The Alignment Stick Impact Drill
The Alignment Stick Impact Drill is a ball control drill from The Adaptive Golfer. Swing through a narrow channel of two alignment sticks to feel whether your path comes over the top (clips the outside stick) or too far in-to-out (clips the inside stick). It trains path awareness, and your result is measured as Practice Strokes Gained against your handicap band.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Here's the Alignment Stick Impact Drill. It's the fastest way to feel your swing path, and see which way it leaks. Lay two alignment sticks on the ground, parallel and pointing at your target. Leave about an inch on either side of the club head. Set a ball in the middle of the channel. Then make your normal swing toward the target. A square path swings straight down the channel and clears both sticks. That is the path you are training. Clip the outside stick and you came over the top. Your path cut across from outside the line. Clip the inside stick and you swung too far in-to-out. Your path dropped too far underneath. Count how many of ten swings clear both sticks. For a mid handicap, aim for six or seven clean swings. Log every rep in The Adaptive Golfer.
How to do The Alignment Stick Impact Drill
- Lay two alignment sticks on the ground parallel to each other, pointing at the target, with about one inch of room on each side of the club head — so a standard iron sits in a channel roughly 5 to 6 inches wide.
- Set a ball in the middle of the channel.
- Hit ten shots with your normal swing toward the target.
- For each, note: through cleanly, clipped the outside stick (over the top), or clipped the inside stick (too far in-to-out).
- Count the clean passes and identify your dominant miss.
Steering the club to avoid the sticks instead of swinging through. Make your normal swing toward the target — the sticks report your path, they do not steer it.
▲ LEVEL UP
Once you consistently hit the top of your benchmark across three sessions, narrow the channel toward the club head while holding the same benchmark.
How The Alignment Stick Impact Drill is scored
Count your successful attempts out of 10 clean passes.
Here is what each handicap band should be hitting (clean passes, higher is better):
| HANDICAP BAND | TARGET |
|---|---|
| Scratch (0–2) | — |
| 3–7 | 7–8 |
| 8–13 | 6–7 |
| 14–19 | 4–6 |
| 20+ | 3–4 |
The book sets one standard for this drill rather than a table by handicap. The bands above are ours, built out from that standard so every level has a target to clear.
Your result is converted to Practice Strokes Gained against your band, so you always know if you are above, at, or below where you should be.
Log each rep and see whether you are above, at, or below your band — not just the target.
The 5-pillar diagnosis tells you whether this drill is even the thing costing you strokes.
A four-week plan picks your drills and recalculates as your numbers move.
As seen in Chapter 25 — Drill 2 of The Adaptive Golfer. The drills, benchmarks, and plans in the app are built on the published methodology.
The Alignment Stick Impact Drill FAQ
Swing through a narrow channel of two alignment sticks to feel whether your path comes over the top (clips the outside stick) or too far in-to-out (clips the inside stick).
A mid-handicap golfer (8 to 13) should aim for 6 to 7 clean passes.
It builds your ball control, specifically path awareness.
Guides that use The Alignment Stick Impact Drill
Fat and thin are one fault read from two directions — a low point in the wrong place. Here's the chalk line dr...
The alignment stick drill lists tell you how to set the sticks up; the one we read end to end publishes zero t...
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Log The Alignment Stick Impact Drill in The Adaptive Golfer and see your Practice Strokes Gained against your handicap band.
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