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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
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
00:38under
00:39and over, cutting across the golf ball. I like this for a perfect match. So I've roughly got my alignment
00:45stick set at 45 to the ground. I'm going to address the golf ball over it and match it on
00:53the way back
00:53and 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.
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
01:25one of the best putters in the world, right? So what I want you to do here is have a
01:30few puts,
01:30work out the terrain where you are, then get this alignment stick running exactly where you think
01:36you have to aim to start this putt for it to break into the hole. So that's the first area.
01:43Second
01:44area all we're looking for is you to make a 90 degree angle between your club face and the alignment
01:49stick to make sure you've got square club face alignment address. The final thing is having to
01:55commit to our line and hit the putt away. Next on our list is the bunker shot. Now I think
02:07where most
02:08club golfers go wrong with this is that concept of we're not actually hitting the golf ball here.
02:14We're looking to hit the sand and cushion the sand onto the ball to throw it onto the green. Now
02:19grab
02:20two alignment sticks and what I've done here is I've placed them both in the ground. The blue would
02:25highlight my ball position. The yellow highlights where I want to feel as though the club's going
02:30to go into the sand. Now this is great about this drill we almost get a few practice goes getting
02:36used
02:36to taking some sand before the ball. So push them down get a bit of an imprint with both move
02:44them to
02:44the side and all I want you to do is just have two practice goes looking to take the back
02:49line
02:49and then the forward line. So one, two, readjust if you've got a little bit ahead or a little bit
03:00before.
03:01Move 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
03:32in an order. Firstly set your ball to target line out and then a little bit of a trick here
03:37use the
03:38logo of your golf ball to point directly down your ball to target line. Now because this is a reset
03:44all
03:44I'm looking for you to do is get your feet running parallel to your ball to target line. So actually
03:50your shoulders will be aiming what you perceive is a little bit left. Now this is interesting you'll find
03:56maybe a lot of golfers wow I feel like I'm aiming really right of target or actually I'm aiming a
04:02little bit left. Use this as a reset get two lines that run parallel your ball to target line and
04:09your feet.
04:12Next on our list is the one I call the golf swing checker. This is one that you can do
04:17at the range but
04:18I think it's great for you to do at home as just something to do with good reps. So grab
04:22the alignment
04:23stick grab a golf club place a golf ball on the ground or whatever you feel appropriate at home
04:28place that alignment stick just up your left hand side and it should be touching at this address
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 stick on
04:45the side of the body encourages more of a one-piece takeaway putting the alignment stick to the ground
04:52behind you. We're now looking for this move now this is the key point most of us swing a little
04:57bit
04:57over the top think of your target line in front of you in this direction we're looking for this alignment
05:03stick to point just to the right of target encouraging an into out path into impact back up your left
05:09hand
05:10side don't let it touch the body to pose it you know you're making some good reps in your golf
05:16swing so
05:16you get to the range you 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
05:37travels way too far and we're left with like a 30 40 footer or even off the green. Now this
05:45comes 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 perform
06:05this shot in here now wait on the left don't let it hit the left side of your body helps
06:11you control
06:12that 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
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 all we want to do is make sure our first alignment stick our red is set
06:39for
06:39where your ball position is relative to the club that you've got the next one the yellow i want you
06:44to focus that being your low point so when you hit a shot away we're looking to strike the ball
06:50then the
06:51turf so really looking for your divot to start on the back of the ball and then down at its
06:56lowest point
06:57where our low point of our swingers this is really important low point after the ball allows you to strike
07:03down and create a more centered hit bottom to top therefore better struck iron shots
07:12next 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 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 stance
07:32nice and narrow weight on your left the idea of this is is to control the low point ahead
07:36to guarantee a downwards hit not a scooping kit 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 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
08:20shots here really getting a feeling of one drawing it around the tree reacting to the environment not
08:27necessarily getting loads of swing thoughts and another shot fading it around the tree you will be
08:32able to find a common ground here if you're more of a slicer i'm going to encourage you to work
08:37more
08:37on the draw more of a drawer of the golf ball or a hooker i'm going to encourage you to
08:42get back to
08:43neutral feeling more of a faith so we'll do a bit of the slice one here club facing just the
08:49target
08:49aiming a little bit right picturing that ball working around our tree letting our environment help us
08:56create a shot free up yourself but improve your ball flight not necessarily just your swing
09:11number one on our list and one that's well worth doing before either going out around a golf with your
09:16friends or a big competition day tune yourself into the pace of the greens so place an alignment stick
09:24just wider of a grip behind the hole so all i've done here is place alignment stick just behind now
09:31i
09:32would do this on several puts downhill uphill and across the slope this really gets you dialed in to
09:39the pace of the greens for the day with a bit of a consequence during your warm-up so one
09:44golf ball only
09:45keep rotating around the green can you stop the golf ball between the hole and the alignment stick
09:51a bit of pressure
10:00try that before you go out and play next time and see more ports drop so there you have it
10:06that's alex's
10:06look at the 10 best ways to use alignment sticks to help you swing better and to help you play
10:12better
10:12in the short game as well i hope you found that useful if you've got any other ways in which
10:16you use
10:17alignment sticks out on the golf course or in practice please do leave some comments below we'd
10:21love to hear from you but that's it for now that's all from the london club thanks for watching we'll
10:25see you next time
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