ABSTRACT
For all golfers, especially those committed to a performance pathway, progression is not constant across involvement (MacNamara et al., 2010b). Undoubtedly, novices become more skilled with practice, largely through improvements in technical proficiency and consistency (Gentile, 1972). Indeed, skill acquisition theory explains this relative permanence of skill as resulting from increased automaticity (Fitts & Posner, 1967), a hallmark of learnt skills as execution processes become committed to subconscious control (Beilock et al., 2004). Notably, however, long-term performance gains are sometimes more difficult to achieve as practice volume increases, irrespective of skill level – often termed a ‘performance plateau’.
