[chrisfoleygolf]

The thing that I always ask people is if they are exercising or practicing. Most people exercising! To preform your best in competition you need to practice with intent and more like you play. We need to be able to measure practice just like we do play.

[hugh.marr]

I'm trying to think of a downside to keeping non tournament stats, all I can come up with is course relevance. For top level players the courses they play in practice wont bare much resemblance or relevance to what they play competitively, is there a benefit to having this data?

[motleygolf]

@hugh.marr Hi Hugh

I agree with the practice round statement, of course these rounds are based on preparation and finding out how they are planning to play the course and get a feel for the course. On the other side I was thinking more around the other playing. For example at home other rounds where they are playing competitive golf that is not tournament golf, they all play it at times and from my perspective Id like to see how they play and what (if anything) changes. Of course the mindset will be slightly different but if there is some information we could drag out of those rounds /stats that could help us find the individuals ingrediencies that help them play better, I feel there could be some really good value in keeping those stats.

its just something that's been playing on my mind of late and was interested in your guys thoughts.

[brianjacobsgolf]

Dan I agree.
I look at mastery in 3 phases.
Learning, skill acquisition and skill acquisition under pressure. All phases we need to be assessing and testing.

[steve.astle922]

Hi Tom, I work with National/Regional Girls squads as you know and getting stats from them to begin with can be very difficult so I encourage them to record any round they play tournament or practice/social for the first year, I just want the data and as much as possible to give me a baseline. I then switch it to tournament only unless we have the facility to filter tournament and practice. The reason I do this is that playing around their home course really tends to skew their data as its in their comfort zone. However we need the practice data to see that its skewed and then it allows us to work out why performance may decline during competitions or certain types of courses/environments. Its a non negotiable for us but probably takes 6 months to get buy in and really important to get the player involved in the stats analysis and link it to their practice habits. If you just get them to do stats but then never involve them in the process of why it loses buy in very quickly. I also work with quite a few mini tour players who wont keep stats as it "gets in the way".......or they don't want to know the real reasons why! :)

[Dan]

@steve.astle922 getting buy in is most definitely a recurring theme, Steve!

[Dan]

@brianjacobsgolf presumably the skill acquisition is what happens in those practice rounds, Brian. If the player then knows he/she has that skill, the next phase is being able to repeat that skill in tournament conditions.

[brianjacobsgolf]

Yes Sir!! That’s correct!

[Josh]

@steve.astle922 Interesting to hear what some of the mini tour players say when you bring up data collection! Do you think it's maybe down to them not doing it from a younger age and therefore seems like it's not necessary for them to do it now?

[Josh]

Originally Posted by brianjacobsgolf

Yes Sir!! That’s correct!

Jumping in here @brianjacobsgolf! I suppose then, the data becomes important in the tournament rounds to reinforce whether or not the skill has actually been acquired rather than whether a player thinks it has or hasn't! As I think you've said a couple of times, players perceptions of a certain skill can be skewed by one shot that's an anomaly both good and bad.