Einleitung

This study is concerned with golf players' concentration abilities in a putting situation. Of special interest was to examine changes in the head movements of the players during putting. It is, of course, not easy to anser the question of what makes the difference between a successful and a not so successful golf putt. To answer that question many aspects of the behavior of the players have to be measured, especially interesting being the behavior during the addressing and concentration phases. One way to find reliable and valid indicators of what happens during these phases is to use cardiovascular measures. For example, Lacey's intake-rejection hypothesis (1980) presents a relationship between heart-rate changes and the direction of attentional focus. Laboratory and field research of golf players based on explanations of cardiac changes appears to offer promising support for the importance of the player's concentration ability for successful putting. The study by Molander & Baeckman (1989) on miniature golf players demonstrated that differences between younger and older players in heart-rate changes were associated with differences in motor performance. However, in this study scores rather than motor movement per se were used as a measure of motor performance. One common belief among golfers and golf coaches is that the player's capability to hold his/her head steady during the putt is crucial for the success of the putt. It this is true, age-related differences in holding the head steady may be observed, as there is evidence for the existence of age-related differences in the capacity for inhibiting irrelevenat stimulus information. In the present study the authors examine if such age differences will be found with respect to head movements during putting. Einleitung