Prepare
yourself. This is a more in depth look at a topic that you may not have ever
thought much about, but as you go through it you will certainly get some ‘AHA’
moments. Get yourself a coffee, put your comfy pants on and switch off all
other distractions. This is a complicated yet very worthwhile topic to discuss,
and this is my first attempt to do so. I am sure this article will be refined
and edited more.

As a simple
definition, perception action coupling relates to the fact we cannot escape the
information coming to us from the environment. How we perceive the information
surrounding us will always have an effect on our movements. For better players, an improved Perception Action coupling will mean that they are able to produce a more appropriate movement for the task. So, if you set up a tour player in a less than desirable position (e.g. aiming 20 degrees to the left), they would be able to provide an appropriate subconscious compensation/solution which would get their ball on the target. 

Their movement would have stemmed from their perception of where the target is. 

Will the kinematic
sequence and trackman numbers be the
same when going down the stretch of a tournament, with water on the left and
pin tucked left, as they are standing on a range with no pressure in a BLOCK PRACTICE session?

What about
a putt with a right to left slope versus a left to right slope? What about when
that same putt is on a faster green. What about when it is downhill?

What about
when you are a little scared of that putt going too far past as you have a
chance to win the tournament????

What most
people forget is that movement stems from the brain. Our brain sends a signal
to our muscles which fire in a sequence, with certain amounts of force at
differing times to produce what we see as the end product – our golf swing. The
signal that the brain sends can be a result of what we have ingrained
(myelinated) the most through repetition, or what we are consciously trying to
do (swing thoughts). These are the more commonly looked at elements – but there
are other factors.

The
information we receive from our eyes can largely affect our movement both
consciously and subconsciously. As our eyes scan the environment, our brain is
building a picture of the task ahead, and is trying to call upon appropriate
movement patterns and strategies which could potentially fit that task. Your
brain, at this point, is subconsciously visualising a ball flight, firing the
neurons in your brain relating to that ball flight, and then responding with
the movement pattern relating to that.

Ball flight
subconsciously visualised – neurons activated/primed – movement pattern
produced

An example
from another sport would be baseball. The gross movement pattern is very
similar to golf, but it varies more in terms of reacting to the pitcher. The
pitcher throws, the batter then perceives where the ball is going (trajectory,
speed, spin etc) and responds with an appropriate action (change in bat
elevation, plane of motion, forces and muscular contractions etc).

As we
practice more, our brain builds more and more pictures of information, until
the response becomes reflexive in nature. Often, high level performers will
feel like it is their conscious choices which are getting better – this is just
an illusion. The reasons why batters get better with practice is that their
subconscious minds are able to recall previous situations in which the ball has
been sent at that (or similar) flight, and react with a more appropriate
movement response based on previous successes and failures. It is basic 0/1
(yes/no) programming in the brain. More practice also improves the ability for
the brain to not only have a stored, successful and myelinated motor program,
but practice also improves the efficiency and speed to which this program in
the brain is accessed. 

In golf, we
experience this a lot; less as an immediate, spontaneous reaction like
baseball, but a reaction nonetheless.

Take, for
example, the player who has just learned to swing the club from inside to out
(club moving to the right at the bottom of the swing) and hit a nice draw, after
slicing it for 20 years. Great! They can now hit this booming draw down the
range. The problem is, the way they trained this move involved a high level of
focus on their body movement.

The same
player goes out onto the golf course. Now there is a massive amount of
information flooding into their brain regarding the target. Their brain
subconsciously visualises the slice flight (this will be felt as an insecure
feeling as the player tries to consciously visualise the new ‘all sparkling’
draw shot). In other words, although they are trying to see the ball move right
to left in the air, their ‘deep brain’ is visualising a different story,
sending mixed signals to them. This, very likely, results in poor performance
as their nervous system is confused. This is perception-action coupling in
action.

I used to
see this all the time when I would work on a swing with a whiffle ball. We
could get it until the movement was as desired. Then when a real ball was
introduced and real target introduced, the movement would go back to the old
way. The moment the attention shifted from ‘body movements’ to ‘where do I need
to hit the ball’, the movement changed. You have probably experienced this as
the more frustrating “Why can’t I do the same swing on the course as on the
range”?

