| Txt Link | Title | Author(s) | Abstract | Publisher Link |
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Causal attribution and emotion in the days following competition. |
Allen MS, Jones MV, Sheffield D. |
We examined the extent to which attributions are consistent in the days following competition and how attributions made immediately after competition may influence the temporal patterning of emotions experienced in response to competition. A sample of 60 adult female golfers completed measures of performance satisfaction, causal attribution, and emotion immediately after competition, 5 h after competition, and 2 days after competition. Repeated-measures multivariate analysis of covariance indicated that attributions did not change over this period. Emotions showed a significant decrease in intensity over the 5-h post-competition period. Regression analyses indicated that changes in anger and dejection were more likely in the case of less successful performances. For anger, attributions moderated this level of change. Golfers experienced anger for a longer period when they identified the cause of poor performance as stable rather than unstable. Thus, in the present sample although attributions did not change over 2 days, the longevity of anger depended on the attributions made immediately after competition. |
19191165 |
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Club shaft weight in putting accuracy and perception of swing parameters in golf putting. |
Karlsen J, Nilsson J. |
This study assessed how shaft weight influenced golf putting accuracy and subjective perception of swing parameters. Three putters of different shaft weight (100, 420, and 610 gm) were tested by 24 club players. Distance and deviation in direction were measured, and subjective ratings of the putters recorded. Subjects hit the ball further with lighter shafts. The mean distance hit was 100.2, 99.3, and 98.1% of the target distance for the normal, medium, and heavy putter shafts, respectively. Subjectively, the medium heavy putter was rated best on "overall feeling" and it was also rated better than the normal on"feeling of stability in the downswing." The heaviest putter was rated as too heavy by 23 of 24 subjects. There were no significant differences between the putter clubs in distance and directional putting accuracy. The major findings are that the golfers putted 2.1% longer with the 100 gm shaft than with the 610 gm shaft and that the perception of overall feeling of the putter club was not related to performance. |
17918546 |
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Cognitive processes among skilled miniature golf players: effects of instructions on motor performance, concentration time, and perceived difficulty. |
Bäckman L, Molander B. |
Highly skilled miniature golf players were examined on a simplified miniature golf task under different instructional conditions. Results indicated that requirements to attend to a variety of technical aspects of the game during preparation impaired motor performance, whereas providing players with those aspects of the game they reported thinking of did not affect motor performance. Data on concentration time and perceived difficulty indicated that increasing cognitive demands were associated with a decline in motor precision. The overall pattern of results was interpreted such that attention directed at technical aspects of the game interfered with the players' normal cognitive activity. Susceptibility to interference is a characteristic feature of controlled cognitive operations. Thus, the present results are consistent with the view that conscious cognitive activity may support motor behavior also at late stages of skill development. |
1775951 |
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Comment on Influence of shaft length on golf driving performance"." |
Glazier PS. |
Kenny et al. (2008) reported that low-handicap golfers were able to produce longer carry distances with longer drivers with no concomitant decrease in accuracy. However, it was not clear whether these increments in performance were an artefact of shaft length or some other unaccounted for characteristic of the experimental drivers used. Furthermore, it was difficult to determine whether these performance gains were experienced by all or only a few of the golfers studied. Additional research is required to substantiate these findings and also to establish how shaft length is related to performance and technique in less accomplished golfers. Regardless of skill level, the realization of the potential performance benefits associated with longer drivers is, to some degree, likely to be individual-specific. Accordingly, suitable research designs emphasizing the individual--with appropriate sample and trial sizes to achieve the requisite level of statistical significance, effect size, and power--are required. |
19705768 |
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Competitive state anxiety and self-confidence: intensity and direction as relative predictors of performance on a golf putting task. |
Chamberlain ST, Hale BD. |
