Improving performance by anchoring movement and "nerves".
Hum Mov Sci
; 49: 239-47, 2016 Oct.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-27459587
ABSTRACT
Golf's governing bodies' recent decision to ban all putting styles "anchoring one end of the club against the body" bridges an important practical problem with psychological theory. We report the first experiment testing whether anchoring provides technical and/or psychological advantage in competitive performance. Many "greats" of professional golf from Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus to Tiger Woods have argued against anchoring, believing that it takes "nerves" out of competitive performance and therefore artificially levels the playing field. To shed more light on the issue, we tested participants' performance with anchored and unanchored putters under low and high pressure when controlling for the putter length. We found no statistically significant evidence for a technical advantage due to anchoring but a clear psychological advantage participants who anchored their putters significantly outperformed unanchored counterparts under high, but not low, pressure. Results provide tentative evidence for the ban's justification from a competitive standpoint. However, before any definite conclusions can be made, more research is needed when using high-level golfers.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Nervos Periféricos
/
Desempenho Psicomotor
/
Golfe
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Adult
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Female
/
Humans
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Male
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2016
Tipo de documento:
Article