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From about the time I was about 6 years old to when I graduated high school, my summers were dominated by the baseball diamond. I played varsity baseball all 4 years of high school as well as club and rec league baseball. However as all good things come to an end, I decided to trade my baseball bat for a golf club.

From a distance, baseball and golf seem somewhat similar. They both require something to hit a ball with, and the objective is to hit the ball far. To do this, you swing the club and make contact with the ball. This is where the concept of motor programs and perceptual abilities come into play.

First, it's necessary to define an ability. An ability is a general trait or capacity of the individual that is a determinant of a person's achievement potential for the performance of specific skills. Basically, you have it or you don't. Through factor analysis, Fleishman identified 11 measureable perceptual motor abilities and 9 measurable physical proficiency abilities. The abilities required for baseball are highly correlated with those required for golf in regards to the swing. The difference is the path you take, however the ability required to swing is similar. To swing a object efficiently, dynamic flexibility, gross body coordination and explosive strength are required. To swing a club, one must be able to maintain an athletic position while rotating their body back to generate power to strike the ball and propel it a certain distance. If you lack dynamic flexibility, this would be hard to do. Additionally, you must be coordinated to perform this action successfully. Your limbs need to be in sync or the movement pattern will not be successful. Finally, explosive strength is necessary as golf is a game where the lowest score wins, therefore you want to be able to put the ball as close to the pin as possible in the least number of strokes. Being able to hit the ball far off the tee is a huge advantage.

For these reasons, motor abilities are a huge concept of motor learning as they can apply to multiple aspects of life and have the possibility to translate to learning other skills.

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To actually play golf, there are a lot of things that are taken into consideration. It is a lot more than stepping up on the tee box at trying to hit the ball as far as you can.

The concept of the three stages of learning can be applied to the golf swing. The first stage proposed by Fitts and Posner's Three-Stage Model is the cognitive stage. This stage is where the performance of the skill relies heavily on cognitive processes. Therefore, in the situation for golf, the individual is thinking about their stance, where their hands are placed, the action of bringing your arms up to your side, and then the action of following through the ball. During this stage, there are a lot of improvements, however the performance is inconsistent. Here is where strategies begin to develop.

Personally, I was in this stage for a long time and still waiver between this stage and the associative stage depending on the time of year and how much time has passed since the last round. At the beginning of the summer, I find myself thinking about all of the movements of the swing and the path needed to hit the ball. However after a few rounds on the course, I'm usually back into the regular swing path.

The next stage of the three-stage model is the associative stage where motor patterns are established. This phase begins when the individual determines the most effective strategies. In this stage improvements are more gradual and movements become more consistent. So as I mentioned, I would consider myself an intermediate golfer, not good by any means but not a beginner. I usually shoot around 42-44 on a 36 par golf course. At this point in my golfing career, I no longer focus on the swing itself, but more along the distance needed and the environmental factors that are in play on a golf course.

The final stage of the three-stage model is the autonomous stage which is where the demand for attention to the movement decreases. At this point, the performer no longer has to think about the skill itself and can focus on outside information to which can help you perform better overall. Golfers in this stage know exactly what club they want to use on what shot and can usually use the course to their advantage instead of just trying to keep it in the fairway.

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Personally, golf requires a lot of my attention. There's a reason why the greens are silent when professionals are putting. It takes a lot of focus and attention to put this small ball into the hole.

Attention consists of two divisions: width and direction which can both be split into two more divisions. Width is composed of broad and narrow attention. Broad attention is when the individual focuses on multiple things at a given time. Therefore, narrow attention is when the individual pays attention to a singular thing at a time. As mentioned, direction can also be split into two items: external and internal. External focus is outside of the body, whereas internal focus is inside the body (planning). All 4 types of attention can be applied to a singular stroke in golf.

For example, when stepping up to the tee box, a golfer uses broad external focus to take in the hole that they are on. They observe where the pin is on the green as well as the range to which the pin is at. Additionally, they must look for any hazards such as rivers, creeks, or bunkers. If you hit a ball out of bounds, it's a loss of stroke which isn't ideal. After taking the hole in, the golfer uses broad internal focus to formulate a plan. Once the plan is determined, narrow internal focus is used to rehearse the plan and visualize the swing needed to accomplish the plan. Finally, narrow external focus is used to execute the action and strike the ball.

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In terms of the swing itself, the speed-accuracy trade-off is an important part of the game of golf.

Woodworth described that aiming movements comprise a two stage process: initial adjustment phase and the current-control phase. His research found that accuracy decreased with increasing movement speed. Additionally, Fitts' Law also did a lot of work on the speed-accuracy trade off. His law implies that there is an inverse relationship between the difficulty of a movement and the speed with which it can be performed. In simpler terms, the faster you complete a difficult movement, the less accurate that movement tends to be. Therefore, we tend to trade speed in order to maintain accuracy.

This trade-off can be applied to the golf swing especially on the tee box. When using a driver, all anyone wants to do it hit it 300 yards right up next to the green. However when doing that, often times our form fails resulting in a lot of error. For me, I notice that I slice the ball into the other fairway when I try to hit it as hard as possible. This is because I leave the club face open due to the increase in swing speed. This results in a poor drive.

With the game of golf being the lowest-score wins, it's extremely important to be accurate. This is why the speed-accuracy trade-off is applicable here. When driving, you can sacrifice a little accuracy to hit the ball far. However, when you get closer to the green, you need to be cognizant of the speed you put behind the ball so that you don't hit it over or under the green. How hard you hit the ball also depends on the course itself which plays into this trade-off as well. Accuracy is key when close to the green, so most golfers sacrifice speed to place the ball where they want.

The game of golf is always challenging golfers with their swing speed, because no shot is exactly the same. There's always a different slope, different spin, grass, etc. There are a lot of factors that play into the decision to how hard to hit the ball. It's challenging to get down which is part of the reason why so many people enjoy playing the game. I know that it's part of the reason why I enjoy playing.