This study considered relationships between the intensity and directional aspects of competitive state anxiety as measured by the modified Competitive Sport Anxiety Inventory-2(D) (Jones & Swain, 1992) in a sample of 12 experienced male golfers. Anxiety and performance scores from identical putting tasks performed under three different anxiety-manipulated competitive conditions were used to assess both the predictions of Multidimensional Anxiety Theory (MAT; Martens et al., 1990) and the relative value of intensity and direction in explaining performance variance. A within-subjects regression analysis of the intra-individual data showed partial support for the three MAT hypotheses. Cognitive anxiety intensity demonstrated a negative linear relationship with performance, somatic anxiety intensity showed a curvilinear relationship with performance, and self-confidence intensity revealed a positive linear relation. Cognitive directional anxiety illustrated a positive linear relationship with putting performance. Multiple regression analyses indicated that direction (42% of variance) was a better predictor of performance than intensity (22%). |
17999224 |
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Comprehensive analysis of golf performance on the PGA Tour: 1990-2004. |
Wiseman F, Chatterjee S. |
Researchers have investigated the relationship between different shot-making measures and performance on the PGA Tour. Prior studies have typically focused on a short period of time or used a restricted sample so long-term trends were not discernible. To remedy this situation, the present study looked at the longitudinal performance of professional golfers from 1990-2004. The findings indicated a remarkable stability in terms of the relative importance of Greens In Regulation and Putting Average in explaining the variability in Scoring Average. The findings also indicated a declining importance of driving in recent years due, in part, to a strengthening of the negative relationship between Driving Distance and Driving Accuracy. |
16671607 |
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Conscious processing and the process goal paradox. |
Mullen R, Hardy L. |
The three experiments reported here examined the process goal paradox, which has emerged from the literature on goal setting and conscious processing. We predicted that skilled but anxious performers who adopted a global movement focus using holistic process goals would outperform those who used part-oriented process goals. In line with the conscious processing hypothesis, we also predicted that performers using part process goals would experience performance impairment in test compared with baseline conditions. In all three experiments, participants performed motor tasks in baseline and test conditions. Cognitive state anxiety increased in all of the test conditions. The results confirmed our first prediction; however, we failed to find unequivocal evidence to support our second prediction. The consistent pattern of the results lends support to the suggestion that, for skilled athletes who perform under competitive pressure, using a holistic process goal that focuses attention on global aspects of a motor skill is a more effective attentional focus strategy than using a part process goal. |
20587818 |
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Contracting and chaining to improve the performance of a college golf team: improvement and deterioration. |
Simek TC, O'Brien RM, Figlerski LB. |
Recent work with operant procedures in sports has shown that feedback, reinforcement, and chaining can be effective techniques in improving performance. In many cases, however, a problem remains in getting the participants to practice the appropriate responses. In the present study, 14 college golfers were put on successive contingency contracts over three weeks to go through the Total Golf chaining-mastery program of Simek and O'Brien. Rewards consisted of activities such as spots on the starting team and the opportunity to play better courses as well as tangible rewards such as new golf balls. After the first two weeks of training, through 19 steps backward from the green, the mean of three posttraining rounds for these 14 golfers was 3.4 strokes lower than the mean of their three rounds at baseline. At this point, the coach did not follow through with the rewards promised in the second contract. Having been placed on extinction, only three of the 14 players followed through on the third contract. In this return to baseline-like condition an average increase of over two strokes for the team as a whole was noted. The number of steps of the chain mastered in practice and the differ |
7936932 |
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Correlation of eye color on self-paced and reactive motor performance. |
Miller LK, Rowe PJ, Lund J. |
Researchers continue to examine the distinctiveness of motor performance by dark- versus light-eyed individuals. Dark-eyed individuals generally perform better at reactive type tasks (boxing, hitting a ball, defensive positions in football, rotary pursuit), while light-eyed individuals perform better at self-paced tasks (bowling, golf, pitching baseballs). Subjects performed two tasks, rotary pursuit and ball tossing (with light and dark background). Eye color (light or dark) and accuracy of performance were recorded for each subject. No significant difference was found between eye color and performance on the pursuit rotor (reactive activity). A significant difference was found between men's and women's performance in throwing a ball (self-paced activity) at a light-colored background. |
1528697 |
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Cortical activity of skilled performance in a complex sports related motor task. |
Baumeister J, Reinecke K, Liesen H, Weiss M. |
