Cue usage in volleyball: a time course comparison of elite, intermediate and novice female players

Abstract

This study compared visual search strategies in adult female volleyball players of three levels. Video clips of the attack of the opponent team were presented on a large screen and participants reacted to the final pass before the spike. Reaction time, response accuracy and eye movement patterns were measured. Elite players had the highest response accuracy (97.50 ± 3.5%) compared to the intermediate (91.50 ± 4.7%) and novice players (83.50 ± 17.6%; p<0.05). Novices had a remarkably high range of reaction time but no significant differences were found in comparison to the reaction time of elite and intermediate players. In general, the three groups showed similar gaze behaviour with the apparent use of visual pivots at moments of reception and final pass. This confirms the holistic model of image perception for volleyball and suggests that expert players extract more information from parafoveal regions.

Keywords: anticipation; expertise; holistic model of image perception; visual search; volleyball.

FIG. 1

BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE FILMING SETUP AND NINE POSSIBLE VOLLEYBALL ATTACK SEQUENCES (THREE RECEIVERS X THREE ATTACKERS)

FIG. 2

EXAMPLE OF DATA PROCESS FOR ONE PARTICIPANT Note: Gaze was analysed per time frame for each of the 20 video clips per participant (upper part). Percentage of gaze towards each AOI was calculated for each time frame per participant (lower part), BHP indicates the moment the Ball reaches its Highest Point between receiver and setter.

FIG. 3

TIME COURSE OF GAZE LOCATION FROM TIME FRAME T1 (BALL ON SCREEN) TO T36 (ATTACKER-BALL CONTACT) Note: Standard deviation is shown at peak moments of each AOI. ANOVA results (group differences) are given in colour code: Green: p < 0.05; Orange: 0.05 < p < 0.1; White: p > 0.1; Expected gaze location as given in Table 1 is represented by thick boxes and the corresponding letter: (A)-(I)