We’re sitting down with two guys, Graeme McDowall and Peter Arnott, who have some interesting concepts that might explain a lot of the “luck” and “mystery” surrounding great players.

Ecological psychology is really the study of how organisms act in their environment, how they adapt, and how they become functional in their environments.

One of the key concepts explains how we are able to directly perceive our environment and how we are able to scale movement solutions to that environment. This essentially reverses the paradigm – you’ve got to find the problem first, then come up with a solution.

With an ecological dynamics approach, you don’t give the organism any solutions. Instead, you just give it appropriate problems and let the organism (golfer) come up with the solution. Because we are all different in the sense that we are unique, we act with creativity and novelty.

For instance, you see all these guys in the PGA Tour with different movement patterns, but they are effectively doing the same thing and that is behaving functionally in the environment.  Each of them has come up a unique solution to a problem. The human system is very smart. It has evolved to adapt to the demands of his environment. These are empirical chase-able theories and facts that you put down that we can present a lot of literature to support these in motions

The human system is very smart. It has evolved to adapt to the demands of his environment. These are empirical chase-able theories and facts that you put down that we can present a lot of literature to support these in motions

We just need to provide it with an appropriate environment and an appropriate level of development and the whole organism will be capable of whacking whole things out and you’ll have such as self-organization.

Real World Example of Great Players Adapting to the Environment

One of the great examples of this is from Padraig Harrington when he talks about his junior golf development.

He talks about being a part of a group of players who used to play games for money every day and quite simply, if you couldn’t hole a putt for money, you had to leave the group. If you couldn’t develop that competency, if your skill couldn’t emerge to a high enough level you would have to leave the group because you couldn’t afford to be a part of this group.

Padraig talks about never ever being concerned with technique, but only that they knew how to get the ball in the hole.

We talk about this certain illusion of form following function.

When you look at the PGA tour you see a lot of different golf swings, grips, and techniques. Some of these are techniques you wouldn’t necessarily want to teach someone . What you are seeing there is people who have learned to do something that is a function.

Learn to get the ball in the hole, “This is the way I get the ball in the hole, my technique has just emerged”. It doesn’t necessarily resemble a particular standard.

It doesn’t always look optimal, but I am going to get this ball in the hole because those are the demands of the environment placed on me.

That’s what Harrington is describing here. He is saying that his environment growing up was such that if you couldn’t learn to hole putts for money, then you had to leave the group.

You see a skill being emergent; they didn’t really concentrate on the technique. They were just figuring out a way of getting that ball in the hole because of the constraints that were part of the environment.

About Graeme McDowall

Graeme has an MPhil in Sports Coaching from the University of Birmingham and is a full-time Golf and Sports Coaching lecturer at the SRUC in Scotland. He is also an associate lecturer and a PhD researcher at the University of Abertay Dundee.

His main area of research is skill acquisition in sport and as well as being a practitioner in this area with the high-performance golf programme at the SRUC, he has worked with coaches in rugby and football. Graeme is currently involved with some of the world’s leading experts in non-linear pedagogy, in a project aimed to bring coaches, academics and education professionals together to raise standards in player development.

Follow Graeme on Twitter Here

About Peter Arnott

Pete Arnott is the Teaching Professional at Craigmillar Park Golf Course. Pete is currently studying a MRes in skill acquisition and has worked with all levels of golfers, from novice to European Tour Players, using a constraints-led approach. Indeed, recently one of his star pupils, Nastja Banovec, won a very prestigious Professional Tournament (The Paul Lawrie Invitational) whilst still an Amateur.

Peter has also just recently returned from talking to over one hundred delegates from all sports at the English Institute of Sport on how he puts ‘science’ into practice and has been asked to talk at several high-profile institutions as a result. Basically Peter specialises in creating effective practice environments, which enable a greater transfer from practice to play.

Follow Peter on Twitter Here

We keep treating people like a machine, and we don’t address the controller.

If you don’t have control of yourself, your thoughts and your level of arousal, you have no chance.

