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Objectives: Putting behaviour was examined to explore if age influenced performance and the development of motor and perceptual-cognitive expertise during late adolescence and early adulthood. We also examined if motor control and perceptual-cognitive expertise was related to performance on a representative putting task.\ud \ud Method: Twenty elite golfers (15 male; 17–24 years old; mean handicap of 0.5) completed eight straight and eight sloped putts at two distances (8ft/2.44m and 15ft/4.57m), on an indoor golf surface. Participants wore an eye tracker whilst putting and putting performance was assessed via putts holed and eye-movement behaviour, examining Quiet Eye (QE, the duration of the final fixation on the ball). A baseline profile for each participant was created using kinematic stroke data (collected using SAM PuttLab), average putts per round, greens in regulation and current practice hours (subjective self-report measures).\ud \ud Results: Bayesian statistical analysis revealed ‘moderate’ evidence that age and baseline kinematic factors did not influence putting success rates. Eye movement data revealed ‘moderate’ evidence that i) successful performance was associated with less variability in QE duration and ii) extended periods of QE were associated with a decline in performance. Previous experience and current skill level were ruled out as potential confounds.\ud \ud Conclusion: Our findings reveal that performance and perceptual-cognitive expertise, did not improve with age. We suggest that post 18 years, age should not be considered a factor in talent development programmes for golf putting. We discuss the benefits of adopting a Bayesian approach and suggest future studies employ longitudinal designs to examine changes in expertise over time.

Smart coaching platforms are emerging which combine Body-Sensor-Networks with AI-based training software to monitor and analyze body motions of athletes, workers, or medical patients. This allows for new opportunities to explore algorithms to interpret body sensor data and provide analytical feedback for learning a physical task, refining body motions, or to protect from work-related injuries. This paper presents a solution to non-invasively equip a person with sensors of a Smart Training System (STS) to improve training efficiency during sport activities. Our system calculates the significance of each body part during physical activities and provides targeted feedback on which body locations are under-performing. In experiments, the system collected data from 13 inertial sensors attached to the entire body of inexperienced golf learners. Using an indoor golf training net with a central target with 3 concentric zones, 1,080 real-world golf swings of 11 participants were analyzed. During the first 30 swings of each participant, the system learned distributions of motions from each sensor, conditioned on swing performance reported by users from their hitting location on the target. In the later 70 swings, feedback was provided to a subgroup of 8 participants, by computing, for an optimal set of features determined during training, the largest discrepancy. The remaining 3 (control) participants received no feedback. From only 100 golf swings for each participant, our system led to significantly improved scores by on average 3.7x (t-test, $\mathrm{p}\lt 0.0001)$ over the latter 70 swings. Our results suggest that the combination of motion sensors and processing developed here was able to yield significantly improved golf swing training.

As a kind of innovative teaching system, the fischertechnik model provides a best carrier for educational innovation and experimental innovation. Based on the fischertechnik model, we design the indoor golf robot to pick up the ball to put it properly. The paper’s idea fills the technical gap of automatic picking up the ball of indoor golf in the current market and briefly introduces a kind of structure design and its prospect.

Recently, there has been an increasing interest and demand for an effective use of leisure time. Many Koreans especially enjoy horseback riding as one way of spending leisure time. Some scholars noticed psychological, social, and emotional benefits produced by horseback riding because it is connected with various aspects of human movement and a special connection with an animal. Therefore, this study first aims to investigate how horseback riding has special meaning as a recreation therapy. In addition, this investigation will develop a horseback riding therapy program designed for the well-being and happiness of individuals. Following "screen golf" that heralded the age of indoor golf by grafting golf with IT technology, the age of indoor horse-riding is coming into existence. That is, the so called 'screen horse-riding' that enables indoor horse-riding can accelerate the popularization of horse-riding. The basic concept of the 'screen horse-riding' is the robotic terminology that is used in the rodeo games. To put it easily, one only needs to conjure up the image of horse-riding game machine in an amusement park. However, 'screen horse-riding' is different in the sense that the cutting edge IT technologies are utilized to create virtual reality that is very similar to the actual horse-riding experience. Likewise, its effect as sports is optimized instead of stopping merely at providing amusing experience.

The indoor golf simulator allows users to enjoy their golf games indoors. However, most of the game simulators use their own communication message formats, resulting in a lack of interoperability. In this paper, for the sake of interoperability, XML documents are used in transmitting and processing the information of players as well as game status. XML documents for transmitting the related information are defined and the flows of the XML documents are described.

