Top 10 Tips For Alignment Sticks

Golf Monthly

In this video, PGA Professional Alex Elliott runs down his 10 favourite ways to use alignment sticks to help golfers. He covers everything from your swing path to your putting speed with a series of very simple and effective ways to make the most of your alignment sticks.

Transcript

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,

00:10but also in your short game as well. Now the tips in this video come courtesy of PGA Pro,

00:15Alex Elliott. He'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 playing. 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 a 45 degree angle to the ground. I'm going to address the golf ball over it and match it on the

00:53way back and then feeling as though I'm swinging under it on the way through. It's a great way of

00:59getting yourself back to neutral. Definitely a great one to give yourself a better swing play.

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,

01:31work out the terrain where you are, then get this alignment stick running exactly where you think you

01:36have to aim to start this putt for it to break into the hole. So that's the first area. Second area,

01:44all we're looking for is you to make a 90 degree angle between your club face and the alignment stick

01:49to make sure you've got square club face alignment address. The final thing is having to commit to

01:56our line and hit the putt away. Next on our list is the bunker shot. Now I think where most club golfers

02:09go wrong with this is that concept of we're not actually hitting the golf ball here. We're looking

02:14to hit the sand and cushion the sand onto the ball to throw it onto the green. Now grab two alignment

02:20sticks and what I've done here is I've placed them both in the ground. The blue would highlight my ball

02:26position. The yellow highlights where I want to feel as though the club's going to go into the sand. Now

02:32this is great about this drill. We almost get a few practice goes getting used to taking some sand

02:37before the ball. So push them down, get a bit of an imprint with both, move them to the side and all

02:45I want you to do is just have two practice goes looking to take the back line and then the forward

02:50line. So one, two, readjust if you've got a little bit ahead or a little bit before, move in looking for

03:03the line. Clubhead inside a left heel, hit the shot. Next on our list is alignment. Now there's nothing

03:16worse than aiming in the wrong direction, hitting a beautiful swing and finding our ball is sailing

03:23out of bounds or into water. So I think you've got to use your range sessions as a great reset.

03:29I get two alignment sticks down. Now I do this in an order. Firstly, set your ball to target line out

03:35and then a little bit of a trick here, use the logo of your golf ball to point directly down your ball

03:41to target line. Now because this is a reset, all I'm looking for you to do is get your feet running

03:47parallel to your ball to target line. So actually your shoulders will be aiming what you perceive

03:53is a little bit left. Now this is interesting, you'll find maybe a lot of golfers, wow I feel like I'm

03:58aiming really right of target or actually I'm aiming a little bit left. Use this as a reset,

04:04get two lines that run parallel, your ball to target line and your feet.

04:13Next on our list is the one I call the golf swing checker. This is one that you can do at the range

04:18but I think it's great for you to do at home as just something to do with good reps. So grab the alignment

04:23stick, grab a golf club, place a golf ball on the ground or whatever you feel appropriate at home.

04:29Place that alignment stick just up your left hand side and it should be touching at this addressed

04:32position. I want you then to follow this process. I think this is absolutely great for making sure

04:38that you're actually doing some good reps on your golf swing. So number one, keep the alignment

04:44stick 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

05:00of you 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 pose it.

05:14You know you're making some good reps in your golf swing. So you get to the range,

05:17you can make things flow just that little bit better.

05:24Next on our list is chipping. Now I think most club golfers find that daunting chip shot with a low

05:31lofted club on such a short distance. We're a little bit scared of sometimes hitting that one that sort of

05:38travels way too far and we're left with like a 30, 40 footer or even off the green. Now this comes in

05:45when we have that unwanted acceleration like this right at the bottom. So to make this shot a more

05:52one lever motion, grab an alignment stick, grip it and get it up your left hand side. What we're looking

05:59for is that feeling of this alignment stick never touching the left side of our body. So let's

06:05perform this shot in here now. Wait on the left, don't let it hit the left side of your body. Helps

06:11you control that club head speed much easier which therefore means distance 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 strike

06:27their irons and more specifically your long iron. So your five, six and possibly four if you carry this.

06:33Two alignment sticks needed. What 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,

06:44I want you to focus that being your low point. So when you hit a shot away we're looking to strike the

06:49ball then 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 swingers. This is really important low point after the ball

07:02allows you 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 fair into a club golfer's heart

07:19is having a tight lie around the green. 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 target line. I want you to

08:13get 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 get

08:42back to neutral feeling more of a face. So we'll do a bit of the slice one here club facing just the

08:49target 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 alignment stick just behind.

09:31Now I would do this on several puts downhill uphill and across the slope. This really gets you dialed

09:38into the pace of the greens for the day with a bit of a consequence during your warm-up. So one golf ball

09:44only keep rotating around the green can you stop the golf ball between the hole and the alignment stick?

09:51A 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 leave

10:20some 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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