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 but
00:10also in your short game as well. Now the tips in this video come courtesy of PGA pro Alex Elliott.
00:16He'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 plane. 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 at 45 to the ground. I'm going to address the golf ball over it and match it on the way back
00:54and 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. Definitely a great one to give yourself a better swing plane.
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 work
01:31out the terrain where you are then get this alignment stick running exactly where you think you have to
01:37aim to start this putt 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 place 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 of
05:00you 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
05:13pose it. You know you're making some good reps on your golf swing so you get to the range you can make things
05:18flow just that little bit better. Next on our list is chipping. Now I think most club golfers find that
05:30daunting chip shot with a low lofted club on such a short distance. We're a little bit scared of
05:35sometimes hitting that one that sort of travels way too far and we're left with like a 30 40 footer or
05:42even off the green. Now this comes in when we have that unwanted acceleration like this right at the
05:49bottom. So to make this shot a more one lever motion grab an alignment stick grip it and get it up your
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 hit the left
06:09side of your body. It 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 irons 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, our red,
06:38is set for where your ball position is relative to the club that you've got. The next one the yellow I
06:44want you to focus that being your low point. So when you hit a shot away we're looking to strike the ball
06:50then 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 swing is. This is really important low point after the ball allows
07:02you 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 fear 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 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 to target line. I want you
08:12to get 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
08:42get back to neutral feeling more of a face. So we'll do a bit of the slice one here club facing just
08:49the target 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 a 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
10:19leave some 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.