The 8 Trait Study

Dr. Deborah Graham set out to see if there was a difference between the frequent winners and the other LPGA tour players in terms of personality traits.

She had them take the Cattell 16PF personality test and then took data on each players’ career record. Creating groups of the ‘frequent winners’, and then she had a ‘near champion’ group, who had won once or twice but been on tour for a while, and a ‘non-champion’ group who’d been on tour a long time and never won.

Then using statistical analysis software she analyzed and compared the groups and compared them by personality traits. The analysis said that on eight of the personality traits, the ‘frequent winner’ group was different from the other two groups, and the level of statistical distinction was at the 95th percentile and above. On the 9th trait compared, the level of statistical distinction dropped down to the 60th percentile.

The difference between the champions and the other players is night and day. The champion group lines up on these traits and the other players do not. Those eight traits existed; Dr. Deborah discovered them.

A Case Study

(From Jon Stabler) Gary McCord had known us for quite a while, in fact he had us consult on Tin Cup. When he turned 49, he’d been commentating already for a while, he liked it, life was good but he wanted to take advantage of the opportunity the senior tour presented. He wanted to play, but he didn’t want to change his life. He didn’t want to give up the commentating, he didn’t want to go into a major effort to get ready and came to us for help.

A little back story on Gary, he played 376 PGA tour events in his PGA tour career, he made 242 cuts, no wins.

After we got the results back of his assessment, it became somewhat obvious where his challenges were. He only lined up on two of the eight champion traits. He was off the mark on the other six, but there were two of those, one in particular that was the most damaging.

He measured very high on the abstract scale. The frequent winners on tour do not. They only measure slightly above average on the abstract side of the scale. His biggest challenge is quieting his mind and making a decision he can commit to in a short amount of time.

The old cliché is ‘paralysis by analysis.’

On tour, if you are the first to hit, you have 40 seconds by the time you get to the ball. You can’t think about all the options. You have to come to a decision pretty quickly and play the shot. If you are over the ball and still thinking about what you are supposed to do and what you need to do and think about whether you have the right target or whether you have the right shot, or making adjustments because the wind just came up, there is no way you are going to hit the ball well.

Once he understood that, he was able to keep it simple, game plan the night before, so all the thinking is done when in a more relaxed state. Secondly, listen to your intuition. What we found is that people high in the abstracts scale have really good intuition or first impressions. Go with the first impression. Don’t over-think it. Thirdly, on the putting green, read the putts from behind and below the hole and then stop. Don’t second-guess it, don’t go to the other side of the hole, it will just give you too much information, you’ll get confused.

With that work and basic mental routine information, Gary was able to go out and win in the rookie year on the senior tour.

He won 2 out 17 events with the same guys he couldn’t beat on the regular tour.

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About Jon Stabler

Jon Stabler is co-founder of GolfPsych. Along with being a co-researcher and co-author in the personality study of golfers and the resulting book, “The Eight Traits of Champion Golfers”, Jon has developed and conducts our GolfPsych group schools and Instructor training programs. He has worked with numerous competitive juniors, pros and college teams including TCU, SMU, A&M and Baylor.

Jon invented the Mind Meter used in GolfPsych schools & programs. It enables GolfPsych clients to quickly learn to manage emotions and attain optimum tension levels for golf shots.

About Dr Deborah Graham

Dr. Deborah Graham is a licensed Counseling Psychologist specializing in golf performance. Working with professional and amateur golfers from around the world, her client list includes over 380 players on the PGA, LPGA and Champions Tours, 21 of which she helped guide to 31 major championships. She was recently chosen by Golf Digest to their first Top 10 Sport Psychologists in Golf list!

Beginning in 1981 with a study of LPGA players she determined the statistical differences between champion and average players on tour, collecting data with the assistance of LPGA hall of fame member, Carol Mann. The findings helped earn her doctorate and discovered 8 critical personality traits for success in golf. This study was duplicated on the PGA and SR. PGA tours with the assistance of her husband, Jon Stabler, again finding the 8 champion traits and forming the foundation of the GolfPsych mental game training system. These studies and their Tour experience resulted in their book, “The Eight Traits of Champion Golfers”, published by Simon and Schuster in 1999.

