Phil Mickelson on Shaping Iron Shots (Video)

We're going to awareness on just a few seconds of this brief video from Phil on how to form iron shots. But first, watch the whole lot -- it's only 4 mins lengthy:

Now I have no doubt that lots of you may get lots from this video, but I need to awareness on those of you who experience misplaced in terms of shaping photographs. Let's face it -- it is all properly and excellent to talk about altering setup and changing face angles and such while you've got exact control of your swing to begin with. Those players sense they could make such small changes.

But what approximately the ones of you who battle just to get your ball in play? What if you'd be satisfied simply to get your slice to relax just a little so it might land in the fairway? Or for people with the opposite hassle, think you'd much like to lessen that hook a chunk?

Let's bypass to the 2:05 mark and pay interest. Phil is speakme approximately something he calls the "rounded hook." Don't worry about that for now; we're after some thing extra primary than one specific shot here.

To play this shot, Phil says he wants to get a curve without adding hand or forearm action. He wants to use big muscles to create a curve. Why, you may ask? Because big muscles are easier to control.

His secret's his lead elbow. Pay near attention right here!

• If his lead elbow floats away from his ribs, meaning that his lead arm is straight from shoulder to wrist as he moves into his finish, the clubface will tend to stay open.
• If his lead elbow stays close (even against ) his ribs, meaning that his lead arm is dramatically bent as he hits the ball and moves into his finish, the clubface will tend to close.

You don't have to change anything else in your swing to get this result. Here's why:

When your lead elbow remains immediately, your trailing hand can't capture up in your lead hand and go through effect together. Instead, your trail hand remains at the back of your lead hand and continues the clubface from squaring up. But when your lead elbow bends, it effectively slows your lead hand down so your trail hand can catch up in any case and the clubface closes greater without problems.

But there's more to it than that. You see...

• When your lead elbow stays straight and moves away from your ribs, that slows down your body turn and makes your trail elbow stay closer to your body. As a result, your lead elbow gets even closer to the target than it was at setup. And...
• When your lead elbow bends and stays closer to your ribs, it speeds up your body turn and allows your trail elbow to move away from your side and closer to the target. In doing so, it gets almost even with your lead elbow.

So in which BOTH your elbows are at impact has a massive effect on whether the ball slices or hooks.

• If your lead elbow drifts away from your ribs and the gap between your lead and trail elbows is large, the ball tends to slice. Specifically, a big gap makes a slice and a smaller gap makes a fade.
• But if your trail elbow is close to your ribs and the gap between your lead and trail elbows is small, the ball tends to hook. Specifically, a small gap makes a straight ball or a draw, and if the gap is virtually nonexistent then the ball hooks.

I hope that gives you some idea of how you can start to change your shot shape without making a major change to your swing. Just by paying attention to where your elbows are when you make your regular swing can change the shape of your shots With the aid of making loads of things manifest automatically.