Effects of Structured Preshot Behaviors on Beginning Golf Performance

Male and female students of beginning golf participated in a “preshot routine” study. 8 men and 7 women learned and practiced a specific routine of actions prior to performing a full swing while 9 men and 6 women (controls) practiced only the swing. Subjective and objective performance measures were completed before and after the 8-wk. training session. Trained men had higher posttraining scores than controls and trained women, but no significant differences were found between trained women and other groups on either measure. As trained men had superior skill before and after training, perhaps a certain level of skill must be established before the preshot routine is effective.