The “get rich quick” attitude is more prevalent in golf than anywhere else. We all just want to buy a golf club and hit it 20 yards further today with no additional work.

We don’t admire the guy that slowly improves year after year and suddenly is the club champ after 15 years of improvements and not getting caught up with every swing tip and quick fix thrown at him.

Learning doesn’t happen quickly.

Skills that are retained and that hold up on the golf course aren’t learned in a 30 minutes range session.

Golf requires skills that are durable and flexible. Dr Robert Bjork talks more about this in an episode of the Golf Science Lab you can listen to below.

As a golfer you need skills that are durable enough to hold up under stress and pressure and flexible enough to adapt to any of the potential challenges you might face on the golf course. If you play golf you’re going to face pressure and the golf course isn’t going to be perfect. You’ll need the ability to hit it off dirt under a tree with a 5 iron.

Mistakes and errors are part of the learning process.

To build those core attributes it requires a healthy learning environment and the understanding that mistakes and errors are part of the learning process.

If you want to learn you have to push yourself. Your practice has to be difficult. And when things get difficult most likely there will be some mistakes. That’s OK though. Your performance during practice doesn’t indicate how much you’re learning.

Here’s an example…

How many times have you just been killing it on the range. But you step over to the golf course and everything is lost. And vice versa. How often have you just been awful on the range and then hit the ball really well on the the golf course.

We all can relate personally or know someone that has described this.

Here are 5 concepts every golfers needs to understand about getting better at golf.

#1 – Embrace the challenge.

#2 – Mistakes and errors are a healthy part of the learning process.

#3 – Long term steady growth is far more exciting than any “quick fix”.

#4 – Don’t chase “fix” after “fix” and stick with a plan.

#5 – Build skills that are flexible and durable.

Start to change your mindset when you approach practice and you’ll see skills that you actually retain on the golf course.

Embrace the long-term growth plan.

And don’t get distracted by the next “quick fix”.

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It is a given that enhancing sports performance requires a commitment to training and practice. But what should the nature of training and practice be during development?

The three stages of development are:

• Early or sampling
• Middle or specializing
• Late or investment

Alfred North Whitehead called the three stages the romance stage, precision stage and generalization stage. Studies show any emphasis on structured, deliberate, effortful training and practice during the first or early stages of development is now associated with great costs.

In most cases deliberate practice is not associated with great levels of sports proficiency when compared with diversified, enjoyable, playful training.

In 2002, Cote and Hay researchers said:

1. During the early sampling years there should be low frequency of structured deliberate practice and lots of “play” activity.

2. During the specializing years there should be equal amounts of deliberate practice and deliberate “play “activities.

3. During the investment years there can be more deliberate practice than deliberate “play “when training (the skills have already been learned).

One other key component during the sampling years it is important to sample several different sporting activities, instead of specializing in one sport.

An athlete’s cognitive system (brain) during training is being re-organized to meet the needs of the tasks at hand. Researchers have now assessed what they believe to be the optimal amount of structured, deliberate practice and the optimal amounts of deliberate “play “activities that best support the three stages of development.

At each of these stages there are different amounts of time devoted to deliberate practice and deliberate “play.” An athletes involvement with other activities beyond their main sport will also influence their development.

This Developmental Model of Sports Performance (DMSP) is consistent with general theories of child development (Paget, 1962 Vigotsky, 1978) that support the building blocks for physical, cognitive and emotional development.

When it comes to sports participation there are three natural outcomes, people either become…

1. Recreational participants
2. Elite participants
3. Those who drop out

It has been shown that which one of these three outcomes individuals will experience is influenced heavily by the type of activities and contexts they experience during their three stages of development: sampling, specializing and investment (Cote et all, 2003 Cote & Hay, 2002)

This model (SMDP) has allowed researchers to asses what appears to be the optimal amount of deliberate practice and deliberate “play “at each stage of development. Simple repetition is insufficient, training activities must increase to a complexity just beyond current developmental stages.

