Fix Shanks 27 Oct 2026 12 min read

Why is your iron ball striking inconsistent?

A good-looking swing can still leave you catching one iron thin, the next heavy and another out of the heel. Before changing your stance again, check what happens between address and the top of the backswing.

Brittany had been playing for about a year and wanted more dependable contact and distances. Andy Proudman liked her general setup and much of her swing. He found two different problems to work on: a takeaway that brought her closer to the ball, and a lower body that struggled to support the turn and move her through the strike.

The useful starting point is knowing which contact problem you are trying to change. Then give yourself a movement you can rehearse and feedback you can recognise.

Diagnose the strike before changing your setup

Brittany wondered whether she was standing too close to the ball, squatting too much or setting her feet too wide. Andy checked her posture, distance and balance and was happy with the general position she already had.

That matters because moving farther from the ball would not, by itself, explain what happened during her swing. Her body position changed after she started moving.

Heel contact: check the takeaway and head movement

Brittany had previously worked on keeping the club more in front of her. That feel had helped an earlier fault, but she had taken it too far. The club now moved outside in the takeaway, and her head moved down and towards the ball.

Andy linked that movement towards the ball with the heel coming closer to it. He also explained that one of her shots going sharply right had come from the hosel. That was a diagnosis of her particular strike, rather than a rule that every right miss is a shank.

Her downswing plane already looked good in places. The first change was a small adjustment to the takeaway, rather than rebuilding the whole arm swing. If you have worked hard on one feel, check whether you still need the same amount of it.

Ground-first contact: check the pivot and trail knee

The thin and heavy contact needed another explanation. Brittany’s hips swayed away during the backswing, and she was still back through impact. Andy used a patch of grass to explain the task: with an iron, he wanted the ball struck first and the ground struck afterwards, on the target side.

The farther her hips moved away, the more she had to move back through to reach that ground-contact position. Remaining back made the task harder. Simply telling her to hit down would not explain how to organise that movement.

Her right knee was also straightening and locking early. Andy wanted her to retain some flex so she had a more stable trail leg to turn into and push from. For right-handed Brittany, the right leg is the trail leg and the left is the lead leg.

These checks lead to different jobs. The takeaway rehearsal addresses the club and body moving towards the ball. The pivot work helps her turn into the trail side and then move through onto the lead side. An improved plane alone does not prove that the ground contact is fixed.

Rehearse a takeaway you can check

Andy began with an eight iron and put the ball on a tee for the first attempts. Taking some concern about the strike away let Brittany concentrate on learning the movement.

Use a target-line guide on the ground and make a slow rehearsal with relaxed hands. Pause when the shaft is roughly parallel to the ground. The checkpoint Andy gave Brittany was that the shaft should also run parallel to the target line, with the club more in line with her hands rather than pushed out in front.

For her, this felt more rounded and farther inside than the motion she had been trying to make. That sensation makes sense against an outside takeaway. It is not an instruction to roll the club behind your body. Check the position, rather than exaggerating the feel until you create the opposite fault.

Rehearse the checkpoint, stop long enough to recognise it, then return to the ball and swing. A rehearsal beside the ball gives you the feel before you have to combine it with a shot. Our step-by-step takeaway guide develops the arms-and-body relationship in more detail.

Keep Brittany’s small setup cue in context

Andy also noticed that her setup routine could put her into too much tilt towards the target. He gave her a small hip adjustment, asked for 50/50 weight and later described the feel as the right hip a little lower than the left.

That was a correction for the position Brittany kept returning to. It helped her find a starting point from which she could turn more comfortably. It was not a fixed pelvic or spine angle for every golfer to copy. Keep the useful distinction: a small setup adjustment should make the intended turn easier, rather than add another exaggerated lean.

Check the face when the strike improves

Some shots felt stronger after the takeaway work, but one still caught the ground first and others went left. Those were useful clues. A stronger feel had not solved every part of the shot.

Andy briefly checked the clubface during a held rehearsal with the shaft near horizontal. He showed Brittany the closed position that was contributing to her left shots, then a more square position. She found a thumbs-up feel that helped her reproduce the coached adjustment.

Keep that face check separate from the takeaway path. If contact feels better but the ball goes left, making the takeaway even more rounded may miss the issue. In Brittany’s case, Andy could see and adjust the clubhead directly. The useful lesson is to check the face as well as the path, without turning her personal cue into a universal wrist or impact position.

Build a stable trail leg

The longer-term priority was Brittany’s lower body. Andy wanted her to turn into a trail leg she could use, then move through onto the lead side. The aim was stability while turning, with some knee flex still available. Andy explained that a steadier lower body gave Brittany a better chance to turn without her head dropping or moving around.

If sway is part of your pattern, our guide to turning into the trail hip develops that part of the backswing.