We all hear
that physical alignment (feet, knees, hips, shoulders) is one of the most
important fundamentals of all. Whilst I believe this statement is completely
false, over-used and its importance overstated, it does have an element of
truth. I, personally, am more concerned with mental alignment than physical.
The idea that “You wouldn’t aim a gun offline and expect it to hit a target” is
ludicrous when applied to a biomechanical movement with perception-action
coupling abilities.

I can
guarantee I could play better golf with my feet aiming 45 degrees left for one
shot and 45 degrees right for the next, than a 25 handicapper could with
pinpoint perfect alignment. Why is this? My PA coupling is much better. I am
able to perceive where the target is and react with the appropriate changes in
path and face angle to get the ball on the target. This skill has largely been
developed by my differential practice methodologies. Now, you could say “Yes,
but you would play better if you didn’t have to aim so far left and right each
shot”, and you may be right (untested), and this does lend a modicum of truth
to physical alignment theory. But the thought experiment provides at least a
small insight into what I mean by PA coupling in reference to golf.

This ability
to ‘compensate’ (I hate that word in golf) for poor physical alignment via
improved PA coupling is a massive advantage in golf, and a skill which all top
players will have. How often is it that we are going to be set up to a golf
ball and be in absolute perfect physical alignment? I would rather have a gun
which can adjust for faulty physical alignment (target seeking missile) than
one which relies on perfect alignment to function correctly.

Besides,
alignments change during the swing. So where you are at address is only an
influence on where you will be at impact. Barring the law of diminishing
returns, physical alignment is just a theory. There are plenty of players
throughout history who aligned to the left or right of target yet played pretty
great golf. What they all had was great mental alignment. They were in touch
with their target mentally, which is why I value mental alignment over the
physical. Although I probably wouldn’t like to see someone aim 45 degrees
offline, I am fine with it if they get the ball online and can produce the
impact necessary to play good, consistent golf from that position, in a safe
manner for their body.

PA coupling
is never more apparent than in putting. Putting is such a hugely mental task,
and how we perceive the slopes and speed will have a massive impact on what
technique we employ. An attempt has been made (and still is being made) to
break putting down into its individual components of technique (starting the
ball online consistently), reading (aimpoint and other philosophies) and speed
control (not as much has been done about this one, ironically, as it is the
most important of the three). However, improvements in each individual area
alone rarely provide much benefit beyond hawthorne effect and placebo effect

Hawthorne
effect – The act of practicing something will tend to make you better. This
must be separated from the actual effects of the intervention. Did the improved
technique make the difference? Or was it the fact you actually practiced
putting for 10 hours this week?

Placebo
effect – if you believe the intervention will make you a better putter, it
usually will. Why do so many people change their putter all the time? They are
after the placebo effect of added confidence. Unfortunately, this effect is
more likely to change the perception of performance than performance itself.
Ever hear of the guy with the new driver each year who hits is ’30 YARDS
FURTHER’? Well, after 10 years he should be hitting it 550 yards now?

Both of the
above are fine – after all, if you get better you get better, right? The
problem is, placebo and hawthorn effect will eventually wear off, and after that
you would do well to actually pursue something which will REALLY make you
better. I could give you a new sugar pill which would make you a better putter,
but what are you going to do when that effect wears off?

Anyway… a
good way at explaining PA coupling in putting is from the studies that Dave
Pelz conducted. He found that, on average, amateur golfers only consciously
read 1/3 of the true break on a putt. So if a putt really broke 1 foot, the
player only read a 4 inch break.

If this
were the final say, every single putt should therefore be missed on the low
side of the hole (not enough break). However, with PA coupling, what Pelz found
was that almost every player lined their physical body up to play more break,
used a stroke which pulled or pushed the putt onto a higher line and combined
this with an increase in ball speed to keep the ball on this line for longer.
In other words, the brain of the person compensated (positively) for poor conscious
decisions by providing more appropriate actions

What about
pro’s? They did pretty much the same things, just on a smaller scale. Pro’s
also aimed too low in general, but their mistake was only by around 33% (rather
than 66% amateur error). This meant they had to make less of a compensation to
get the ball to start and stay on a more optimal line.

