The Effects of High- and Low-Anxiety Training on the Anticipation Judgments of Elite Performers

Abstract

26We examined the effects of high-versus low-anxiety conditions during video-based 27 training of anticipation judgements by international-level badminton players facing serves and 28 the transfer to high-anxiety and field-based conditions. Players were assigned to a high-anxiety 29 training (HA), low-anxiety training (LA) or control group (CON) in a pre-training-post-test 30 design. In the pre-and post-test, players anticipated serves either from video under high-and 31 low anxiety conditions or live on-court. In the video-based high-anxiety pre-test, anticipation 32 response accuracy was lower and final fixations shorter when compared to the low-anxiety pre-33 test. In the low-anxiety post-test, HA and LA demonstrated greater accuracy of judgements and 34 longer final fixations compared to pre-test and CON. In the high-anxiety post-test, HA 35 maintained accuracy when compared to the low-anxiety post-test, whereas LA had lower 36 accuracy. In the on-court post-test, the training groups demonstrated greater accuracy of 37 judgements compared to the pre-test and CON. 38 39

The impact of physiological load on anticipation skills in badminton: From testing to training

“…High-level sport is characterised by dynamic, uncertain and ever-changing interactions that place severe temporal demands upon athletes (Williams & Ericsson, 2005). Therefore the ability to anticipate the actions of opponents is essential (Alder et al, 2016). Superior anticipatory judgements are underpinned by efficient visual search behaviour (Mann et al, 2007).…”

“…In badminton, Alder et al (2014) found that international players utilised a visual search behaviour strategy consisting of fewer fixations of a longer duration compared to their less skilled counterparts. Moreover, the international players fixated on the kinematic locations of their opponent that were most salient for the upcoming shot type and direction (see also , Alder et al, 2016). If efficient visual search behaviours underpin effective anticipation, then threats to the efficiency of visual search behaviour may influence a player's ability to effectively anticipate their opponent's action.…”

“…As factors, such as anxiety and physiological load, may have a debilitating effect on perceptual-cognitive skill in sport, researchers have designed and tested interventions that purposefully and acutely induce these factors during practice to better prepare performers for the rigours of competition (Alder et al, 2016;Nieuwenhuys & Oudejans, 2011;Oudejans & Pijpers, 2009). The model by Nieuwenhuys and Oudejans (2012;2017) argues that such training may acclimatize players to common competition conditions resulting in greater performance when later exposed to these conditions.…”

“…If the constraints in training are representative of competition, then training gains are seen, but if or when the constraints are different, players may struggle to adapt (Lawrence et al, 2014). Specifically, it has been argued that perceptual-cognitive training in the presence of debilitating factors may help players to maintain an efficient visual search strategy whereby attention on information rich areas of the 6 visual display is sustained (Alder et al, 2016). At this point, there is relatively little research examining the impact of physiological load on perceptual-cognitive performance and visual search behaviour, and no research has examined the effect of combining perceptual-cognitive simulation training with high physiological load.…”

Using the ‘Expert Performance Approach’ as a Framework for Examining and Enhancing Skill Learning: Improving Understanding of How Experts Learn

“…Visual gaze has been used as an index of attention during performance on a specific task (e.g., anticipation), but thus far, only in a few published reports have gaze behaviours been recorded before and after an intervention or practice phase (for exceptions, see Alder, Ford, Causer, & Williams, 2016;Breslin, Hodges, Williams, Kramer, & Curren, 2007;Causer, Holmes, & Williams, 2011). Measures of gaze can help establish whether more stable or efficient patterns of visual search behaviour in some learners (i.e., longer duration fixations on information rich areas of a display) inform what information is being acquired, how improvements in performance are attained, and/or explain "learning" in the absence of performance effects.…”