00:00Hello and welcome to The London Club. Now this video is all about how you use
00:04these things, your alignment sticks. This is our 10 top tips for using them not only in your long
00:10game but 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.
00:29Now I like to use this if you're not on the grass, just simply place this through a basket.
00:33I like to use this for this reason. Now most of us as club golfers have that real worry of under
00:40and over, cutting across the golf ball. I like this for a perfect match.
00:44So I've roughly got my alignment stick set at 45 degree angle to the ground. I'm going to address
00:49the golf ball over it and match it on the way back and then feeling as though I'm swinging under it
00:56on the way through. It's a great way of getting yourself back to neutral.
01:06Definitely 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 one
01:25of the best putters in the world, right? So what I want you to do here is have a few puts work out
01:31the terrain where you are then get this alignment stick running exactly where you think you have to
01:37aim to start this put 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've placed 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
05:00of you in this direction. We're looking for this alignment stick to point just to the right of target
05:05encouraging and into our path. Into impact, back up your left hand side. Don't let it touch the body
05:13to pose it. You know you're making some good reps on 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
05:58looking for 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 you
06:11control 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
06:26strike their irons and more specifically your long irons. So your five, six and possibly four if you
06:32carry this. Two alignment sticks needed. What we want to do is make sure our first alignment stick,
06:38our red is set for where your ball position is relative to the club that you've got. The next one,
06:43the yellow, I want you to focus that being your low point. So when you hit a shot away we're looking
06:49to strike the ball then the turf. So really looking for your divot to start on the back of the ball and
06:55then down at its lowest point where our low point of our swing is. This is really important, low point
07:01after the ball allows you to strike down and create a more centered hit bottom to top, therefore better
07:08struck 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 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 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
07:52lines. So next on our list is the tree drill. Now picture yourself in a scenario. You're under the
08:02trees you get a lot more descriptive in what shot you've got to play. Now we're going to use this
08:06slightly differently. We're going to place an alignment stick directly down your ball to target
08:11line. I want you to get descriptive not up and down but more right to left or left to right. I'm going to
08:19encourage you to hit two shots here really getting a feeling of one drawing it around the tree reacting
08:25to the environment not necessarily getting loads of swing thoughts and another shot fading it around
08:31the tree. You will be able to find a common ground here if you're more of a slicer. I'm going to
08:36encourage you to work more on the draw more of a draw of the golf ball or a hooker. I'm going to
08:42encourage you to get back to neutral feeling more of a fade. So we'll do a bit of the slice one here
08:47club facing just the target, aiming a little bit right, picturing that ball working around our tree
08:54letting our environment help us create a shot. Free up yourself but improve your ball flight not
09:05necessarily just your swing. Number one on our list and one that's well worth doing before either going
09:15out a round of golf with your friends or a big competition day. Tune yourself into the pace of
09:22the greens. So place an alignment stick just wider of a grip behind the hole. So all I've done here is
09:29place an alignment stick just behind. Now I would do this on several puts downhill, uphill and across the
09:36slope. This really gets you dialed in to the pace of the greens for the day with a bit of a consequence
09:42during your warmup. So one golf ball only, keep rotating around the green. Can you stop the golf
09:48ball between the hole and the alignment stick? Bit of pressure.
10:00Try 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.
10:15If you've got any other ways in which you use alignment sticks out on the golf course or in
10:18practice, please do leave some comments below. We'd love to hear from you. But that's it for now.
10:22That's all from The London Club. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.
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