Negative Consequences of Early Specialization

Early specialization is associated with dropping out in sports, while staying involved is supported by early diversification.

“A lack of enjoyment was the most common reason for withdrawal from sports altogether…”

When elite Russian swimmers were studied it was found that 9 and 10 year olds who began specialized training spent less time on their national team then the athlete who waited to begin specialized training until 13 or 14. These 9 and 10 year olds who specialized early also ended their sports careers earlier than athletes who started to specialize later in life (Bompa 2000).

A single focus on tennis at an early age contributed to withdrawal from the sport (Lochr, 1996).

Parents of hockey players, both active players and ones that dropped out (ages 6-13), found the players who dropped out spent more time in deliberate, specialized practice and training “off ice” (low enjoyment), than the expert athletes who experienced more “play “(Hodges and Deakin, 1998).

A lack of enjoyment was the most common reason for withdrawal from sports altogether (Ewing and Seefeldt, 1996).

The Value of “Play” During Early Development

Respected research has demonstrated that a significant component of the early sport experience of current elite athletes was a wide spread involvement in a range of both organized sports and deliberate “play “activities.

Researchers Cote and Hay defined deliberate “play “as an activity designed to maximize inherent personal enjoyment. Deliberate “play” activities are normally regulated by flexible rules, adapted from standardized sports rules, and they are normally set up by the participants involved in the activity.

John Brandsford, editor of How People Learn pointed out that “play” activities should promote “interest” over focusing on trying to make play fun. When “play “is interesting, individuals stay interested during their unwanted outcomes.

When involved with deliberate “play” there is less concern with the outcome of behavior than with the enjoyment of the behavior.

Deliberate “play “behavior in sport can have immediate value in terms of motivation to stay involved in sports and it also has benefits related to the ability to process information in various sporting situations.

Motivation based on self regulation (Ryan and Deci, 2000) supports the idea that early “intrinsically ” motivating behaviors (deliberate play) have a positive effect on staying motivated, becoming more self determined and being committed in future sport participation.

From a skill acquisition perspective, deliberate “play “serves as a way for athletes to explore their physical capacities in various contexts. This was found to be true for elite hockey players who spent more time in deliberate play than deliberate practice activities before the age of 20.

These findings also hold true for elite and recreational baseball players (Gilbert et all, 2002). The elite players were involved in more deliberate “play “than recreational players from ages 6 to 12.

When investigating 17 Australian rules football players who were elite players, classified as expert decision makers and 15 elite players classified as non-expert decision makers, the results showed that expert decision makers have invested a significant greater time in varied deliberate “play “activities playing basketball, football, hockey, all within a space of two years (Berry & Apernethy, 2003).

Deliberate “play “in various contexts will ultimately provide a broad foundation of skills that will help to overcome the physical and cognitive challenges of various sports as well as their main sport (DeKnop, Engstrom, Skistad, 1996).

Schmidt and Wrisberg (2000) suggested that transferable elements could be categorized into movement skills, perceptual skills and conceptual thinking skills.

• Movements – biomechanical and anatomical actions.
• Perceptual – environmental information that individuals are interpreting emotionally.
• Conceptual – strategies, guidelines, rules.
• Sports skills demands include:
• Physical demands such as power.
• Movement demands such as precision and esthetics.
• Cognitive demands such as perception memory, or strategic capabilities.

These demands are developed more efficiently through deliberate “play” than structured deliberate practice

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Today’s guest, Stuart Morgan started out teaching on tour believing everything was about technique. The player he was working with ended up losing his card and leaving the game… That experience motivated Stuart to never let that happen again and begin a search to better understand performance.

One area he’s dived into is learning and player development and has become an expert at junior development, and now is the director of instruction at the IJGA academy.

Never dismiss technique. It’s still very important there is just a lot more to look at.