 Now, the argument could obviously be made that
the less compensations we have, clearly, the better a putter we will be (as
pro’s are demonstrating this trait). However, as I keep banging on to people

As a
thought experiment, who do you think would hole the most putts from 10 feet?
The beginner golfer who is placed in a perfect set up position which requires
zero compensation, or Tiger Woods setting up with the clubface 5 degrees
offline? The answer would be Tiger – his exceptional PA coupling allows him to
get the clubface online better than the beginner who needs no compensatory
moves, yet has poor PA coupling.

The fact
that pro’s make less compensations than amateurs does not mean that less
compensation will make you better (necessarily). It is more likely that the
quality of these compensations has more of an effect on success than the sheer
limiting of them. This is NOT to say that closing the gap on needed
compensations is not a worthwhile goal – it is. But there will become a time
where PA coupling will be the limiting factor, as opposed to further
refinements in technique or green reading or speed control. PA coupling
combines all of the above (the whole machine) rather than isolating and working
on individual cogs in the system.

My argument
is that, whilst there is likely to be a law of diminishing returns in terms of
how much compensation is acceptable (I’m sure that starting with the clubface
wildly offline from where you need it at impact is not going to be optimal), we
don’t know where that line is to be drawn. I believe that it is these subtle
compensatory moves which actually make the DIFFERENCE between elite level
players and non elite, as well as between players when they play their best vs
their worst. And these compensations are largely improved through training
methods which improve PA coupling.

To get away
from PA coupling, we could try to maintain the exact same focus on the golf
course as we do when we learned the movement on the range. For example, if you
were thinking about your left hip in your downswing on the range, keeping this
same focus on the course would, in theory, produce similar results to the
range.

However, we
know that the reality of a real course with real results makes the above almost
impossible. On the golf course there is a real target and a real result.
Changing your focus to the ball flight/result would likely open the neural
pathways in the brain which relate to what was learned with that focus – YOUR
OLD BALL FLIGHT AND MOVEMENT PATTERN. Get the idea now?? So a more appropriate
action would be to learn the correct movements through Task oriented learning
approaches, or approaches which give us a more external focus of attention. At
least for the majority of the learning process (it is fine to include internal
foci and more command during the initial learning stages).

For example,
do you learn to hit a draw shot by focusing on what your right hip is doing
through the swing? Or do you learn it through a focus on the ball flight?

An example
progressive task-oriented plan for a slicer would be

During this
progression, the player has only been taught about the clubface and path
relationship – which happens to be an external swing focus. The vast majority
of the learning has come with a focus on the ball flight. There have been no
body commands, so the brain is learning the movement instinctively as a result
of a ball flight focus. Therefore, the two concepts become inextricably linked
in the mind – ball flight visual spawns the movement. 

Also, as the movement was learned
without direct commands (such as “move right shoulder this way), you are using
different parts of the brain which relate to motor control as opposed to
logical reasoning. The movement becomes more natural, is more synchronised,
fluid and it is more likely to be recalled when the ball flight is visualised.
The movement will also be more unique to your individual body profile
(strength, flexibility, injuries, max power points, myofascial slings, tendon
and ligament lengths and insertions etc) through the power of self-organising in the body.

Standing in
the same spot and beating balls does very little for PA coupling. Try using
RANDOM PRACTICE principles – hit shots towards your target, but making sure you
do your normal full routine before each shot. To take it another level, change
the shot each time. Hit one with an iron, one with a pitching wedge, one with a
driver. To take it another step, try hitting a different type of shot (fade or
draw) with each swing. This is bringing in the principles of variability
practice into the picture.

The reason
why this works so well is because you are not only learning how to produce the
correct movement, but you are learning how to access that movement in relation
to the target. The brain fires with the target in mind, and so movement and
target become linked up in the brain (actual physical links in the neurons of
the brain occur) – as opposed to linking up a verbal command (keep right hip
turning through) with the visual of the target.

It also
makes your practice more difficult (than standing in the same place doing block
practice), which helps you to lower expectations to reasonable levels, helping
you to deal with adversity better on the course and ultimately improving
consistency.

Finally,
walking out of the hitting area (off the mat) and picking up a different club
before going through the whole routine and set up procedure again is training
you to do exactly this. It also trains you to improve your perception of where
the target is in relation to your body – in other words, mental alignment.

