Wearable monitoring of pre-shot heart rate in youth golfers: a potential mental-load correlate in ecological putting practice

Introduction Information and communication technologies, including wearable sensors, offer accessible and ecological ways to support psychological processes underpinning technical practice in sport, such as the regulation of attention, arousal and mental load. The aim of this exploratory study is to examine whether heart rate (HR) and physical activity (PA), recorded with a chest-worn wearable, can serve as a potential, indirect correlate of the mental load experienced during golf putting training. Two research questions were of interest: (i) Do pre-shot HR and PA differ between made and missed putts? (ii) Do pre-shot HR and PA differ following a made compared with a missed putt? Methods Seven youth golfing athletes (13–16 years old; handicap (hcp) index < 12) performed a putting training exercise in which the goal was to score five consecutive putts from 3-metre distance to the hole. HR and PA were recorded continuously and matched with putting performance using video footage. Pre-shot HR and PA were taken as the mean over the 5 s before ball contact. Because the putts are nested within sessions and athletes, the analyses combine within-athlete non-parametric tests, corrected for multiple comparisons and reported with effect sizes, with linear mixed-effects models treating athlete and session as random effects. Results Pre-shot HR and PA do not differ significantly between made and missed putts (mixed-model estimate for HR: +0.09 bpm, 95% CI [−0.46, 0.64]; p = 0.76). However, pre-shot HR is higher following a made putt and lower following a missed one (+5.08 bpm, 95% CI [4.54, 5.62]; p < 0.001), an association that persists after adjusting for the pre-shot HR of the preceding putt. PA shows the opposite trend. Discussion Because no subjective ratings of mental load, arousal or affect were collected, mental load remains one plausible interpretation of this pattern rather than an established one. Pending validation against such measures, the approach could offer coaches and athletes an exploratory starting point for conversations about how training situations are experienced, and illustrates how continuous monitoring of HR may provide a potential indirect correlate of mental load in youth golfers.