Eye On The Ball
01/12/12 10:32
Keeping Your Eye on the Ball
Recently, researchers in England set out to
determine whether weekend golfers could improve
their game through one of two approaches. Some
were coached on individual swing technique, while
others were instructed to gaze fixedly at the
ball before putting. The researchers hoped to
learn not only whether looking at the ball
affects performance, but also whether where we
look changes how we think and feel while in action.
Back in elementary school gym class, virtually
all of us were taught to keep our eyes on the
ball during sports. But a growing body of
research suggests that, as adults, most of us
have forgotten how to do this. When scientists in
recent years have attached sophisticated,
miniature gaze-tracking devices to the heads of
golfers, soccer players, basketball free throw
shooters, tennis players and even competitive
sharpshooters, they have found that a majority
are not actually looking where they believe they
are looking or for as long as they think.
It has been less clear, though, whether a
slightly wandering gaze really matters that much
to those of us who are decidedly recreational athletes.
Which is in part why the British researchers had
half of their group of 40 duffers practice
putting technique, while the other half received
instruction in a gaze-focusing technique known as “Quiet Eye” training.
Quiet Eye training, as the name suggests, is an
attempt to get people to stop flicking their
focus around so much. But “Quiet Eye training is
not just about looking at the ball,” says Mark
Wilson, who led the study, published in
Psychophysiology, and is a senior lecturer in
human movement science at the University of
Exeter in England. “It is about looking at the
ball for long enough to process aiming
information.” It involves reminding players to
first briefly sight toward the exact spot where
they wish to send the ball, and then settle their
eyes onto the ball and hold them there.