Developmental Activities That Contribute to High or Low Performance by Elite Cricket Batters When Recognizing Type of Delivery From Bowlers’ Advanced Postural Cues

Abstract

We examined the developmental activities that contribute to the development of superior anticipation skill among elite cricket batters. The batters viewed 36 video clips involving deliveries from bowlers that were occluded at ball release and were required to predict delivery type. Accuracy scores were used to create two subgroups: high-performing and low-performing anticipators. Questionnaires were used to record the participation history profiles of the groups. In the early stages of development, hours accumulated in cricket and other sports, as well as milestones achieved, did not differentiate groups. Significant between-group differences in activity profiles were found between 13 and 15 years of age, with high-performing anticipators accumulating more hours in structured cricket activity, and specifically in batting, compared with their low-performing counterparts.

Developmental activities and the acquisition of superior anticipation and decision making in soccer players

“…The Participation History Questionnaire (PHQ) first used by Ford et al (2010a) was used to trace the developmental activities undertaken by players. The questionnaire comprised of three different sections.…”

“…No between-group differences were expected for milestones achieved, such as start age in soccer (which was predicted to be around 5 years of age), supervised training in soccer, and age at which participants started playing in an organised league (Ford et al, 2009;Helsen, Starkes, & Hodges, 1998;Ward, Hodges, Starkes, & