 Okay, so it's early morning. I'm on the par three course at the back of four golf in Chester Why am I yet? I'm practicing 100-yard pitching wedge shots because I've had a bout of that dreaded thing I don't even like saying it. You know the word I'm gonna say. No, in fact, I'm not gonna say it We're gonna mention the word It's gonna be difficult to do a video about it without mentioning the word, but I'll try my very best anyway Last few weeks. It's been pretty grim You'll notice that from the videos that I've done the last man versus golf hold challenge because of the way these are sort of pre-recorded was two weeks ago and in the last month I've had a bout of I'm gonna have to say this word the shanks because I'm gonna struggle to avoid it throughout the video And it's an absolute killer in your game now for thing I said about because a bout not about of the shanks because it seems to be that I've cured it and I say that with fingers crossed because I'm still very tentative And I'm here this morning practicing I'm gonna hit a few wedge shots here now It's a little bit chilly to be honest with this morning after a real nice spell of weather in the UK But I'll finish off here and I will take it indoors A little bit of a further chat and I'll ask the opinions of a few experts on this one That's one more wedge shot that isn't shanked and it's one more wedge shot to get in a little bit more confidence back because I'm gonna explain why I'm doing this video and what's happened to me over the past three or four weeks and it really is going back that far because Probably about four weeks ago. Maybe six seven eight rounds ago I hit one shank in a round of 18 holes of golf with a pitching wedge never thought no more of it Moved on finished around no detrimental effect I did that game for probably the next two rounds where I'd throw in one shank with a short iron and Never thought a great deal of it then to be quite honest with you a bit annoyed obviously that happened But for the next two rounds they started to creep in so I'd hit two shanks per round And I was starting to get a little bit concerned as to why this was happening and then 10 days ago I played in a four ball match Played the first six holes Really really well to be fair and It's probably worth pointing out now that my confidence at this stage was quite high I played some decent golf for three months and six holes in really very good. Nothing wrong drove a ball into a fairway 130 yards out grabbed up a pitching wedge and I hit a shank straight right out of bounds And then proceeded to drop a ball and hit another shank straight right and out of bounds During that 18 holes of golf I then continue to hit probably another what four or five shanks in total from start to finish from the six hole onwards And the biggest thing is the impact that it has on your mentality because all the confidence that I'd built Over three months of playing decent golf was absolutely evaporated in the space of a very short period of time Every iron that I stood over from the sixth through to the 18th. I felt sick I just the only thing that is in my mind is please do not shank this golf ball And it has a complete It's almost one of the things that causes the shank in terms of what I think does in terms of the delivery of the club head It almost worsens that because of this negative attitude that you've got towards releasing the club head and you become a little bit more hesitant to even more Restrictive in your movements So it things go from bad to worse if you like in the moment I'm going to say that I haven't got that killer disease right now at least I hope so been a few rounds since and I seem to have Self diagnosed what my problem was and explain how I see it how I thought Where the shank came from from me and how I stopped doing it But that's from my perspective and I'm very much like I said, I'm the average golfer I'm not an expert on this and I'm going to ask a couple of people Who work at four golf bit better qualified than me to explain quite why these things happen because they're an absolute killer But like I said, it's the way it kills you in terms of your mentality I've heard lots of stories over the last few weeks about people who've even stopped playing again because they just cannot cure it And it is absolutely horrible. It's a horrible horrible feeling Right, so I've just told you what I think the problem was and like I said fingers crossed seems to have been eradicated from my game But I've now got the expert in going to get the expert opinion Steve from four golf Welcome to the channel mate. First of all, you're always in the back gaffer in the back there But I need to know or the viewers need to know What is that? What do you think is the cause of this disease? It's horrible, isn't it? It is it is I think the The biggest misconception for most golfers is they don't know what causes it. Yeah, they're convinced it's an open club face Which I've just said, yeah Yeah, and quite often it's not okay We tend to find that the club path is moving from out to in With a closing club face. Yeah, that's offering the chance Okay, so obviously the reason it repeats itself is most golfers are thinking my club face is open because it's shot Right. Yeah, I'll close it even more hence more shacks. Right. So what we try and Try and get the golfer to do so in some ways a bit because I thought I thought that my problem was I've been in a bit of order tending to a bit of a neutral delivery of club face But I've also got a problem. I sort of go over the top down over the top of my slightly. Yes. Yes That's probably potentially a bit of a cause is what it is. Yeah, the out to in is Definitely not good and out to in with a slightly closed club face Which obviously makes it go left as you close that place. Yeah, so as