there and then they’ll

Be swinging farther away from the ball and they’ll hit the hosle the other the reason that happens I believe for most of them is because their takeaway is too low on the back swing see if by the time I’m here I should be like this you’ll see I haven’t changed my level

But if I lower this head down I have to dip my spine angle to do that and so that’s what I find is they’re trying to do a really low takeaway and then their head and all that’s moving down sometimes you’ll see them move this way in transition and they’ll get closer to

The ball too so video yourself from behind and pay attention watch the bill of your cap are you dipping down like this boy that’ll be a light bulb for you when you see it if you have the shanks are you dipping on the way down I don’t

See that as much as I see it on the way back so really check on that takeaway that you’re not dipping with your head and um if you’ll learn to do that and learn to watch for that it’ll really help you and so put the box down try to

Stay tall um if you are dipping on the way back then these These Hands need to hinge this club sooner you’re going too long back without hinging and so I see that a lot with really really good players that can’t understand why those Shanks show up every once in a while the

Other thing I would tell you is this most people tell me when they have the shanks that my Woods are fine don’t shank my Woods well the woods don’t have a hosle like the irons so when you hit it on the heel too much with Woods you

Either hit ground balls that most people think they’re topping or you actually deflect it to the left so you’ll hit driver ground balls left when you hit the heel too much and you’ll hit irons 45 degrees to the right when you hit the hosle too much unless you hit the hosle

So directly ly with an iron that it just goes straight and on the ground and I have a lot of people come to me and they are literally hitting the ball right here and it’s just ground they say I’m topping it I’m topping it and they’re not topping it they’re hitting the hosle

So bad that it’s just a ground ball in front of them so if you see that um like this hles in front of the face can you see that but see this face is in front of the hle so do you see how that’s different

This is back here and the face is out in front of this shaft so the ball even if it hits here doesn’t hit the shaft and then the same thing here though see this is out in front of the hot so if I hit here it’s going to go there um before it

Hits the face so if I have both of those together you ought to be able to see the difference um where the hle is in each so it’s the worst shot in golf everybody hates it and the last point I’ll make about the shanks is that they are mental

Okay they’re physical but they’re also mental and that’s why once you start most people can’t stop and so what the reason for that is and I’ve just learned this from people a lot smarter than me but the way our subconscious works is that it works with visualization and pictures just like a

Snapshot or a video and so your subconscious doesn’t know do not it only knows do so it doesn’t hear the contraction of don’t it hears do do so when you say don’t shank it your subconscious does not understand it that way it thinks you want to shank

It when you get this image this terrible feeling of this shot and this terrible image of this shot going to the right Patrick will probably from our last video before this one show you one going over there but when you hit that shot you get such a vivid image in your mind

Of that terrible shot your subconscious though thinks that’s what you want to do so it keeps performing that shot over and over and over so you have to have success and start hitting the ball in the middle of the club face again to get rid of those images but the best

Thing you can do is by using this box the other thing I tell people hit if you have a seven wood if you have a fivewood practice with those they don’t have hles they’re flatter shafted clubs your mistake is probably too flat so you’re not making as big a mistake with

That and then you’ll can get some success with your Fairway woods and you’re can work back down to your irons I have have had the shanks before when I was learning Le how to play I was a good player scratched probably already and I’d go to driving range every night and

Every once in a while I’d start shanking every single shot and what I learned for me this is before I knew about this box what I learned for me was was to hit my fivewood and at least I could get it airborne and pretty straight and I could

Work my way out of it or I would simply go practice chipping I’m not going to don’t beat yourself up if you got the shanks and you can’t get rid of them don’t beat yourself up do something productive and so I would go chip I’d go putt I’d H my

Fivewood instead of my sand wedges for most good players are always shanking it with their wedges and and the reason why is the shaft angles with wedges are the Steep other than your putter are the steepest wedges or the steepest shaft angles in your bag most people shank it

Because they’re too flat so when you’re too flat with a steep Club you’re in big trouble and so that’s why getting a longer flatter Club can at least get you some confidence back but the best way to do it is how I open this video if you if

You’re starting if you’re shanking it get you an old Club box and practice with it and you’ll they’ll be cured if you got questions or comments if there’s something I didn’t cover that you know maybe you found that helps you let us know I’d be glad to learn something as

Well too but that’s my experience with the shanks and I’ve dealt with thousands of people over the years that shanked it and I’m pretty good at fixing them so um I think all this stuff will help