New Direction

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Another New Direction for Putting

Golf Digest for January, 2004, carries an article entitled "The Quiet Eye." It is a report on the work being done by Dr. Joan N. Vickers at the University of Calgary. The magazine says that the research project is aimed at investigating what is going on in a golfer's vision when executing a putt. It includes both beginning and highly skilled players as subjects of the study. Using an "eye tracker" attached to a helmet, they measure eye movement during putting. It seems a highly sophisticated process and for the first time offers a clear indication of how much, and what kind of eye movement is actually present during execution of a putt. Overall, it not only appears valid, but very interesting.

No doubt there is some very helpful information falling from this study for any golfer. If nothing else, it parallels quite well the principle of keeping the head in place and avoiding excessive body motion while in the act of putting. It is good information so long as, and to the extent that, those who attempt to utilize it know the difference between how to develop a skill, and how to transform that into a habit. It will also have the capacity, if understood, to assist what goes on in practice sessions as compared with what goes on in the execution of a shot during the game.

Clearly, however, some of the same old important issues to which we have called attention in the past are missing or subdued, if not in the study itself, at least in the recommendations drawn from the study. It's one thing, as always, to tell someone to do something, like "keep your head in place." It is something else to help that person actually carry out the command in an effective manner. This study was probably not intended to do that, but the requirement is nonetheless an imperative, and deserves to be included.

Furthermore, it is not known if the experiment was conducted with players who knew how to stay in the present long enough to avoid anxiety, in addition to "testing" those who were unprotected from the effects of anxiety. The sound of it is that all those examined were "unprotected." So we don't know how any application of the automatic principle would affect the results.

In addition to the "eye tracker," Dr. Vickers also employs EEG resources (electroencephalogram) to view mental activity during the process. She reports that "poor putters tend to have lower mental activity scattered throughout the brain." Meanwhile "good putters tend to know what to focus on and do this with more mental intensity and activity." The the survey says: "Over all, the good putter shows 'harmonized' activity throughout the brain." We take that to mean, a lot is going on, but it is not scattered in the "good" putters. That's the good news. It still appears that there it too much mental activity, even with the "good" players. It's just better handled by the "good" golfer, but there is no way to tell if that "handling" is in the "control" bracket, or in the management portfolio. The "poor" putter appears not to have as much built in "up there" to influence thinking, so it's more scattered. The "good" putters are reported not to have as much eye fluttering. But is that because they have greater ability, less anxiety, or some of both? The study does not respond to that, even though it does hint at anxiety being involved. Neither does the study reveal the content of the brain activity. It only points to the volume.

With no wish to downplay the research, it seems a bit limited in that it only shows what is actually happening at the moment. It does not take into consideration WHY it is happening, other than to say, it is "because the person's eyes are moving around the hole and all over the ball." To make a mundane analogy, it would be like saying, upon observing a wrecked car - "That car must have been in a wreck." That is the way a great deal of research seems to proceed. Most of it goes into showing WHAT happens, but there is a vastly limited amount that deals with WHY things happen as they do. It mostly centers in the symptoms rather than preventions, or it points to remedies that, in themselves, are loaded with unfinished business.

With this study, the research findings give limited mention to "stress' factors. Ultimately, even though there is acknowledgment that anxiety has some effect, it still fails to account for the ways in which anxiety is critical and HOW it influences eye movement. Admitting that there are anxiety and stress-related issues, however, is way ahead of what most studies acknowledge. This study does say that "under stress, The Quiet Eye is often the first thing to go."

So what the study report finds, according to the magazine article, is evidence of what is taking place physiologically in the eyes of all manner of players, but without acknowledging the predictable effects of anxiety on the process. Our take is that it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to become a "quiet eye" player without first mastering the "quiet mind," by owning effective management tools to deal with the effects of anxiety.

The URL http://www.kin.ucalgary.ca/nml will take you to more information from Dr. Vickers.

The early, or preliminary, conclusions being drawn are that being a good putter means training one's eyes to move in strongly set parameters that range between a very narrow "piece" of the hole and either the back of the ball (preferred) or the top of the ball. According to the study, that is what good putters do. Poor putters look all over the place (scattered), which, according to EEG measures, matches what is going on in their heads. But having said that, the only recommendation coming from the study is to learn how to keep your eyes from running all over the place. Focus on the back of the ball and the hole. That's very much like "keep your head still." It's fine to say "Train your eyes," but how does one do that if anxiety keeps throwing a curve ball? Add to that, if you are a normal human being and you keep looking back and forth from the ball to the hole, you will be racing between the future and the past, interlaced with manual concerns in putting. That will lead to involuntary attacks resulting from anxiety. Use your clear key, and all this good information will not be wasted.

Let's illuminate the problem. With no recognition of the role of anxiety in the game (and putting in particular), we are left to no more than another "new" idea about putting, implying that if one "deals" with it, a remedy to putting ills or a benefit to putting results will follow. We already have studies on "yips," confidence, consistency, trust, dystonia, first tee butterflies, emptying the mind, to name a few, all promising similar "improvements" and now we will add "eye fluttering." One more item to put in the "Just do it!" list.

There is no significant, long-termed remedy or benefit that we know of apart from an incorporation of a means to manage anxiety. All of the issues mentioned above are directly influenced, if not precipitated, by anxiety. The "quiet eye" may indeed need "training." So how do you do that? For any management of anxiety and the subsequent training of eye movement, one will need to have a tool that follows the principle of the automatic process. One will have much difficulty learning a new habit if the automatic process is not part of the deal. And there is little doubt that a new habit will be required for any of us to really utilize what is apparent in the "Quiet Eye" theme. Players will be thrust into involuntary movements of the eyes so long as there is no way to manage anxiety. It simply goes with the persistent involuntary territory.

When my dog, Boots, encounters anything the seems threatening to her, the hair all along the ridge of her back stands up and she growls. That's no different from the kind of thing that happens to us humans when we are faced with a threat. What has been shown in Dr. Vickers study is that one of the physiological "hair bristlers" under the gun in putting is a form of rapid eye movement. (We could call that "yips in the eyes.") There is little doubt that such an effect will limit one's putting results, so it needs attention. We would recommend, however, that one should start with what causes that kind of effect, rather than starting with a means to try to eliminate the effect itself. It will never happen, anymore than we can find a way to stop Boot's hair from standing up.

Sadly, all the studies we have seen that claimed to be "new and revolutionary" ways to solve problems in golf have been carried out and reported in some kind of proprietary academic and rhetorical isolation. If the study came through the field of psychology, it avoided physiology. If it came from biomechanics, it avoided psychology. If a way could be found to solve it with a new club, you can bet a new club showed up on eBay. And so on. All seem to want to "corner the market," and none, so far as we can see have yet been able to produce a finished, comprehensive product.

Hopefully, that will come, maybe even with this study. On the other side of the coin, typically, when issues are raised that question the thoroughness of any study, the tendency is simply to ignore them. That is perhaps more eloquent than any other kind of response might be. It is also more often than not the "case du jour" where the question threatens a cherished position or challenges any perceived "turf rights" that responses are not forthcoming.

Meanwhile, even without benefit of head gear and EEG facility, we will do a little checking ourselves on what clear keys do to eye movement and the ability to limit "fluttering" to a minimum - that is, as soon as the weather gives some cooperation. Stay tuned, we will report.

Postscript: We are offering our Putting Book (free to all), for those who would like to have it. Just go to this link to download it, and then
email us for an unlock code.
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