Try hitting
putts from different scenarios. Try to not hit too many putts from the same
spot, as the learning goes down exponentially for each putt hit in succession
(even if performance goes up – performance is NOT the same as learning).

Before each
putt, go through your full routine, trying to visualise the line into the cup
before lining your ball up (if that is part of your routine).

Here is the
important part. After each putt, write down if your putt was an acceptable
speed or not. If it was, write down if it missed on the high or low side of the
cup (high being too much break played, low side being too little break played).

Just look
at your writings as you go along – nothing more is needed. The beauty of this
is, you can do this on the course too. This drill helps you to consciously and
(more importantly) subconsciously improve green reading, speed control and
start line simultaneously, through more effective perception-action coupling.

This is
simple. Practice with a goal in mind.

Rather than
hit shots to a flag, pick out two different targets. Try to get the ball to
finish between these two targets. Note down if you are finishing left or right
of the target on a sheet of paper or small notepad. Stop and look at the
notepad every 10 shots – are there any patterns you can see emerging?

See how
many balls out of 10 you can get in the target. See how many in a row without
failure you can do also. This works again by increasing the links in the brain
between target and movement pattern access, and also builds in an element of
pressure (self imposed).

Why not do
what Hogan did and play a virtual round of golf in your head on the range? Imagine the first hole at your course, and hit shots on the range visualising
that exact scenario.

Instead of
dropping 10 balls down on the green and hitting them to the same hole, play a
little putting tournament on the green. Play 10 holes with one ball, going
through your full routine for each shot. Keep a scorecard, try and beat the
score next time.

Practice,
again, involves changing things around from shot to shot and mixing things up.
As a result, learning can increase dramatically, even if performance can
decrease whilst conducting it.

See my
article HERE for more info on this

Why does it
work for PA coupling? It greatly improves skill and co-ordination levels, and
ties this learning in with the external focus. This could be focusing on ball
flight, whilst attempting to hit different shapes to the target, or it could be
hitting more random shots (big hooks and slices) whilst the brain associates
the movement pattern with the variance in flight – this needs to be done
intentionally, as opposed to accidentally hitting slices and hooks.

On course
is obviously one of the best ways to learn golf. This is because you are in the
desired environment already and so the learning is very specific. This could
include simply playing more, or it could involve setting yourself in a certain
scenario (such as behind a tree) and hitting shots until you figure out what to
do. The example of the tree is a great one because, no matter how well you can
hook it around a hypothetical tree on the range, when you are faced with the
visual of the tree in front of you in reality, your movement will be influenced
and will change. So learning in the specific environment and context is huge.

I do a lot
of course management exercises with better players. One of the biggest
differences between good and bad players is that, better players tend to miss
the hole in the right area. If that pin is tucked on the right side of the
green, it is usually a bad idea to miss it right of the pin, as you will tend
to leave yourself a trickier up and down shot than if you missed the same
distance the other side of the green.

Rather than
go through this logically, I play a game. If your ball comes to rest on the
green after an approach shot in regulation (1st shot on a par 3, 2nd
on a par 4 and 3rd on a par 5), you must drop the ball 10 paces
further away from the flag (directly away from the flag). This forces players
to start to play to areas of the green which are going to produce drop shots
which are in kinder areas. For example, If there is a pin tucked right and
water right, the player is no longer going to fire directly at the pin, because
any slight miss to the right will result in them having to drop 10 paces – into
the water. This game is an example of a very ‘context specific’ drill which
will improve PA coupling in terms of subconscious decision making.

A player
who struggles with a slice could play a game by themselves where any time they
hit the rough on the right, they are forced to wedge it out/take a penalty
drop/re-hit. This will help the player build in a way of managing their slice
through increasing awareness and fear of the right side. Whilst this fear may
initially be harmful, when the constraint is taken away they will feel more
freedom, as well as having built a better management of their slice.

Thanks for
staying with me until the end. This was long, I know. But important. Here are
the summary points.

The overall
message is try to practice more like you play. Keep your awareness the same,
use routines, have outcomes etc.

Please also
understand that this is not the be-all end-all. I have written this article to
bring attention to something often neglected, but I feel is very important. It
is not that you have to completely disband your current teaching methodologies
or your way of learning (if you are a player), but just be aware of this idea
and try to implement as much of it as you can in your approach to learning and
performance.