Skill Regression in Juniors

In juniors there is a nonlinear period of time when they’ll go through growth spurts and experience change in the brain and body. You can see the legs grow first, feet are bigger, and torso / arms are small.

This ultimately leads to a loss of coordination and potentially skill regression.

Sometimes it can be as obvious as drastic differences from one day to the next during this period.  One day they can be aimed perfectly and the next they’re completely different.  Juniors during this period just don’t have the same awareness and coordination.

There are also mental factors to watch for as juniors might be fatigued and lacking in motivation during this period.    Stuart shares how he helps golfers through his stage with a mental break.  You have to scale the over all environment for the player.  A suitable challenge point if a player regresses back keeps people in the game vs dropping out.

A coach needs to help educate the golfer and parent about this process!

This is a can’t miss converstion. Listen in below!

Links:

• IJGA
• Stuart Morgan on Twitter
• Article from Dr Steve Bain on small goals

About Stuart Morgan

Stuart Morgan, a Mid Wales native, played golf at the professional level and has been a PGA member since 1998. He has been a full time development coach since 2001 when he was asked to work for David Leadbetter. During his time with Leadbetter, Morgan was mentored by the father of modern coaching and spent time assisting him at two PGA Championships and at Champions Gate. Morgan has also established a personal client base on Tour and spent years traveling to tournaments with elite players.

Heavily specialized in player development, Morgan has trained with Dave Alred and studied from professors such as Dr. Richard Bailey, Dr. Martin Toms, and Tour player and lecturer Graeme McDowell on how to maximize results in a training environment.

Morgan’s Player Development redefines overall athletic training and incorporates a focus and understanding of each individual golfer’s unique needs. His approaches allow IJGA to remain at the forefront of training philosophies and technology.

Using select training methods he has helped develop junior players as young as eight years old to become international standouts and even juniors who have gone on to turn professional.

This post’s books are from contributors to season 1 of the podcast and presenters from the Motor Learning Masterclass. Great for both golfers and coaches looking to expand their knowledge of how learning and skill development actually happens.

Dr. Mark Guadagnoli

No matter what you have tried so far, there is a better way. There is a better way to practice so you lower your scores and have more fun. The better way means learning to go beyond your comfort zone on the range so you are in your comfort zone on the course.

The better way means combining the mental and physical aspects of golf to create habits of excellence. “Practice to Learn, Play to Win” uses the latest research in brain science to supercharge your golf. The better way to golf starts with great practice and ends with great scores.

Get your copy here >Practice to Learn, Play to Win

Adam Young

This book is the most comprehensive guide to improving your Golf EVER!  A best-seller in the USA, UK, Canada, Germany and France, and featured on The Golf Channel, “The Practice Manual – The Ultimate Guide for Golfers” is creating a wave in the golf industry and changing the way we think about playing better golf. With golfers around the World hitting the driving ranges and not improving, it is time to do something different — it’s time to do something better. Using information from the latest in motor learning research, you will discover the key ingredients which make the ultimate practice plan. You will also find out where you have been going wrong all these years, and be able to quickly change for the better.

If you are a keen golfer who likes to practice, or if you are an aspiring Tour Pro or College player, this book is a necessity. For Golf Coaches around the World, this book will transform the way you teach golf forever.

Get your copy here > The Practice Manual: The Ultimate Guide for Golfers

Trent Wearner

In order for you to successfully take your game to the course, you must bring the elements found on the course to your practices and that is exactly what this book (and this interactive website) does.

With its 230 pages and nearly 100 competitive practice games (all with color photos), items like score, a consequence, different lies, distractions, pressure and more are brought to the forefront so that you can practice in a manner that TRANSFERS to the course.

Get your copy here > Golf Scrimmages: Realistic Practice Games Under Pressure

Dr. Gabriele Wulf

Attention and Motor Skill Learning explores how a person’s focus of attention affects motor performance and, in particular, the learning of motor skills. It synthesizes the knowledge coming from recent research examining the effects of attentional focus on motor performance and learning, and it provides practical implications for both instructional and rehabilitative settings.

