Iso-Ahola Seppo E, Dotson Charles O, Jagodinsky Adam E, Clark Lily C, Smallwood Lorraine L, Wilburn Christopher, Weimar Wendi H, Miller Matthew W
Department of Kinesiology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
Department of Kinesiology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
Hum Mov Sci. 2016 Oct;49:239-47. doi: 10.1016/j.humov.2016.07.008. Epub 2016 Jul 25.
Golf's governing bodies' recent decision to ban all putting styles "anchoring one end of the club against the body" bridges an important practical problem with psychological theory. We report the first experiment testing whether anchoring provides technical and/or psychological advantage in competitive performance. Many "greats" of professional golf from Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus to Tiger Woods have argued against anchoring, believing that it takes "nerves" out of competitive performance and therefore artificially levels the playing field. To shed more light on the issue, we tested participants' performance with anchored and unanchored putters under low and high pressure when controlling for the putter length. We found no statistically significant evidence for a technical advantage due to anchoring but a clear psychological advantage: participants who anchored their putters significantly outperformed unanchored counterparts under high, but not low, pressure. Results provide tentative evidence for the ban's justification from a competitive standpoint. However, before any definite conclusions can be made, more research is needed when using high-level golfers.
高尔夫运动管理机构最近做出的禁止所有“将球杆一端靠在身体上”的推杆方式的决定，弥合了一个重要的实际问题与心理学理论之间的差距。我们报告了首个测试在竞技表现中固定球杆是否具有技术和/或心理优势的实验。从阿诺德·帕尔默、杰克·尼克劳斯到泰格·伍兹等许多职业高尔夫“巨星”都反对固定球杆，他们认为这会消除竞技表现中的“紧张感”，从而人为地使比赛环境公平化。为了更清楚地了解这个问题，我们在控制球杆长度的情况下，测试了参与者在高低压力下使用固定和不固定球杆时的表现。我们没有发现因固定球杆而产生技术优势的统计学显著证据，但有明显的心理优势：在高压而非低压情况下，使用固定球杆的参与者的表现明显优于不固定球杆的参与者。研究结果从竞争角度为该禁令的合理性提供了初步证据。然而，在得出任何明确结论之前，使用高水平高尔夫球手进行更多研究是必要的。
