How To Avoid Hitting Hosel Rockets

Last year, I did a tour of Europe with my brother Kenny to introduce the Peak Performance Golf Swing and our Swing Surgeon Golf Schools. Our first stop was in Croydon, just south of London where our PPGS Certified Instructor, Malcom Rawle, was holding a three-day golf school. Romano Picano was one of the students we met that week and he sent this message to us shortly before my brother passed away in May.

"You may remember me, I was one of your students at the 3-day school in England last year at Selsdon Park Hotel. I need help as all of a sudden I am hitting my 9-iron through to my wedges straight right and it looks like a shank. but its not. I am setting up the same way as I would a 7-iron: PLHR, athletic stance/posture, wide knees. So hopefully you can tell me what I am doing so wrong all of a sudden."

Romano, from what you have described here it is most likely caused by one of several things, all of which are caused by too much lower body action. You can be pre-loaded on your right side, in an athletically ready posture with good outward pressure on your knees and STILL not have a quiet lower body. How? Well, if your right leg is too far under you, it will open your stance so that as you are swinging the club through the impact zone you may brush your leg or even bounce off of it. Your mind can sense that something is wrong and in an attempt to clear you leg, you may under-release the club at impact and this will leave the club face wide open.

The other possibility is that you may be not properly aligned and that your rear foot is too far forward. This also opens your stance and could cause the type of shot you describe--particularly with your shorter clubs where your swing plan is more vertical and you stand closer to the ball at address than you would do with your longer clubs.

You also may be firing your right side too quickly--before you initiate your lateral left weight shift--a.k.a. The Bump. If you get your timing off in this way, you will pull your right knee into the swing plane which results in the same kind of hosel rocket you describe.

So check out all of these possibilities. If you can get someone to video your swing from face-on and down the line, you could use our new Online Golf Lesson program to have your swing completely looked at by me or one of my specially trained PPGS Certified Instructors. Details and pricing can be found by clicking on the navigation bar button above.

Keep it vertical!

The Surge

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