It provides many practical examples and implications for teaching, learning, relearning, and performing motor skills. This book will help readers better understand the effects that attentional focus has on motor performance and learning as well as the mechanisms underlying these effects. While challenging traditional learning methods, this book presents the latest research and demonstrates how changing one’s focus of attention can speed the learning process and lead to more effective performance of motor skills.

Get your copy here > Attention and Motor Skill Learning

Dr. Tim Lee

Motor Control in Everyday Actions presents 47 true stories that illustrate the phenomena of motor control, learning, perception, and attention in sport, physical activity, home, and work environments. At times humorous and sometimes sobering, this unique text provides an accessible application-to-research approach to spark critical thinking, class discussion, and new ideas for research.

The stories in Motor Control in Everyday Actions illustrate the diversity and complexity of research in perception and action and motor skill acquisition. More than interesting anecdotes, these stories offer concrete examples of how motor behavior, motor control, and perception and action errors affect the lives of both well-known and ordinary individuals in various situations and environments.

Get your copy here > Motor Control in Everyday Actions

Joe Bosco

Any player from beginner to aspiring tour player can improve in a much more direct and enjoyable way using a time-tested and results-proven method backed by cutting-edge research in human learning and brain function. It’s a technique used by the Marine Corps, Harvard Business School and the NBA. Unlike the dozens of other instruction books that come out every year, Real Golf isn’t a collection of mechanical adjustments, tips and drills.

It is a complete guide to sorting, evaluating and successfully integrating the instruction players are already receiving from a teacher, magazine, book or a video. It is instruction on how to use instruction. Using the sophisticated, personalized self-scrimmage strategies detailed in the book, players can make dramatic scoring breakthroughs immediately, and see massive handicap improvement in eight to 10 weeks.

Get your copy here > Real Golf: Taking Your Best Game to the Course

Michael Hebron

A must read for every serious golfer who wants a thorough understanding of the fundamentals of the golf swing. It’s one of the best books on the golf swing in publication and truly focuses on the motions and actions present in all sound golf swings. Explanations and the many illustrations are easy to understand. Hebron quotes Ben Hogan and Bobby Jones throughout the book. Originally his Masters thesis, now a classic in the industry. Third revision refines the book even more than prior editions.

Hebron’s efficient approaches to golf help players invent their swings, putting strokes, and tempos.

On the subject of learning golf comes a comprehensive study of how people learn the necessary motor skills plus a wealth of information on keeping the mind centered on the task at hand.

The quintessential manual for golf instructors, coaches and curious minds of any sport. This manual, filled with powerful photos and drawings, is a must for any serious golfer’s bookshelf. Each of the 3 sections is a manual in and of itself. Hebron shares a lifetime of extensive research on the sports mind and body, then relates the information to the golf swing. By understanding the roll of each moving and thinking part in a motor skill, readers are placed in a position to build a golf swing (or any motor skill) that is controlled, repeatable and permanently learned.

In the 21st century it’s unacceptable for students not to make progress at a reasonable rate when instructors and students could benefit from what science has uncovered about learning. Modernizing Approaches to Learning discusses research related to the brain as the gateway to learning. When taking a brain-compatible approach to learning, we can learn faster and retain information and skills longer.

The author discusses findings from neuroscience, cognitive science, physiological and psychological research about the brain and learning. He offers practical, modern ways to move from damaging educational approaches toward emotionally safe, self-discovery and self-reliant approaches. Approaches that are geared to help are not as valuable as those geared for self-help. Modernized approaches join the art of teaching with the science of learning where research demonstrates that we learn naturally through trial and error adjustments.

See and Feel the Inside Move the Outside, Third Revsion

Play Golf to Learn Golf

Golf Swing Secrets… and Lies: Six Timeless Lessons

The Art and Zen of Learning Golf, Third Edition

See & Feel the Inside Move the Outside, Third Edition – Full Color

Building and Improving Your Golf Mind, Golf Body, Golf Swing

Matthew Kluck & Dennis Sweeney

This is the central book of the series 101 Games for Golf that was featured by Martin Hall on the Golf Channel’s School of Golf. It is an essential golfing manual designed to help you to transfer the skills you get in a golf lesson to the golf course. It does this by showing you how to practice for improvement by playing simple games that range in difficulty from easy, for beginners, to difficult, for advanced players. Six companion games booklets are sold separately and describe the games in detail.