A skilled player in goal-directed sports performance has the ability to process internal and external information in an effective manner and decide which pieces of information are important and which are irrelevant. Focused attention and somatosensory information processing play a crucial role in this process. Electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings are able to demonstrate cortical changes in conjunction with this concept and were examined during a golf putting performance in an expert-novice paradigm. The success in putting (score) and performance-related cortical activity were recorded with an EEG during a 5 x 4 min putting series. Subjects were asked to putt balls for four min at their own pace. The EEG data was divided into different frequencies: Theta (4.75-6.75 Hz), Alpha-1 (7-9.5 Hz), Alpha-2 (9.75-12.5 Hz) and Beta-1 (12.75-18.5 Hz) and performance related power values were calculated. Statistical analysis shows significant better performance in the expert golfers (P < 0.001). This was associated with higher fronto-midline Theta power (P < 0.05) and higher parietal Alpha-2 power values (P < 0.05) compared to the novices in golf putting. Frontal Theta and parietal Alpha-2 s |
18607621 |
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Debilitative and facilitative perceptions of trait anxiety among students in a college golf class. |
Cunningham GB, Ashley FB. |
This study examined the debilitative and facilitative perceptions of trait anxiety among 94 students enrolled in a college golf class. Analyses indicated no differences in performance between those classified as debilitating interpreters, i.e., those with negative perceptions of trait anxiety, versus those classified as facilitating interpreters, i.e., those with positive perceptions of trait anxiety. Also, no differences were found in perceived intensity and direction of trait anxiety as a function of performance. Results differ from previous research on direction of trait anxiety among elite and high level performers so direction of perceptions may be correlated with competition or skill of the performer. |
12081275 |
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Determinants of PGA tour success: an examination of relationships among performance, scoring, and earnings. |
Finley PS, Halsey JJ. |
Professional Golf Association (PGA) statistics for the 2002 season were analyzed to estimate the relationships between performance variables, scoring, and earnings. Two newly considered variables, Scrambling and Bounce Back percentages, showed meaningful correlation to Simple Scoring Average (rs = -.69 and -.40, respectively), and each made a significant contribution to a regression model. While the full model of performance variables explained most of the variance in Simple Scoring Average (R2 = .94), an adjusted scoring figure, accounting for the performance of the full field of players in each round, better correlated with Earnings over a PGA Tour season (r = .77). |
15209327 |
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Determination of the swing technique characteristics and performance outcome relationship in golf driving for low handicap female golfers. |
Brown SJ, Nevill AM, Monk SA, Otto SR, Selbie WS, Wallace ES. |
Abstract Previous studies on the kinematics of the golf swing have mainly focused on group analysis of male golfers of a wide ability range. In the present study, we investigated gross body kinematics using a novel method of analysis for golf research for a group of low handicap female golfers to provide an understanding of their swing mechanics in relation to performance. Data were collected for the drive swings of 16 golfers using a 12-camera three-dimensional motion capture system and a stereoscopic launch monitor. Analysis of covariance identified three covariates (increased pelvis-thorax differential at the top of the backswing, increased pelvis translation during the backswing, and a decrease in absolute backswing time) as determinants of the variance in clubhead speed (adjusted r (2) = 0.965, P < 0.05). A significant correlation was found between left-hand grip strength and clubhead speed (r = 0.54, P < 0.05) and between handicap and clubhead speed (r = -0.612, P < 0.05). Flexibility measures showed some correlation with clubhead speed; both sitting flexibility tests gave positive correlations (clockwise: r = 0.522, P < 0.05; counterclockwise: r = 0.711, P < 0.01). The resul |
21988676 |
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Dextrality and eye position in putting performance. |
Steinberg GM, Frehlich SG, Tennant LK. |
The relationship between eye and hand dominance and the relative positioning of the ball with respect to the subjects' eyes on putting performance was investigated. Twenty-four pure dextral (right-eyed and right-handed) and 24 cross-dextral (left-eyed and right-handed) novice golfers were randomly assigned to putt at a target 3.66 m away in two conditions, eyes focused directly over the ball and eyes positioned midway between their feet and the ball, i.e., eyes positioned 5 cm closer to their feet. The analysis indicated a significant interaction for dextrality and the relative position of the eyes during putting. Pure dextral golfers demonstrated less absolute error and less variable error in their putting performance when they focused their eyes midway between the ball and their feet than when they positioned their eyes directly over the ball. No differences in error scores were found for cross-dextrals across the two putting conditions. |
7675605 |
