comparison of central and peripheral fatigue effects on golf swing variability and smoothness

Purpose: this study aimed to investigate the effects of central and peripheral fatigue on the golf swing, focusing on how these two types of fatigue influence movement variability and movement smoothness during performance.methods: this semi-experimental study included 30 female students (aged 20–35 years) with normal vision from tehran city. participation was voluntary, with informed consent obtained, and participants were stratified into three groups based on inclusion criteria: central fatigue, peripheral fatigue, and a non-intervention control group. first, a demographic questionnaire was administered. central and peripheral fatigue were assessed using the visual analog scale (vas) and the borg scale, while motor coordination parameters were evaluated using qualisys motion analysis software. results: repeated-measures anova revealed a statistically significant difference in mean motor coordination variability among the three groups in the post-test (p=0.001). post-hoc comparisons showed that the non-intervention group had significantly lower motor coordination variability than both the central (p=0.001) and peripheral fatigue (p=0.001) groups. additionally, motor coordination in the central fatigue group was significantly lower than in the peripheral fatigue group (p=0.001). further analysis indicated that the non-intervention group exhibited a lower mean jerk (i.e. smoother movement) compared to both the central and peripheral fatigue groups (p=0.001). conclusion: the findings provide empirical evidence that central and peripheral fatigue differentially impair golf swing execution, with distinct effects on movement variability and smoothness.