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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.
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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
00:29to
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
00:53on 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,
01:18but also committing to our start line. Now you've probably seen Jordan Spieth do this drill and
01:24he's known as one of the best putters in the world, right? So what I want you to do here
01:29is
01:29have a few puts, work out the terrain where you are, then get this alignment stick running exactly
01:35where you think you have to aim to start this put for it to break into the hole. So that's
01:42the first
01:42area. Second area, all we're looking for is you to make a 90 degree angle between your club face and
01:49the
01:49alignment stick to make sure you've got square club face alignment address. The final thing
01:54is having to commit to our line and hit the putt away.
02:04Next on our list is the bunker shot. Now I think where most club golfers go wrong with this is
02:10that
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
02:33this 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
02:46is just have two
02:47practice goes looking to take the back line and then the forward line. So one, two, readjust if you've
02:58got a little bit ahead or a little bit before, move in, looking for the line, club head inside a
03:04left heel,
03:05hit the shot. Next on our list is alignment. Now there's nothing worse than aiming in the wrong
03:18direction, hitting a beautiful swing and finding our ball is sailing out of bounds or into water.
03:25So I think you've got to use your range sessions as a great reset. I get two alignment sticks down.
03:31Now
03:31I do this in an order. Firstly, set your ball to target line out and then a little bit of
03:36a trick
03:36here, use the logo of your golf ball to point directly down your ball to target line. Now,
03:42because this is a reset, all I'm looking for you to do is get your feet running parallel to your
03:49ball
03:49to target line. So actually your shoulders will be aiming what you perceive is a little bit left.
03:54Now this is interesting, you'll find maybe a lot of golfers, wow, I feel like I'm aiming really right
03:59of target or actually I'm aiming a little bit left. Use this as a reset, get two lines that run
04:06parallel, your ball to target line and your feet. Next on our list is the one I call the golf
04:15swing
04:16checker. This is one that you can do at the range, but I think it's great for you to do
04:19at home as
04:20just something to do with good reps. So grab the alignment stick, grab a golf club, place a golf ball
04:25on
04:25the ground or whatever you feel appropriate at home. Place that alignment stick just up your
04:30left hand side and it should be touching at this address position. I want you then to follow this
04:35process. I think this is absolutely great for making sure that you're actually doing some good reps on
04:41your golf swing. So number one, keep the alignment stick on the side of the body, encourages more of
04:47a one piece takeaway. Point the alignment stick to the ground, point 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 over the top. Think of your target line in front of you in this direction. We're looking for this
05:02alignment stick to point just to the right of target, encouraging an into out path, into impact,
05:09back up your left hand side. Don't let it touch the body to pose it. You know you're making some
05:15good
05:15reps in your golf swing. So you get to the range, you can make things flow just that little bit
05:19better.
05:24Next on our list is chipping. Now, I think most club golfers find that daunting chip shot with a
05:31low lofted club on such a short distance. We're a little bit scared of sometimes hitting that one
05:37that sort of travels way too far and we're left with like a 30, 40 footer or even off the
05:43green.
05:44Now, this comes in when we have that unwanted acceleration like this right at the bottom.
05:50So to make this shot a more one lever motion, grab an alignment stick, grip it and get it up
05:57your
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
06:09hit the
06:09left side of your body. 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 iron. 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,
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,
06:48we're looking to strike the ball, then the turf. So really looking for your divot to start on the back
06:54of the ball and then down at its lowest point where our low point of our swing is. This is
07:00really
07:00important. Low point after the ball allows you to strike down and create a more centered hit bottom
07:06to top. Therefore, better struck iron shots. Next on our list is a chipping drill. Now,
07:16nothing more than strikes fair into a club golfer's heart is having a tight lie around the green. Now,
07:23this is really easy. All we're going to need is alignment stick. We're going to place our golf ball
07:27a club head ahead of the alignment stick. Take your normal stance, nice and narrow,
07:33weight on your left. The idea of this is to control the low point ahead to guarantee a downwards hit,
07:39not a scooping hit, leaving you open to fats and thins. So it's nice and simple. Avoid the alignment
07:46stick, 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,
08:02you get 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.
08:12I want you to get descriptive, not up and down, but more right to left or left to right. I'm
08:19going to
08:19encourage you to hit two shots here, really getting a feeling of one, drawing it around the tree,
08:25reacting to the environment, not necessarily getting loads of swing thoughts, and another shot,
08:30fading it around the tree. You will be able to find a common ground here. If you're more of a
08:35slicer,
08:35I'm going to encourage you to work more on the draw, more of a draw of the golf ball or
08:40a hooker.
08:41I'm going to encourage you to get back to neutral, feeling more of a fade. So we'll do a bit
08:46of the
08:46slice one here. Club facing just the target, aiming a little bit right, picturing that ball working
08:53around our tree, letting our environment help us create a shot. Free up yourself, but improve your
09:04ball flight, not necessarily just your swing. Number one on our list and one that's well worth doing
09:14before either going out around a golf with your friends or a big competition day. Tune yourself
09:20into the pace of the greens. So place an alignment stick just wider of a grip behind the hole. So
09:28all
09:29I've done here is place an alignment stick just behind. Now I would do this on several puts, downhill,
09:34uphill and across the slope. This really gets you dialed into the pace of the greens for the day
09:40with a bit of a consequence during your warmup. So one golf ball only, keep rotating around the green.
09:47Can you stop the golf ball 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
10:10swing
10:10better and to help you play better in the short game as well. I hope you found that useful. If
10:15you've got any other ways in which you use alignment sticks out on the golf course or in practice,
10:19please do leave some comments below. We'd love to hear from you. But that's it for now. That's all
10:23from The London Club. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.
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