you close it more The hosel becomes what you're offering the ball. Yeah. Yeah, and obviously that's a shank. Yeah So your cure for that would be I'll it's gone, right? So I need to close a couple even more And that actually makes the the hosel more prevalent to go hence more shacks, right? So what we try and get you to do what we will try and get you to do Is to try and change your swing path From an into out as opposed to out to in with just your normal release Just your normal swing, but we're going to focus on the swing path. So my My oldest swing and I haven't got a swing. Don't forget. I'm pretty much Average as you know, but my in my head my old swing Any criticism would have been I used to buy come very flat on the back swing. Yeah Um, well really I need to deliver on that sort of inside play whereas I'm just going still People think if they're flat on the back swing, they'll be flat on the follow-through. The opposite's probably true Yeah, they'll have a little bit of a loop the right hand tends to take over and that gets you out to in So my changes that I've made in my head. I've actually in the as it's transpired over three months I've ended up being Slightly negative, haven't they? Probably it looks like potentially and you will find it If you keep getting chunks now and again, yeah, and if they still keep popping into your game The reality is, you know, you probably haven't cured it now. So what I think we should do is just work on your path And normal delivery of the club and you'll see you should see a difference So before we put the before we switch the camera on we talked about a drill with a club a head cover Which concentrates the mind on basically delivering the club head In an impact basically if you hit the uh, if you hit the head cover Then potentially we're going the swing path has gone slightly again So I'll switch the camera. Yeah, put the head cover down and just explain that. I'll explain what we're doing with the head cover Absolutely. All right. Yeah, right. So Club head, uh, sorry head cover in position all ready to go Explain the drill mate what I'm gonna do Your problem in my opinion is that the club base is traveling from out to in Yeah, so the swing path is traveling from out to in with the head cover there The focus in the focus is to change the swing path If you're out to in you actually hit that head cover Yeah, so obviously I want you not to hit the head cover So if I might swing when I come over the top you would you would strike the head cover before the ball Yeah, okay, and that would tell us that you're going out to in okay So all I want you to do is focus on not hitting the head cover stand to the ball as you would normally Yeah, and just put your normal swing on it What this will ensure is that we change the path from Into out from much more. It's absolutely and don't worry about release of the club just release normally I don't need to over exaggerate anything. So just put your normal swing on it and focus on that swing path There you go. And straight away. It's a very neutral ball. Yeah, you know no into a shank obviously And we're not going to shank from this position. No, so we'll hit another one Can you are you allowed to take the head cover out? Of course Not really. No, it's a great practice drill And all we're trying to do is get you used to the feeling of that And it's a super strike great flight Lovely golf shot very neutral ball flight and you can play golf with that you can aim at any flight That's a good little drill. I mean first and foremost a relevance of Shanks really to be fair, isn't it? Good drill because all of a sudden I was striking the ball there nice couple of wedges and I tried it off camera And again, it does get the Mindset yeah About like I said delivering that put inside and I think for me Having scum to you now it has been that exaggeration of getting that putty shot. I've been coming over the top Thinking I'm delivering the club face over. Yeah Maybe we tend to find with a lot of DIY fixes. Yeah, try and work it out Yes, or if I do this if I do that this will happen The reality is it's just doesn't happen that way now, you know the swing fundamentals never change So they really should be stuck with because they do work they're proving Well, I hope that it helped me I mean like I said more than happy with that as I said at the beginning of the video I've stopped doing it and I hope that continues to be the case That's a great little drill if any of you're out there I've struggled with it and I really do feel a lot of pity for you. It's a horrible thing Try that drill see if it works. Thanks to Steve Big thing is comments down below on this one because you've got a feeling There might be a few is have you ever experienced a peer where you've had this horrible thing appear in your game Um, do you know of anybody else because I've heard some right horror stories over the last few weeks people have stopped playing Yeah, it's like a disease, but that's because they don't know what's causing it now and therefore their fixes are making it worse Rather than making it better. So the probably the best advice is it? I mean, that's a great drill Yeah, it's always the same as it's always got go see a pro in it Absolutely, you know, that's what they're there for they know what they're doing. They know what they're talking about You know, don't try and fix it yourself. You wouldn't try and fix your own car if you didn't know what you were doing No in the engine bay, would you? There you go final words of wisdom from Steve. Thanks for that money to appreciate it um So comments down below like the video Um hit that like button and subscribe if you don't already and if not, I'll see you soon I'll go and practice a few more of these drills. I think and hopefully that's the end of the shanks