00:00 Hello and welcome to the London Club. Now this video is all about how you use these things, your alignment sticks.
00:06 This is our 10 top tips for using them not only in your long game,
00:10 but also in your short game as well. Now the tips in this video come courtesy of PGA Pro Alex Elliott.
00:15 He'll give you everything you need to know. Right, let's get started.
00:19 So number 10 on our list is the alignment stick on the ground here for swing playing.
00:28 Now I like to use this if you're not on the grass, just simply place this through a basket.
00:33 I like to use this for this reason. Now most of us as club golfers have that real worry of under and
00:39 over, cutting across the golf ball. I like this for a perfect match.
00:43 So I've roughly got my alignment stick set at a 45 degree angle to the ground. I'm gonna address the golf ball
00:50 over it and match it on the way back and then feeling as though I'm swinging under it on the way through.
00:57 It's a great way of getting yourself back to neutral.
01:00 Definitely a great one to give yourself a better swing play.
01:09 Now I love this drill for two reasons.
01:15 This is great for getting clubface alignment, but also committing to our start line.
01:21 Now you've probably seen Jordan Spieth do this drill and he's known as one of the best putters in the world, right?
01:27 So what I want you to do here is have a few puts, work out the terrain where you are, then get this alignment stick
01:34 running exactly where you think you have to aim to start this putt
01:39 for it to break into the hole.
01:41 That's the first area.
01:43 Second area, all we're looking for is you to make a 90 degree angle between your clubface and the alignment stick to make sure
01:50 you've got square clubface alignment address.
01:53 The final thing is having to commit to our line and hit the putt away.
01:57 Next on our list is the bunker shot. Now,
02:07 I think where most club golfers go wrong with this is that concept of we're not actually hitting the golf ball here.
02:13 We're looking to hit the sand and cushion the sand onto the ball to throw it onto the green.
02:19 Now grab two alignment sticks and what I've done here is I've placed them both in the ground.
02:23 The blue would highlight my ball position.
02:26 The yellow highlights where I want to feel as though the club's going to go into the sand.
02:31 Now this is great about this drill,
02:33 we almost get a few practice goes getting used to taking some sand before the ball.
02:38 So push them down, get a bit of an imprint with both,
02:41 move them to the side and
02:45 all I want you to do is just have two practice goes looking to take the back line and then the forward line.
02:51 So, one,
02:54 two,
02:57 readjust if you've gone a little bit ahead or a little bit before,
03:00 move in,
03:02 looking for the line, club head inside a left heel,
03:04 hit the shot.
03:13 Next on our list is alignment.
03:15 Now, there's nothing worse than aiming in the wrong direction, hitting a beautiful swing and finding our ball is sailing
03:22 out of bounds or into water.
03:24 So I think you've got to use your range sessions as a great reset.
03:29 I get two alignment sticks down. Now, I do this in an order.
03:32 Firstly, set your ball to target line out and then a little bit of a trick here,
03:37 use the logo of your golf ball to point directly down your ball to target line.
03:41 Now, because this is a reset, all I'm looking for you to do is get your feet
03:46 running parallel to your ball's target line.
03:49 So actually your shoulders will be aiming what you perceive is a little bit left. Now, this is interesting,
03:55 you'll find maybe a lot of golfers, wow, I feel like I'm aiming really right of target or actually I'm aiming a little bit left.
04:02 Use this as a reset, get two lines that run parallel, your ball to target line and your feet.
04:10 Next on our list is the one I call the golf swing checker.
04:16 This is one that you can do at the range, but I think it's great for you to do at home as just something to do with good reps.
04:21 So grab an alignment stick, grab a golf club, place a golf ball on the ground or whatever you feel appropriate at home.
04:28 Place that alignment stick just up your left hand side and it should be touching at this address position.
04:33 I want you then to follow this process.
04:36 I think this is absolutely great for making sure that you're actually doing some good reps on your golf swing.
04:41 So number one, keep the alignment stick on the side of the body, encourages more of a one piece takeaway.
04:48 Point the alignment stick to the ground, point the alignment stick to the ground behind you.
04:53 We're now looking for this move.
04:55 Now, this is the key point.
04:56 Most of us swing a little bit over the top.
04:57 Think of your target line in front of you in this direction.
05:01 We're looking for this alignment stick to point just to the right of target, encouraging an in to out path.
05:07 In to impact, back up your left hand side.
05:10 Don't let it touch the body to pose it.
