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SWING ACROSS YOUR BODY When it comes to impact, the terrible moves you’ve made up until this point will all but ensure that you shank the ball. All you have to do is continue to lead with the handle and the hosel, and swing across your body from right to left. Note how open my body is to the target, and how little room there is between my hands, arms and torso ( below ). That's a classic out-to-in downswing path. Don’t release the club; keep dragging those hands forward and left as long as you can. When you finally make contact, the ball will ricochet off the face and careen to the right, just as you were visualising at the start.
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DRAG THE HANDLE DOWN Swinging left produces a better shank than any sort of inside move can. From the top, I feel as if I’m dragging the handle of the club down as fast as I can into the ball ( above ). My hands “beat” my body and the clubface to the ball. When the face does arrive at the ball, it’s wide open, and is angled in such a way that the sweet spot of the hosel is the first to make contact. In general, dismiss everything you learned about swinging easy from the top and syncing up your hands, arms and body on the downswing. And forget about swinging from the inside. Pull down hard on the handle and swing left.
HOW NOT TO SHANK Once you know how to shank, you should have a pretty good idea of what to do to avoid one. Just in case you're still a little lost, my advice is to stand 5-8 centimetres further away from the ball. This gives you a better chance of centreface contact. For a long-term fix, I recommend setting the heel down oppo- site the ball. This will train you to make contact in the sweet spot. Once you can do that con- sistently, you’ll forget you ever shanked one.
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