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
02:26ball position, the yellow highlights where I want to feel as though the club's going to go into the sand.
02:32Now this 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
09:38in 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 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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