- 2 days ago
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
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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