Perception of Affordances for Striking Regulates Interpersonal Distance Maneuvers of Intermediate and Expert Players in Kendo Matches

Abstract

In daily life and in many sports, people must adjust interpersonal distance between themselves and others based on task constraints and goals. For example, in martial arts such as boxing and kendo, players must adjust interpersonal distance before starting or defending strikes. However, it is not clear what players perceive and how players use this perceptual information to maneuver interpersonal distance and start strikes during real matches. We investigated players' perception of affordances and the criteria for perception and behaviors, and how these change with expertise, using real kendo matches as a one-on-one opponent task. Players perceived affordances for striking for themselves and for their opponent based on subtle interpersonal distance changes and clearly switched stepping forward and backward. In addition, players perceived affordances for strike success and entered closer interpersonal distance than the possible striking distance to increase their own striking ability and exited the closer distance to decrease their opponent's striking ability, respectively. Furthermore, expert players stayed in and moved into the critical interpersonal distance more frequently than intermediate players did. Our research indicates a relationship between action-scaled affordance perception of and maneuvers associated with interpersonal distance in one-on-one situations that occur in daily life and in many sports. People try to leave an appropriate distance between individuals and objects (Hall, 1966). For example, if people are too close to a stranger, they move away, and if they are too far from their goals, they move closer so that they are at an appropriate distance. People also tend to avoid invading others' comfortable space, also called "personal space." People can change their behavioral goals based on distance and can adjust distance functionally to suit their goals (Sommer, 1959; Sundstrom & Altman, 1976).

Taekwondo Fighting in Training Does Not Simulate the Affective and Cognitive Demands of Competition: Implications for Behavior and Transfer

“…Attack initiation IPD was analyzed using both the video and IPD data following previously published methods ( Okumura et al, 2017 ). Attack initiation was determined using the video and defined as either the first forward movement of an attack, or if the athlete did not move forward, the time at which the foot first left the ground.…”

“…One candidate performance variable that might be impacted is the interpersonal distance (IPD) of fighters ( Dietrich et al, 2010 ). IPD is a global variable representative of the fighter–fighter system ( Okumura et al, 2017 ). The distance between fighters’ provides different affordances for action and different striking techniques emerge and decay depending on this IPD ( Hristovski et al, 2006 ; Okumura et al, 2017 ).…”

“…IPD is a global variable representative of the fighter–fighter system ( Okumura et al, 2017 ). The distance between fighters’ provides different affordances for action and different striking techniques emerge and decay depending on this IPD ( Hristovski et al, 2006 ; Okumura et al, 2017 ). Practically, IPD constrains the respective attackability of each fighter (i.e., specific critical IPDs invite an attack or being attacked).…”

Expertise Differences in Movement Switching in Kendo Players

“…The result that the expert group had acquired better skills for 12 switching movements suggests that there is an expertise difference in executive functions, even when 13 significant difference was not found in simple adjustment skills between groups. 14 15 Note 16 *1 We added stop trials (Figure 1 The players were stood in a ready position at Line 1 (1) and then stepped to Line 2 (with their right 3 first, followed by their left) (2). Then, they performed the strike in a continuous movement by stepping 4 toward the opponent (3).…”

“…Also, in real kendo 8 matches, expert players can accurately perceive the interpersonal distance while moving and can 9 switch their stepping forward and backward movements (Okumura et al, 2012;2017). Even in other 10 sports and physical activities, although researchers have investigated about expertise differences at 11 various viewpoints such as muscle activity (Sakurai and Ohtsuki, 2000) or sensorimotor coordination 12 (Miura et al, 2011), little information about the adjustment and switching skills are available.…”