Transfer of training in golf.
The technical term for whether practice carries over. Context-specific practice always wins.
What the term means
Transfer of training is a concept from sports psychology and motor learning research. It asks: how much of the skill built in a practice context shows up in the performance context? Higher transfer = practice is working.
The research consensus
Across decades of motor learning studies, the strongest predictor of transfer is similarity. The more closely your practice resembles the performance, the better the transfer. This is intuitive but constantly violated in golf practice.
The variables that matter for golf
- Tee height (matches between mat and grass)
- Ball position relative to stance
- Strike conditions (deck-like surface vs spongy mat)
- Wind and target context (range mats often have no target)
- Pressure and stakes (impossible to fully replicate)
Where Better Golf Tee fits
The first three are tee-and-mat variables. We fix the tee. A good mat fixes the strike. You handle ball position. That covers most of the transferable variables in a typical practice setup.