Quiet Eye Training Facilitates Competitive Putting Performance in Elite Golfers

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a brief quiet eye (QE) training intervention aimed at optimizing visuomotor control and putting performance of elite golfers under pressure, and in real competition. Twenty-two elite golfers (mean handicap 2.7) recorded putting statistics over 10 rounds of competitive golf before attending training individually. Having been randomly assigned to either a QE training or Control group, participants were fitted with an Applied Science Laboratories Mobile Eye tracker and performed 20 baseline (pre-test) putts from 10 ft. Training consisted of video feedback of their gaze behavior while they completed 20 putts; however the QE-trained group received additional instructions related to maintaining a longer QE period. Participants then recorded their putting statistics over a further 10 competitive rounds and re-visited the laboratory for retention and pressure tests of their visuomotor control and putting performance. Overall, the results were supportive of the efficacy of the QE training intervention. QE duration predicted 43% of the variance in putting performance, underlying its critical role in the visuomotor control of putting. The QE-trained group maintained their optimal QE under pressure conditions, whereas the Control group experienced reductions in QE when anxious, with subsequent effects on performance. Although their performance was similar in the pre-test, the QE-trained group holed more putts and left the ball closer to the hole on missed putts than their Control group counterparts in the pressure test. Importantly, these advantages transferred to the golf course, where QE-trained golfers made 1.9 fewer putts per round, compared to pre-training, whereas the Control group showed no change in their putting statistics. These results reveal that QE training, incorporated into a pre-shot routine, is an effective intervention to help golfers maintain control when anxious.

Choking interventions in sports: A systematic review

“…Vine and Wilson found no differences in the learning rate between the groups, but the QE group outperformed the control group when putting under pressure. These findings have been replicated and extended with both novice athletes (Moore, Vine, Cooke, Ring, & Wilson, 2012;Vine et al, 2013; and experts (Vine, Moore, & Wilson, 2011;Wood & Wilson, 2012) indicating robustness of this intervention. The only inconclusive study (Wood & Wilson, 2011) found that QE-trained soccer players were significantly more accurate than control participants in a pressure-free retention test, but failed to maintain their accuracy advantage in a penalty shootout under pressure.…”

Gaze training improves the retention and transfer of laparoscopic technical skills in novices

“…Previous research investigating the efficacy of gaze training for novices acquiring basic psychomotor skills in laparoscopic surgery [6,7] and sport [10][11][12], has revealed a performance advantage for gaze training that is revealed in both how quickly the skill is acquired and in how resilient the skill is to the demands of various stressors (e.g., multitasking, time pressure, evaluation threat). The current study extends this advantage to the transfer of the skill to novel, more complex tasks and the durability/robustness of the skill over time.…”

“…The limited research to date that has examined the effectiveness of gaze training has shown that it provides benefits in terms of resilience to such stress, compared to more traditional approaches [6,7]. It has been proposed that the focus on controlling only one component of the skill-accurate gaze-reduces the attentional demands for novices, allowing them to learn the skill more quickly and have resources available to deal with stressful scenarios [6,7,[10][11][12]. However, two other important criteria for effective training are the degree to which learning remains stable beyond the training period (retention), and the degree to which the skills learned actually translate to more complex skills (transfer) [1,13,14].…”

Optimizing performance through intrinsic motivation and attention for learning: The OPTIMAL theory of motor learning

“…Whereas various possible accounts of this phenomenon have been offered (for a review, see Vickers, 2009), it seems likely that an external attentional focus promoted by the visual focus on an external object is at least partially responsible for the performance effects (Vine, Moore, Wilson, 2011. Aside from keeping the attentional focus on a relevant aspect of the task (e.g., golf ball), a visual focus on the target may also serve to "clear the performer's mind" (Vine, Moore, Wilson, 2015).…”