00:00Hello and welcome to the London club. Now this video is all about how you use these things,
00:05your alignment sticks. This is our 10 top tips for using them not only in your long game but
00:10also in your short game as well. Now the tips in this video come courtesy of PGA pro Alex Elliott.
00:16He'll give you everything you need to know. Right, let's get started.
00:22So number 10 on our list is the alignment stick on the ground here for swing plane. Now I like to
00:29use this if you're not on the grass just simply place this through a basket. I like to use this
00:34for this reason. Now most of us as club golfers have that real worry of under and over cutting
00:41across the golf ball. I like this for a perfect match. So I've roughly got my alignment stick
00:46set at 45 to the ground. I'm going to address the golf ball over it and match it on the way back
00:54and then feeling as though I'm swinging under it on the way through. It's a great way of getting
00:59yourself back to neutral. Definitely a great one to give yourself a better swing plane.
01:13Now I love this drill for two reasons. This is great for getting club face alignment but also
01:19committing to our start line. Now you've probably seen Jordan Spieth do this drill and he's known as
01:24one of the best putters in the world. Right, so what I want you to do here is have a few puts work
01:31out the terrain where you are then get this alignment stick running exactly where you think you have to
01:37aim to start this putt for it to break into the hole. So that's the first area. Second area all we're
01:44looking for is you to make a 90 degree angle between your club face and the alignment stick to make sure
01:50you've got square club face alignment address. The final thing is having to commit to our line and hit
01:57the putt away.
02:04Next on our list is the bunker shot. Now I think where most club golfers go wrong with this is that
02:10concept of we're not actually hitting the golf ball here. We're looking to hit the sand and cushion the
02:16sand onto the ball to throw it onto the green. Now grab two alignment sticks and what I've done here
02:22is I place them both in the ground. The blue would highlight my ball position, the yellow highlights
02:28where I want to feel as though the club's going to go into the sand. Now this is great about this drill
02:33we almost get a few practice goes getting used to taking some sand before the ball. So push them down
02:40get a bit of an imprint with both move them to the side and all I want you to do is just have two
02:47practice goes looking to take the back line and then the forward line. So one
02:56two readjust if you've got a little bit ahead or a little bit before
03:00move in looking for the line club head inside a left heel hit the shot.
03:13Next on our list is alignment. Now there's nothing worse than aiming in the wrong direction
03:19hitting a beautiful swing and finding our ball is sailing out of bounds or into water. So I think
03:26you've got to use your range sessions as a great reset. I get two alignment sticks down. Now I do
03:31this in an order. Firstly set your ball to target line out and then a little bit of a trick here
03:37use the logo of your golf ball to point directly down your ball to target line. Now because this is
03:43a reset all I'm looking for you to do is get your feet running parallel to your ball to target line. So
03:50actually your shoulders will be aiming what you perceive is a little bit left. Now this is interesting
03:55you'll find maybe a lot of golfers wow I feel like I'm aiming really right of target or actually
04:01I'm aiming a little bit left. Use this as a reset get two lines that run parallel your ball to target
04:08line and your feet. Next on our list is the one I call the golf swing checker. This is one that you
04:17can do at the range but I think it's great for you to do at home as just something to do with good reps.