Feel the turn against resistance

Andy used a coach-guided resistance rehearsal to make the difference obvious:

1. He placed the resistance loop around Brittany’s hips, with it positioned at her left hip.
2. She crossed her arms over her shoulders and bent forwards from the hips into her golf posture.
3. As she turned into the backswing, Andy applied resistance through the loop.
4. Her job was to turn while keeping some flex in the right knee and resisting the pull.

Brittany could feel the right foot pressing into the ground, resistance through the inside of the leg and the right glute working. Those sensations gave her something to recognise when the band was removed. They were reported feelings, rather than measurements of pressure or force.

Andy also asked her to keep looking towards where the ball would be. Turning her head to watch the rehearsal changed the movement she was trying to learn. The small right-hip-lower cue returned here because her right hip could get high as she tilted, instead of helping her turn against the leg.

This resistance task was guided by Andy, who could control the pull and adjust her position. Begin by understanding the same turning action without resistance: hinge, cross the arms, turn and retain some trail-knee flex. The lesson does not provide a separate solo band anchor or resistance setting to copy.

You can browse our Training Aid products for practice tools.

Turn your shoulders without dipping

Getting the leg working did not mean the upper body would automatically follow. Brittany had also been working on keeping the left shoulder low and had overdone that feel.

Andy showed the difference between turning from a hinged posture and sending the left shoulder down too early. If you begin bent forwards from the hips, a turn already carries the lead shoulder lower. You do not have to add a separate downward drive of that shoulder.

Rehearse the body turn before swinging the club. Cross your arms or rest a club across your shoulders to make their orientation easier to notice. Set the hip hinge first, then turn. Andy wanted Brittany’s left shoulder to travel more back behind the ball, rather than collapse straight down towards it.

The feedback is the difference between turning from your starting posture and tipping the upper body as soon as you move. Use a slow rehearsal to recognise those two actions. Avoid replacing this with an effort to hold the head rigidly still; the task is a coordinated turn over the lower body.

Brittany found it difficult to remember both the upper-body movement and the leg. Andy reduced the demand: she concentrated on retaining the right-knee flex while he helped guide the upper body. Learn one part clearly, then combine them, rather than trying to think of every position during a full shot.

Transfer the feel into an iron shot

Give the knee a feedback reference

Andy placed an alignment stick behind Brittany’s trail knee. When she straightened the leg into the old pattern, it contacted the stick. The task was to turn while retaining some flex and avoid that contact.

The stick was a reference positioned for her movement, not a fixed clearance measurement. Andy also asked her to keep the right foot flat during this backswing task. That does not mean pinning the foot down throughout the follow-through.

One attempt produced an excellent shot, yet Andy thought she had just clipped the stick. That distinction is valuable: a good shot and a successful movement check are different pieces of feedback. Check both, so a pleasing flight does not make you overlook the old pattern.

Recognise the old move, then remove the aid

Brittany began noticing when the knee straightened. Andy wanted her to recognise the difference and change the next attempt. That is a more useful practice skill than relying on him to tell her after every swing.

Build the progression around that recognition:

• Rehearse the body turn slowly enough to feel the difference in the trail leg.
• Add the club and the takeaway checkpoint.
• Rehearse before hitting, keeping one clear task in mind.
• Check the leg feedback and the quality of contact separately.
• Remove the aid and see whether you can recognise and repeat the movement yourself.

Later, Andy asked for a super-slow backswing. Slowing the rehearsal made it easier for Brittany to connect the turn with the leg staying flexed. If the old movement returns, return to that slower rehearsal and reset the next attempt.

His later description of the leg “locking into the ground” referred to its stronger connection and pushing action. It did not reverse the earlier instruction and ask her to lock the knee straight.

As you return to shots from the turf, judge where the club first meets the ground as well as how solid the ball feels. The aim remains ball first, ground afterwards. An early teed-up shot can help you learn a movement, but cannot show that you have solved turf contact.

Check what improved and what remains

There were two useful kinds of progress. The later Swing Coach replay showed Brittany’s takeaway working closer to the shaded plane guide. Comparing the early and later checkpoints gives the more rounded feel something visible to relate to.

The closing comparison then showed the lower-body change. Earlier, the trail knee had straightened quickly. Later, it retained more bend in the backswing, and Andy observed better contribution from the legs on the way down.

That was progress, but some poor strikes remained. Andy pointed out that Brittany’s head still moved forwards on some attempts, even though the lower body was working better and the plane looked good. Use the pictures to compare knee bend, then check the movement and strike in your own practice.

Take that same standard into practice. Keep the rehearsal that addresses your own fault, check whether the movement survives with a ball, and notice what still needs work. Brittany’s strongest takeaway was being able to feel when the old leg action returned and make the next attempt differently.

To connect your own swing feel with clearer feedback, try Swing Coach with a 14-day free trial.

For in-person coaching, explore our golf schools. You can also find out about the Full Swing KIT launch monitor and The Grand Golf Club, MMG’s home-club venue.