In addition to outlining the games, the book has chapters on setting game improvement goals, developing a pre-shot routine, choosing golf instruction that meets your needs, and managing your emotions on the course. Written by an applied industrial psychologist and a PGA Master Teaching Professional who has been recognized as a top teacher by Golf Magazine and Golf Digest, the book is a must for any golfer, from the novice to tournament player, who wants to maintain or improve his or her golf swing. PLEASE NOTE! The games are described in detail in the six companion game booklets. Each booklet has games for each key golf skill: putting, pitching, chipping, full swing, bunker shots, and on-course play.

Additional Supporting Books:

Putting Games – Flat Stick Magic! (Golf’s Missing Links)

Full Swing Games – Let It Fly! (Golf’s Missing Links)

Chipping Games – Lowering Your Score (Golf’s Missing Links)

Pitching Games – Up and Away! (Golf’s Missing Links)

Bunker Games – Up and Over (Golf’s Missing Links)

On the Course Games – Putting It All Together! (Golf’s Missing Links)

If you’re looking for more materials make sure to check out SEASON 1 of the Golf Science Lab podcast and the Motor Learning Masterclass

We’re talking with two experts in the field of motor learning, Dr. Gabriele Wulf and Dr. Rebecca Lewthwaite. Both have extensive experience in this topic and have written some of the papers that have defined the field of motivational learning. You’re not going to want to miss this!

The Power of Choices

Anything you can do as an instructor to make people feel more confident, or increase their self-efficacy is beneficial for performance. Many studies have shown that confidence or self-efficacy is critical for optimal performance and learning. The other motivational variable that is also very powerful is learner autonomy.

Practice conditions that involve an opportunity to choose will support peoples’ need for autonomy. The choices you give to a learner don’t even have to be related to the task. You can give them an unrelated choice, such as which picture to hang in on the wall, and they will learn better.

It sounds kind of crazy, but totally unrelated choices support students’ need for autonomy and enhance their learning.

People like having choices and there’s also an effective component here that helps people learn. Positive effect turns out to be very important for learning. It tends to release dopamine, which is critical for learning, and so I think there are two things that play a role here.

One is self-efficacy or confidence being enhanced, and the other is the positive effect – the positive emotions that are associated with having a choice.

Be Positive (for better learning)

When we have three groups, a group that receives negative feedback, no feedback, or positive feedback.  Typically the negative feedback group, who  believe they are doing worse than their peers and the group that gets no information typically look like each other. Whereas the group that receives a sense of success or confidence tends to look different on those other two.

Whereas the group that receives a sense of success or confidence tends to look different on those other two. Studies have shown that the negative doesn’t appear to detract so much that the positive appears to enhance.

How you define success equates to how people derive a sense of success, and this has implications for how you learn.

It’s important that you interpret the action (the performance) in a positive light. This has implications for coaches and teachers; if they get too hypercritical too fast, then there is this dampening of the learning effect.

It pays to accentuate the positive. One approach is to enhance the sense that someone has been successful as you go forward, and the other is to provide people with opportunities to choose or to have autonomy in their actions. One way you could pair these things is to tell people early on that it’s quite good if you can hit this target or be close to it in this way, and provide them with positive feedback. As an example, “For that early trial, it was excellent.” And then the next thing you said is, “Let me know when you would like to get some more specific feedback”. This is an invitation to take a little charge of when you go into further detail.

One way you could pair these things is to tell people early on that it’s quite good if you can hit this target or be close to it in this way, and provide them with positive feedback. As an example, “For that early trial, it was excellent.” And then the next thing you said is, “Let me know when you would like to get some more specific feedback”. This is an invitation to take a little charge of when you go into further detail.

