MENTAL
SCIENCE -- 4Ps -- PRACTICE
Big
Ideas from Sports Psychology about Motor Skills Development
-
The
implicit benefit of learning without errors, The
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology A,
1 November 2001, vol. 54, no. 4, pp. 1049-1068(20)
Maxwell J.P.; Masters R.S.W.; Kerr E.; Weedon E.
-
From
novice to no know-how: A longitudinal study of implicit
motor learning, Journal of Sports Sciences, 1 February
2000, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 111-120(10) Maxwell J.
P.; Masters R. S. W.; Eves F. F.
- Aaron
McKee takes a putting lesson: acquisition, retention,
transfer
A
Fresh Look at the Meaning of "Skill" in Putting
A
"skill" is either an explicit or implicit
knowledge in the golfer about what really works effectively
in different putting contexts. A "skill"
is not a movement "competency" by itself,
but more of an awareness of how the movement is made
in context. A straight stroke movement on a flat surface
is not the same as the movement when the surface tilts
down away from the golfer and this is not the same
when the surface tilts up away from the golfer and
this is not the same when the putt runs uphill or
downhill. Reading putts on Bermuda grass and reading
putts on bent grass often seem to rely upon entirely
distinct skills, and many golfers who grow up on bent
grass simply have lifelong trouble reading putts on
Bermuda (e.g., Phil Mickelson). But in actuality,
the same skills are involved -- the trouble is that
the golfer who trains on bent grass with implicit
learning does not have an explicit awareness of the
underlying perceptual skills in reading any putt,
or at least a clear understanding of these skills.
In general, skills in putting are either perceptual
or movement skills, and these skills are built upon
certain realities of physics, equipment, the playing
surface, and human anatomy and phsyiology. Implicit
learning is piece-meal engagement with the important
perceptual or movement processes or with the underlying
realities, and is very hit-or-miss. The end result
of implicit learning is very context specific (e.g.,
bent greens only) and does not lead to true skills
that transfer to different situations and conditions.
Consequently, the golfer who desires to master the
art and science of putting needs to have an explicit
understanding of the important processes of perception
and movement and their underlying foundational realities.
Yes, it is a good idea to make certain movements "automatic"
in the putting stroke, but this overlooks the conscious
processes of perception building during a targeting
routine and during the setup routine that are key
to success. The absence of these conscious processes
explains how casual putting leads to indifferent results.
Some aspects of the total action in putting may become
more or less automatic, but other aspects never do,
and these aspects are of greater importance to the
outcome than the degree to which a movement competency
is or is not "automatic."
The
Danger of Drills
The
danger with drills is that they are designed to produce
movements rather than to train specific skills. The
mere repetition of movements does not train skills.
For example, putting balls to a far fringe over and
over from one spot does not train the golfer about
touch or distance control. All it accomplishes is
to familiarize the golfer with this one distance on
this green in its then-existing playing condition.
That by itself is not utterly insignificant, but it
is not at all substantial in terms of training a general
skill that transfers effectively to successful performance
in many different situations or conditions. The trick
to drills is that the golfer needs to understand what
about the drill is effective to accomplish the training.
Short putting, for example, is mostly about the routine
-- viewing the surface for break, visualizing the
path of the rolling ball with appropriate speed, committing
to a starting line, focusing back on the speed or
touch, and then excuting a straight putt. Drills that
have the golfer sink dozens of short putts over and
over -- without the full routine -- encourage a false
sense of skills competence.
While
it is true that these mindless repetitions bolster
"confidence" when facing similar putts on
the course, this sort of "confidence" is
really the absence of worry or doubt (the absence
of a negative), and not the true sort of confidence
that comes from knowing what really works best (the
presence of positive skills). Regardless of how you
view the relative advantages of implicit versus explicit
learning, implicit learning does not really take place
with isolated repetitions of a single aspect of the
larger problem of making a putt or even making a specific
sort of putt. Isolated movements repeated without
the context of the total action do not train skills.
Knowing what about the drill helps the golfer to learn
the skill for execution in different contexts trains
skills. DRILLS are for SKILLS.
The
"Science" of Putting Aids for Practice
-
British
Psychological Society - Get in the Hole! Study of
effectiveness of putting audio and viodeo tapes
as training aids
Putting
training aids present a consort of visual and physical
cues that "pollute" the performing of
the task with hidden helpers. The basic idea that
repetition alone matters, so that these implicit
helpers don't really hurt, is illogical and wrong.
A putting mat with rectilinear borders is simply
"bad" for learning how to aim the putter
face on a real green surface without visually avaliable
rectilinear borders. The fact that the putting mat
always presents a putt of the same length over the
same condition surface is "bad" for training
touch that can handle different length putts on
different speed greens over different contours and
slopes. On the other hand, the standard putting
mat works well to train a square setup and a straight
stroke out of a square setup. But even here, the
presence of the visual cues from the borders of
the mat give too much "help" to the golfer
visually in getting the body square to the putt,
when this sort of help is not available on the course.
Similarly, a "stroke track" has rails
that show the golfer whether the putter motion looks
correct or not, and this detracts from the golfer
paying attention to the feelings of the motion and
also to how the putter "looks" in relation
to the line of the toes or some other actually-present
cues. Some training aids actually encourage paying
attention to incorrect visual or physical cues or
produce movement patterns artificially while hiding
the mechanism and preventing the golfer experiencing
the correct motion feelings (e.g., the Putting Arc,
which trains golfers to look at an arc on the ground
and move the putter along this arc, when the correct
motion is generated by a motion of the shoulders,
arms, and hands in a single plane and the putterhead
arcing motion is merely apparent and no more than
a result of the straight motion; also, the support
of the heel of the putter against the surface of
the Putting Arc aid artificially keeps the putter
moving on the curve but not by virtue of the correct
movement of the golfer, hence providing an illusion
of motor memory or at best a superficial and fragile
motor memory.)
The
golfer needs to use only those visual and physical
cues that are actually available during play (legally)
when he trains his skills. otherwise, the presence
of "helper" cues in the training aid will
detract from using the available cues and depress
skills development. Feedback generated by the hidden
assistance of helper cues that are not available
during play is similar to "candy," in
that it tastes sweet but is not good for you. Manufacturers
of training aids invariably want the golfer to see
performance improvement, and the repetitive use
of almost ANY training aid will produce some temporary
benefit. The real question remains whether the use
of the training aid promotes or deters the golfer
from harkening to the relevant performance cues
actually present during play (whether visual or
physical) and responding appropriately to these
cues, whether implicitly or explicitly.
Mental
Practice
Music
and Putting Practice
Teaching
& Learning
Updated Monday, July 7, 2008 6:12 AM
|
