Abstract
Background: Golfers face different environmental conditions in each game played under various constraints. Enhancing affordances through training in a constrained outdoor environment is crucial. Objective: To analyze club head behavior at ball impact of a tee shot by 42 professional (PGs) and 25 amateur (AGs) golfers in swinging to uphill and downhill fairway environments using the TrackMan portable launch monitor. Methods: We used TrackMan to compare golf club movement adaptations in 42 PGs and 25 AGs. A 330-m driving range facing both the uphill (+5°) and downhill (-5°) fairways were used. The tee shot area was the only flat ground surface, with the uneven ground between the shot area and the 200-yard fairway. Results: The clubhead speed and attack angle were significantly higher among PGs than among AGs. PGs could adapt their swings to the uphill fairway by increasing the attack angle (3.6°±2.4) by 3.3° compared with the downhill fairway. The attack angle did not correlate with the launch angle among the AGs in the downhill condition, suggesting that they were unable to control the height of the ball based on the far side of the fairway. Conclusion: PGs increased the attack angle in uphill conditions, and their awareness of the affordance, which was different from that of AGs, allowed them to change the optimal ball trajectory to avoid perceived fairway risks. Thus, the more skill a player had, the better he was at recognizing the affordance of the visual field. PGs demonstrated a better ability to adapt to environmental constraints.
Highlights
The more skill a player had, the better he was at recognizing the affordance of the visual field
This study examined the adaptation of motor skills to the golf course environment by comparing the differences in the golf swings between professional golfer (PG) and Amateur golfers (AGs) in uphill and downhill conditions, which affect the players’ field of view
As we found that PGs always change the club head movement along the fairway-of-view condition
Summary
The results showed that the distance traveled by the ball was significantly longer in the low-handicap group and that the leftward deviation from the target was considerably smaller [8] Both studies found that the left-right deviation with respect to the target was the largest in uphill conditions, and the ball position with respect to the stance width (distance between the left and right feet) was closer to the center in downhill conditions. The VR screen was set to show the direction of flight and display the trajectory of the shot on flat ground These analyses did not include shots on slopes, which may interfere with the field of view and are characteristics of actual golf courses. Enhancing affordances through training in a constrained outdoor environment is crucial
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