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.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the anticipation time and kinematic factors in the movement of goalkeepers’ center of mass when making a long-distance throw in handball. The sample group was composed of 14 goalkeepers and field players. A force platform was used to measure the force of the goalkeepers’ reaction movements, while the throwers’ movements were recorded with high-speed cameras. The expert goalkeepers began to move 193 ± 67 ms before the ball was released, with a 67% success rate of interception. The inexperienced goalkeepers began their movement 209 ± 127 ms with a 24% success rate. The time taken by expert goalkeepers to begin a vertical movement of their CM, relative to the moment of the ball’s release, was less than the time taken by inexperienced goalkeepers (77 ± 70 vs. 141 ± 108 ms respectively). The analysis of the velocity and movement indicates that expert goalkeepers wait longer before moving than do inexperienced goalkeepers.
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