Further Reading

Self-Controlled Learning: The Importance of Protecting Perceptions of Competence

Choose to move: The motivational impact of autonomy support on motor learning

Gabriele Wulf on Attentional Focus and Motor Learning

About Dr. Gabriele Wulf

Gabriele Wulf is a Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences at UNLV. Dr. Wulf studies factors that influence motor skill performance and learning, such as the performer’s focus of attention and motivational variables (e.g., autonomy support, enhanced performance expectancies).

Her research has resulted in 175 journal articles and book chapters, as well as two books. Dr. Wulf has received various awards for her research, including UNLV’s Barrick Distinguished Scholar Award. She served as the founding editor of Frontiers in Movement Science and Sport Psychology (2010-2012) and the Journal of Motor Learning and Development (2012-2015). Currently, she serves as the Past-President of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA).

You can check out Dr Wulf’s book here: Attention and Motor Skill Learning

About Dr Rebecca Lewthwaite

Rebecca Lewthwaite, PhD is Director, Rehabilitation Outcomes Management, and Director of Research and Education in Physical Therapy at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center. She is also an adjunct faculty member in the Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy at the University of Southern California (USC).

Dr. Lewthwaite has an active research program at the intersection of movement and psychological science, studying motivation and motor learning. She received her PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles in (Psychological) Kinesiology. Together with Dr. Carolee Winstein, Dr. Lewthwaite designed the integrated approach to motor learning in clinical practice known as the Accelerated Skill Acquisition Program.

Dr. Lewthwaite is an investigator in the recent Interdisciplinary Comprehensive Arm Rehabilitation Evaluation (ICARE) Phase III RCT examining arm recovery after stroke, where she provided direction to the psychosocial content, measurement, and intervention aspects.

Do we often view junior golfers abilities through the wrong lens?

I am writing to not only confess my sins as a golf coach but to share what I have learned moving forwards. If I can help prevent others from making the same mistakes as I did, we have a better chance of growing this incredible game.

I for one have been subject to the pitfalls of disassociating golfers performance and their learning – back in the day I viewed them as the same thing and assumed that what a golfer learned came to fruition via performance. I was wrong, very wrong.

Golfers have come to me with vast amounts of knowledge, ideas, questions and discussions showing what they have ‘learned’. The same golfer has attempted to play in a tournament only to score what would be perceived as a ‘bad’ score. The score leaves the golfer often stumbled, the ignorant coach (me at the time) almost lost for words, and typically the parents (mostly uneducated in sports and performance) rather upset.

Dr. Robert Bjork explains incredibly well the differences in learning and performance in this YouTube clip, you MUST watch it.

This leads us onto the question of what are we actually looking for?

Are we looking for a good performance ‘numerically’? Or are we looking to maximize the learning of a golfer for future results and long-term goals?

The former is what I was doing for a number of years – I even got that wrong too. Due to my beliefs, at the time, I looked for low scores and good performances as a measure of my coaching and what the player learned from me. I had the golfer playing events that were a little out of their comfort zone, they were appropriate sized courses or longer and the fields ability was the same if not better.

I was setting myself up for disappointment never mind the golfers, if they were thinking anything remotely like I was at the time. Looking back I realize that it’s pretty easy to get better performances, numerically, and can serve you well in an environment that cultivates, and praises results.

Place a golfer in a younger age category, a field of golfers with a poorer skill level and in a tournament that is on a much smaller and easier golf course – job done. That is quite possibly an easy route to seeing great performances ‘numerically’. But if we want to maximize learning and reach the highest levels of performance i.e. Olympic and Professional, what I have done in the past is quite possibly the worst thing you can do to any golfer.

Understandably, seeing a score that is lower can give us an altered and misleading perception. This is not the lens we want to keep looking through, as there are too many other variables that must be considered.

Performance can be measured much more accurately than learning – as learning is something that is inferred – but much of what can’t be controlled effects performance outcomes, so there relationship to learning is far from accurate.

By Matthew Cooke