05:13 You know you're making some good reps on your golf swing.
05:16 So you get to the range, you can make things flow just that little bit better.
05:19 Next on our list is chipping.
05:27 Now, I think most club golfers find that daunting chip shot with a low lofted club on such a short distance.
05:34 We're a little bit scared of sometimes hitting that one that sort of travels way too far.
05:39 And we're left with like a 30, 40 footer or even off the green.
05:43 Now, this comes in when we have that unwanted acceleration like this right at the bottom.
05:49 So to make this shot a more one lever motion, grab an alignment stick, grip it and get it up your left hand side.
05:58 What we're looking for is that feeling of this alignment stick never touching the left side of our body.
06:04 So let's perform this shot in here now.
06:06 Wait on the left.
06:08 Don't let it hit the left side of your body.
06:10 Helps you control that club head speed much easier, which therefore means distance control is much easier too.
06:17 Next on our list is the frame it drill.
06:24 Now, this is great if you're a golfer who's struggling to strike their irons and more specifically, your long irons.
06:30 So your five, six and possibly four if you carry this.
06:33 Two alignment sticks needed.
06:34 What we want to do is make sure our first alignment stick, our red, is set for where your ball position is relative to the club you've got.
06:41 The next one, the yellow, I want you to focus that being your low point.
06:46 So when you hit a shot away, we're looking to strike the ball, then the turn.
06:51 So really looking for your divot to start on the back of the ball and then down at its lowest point where our low point of our swing is.
06:59 This is really important.
07:00 Low point after the ball allows you to strike down and create a more centred hit bottom to top.
07:06 Therefore, better struck iron shots.
07:09 Next on our list is a chipping drill.
07:15 Now, nothing more than strikes fair into a club golfer's heart is having a tight lie around the greens.
07:22 Now, this is really easy.
07:24 All we're going to need is alignment stick.
07:25 We're going to place our golf ball, a club head ahead of the alignment stick.
07:30 Take your normal stance, nice and narrow, weight on your left.
07:33 The idea of this is, is to control the low point ahead to guarantee a downwards hit, not a scooping hit, leaving you open to fats and thins.
07:43 So it's nice and simple.
07:44 Avoid the alignment stick, get the strike, and then you can have some confidence of tight lines.
07:52 So next on our list is the tree drill.
07:59 Now, picture yourself in a scenario.
08:01 You're under the trees, you get a lot more descriptive in what shot you've got to play.
08:05 Now, we're going to use this slightly differently.
08:07 We're going to place an alignment stick directly down your ball to target line.
08:12 I want you to get descriptive, not up and down, but more right to left or left to right.
08:18 I'm going to encourage you to hit two shots here, really getting a feeling of one, drawing it around the tree,
08:24 reacting to environment, not necessarily getting loads of swing thoughts, and another shot, fading it around the tree.
08:31 You will be able to find a common ground here.
08:34 If you're more of a slicer, I'm going to encourage you to work more on the draw, more of a draw of the golf ball or a hooker.
08:41 I'm going to encourage you to get back to neutral, feeling more of a fade.
08:44 So we'll do a bit of the slice one here.
08:46 Club facing just the target, aiming a little bit right, picturing that ball working around our tree,
08:54 letting our environment help us create a shot.
08:56 Free up yourself, but improve your ball flight, not necessarily just your swing.
09:11 Number one on our list and one that's well worth doing before either going out around a golf with your friends or a big competition day.
09:18 Tune yourself in to the pace of the greens.
09:22 So place the limestick just wider of a grip behind the hole.
09:28 So all I've done here is place a limestick just behind.
09:31 Now, I would do this on several puts, downhill, uphill and across the slope.
09:36 This really gets you dialed in to the pace of the greens for the day with a bit of a consequence during your warm up.
09:43 So one golf ball only, keep rotating around the green.
09:46 Can you stop the golf ball between the hole and the alignment stick?
09:51 Bit of pressure.
09:52 Try that before you go out and play next time and see more puts drop.
10:05 So there you have it. That's Alex's look at the 10 best ways to use alignment sticks to help you swing better
10:10 and to help you play better in the short game as well.
10:13 I hope you found that useful.
10:14 If you've got any other ways in which you use alignment sticks out on the golf course or in practice,
10:19 please do leave some comments below.
10:20 We'd love to hear from you.
10:21 But that's it for now.
10:22 That's all from the London Club.
10:23 Thanks for watching.
10:24 We'll see you next time.
10:25 [Music]
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