Skill Level in Tennis Serve Return Is Related to Adaptability in Visual Search Behavior

Abstract

Analyzing visual search strategies in tennis is primarily focused on studying relationships between visual behavior and tennis performance. However, diverse movement characteristics among different servers suggest the importance of adjusting the visual search strategies of an individual while playing against different opponents. The aim of this study was to analyze whether visual search strategies can be attributed to the individual server and the returning player during the tennis serve return or return performance. Seventeen tennis players were enrolled in this study (five international players and 12 national players) producing a sample of 1,020 returns measured with mobile eye trackers. The random forest machine learning model was used to analyze the ability to classify the returning player [area under the curve (AUC): 0.953], individual server (AUC: 0.686), and return performance category (AUC: 0.667) based on the location and duration of the focal vision fixation. In international tennis players, the higher predictability of the server was observed as compared with national level players (AUC: 0.901 and 0.834, respectively). More experienced tennis players presented with a higher ability to adjust their visual search strategies to different servers. International players also demonstrated anticipatory visual behavior during the tossing hand movement and superior information pickup during the final phases of the stroke of a server.

Attributes of Expert Anticipation Should Inform the Design of Virtual Reality Simulators to Accelerate Learning and Transfer of Skill

“…Whilst the studies discussed above have been useful, they have focused upon group -based comparisons, rather than individual differences within expert samples [ 28 ]. Drew [ 2 ] addresses this point effectively by discussing an individual differences study by Land and McLeod [ 29 ] that reported a professional cricket batsman made earlier predictive saccades to future ball landing positions, compared to amateurs, in order to strike balls.…”

“…This is useful to determine whether anticipation training should target visual-perceptual and/or motor responses for body positioning and interceptive phases of a skill. Third, practitioners including coaches, scouts, and sports scientists want to know the performance level of individual athletes for talent identification and/or skill development [ 28 , 30 ]. Therefore, an individual differences approach can cater to research and skill development needs by targeting the underpinning mechanism of anticipation.…”

Kick proficiency and skill adaptability increase from an Australian football small-sided game intervention

“…Furthermore, both the players and coaches felt the SSG training group were more adaptable and improved their tactical capabilities. In tennis, it has been noted how more experienced tennis players were able to adapt and adjust their visual search strategies to different servers ( 34 ). Although visual search strategies were not assessed in this study, the players may have enhanced their search strategies during the intervention stage to enable greater anticipation and movement initiation of the environmental stimuli (e.g., ball or opposition movement).…”

Visual Behaviours of Expert Padel Athletes When Playing on Court: An In Situ Approach with a Portable Eye Tracker

“…Eye-tracking technology has been used to analyse visual behaviours of athletes when observing specific actions pertaining to racket sports, for instance, in badminton [ 1 , 2 ], table tennis [ 3 , 4 ] and tennis [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. This technology has provided an opportunity for researchers to specify what visual information athletes use at different levels of expertise to intercept fast balls/shuttlecocks and/or anticipate the opponents’ actions.…”

“…For example, Lin et al, [ 26 ] concluded that expert tennis players showed a visual pattern mainly focused on the upper body and the ball in returning a serve, while novice players showed a more distributed visual strategy with longer fixations outside of the server’s body. Similarly, Rosker and Majcen [ 6 ] stated that international tennis players showed an anticipatory visual behaviour during the tossing hand movement and also better picking up of visual information during the final phases of the server’ stroke, compared to other groups of national players. An exception was Singer et al [ 27 ], who found that expert tennis players with better ranking displayed a smooth tracking of the ball after the serve, compared to lower-ranked players, when collecting visual behaviours of participants in situ (i.e., on the tennis court with movement responses).…”