ABSTRACT
Learning a new behaviour by watching the performance modelled by others (e.g., expert models) or oneself (self or learning model) is referred to as observational learning or modelling. There is ample research evidence revealing the beneficial effects of modelling on learning motor tasks and various sport skills when key factors are operating to help students engage in attention and retention processes to form an effective cognitive representation of the modelled technique (Bandura, 1986, 1997; for reviews, refer McCullagh et al., 2012; Ste-Marie et al., 2012; McCullagh et al., 2013). Whether these beneficial effects also hold for learning golf technique when the key factors are functioning is still a matter of some uncertainty because of the lack of research evidence available. This chapter focusses on what the evidence says about how these key factors influence the effectiveness of modelling technique and discusses how that information can be applied to facilitate the learning of golf technique.
