The Science of Golf Putting

This SpringerBrief explores the motor performance and biomechanics of golf putting, providing methodologies, studies and approaches to this concept. Presenting outcomes of research published over the past six years, it offers guidelines from a scientifically oriented perspective, and employs new technologies and mathematical methods to assess golf putting. The chapters cover aspects such as pendulum-like motion in sports, setting up the experimental design, and performance metrics for putting variables. Paving the way for an improved understanding of what leads to failure and success in golf putting, this book offers an invaluable reference source for sports scientists, engineers and mathematicians, as well as golfers.

Author Biography

Dr. Gonçalo N. F. Dias obtained the BSc degree at the Coimbra College of Education (ESEC) from the Coimbra Polytechnic Institute (IPC), and both MSc and PhD degrees on Sport Sciences at the Faculty of Sport Sciences and Physical Education of University of Coimbra (FCDEFUC). He is currently professor of motor control at FCDEFUC and a member of the scientific committee within the same institution. Over the past 6 years, he has been conducting scientific research on several areas associated to sports and health, namely physical activity among older adults, motor control, sport sciences, and others. Besides research and lecturing, he has been in charge of the organization of events, both in the public and private domains, as coordinator of the County Sports Office from Arganil, Portugal. Additionally, he is responsible for the program “Physical activity to older adults”, which brings together more than 100 elderly aged between 65 and 100 years old. This activity resulted in the publication of two books and several articles that portrays the work of his research in 20 private institutions of social solidarity in Portugal, being currently considered one of Portugal’s leading experts in this field.

Dr. Micael S. Couceiro obtained the BSc, Teaching Licensure and Master degrees on Electrical Engineering (Automation and Communications), at the Coimbra School of Engineering (ISEC), Coimbra Polytechnic Institute (IPC). He obtained the PhD degree on Electrical and Computer Engineering (Automation and Robotics) at the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of University of Coimbra (FCTUC), under a PhD Grant from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology. Over the past 6 years, he has been conducting scientific research on several areas, namely robotics, computer vision, sports engineering, and others, all at the Institute of Systems and Robotics (ISR-FCTUC) and RoboCorp (IPC). This resulted on more than 25 scientific articles in internationalimpact factor journals and more than 50 scientific articles at international conferences. Besides being currently a researcher at ISR, he has been invited for lecturing, tutoring and organization of events (e.g., professional courses, national and international conferences, among others), both in the public and private domains. He is co-founder and currently the CEO of Ingeniarius – a company devoted to the development of smart devices, from which performance analysis in sports has been one of its main markets.