Golfers warned: thinking too much can putt you off

[JAS]

I wonder if this applies to other activities as well

Regards
JAS

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20090130/tu ... ad41d.html

Golfers should not think or talk too much about their swing between shots as it can seriously disrupt their technique, according to a study published on Friday.

Psychologists at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, renowned as the home of golf, said the problem is particularly acute for more experienced golfers, and can be triggered simply by talking about a shot.

"It's a fairly common wisdom in sport that 'thinking too much' hurts performance; during a game it can be an obvious distraction," said Professor Michael Anderson.

"However what we found surprising is that simply describing one's putting skill after it has been executed, can be incredibly disruptive to future putting performance.

"In skilled performers particularly, we found that describing their skill simply impaired its retention."

The researchers asked 80 novice and experienced golfers to practise a particular putting shot, until they got it right three times in a row, and then spend five minutes describing what they did.

The golfers were then asked to try the same shot again -- and the study showed they took twice as many attempts to sink the putt as players who had spent five minutes doing something else.

"This effect was especially dramatic in skilled golfers who were reduced to the level of performance of novices after just five minutes of describing what they did," said Anderson.

"Novices, by contrast, were largely unaffected, and perhaps even helped a little, by verbally describing their movements."

The researchers said they believed the loss of performance is due to an effect called "verbal overshadowing," which makes the brain focus more on language than on the cerebral systems that support the golf-playing skill.

"Other related studies on verbal overshadowing shows that if people have extensive experience trying to articulate their perceptual experiences, performance goes unharmed," he explained.

"So, to the extent that golf pros have extensively practised talking about their skill, they might be less susceptible to it harming performance.

[Booney]

I once heard Nick Faldo talking about thinking too much on the golf course. He said when he found himself thinking too much he would start to hum a song,at the time he took this upon himself he was getting drumming lessons from the former Iron Maiden drummer. So,he more often than not would go into an Iron Maiden track,humming silently in his head. As this was often too 'hard' and agressive he changed it to something more subtle.

The Bee Gee's, More than a woman. When I heard him talk about this I spent the next week and a bit finding myself humming "More than a woman....more than a woman to me...."