GolfWell Podcast

This installment is part two of our conversation with Gal Ziv. If you didn’t catch the first part, make sure you go back and give it a listen – there’s some really interesting stuff we talk about that’s sure to pique your curiosity. Today, we’re going to talk about gaze behavior and the quiet eye. The quiet eye as described by Gal, is “the final fixation on a specific area in your visual field before a critical movement.” In golf, this is usually your last look at the ball before you hit a shot. Gal’s research has found that the best players in the world have longer quiet eyes than amateurs. In other words, “they fixate on the golf ball for a longer duration before they putt… and they maintain it longer.” Gal has applied the principle of the quiet eye in his research of people putting. He’s found that golfers of all levels have longer quiet eyes on successful putts and shorter quiet eyes on unsuccessful putts. What makes this interesting is that the concept of the quiet eye is something that can be taught. He then goes on to describe what that training looks like. Keep in mind that in order to do this, an eye tracker is needed. To begin, a golfer starts in their address position and gazes at the ball. After the student looks at the hole and is comfortable with where they’re aimed, they fixate on the ball for two to three seconds. From there, the stroke begins, and the fixation point of the golf doesn’t change. The tendency for most golfers is to look up from the ball before they’ve made contact. Gal’s research shows that this is a sign of a “busy brain.” I asked Gal why he thought the quiet eye was so important in putting. He said there is more than one theory. First, the preprogramming hypothesis maintains that “once your eyes are fixated on the ball… you give your brain time to calculate and plan the correct movement.” The second theory is that “during the putt… if something isn’t right, you still have time to correct it.” Lastly, the inhibition hypothesis maintains that “quiet eye time gives you time to pick the option you think is optimal…” When I asked Gal if the quiet eye concept translated to other areas of the game like full shots, he said that there’s more research that needs to be done. However, theoretically speaking, there’s no reason the same idea shouldn’t apply. Gal has some interesting suggestions on how you can implement the quiet eye practice into your putting. First, he says people have to understand that it’s not easy in the beginning. However, “after 10 or 20 repetitions…” it’s not that tough. One of the best ways to do this is to “maintain a journal.” This will help you see if it helps you or not. For most people, improvement will be gradual, it doesn’t happen in a single day. Once again, Gal shared some really interesting information with us. We can’t thank him enough for his time and hope to hear more about future work he’s doing in the future. Thanks for taking time to hang out with us here on the GSL Podcast. We have more exciting content on the way so stay tuned!

In this installment of the GSL podcast, we’re going to take a deep dive into research as it pertains to golf and human behavior. As you know, we’re firm believers in data, backed by science. Our goal is to deliver it to you in a way that helps you better understand the game of golf and play your best. We’re privileged to be joined by Gal Ziv who has done a lot of work on “gaze behavior and enhanced or diminished expectancies.” This conversation is being broken down into two parts. In this first part, we’re going to explore enhanced or diminished expectancies. In a nutshell, we’re talking about “do you think you’re doing well in your practice, or do you think that you’re not doing well?” Our conversation begins with Gal describing an add-on he did to a study done about enhanced or diminished expectations. In this study, Gal wanted to know ‘if participants were given easier criteria for success, would it help them perform and learn better?” With that premise in mind, it was important to make the distinction between performance and learning. “Performance is everything you do right now… Learning is the long-term retention… of what you practice.” For this study, two circles were placed on a putting green, one smaller and one bigger. The goal for participants was to land the ball in the circle. One group of golfers was used for each circle. As expected, the group of golfers hitting putts to the larger circle had more immediate success. Two days later, the participants went through the same process from the same distance. Then, they repeated the process from slightly farther away. Again, the group hitting putts to the larger circle performed better. In short, the conclusion was that participants given easier criteria for success both performed and retained better. I asked Gal if “does this same principle carry out through any task or skill that folks are learning outside of golf?” Gal says that the results are little mixed, especially based on some similar studies done with darts and billiards. This is likely because “human behavior is a very complex thing… there are so many variables… personal traits, anxiety, reaction time, the difficulty of the task…” As far as this study is concerned, Gal looked at PGA Tour statistics and found that “even for the best putters, above a certain threshold of distance from the hole, putting statistics dropped.” Gal wonders if this threshold of distance is different based on a golfer’s skill level. He’s also quick to point out that the conditions in the lab for this experiment were done on flat surfaces that might not mirror the realities golfers face having to account for other variables like break. My next question for Gal was “would you suggest that we carry this concept beyond putting, like an iron shot, or hitting a driver… in a coaching scenario?” Gal says the simple answer is yes. “There is a great potential for this to help people in golf… It’s going to be up to the coach to stay on top the literature that is added all the time…” He also acknowledges that people have a limited amount of time to practice. The key is to make the most of that time with the best evidence-based practice. From a coaching standpoint, Gal emphasizes the role of positive feedback versus negative feedback. This isn’t just from the coach, but also from the perceived feedback the student is getting from their practice.

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