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Differences between implicit and explicit acquisition of a complex motor skill under pressure: an examination of some evidence. |
Bright JE, Freedman O. |
Masters (1992) argued that an implicitly acquired motor skill is less likely to fail under pressure than an explicitly acquired skill. He demonstrated this by showing that induced anxiety led to differences in the golf putting performance of groups who had acquired the skill implicitly and explicitly. We replicated Masters' basic findings but our results suggest that the difference in performance under pressure is more readily explained in terms of differences between the learning and testing conditions. Our results are consistent with an explicit learning account of the putting task and we found no support for the claim that implicit and explicit learning of motor skills are differentially affected by anxiety. |
9644823 |
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Differences in shot-making skills among high and low money winners on the PGA tour. |
Engelhardt GM. |
Analysis of individual performance statistics for the 1995 Professional Golf Association tour yielded statistically significant differences between the shot-making skills of the to ten and bottom ten money winners. Only two skills (driving distance and total driving) were significantly higher among the ten top-ranked money winners. |
9229453 |
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Distribution of practice and metacognition in learning and long-term retention of a discrete motor task. |
Dail TK, Christina RW. |
This study examined judgments of learning and the long-term retention of a discrete motor task (golf putting) as a function of practice distribution. The results indicated that participants in the distributed practice group performed more proficiently than those in the massed practice group during both acquisition and retention phases. No significant differences in retention performance were found as a function of three retention intervals (1, 7, and 28 days). Echoing actual acquisition scores, participants in the distributed practice group predicted more proficient retention performance than did those in the massed practice group. Although all participants predicted more proficient performance than was actually achieved, the difference between predicted and actual performance failed to reach significance. |
15209333 |
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Driving distance and driving accuracy equals total driving: reply to Dorsel and Rotunda. |
Engelhardt GM. |
Combining two primary golf skills (Driving Distance and Driving Accuracy) into one golf skill variable (Total Driving) yielded a more powerful relationship between Professional Golf Association (PGA) Touring Professionals' shot-making skills and their performance outcomes. |
12434834 |
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Duration of mentally simulated movement before and after a golf shot. |
Koyama S, Tsuruhara K, Yamamoto Y. |
This report examined the temporal consistency of preshot routines and the temporal similarity and variability between simulated movements before and after a shot. 12 male amateur golfers ages 32 to 69 years (M=53.4, SD=10.5) were assigned into two groups according to their handicaps: skilled (M=4.0 handicap, SD=3.1) and less-skilled (M=16.0 handicap, SD=6.5). They performed their shots mentally from their preshot routines to the points when the balls came to rest, then performed the same shots physically and again recalled the shots mentally. For each of four par-three holes, participants' performances were filmed, and the durations of mental and actual shots were timed. Analysis showed that the skilled golfers had more consistent preshot routines in actual movement, and they also had longer durations for the ball flight phase than the less-skilled golfers in simulated movement. The present findings support the importance of consistent preshot routines for high performance in golf, however, the duration of simulated movements was underestimated both before and after the shots. This also suggests that skilled golfers attend to performance goals both before and after shots to execute |
19425472 |
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Dynamic stretching and golf swing performance. |
Moran KA, McGrath T, Marshall BM, Wallace ES. |
The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of dynamic stretching, static stretching and no stretching, as part of a general warm-up, on golf swing performance with a five-iron. Measures of performance were taken 0 min, 5 min, 15 min and 30 min after stretching. Dynamic stretching produced significantly greater club head speeds than both static stretching (Delta=1.9m.s (-1); p=0.000) and no stretching (Delta=1.7 m.s (-1); p=0.000), and greater ball speeds than both static stretching (Delta=3.5m.s (-1); p=0.003) and no stretching (Delta=3.3m.s (-1); p=0.001). Dynamic stretching produced significantly straighter swing-paths than both static stretching (Delta=-0.61 degrees , p=0.000) and no stretching (Delta=-0.72 degrees , p=0.01). Dynamic stretching also produced more central impact points than the static stretch (Delta=0.7 cm, p=0.001). For the club face angle, there was no effect of either stretch or time. For all of the variables measured, there was no significant difference between the static stretch and no stretch conditions. All of the results were unaffected by the time of measurement after stretching. The results indicate that dynamic stretching should be used as |
19177316 |
