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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