A estruturação da prática motora é uma variável de aprendizagem muito estudada na área de Controle Motor e Aprendizagem, sendo, neste âmbito, o efeito de Interferência Contextual um dos pressupostos teóricos mais investigados (TANI, 2005). Tendo como suporte a hipótese de PORTER e MAGILL (2004, 2005), o objetivo deste estudo foi verificar se o grupo com prática num contínuo de níveis Interferência Contextual alcançava melhores resultados na aprendizagem do "putt", do golfe, comparativamente com os grupos de prática por blocos, em séries e aleatória. Participaram voluntariamente 48 estudantes (24 de cada gênero) do ensino superior com 21,2 ± 1,4 anos de idade, todos destros e inexperientes. Na fase de aquisição foram realizados 126 ensaios de "putt" às distâncias de 2, 2,75 e 3,5 metros do buraco. Vinte e quatro horas depois ocorreu a fase de retenção e o teste de tranferência. Na fase de retenção foram praticados 30 ensaios de forma aleatória. O teste de tranferência consistiu em 20 ensaios, 10 ensaios a 2,5 metros e 10 ensaios a 2,5 metros com 10 graus de desvio face ao centro do buraco. A análise dos resultados demonstra que não existem diferenças estatisticamente significativas entre grupos. O efeito do incremento de Interferência Contextual não foi verificado neste estudo. The purpose of this study was to investigate the contextual interference (CI) effect on learning a golf putting task. PORTER and MAGILL (2004, 2005) conducted studies where they applied a new concept of practice: the contextual interference continuum. The hypothesis is that practicing with gradual increases of CI will lead to better performance on retention and transfer tests that both the blocked and random groups. Forty undergraduate students (N = 48) were randomly assigned to one of four groups: blocked, serial, random, or increasing CI practice schedule. Participants were inexperienced with the task and were blinded to the purpose of the experiment. During the acquisition they putted 126 trails from three distances (2, 2.75 and 3.5 meters) for the same golf hole target. In retention test they performed 30 trials in a random order. In the transfer test the subjects performed 20 trials: 10 at 2.5 meters and 10 to 2.5 meters with 10 degrees of deviation from the starting point towards the hole. The apparatus of this study consisted of one artificial putting indoor golf carpet. All participants putt the same golf ball with the same right-handed putter. The data of retention and transfer tests were analyzed using separate one-way ANOVAs. Although it is observed in the absolute error a trend of superiority of performance of the group or increasing CI practice schedule on transfer test, the analysis didn't reveal a significant main effect for practice conditions. The effect of increasing CI was not found in this experiment.

Objectives: Instructions to avoid an action may increase the tendency to engage in the action (ironic effects) or cause an undesirable increase in the opposing action (overcompensation). The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between gaze behavior and performance in a golf putting task when these kinds of unwanted effects occur. Methods: Twenty-seven participants performed an indoor golf putting task with instructions to land the ball on the hole (neutral instructions), land the ball on the hole but avoid putting too short and land the ball on the hole but avoid putting too long. Order of instruction was randomized and both gaze behavior and putting performance were assessed. Results: When participants gazed for longer at a specific area (in front, behind or at the hole) the ball was more likely to land in that area. Subsequent analyses confirmed a tight relationship between gaze behavior and putting performance when overcompensation occurred. For ironic effects such a tight relationship was only found when participants were instructed to avoid putting too short, but not when participants were instructed to avoid putting too long. Conclusions: Overall the results make clear that changes in (visual) attention play a key role in unwanted effects. Consequences of the results for Wegner's [(1994). Ironic processes of mental control. Psychological Review, 101, 34-52] theory of ironic processes are discussed. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ball launch condition data and clubhead data were measured in order to gain an understanding of the striking characteristics associated with a group of elite golfers using different iron golf clubs. Ten right-handed male golfers were used as subjects (handicap −0.5±1.7). The testing was carried out in a dedicated indoor golf facility. Each golfer hit eight shots with each of four of his own iron clubs (3-iron, 5-iron, 7-iron and pitching wedge). Launch conditions and clubhead data were measured using a stereoscopic high-speed camera system. The mean club head speeds for the group decreased and the mean clubhead angle of attack increased as the club became more lofted. The more lofted clubs produced a higher mean spin rate and higher mean launch angle. Whilst these findings are as expected, the study is novel in providing a scientific database for the competences with irons associated with this elite skill level. It also validates the choice of a single subject that may be used in the future construction of a simulation model designed to investigate iron club striking properties.