“Relax grip, bring club straight back, turn right hip, full shoulder turn, drop club into slot, shift weight to left side, turn left hip, keep head behind ball, swing out, and finish with hands high”: a few of the many thoughts of a golfer with a mid to high handicap.
“Hit the ball to the target”: the thoughts of a golfer with a low handicap or of a professional golfer.
Is it any wonder, then, that a study of the areas of brain activation would show remarkable differences when these two cohorts of players are examined with functional MR imaging while “imagining” their golf swings?
In this issue of the AJNR, Ross et al from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation provide data that show marked activation differences between these two groups by using blood oxygen level-dependent MR imaging. Although this article provides information that many golfers with mid to high handicaps have long suspected—that they have too many thoughts whistling through their minds while standing over the ball—it is clear that the concept behind this study could be applied to many other activities and disciplines, revealing heretofore unobtainable information.
Functional MR is potentially well suited to the task of imagining because it can yield the spatial information and the time resolution needed to extract useful data. As readers of this article (and the suspicion is that this will be one of the most widely read articles in the 23-year history of the AJNR) will note, the areas activated are widespread, particularly in less accomplished golfers. Using a resting condition (visual imagery) and a condition in which the participant imagines pushing against a wall (noncoordinated, nonsequenced motor imagery), the authors were able to subtract these activities and suggest the functional activation of the imagined golf swing.
The article has a number of limitations: 1) only six golfers were examined, and they had a limited range of handicaps (handicaps of 0–13); 2) rigorous comparison of the results by 1.5- versus 3.0-T systems is lacking (only one participant was examined with the use of both magnets, and although these yielded similar activation patterns, it is difficult to assess the value of one system versus the other); 3) participants’ ability and effectiveness in accurately imagining their own swings and then scoring that ability with a Movement Imagery Questionnaire is undoubtedly extremely variable; and 4) the test was repeated on only one golfer so the true reliability and repeatability of the technique was not analyzed over a larger cohort of participants. Although expected differences were observed in activation of the left motor and parietal sensory cortex, the supplemental motor areas (incidentally well explained by the authors), and the frontal cortex, the differences in cerebellar vermis activity is most intriguing. Perhaps that speaks not only to the executive processes described in this article but also to imagined “effort” in balance and coordination required by the high handicapper versus the effortless truncal balance in the low handicapper. The issue of “error detection,” centered in the cerebellum, requires further evaluation because this function is usually conceived as one centered supratentorially.
For golfers, this article raises multiple intriguing questions. Would different functional MR imaging patterns be seen in association with different clubs? Would the patterns of activation change as one’s handicap increases or decreases considerably? Does the activation vary if one imagines hitting over a huge hazard versus hitting down a broad expansive fairway? The list of intriguing postulates is long. Because mental imagery is a teaching concept in golf instruction, perhaps functional MR imaging could even sort out those most likely and least likely to benefit from such mental exercises. For example, if a golfer with a handicap of 25 showed minimal activation with this imagining teaching task and showed a pattern similar to that of a scratch golfer, could he or she be considered unteachable?
As a correlate to this specific functional MR imaging work, exploratory examinations of touring professional golfers, experienced golf instructors, and golf students with low to mid handicaps showed EEG biofeedback differences between professional golfers who revealed automatic motor processes and less experienced golfers whose skills have not been encoded as overlearned. The condition for these players is that they probably are still processing verbal-motor behavior in their frontal cortex and that the skill has not been turned over to a higher brain function. Initial testing of EEG activity at the David Leadbetter World Teaching Headquarters using professionals and amateurs on a portable Peak Achievement Trainer revealed graphic visual disruptions between accomplished golfers and those who were developing specific motor competence. The initial findings revealed that when professional golfers and experienced instructors followed their pre-shot initiation or ritual (pre-shot routine) a series of electrical firings (brainwave output in microvolts versus time in seconds) were noted on the graph. However, just before initiating the golf backswing or takeaway, every experienced golfer (n = 6) of high motor proficiency showed a reduction and low electrical activity on the EEG monitor (Peak Achievement Trainer). This reduction of electrical activity or “ quiet time” lasted for only a second, but it was positively identified for every accomplished golfer, whether using a five iron, using a driver, or on a 10-foot putting task. The findings were different for students just receiving lessons and those players (n = 4) who were having trouble with a specific component move of their golf swing. The graph revealed that at the initiation of their swings, significant electrical activity was evident and that these amateur golfers never had a “down time” or quiet moment to initiate the swing. Brainwave output was variable and complex during the pre-swing phase, initiating the takeaway and the through-swing phase. These findings may represent a crucial element in discovering what the motor component of trust may be or how well a learned skill movement is edified by the performer.
Without realizing it, perhaps the professional golfer is often practicing what Joseph Parent, in his book Zen Golf: Mastering the Mental Game (Doubleday/Random House, 2002), describes as an effortless focus applied without doubt or anxiety. In a relatively short and easily digestible treatise, Parent talks of synchronization of the body and mind; this is getting to the root of functional MR in the article by Ross et al. Would those practicing Zen golf, regardless of handicap, show fewer areas of activation because of the confidence and calmness they might bring to the game? Then we come to the hypothetical of having had the late Ben Hogan studied with functional MR imaging; would it have revealed, at long last, the area of the brain activation that would have provided a clue to his “secret move”?
Clearly, the application of functional MR imaging to mental tasks has just begun, and it is fitting that one of the first articles to deal with this subject concerns the annoying task of trying to strike a golf ball consistently well.
EDITOR'S NOTE
David Leadbetter is widely acknowledged as the world’s number one golf instructor, and his student list, which reads like a Who’s Who of Golf, includes Nick Price, Nick Faldo, Greg Norman, Ernie Els, Charles Howell III (whose swing is featured on the cover of this issue of the AJNR), Michael Campbell, Aaron Baddeley, Justin Rose, Lee Westwood, Scott Hoch, and Ty Tryon, among others.
Originally from Worthing in Sussex, England, Leadbetter began his career in golf on the European and South African Tours. He soon learned that his real interest was in the technique, mechanics, and intricacies of the game, which, in turn, led him to spend more time teaching than playing. It was his passion for the game that led to the establishment of 27 David Leadbetter Golf Academies worldwide. By incorporating his methods and philosophy into a training program for golf instructors, golfers throughout the world have benefited from his motivation and insights into the golf swing.
It is of great interest that Robert Winters, who is part of the David Leadbetter Golf Academies, is involved in using electrophysical measurements to examine how the mind processes information related to the golf swing. The AJNR is pleased to have had the input of Leadbetter and Winters into this editorial.
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