The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of practice variability in physical compared with observational practice on golf putting performance. To this end, 50 male right-handed students (25±3.7 years) participated in this study. Participants were randomly divided into 5 groups (physical constant, physical variable, observational constant, observational variable, and control). During acquisition, the physical variable group randomly performed 50 trials from 5 different starting points to 2 different targets, but the physical constant group performed 50 trials from one starting point to one predetermined target. The observational variable and constant groups observed the performance of the physical variable and constant groups, respectively. The control group just participated in pre-and post-tests. Participants performed a test just like the pre-test 10 minutes and also 24 hours after practice. Putting accuracy was measured as the dependent measure. Results showed that variability of practice had a positive effect on performance than constant practice in physical and observational conditions. Maybe the similar underlying mechanisms and also the similar feedback effects resulted in the higher performance of the variable group than the constant group in physical performance and action observation.
