Good news for all lazy golfers out there – a newstudyshows that learning new golf swings by watching online videos could actually help improve your game. And you can make most of your online “training” session if you know beforehand whether you’re watching an expert or a beginner.
What did they do?
Researchers from the University of Montreal asked volunteers to perform a timed knock down barrier test, which resembles a golf shot, by hitting a start button, knocking down three wooden barriers in a clockwise movement and finally hitting an end button. After doing the test, the participants watched online videos of that same movement, sometimes by experiencedbarrier knockers(it does seem a strange hobby but it must appeal to some people) and sometimes by beginners. Before watching the video, one test group was told what level of expertise they saw, while the other group wasn’t, and then repeated the test.
What did they find?
In the second round of the test both groups were quicker, but the ones who knew whether they learned from an experiencedbarrier knocker(still coming to terms with that as a hobby) or beginner significantly improved their test times.
"We believe this is because prior knowledge helps to tune your brain into picking up technical errors if the tutorial is of a poor performance or imitation if it is known to be a good one," co-author Luc Proteau explains.
Do we ever need to hit the driving range again?
If you have any intentions of going pro then watchingThe Masterson repeat is not going to make the cut, but the study could help online teachers to make their lessons more effective just by adding the level of expertise they show, and students can look out for videos that indicate the level they want to study.
Now, time to dust off that 9-iron.
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