04:22So grab an alignment stick grab a golf club place a golf ball on the ground or whatever you feel
04:27appropriate at home. Place that alignment stick just up your left hand side and it should be touching
04:32at this address position. I want you then to follow this process I think this is absolutely great for
04:37making sure that you're actually doing some good reps on your golf swing. So number one keep the
04:44alignment stick on the side of the body encourages more of a one-piece takeaway. Point the alignment stick to
04:49the ground. Point the alignment stick to the ground behind you. We're now looking for this move now
04:55this is the key point most of us swing a little bit over the top think of your target line in front of
05:00you in this direction we're looking for this alignment stick to point just to the right of target
05:05encouraging an into out path into impact back up your left hand side don't let it touch the body to
05:13pose it. You know you're making some good reps on your golf swing so you get to the range you can make things
05:18flow just that little bit better. Next on our list is chipping. Now I think most club golfers find that
05:30daunting chip shot with a low lofted club on such a short distance. We're a little bit scared of
05:35sometimes hitting that one that sort of travels way too far and we're left with like a 30 40 footer or
05:42even off the green. Now this comes in when we have that unwanted acceleration like this right at the
05:49bottom. So to make this shot a more one lever motion grab an alignment stick grip it and get it up your
05:57left hand side. What we're looking for is that feeling of this alignment stick never touching the
06:03left side of our body. So let's perform this shot in here now wait on the left don't let it hit the left
06:09side of your body. It helps you control that club head speed much easier which therefore means
06:15distance control is much easier too.
06:21Next on our list is the frame it drill. Now this is great if you're a golfer who's struggling to
06:26strike their irons and more specifically your long irons so your five six and possibly four if you carry
06:33this. Two alignment sticks needed. All we want to do is make sure our first alignment stick, our red,
06:38is set for where your ball position is relative to the club that you've got. The next one the yellow I
06:44want you to focus that being your low point. So when you hit a shot away we're looking to strike the ball
06:50then the turf so really looking for your divot to start on the back of the ball and then down at its
06:56lowest point where our low point of our swing is. This is really important low point after the ball allows
07:02you to strike down and create a more centered hit bottom to top therefore better struck iron shots.
07:13Next on our list is a chipping drill. Now nothing more than strikes fear into a club golfer's heart
07:19is having a tight lie around the greens. Now this is really easy all we're going to need is alignment
07:25stick. We're going to place our golf ball a club head ahead of the alignment stick. Take your normal
07:31stance nice and narrow weight on your left. The idea of this is is to control the low point ahead
07:37to guarantee a downwards hit not a scooping hit leaving you open to fats and thins. So it's nice
07:44and simple avoid the alignment stick get the strike and then you can have some confidence of tight lines.
07:56So next on our list is the tree drill. Now picture yourself in a scenario you're under the trees you
08:02get a lot more descriptive in what shot you've got to play. Now we're going to use this slightly
08:07differently we're going to place an alignment stick directly down your ball to target line. I want you
08:12to get descriptive not up and down but more right to left or left to right. I'm going to encourage you
08:19to hit two shots here really getting a feeling of one drawing it around the tree reacting to your
08:26environment not necessarily getting loads of swing thoughts and another shot fading it around the tree.
08:32You will be able to find a common ground here if you're more of a slicer I'm going to encourage you
08:36to work more on the draw more of a drawer of the golf ball or a hooker I'm going to encourage you to
08:42get back to neutral feeling more of a face. So we'll do a bit of the slice one here club facing just
08:49the target aiming a little bit right picturing that ball working around our tree letting our environment
08:55help us create a shot. Free up yourself but improve your ball flight not necessarily just your swing.
09:06Number one on our list and one that's well worth doing before either going out around a golf with
09:16your friends or a big competition day. Tune yourself into the pace of the greens. So place an alignment
09:24stick just wider of a grip behind the hole. So all I've done here is place a alignment stick just behind.
09:31Now I would do this on several puts downhill uphill and across the slope. This really gets you dialed
09:38in to the pace of the greens for the day with a bit of a consequence during your warm-up. So one golf
09:44ball only keep rotating around the green can you stop the golf ball between the hole and the alignment
09:51stick. Bit of pressure. Try that before you go out and play next time and see more puts drop.
10:05So there you have it that's Alex's look at the 10 best ways to use alignment sticks to help you swing
10:10better and to help you play better in the short game as well. I hope you found that useful. If you've
10:15got any other ways in which you use alignment sticks out on the golf course or in practice please do
10:19leave some comments below we'd love to hear from you. But that's it for now that's all from the London
10:23club. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.
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