Expert Anticipatory Skill in Striking Sports: A Review and a Model

Abstract

Expert performers in striking sports can hit objects moving at high speed with incredible precision. Exceptionally well developed anticipation skills are necessary to cope with the severe constraints on interception. In this papr we provide a review of the empirical evidence regarding expert interception in striking sports and propose a preliminary model of expert anticipation. Central to the review and the model is the notion that the visual information used to guide the sequential phases of the striking action is systematically different between experts and nonexperts. Knowing the factors that contribute to expert anticipation, and how anticipation may guide skilled performance in striking sports, has practical implications for assessment and training across skill levels.

Anxiety, anticipation and contextual information: A test of attentional control theory

“…This is an extremely robust finding within expertise research, as higher skill levels constantly give rise to superior anticipatory responses and thereby performance (Mann, Williams, Ward, & Janelle, 2007). Skilled performers possess greater perceptual-cognitive expertise when compared to their less-skilled counterparts, leading to a greater ability in making use of postural cue and situation specific probabilistic information (Müller & Abernethy, 2012).…”

“…For example, expert performers within fast ball sports are able to decipher important cues from the probabilistic information available before the onset of any postural movements (Müller & Abernethy, 2012). In addition, Farrow and Reid (2012) found that older, more highly-skilled tennis performers were more able to utilise game score information to produce faster responses to serves within a simulated match situation than were younger, less-skilled players.…”

“…According to ACT, this effect could be accounted for by the predominance of the stimulus-driven attentional system under anxietyprovoking conditions (Eysenck et al, 2007) coupled with the lack of salient, low-level biological motion information in this condition to which it could orientate attention. Therefore, as skilled performers are known to be better able to utilise contextual information (Farrow & Reid, 2012;Müller & Abernethy, 2012) and the presence of anxiety reduces their ability to incorporate this advantage, their ability to produce lateral judgements is reduced.…”

“…It has been shown that expert sport performers are more adept at picking up low-level biological motion information from an opponent during anticipation (for reviews, see Müller & Abernethy, 2012;. However, it has been reported that experts are able to use higher-order cognition to harness contextual information from a scene in order to inform their anticipation judgements (McRobert, Ward, Eccles, & Williams, 2011).…”

A comparison of the upper limb movement kinematics utilized by children playing virtual and real table tennis

“…There may be a number of critical non-modifiable differences in task and environmental constraints between AVG and the real world. For example, previous research has highlighted that perceptions and timing of ball movement (bounce and spin) and opposition player movements are critical in ball sports (Abernethy, 1993;Muller & Abernethy, 2012). Therefore, the considerable differences in the displayed view of the opposition player and ball (i.e three dimensional real world players with physical ball strike versus two dimensional avatar and a ball that remains within a screen several meters from the player's 'bat') are certainly constraint differences that may impact on performance.…”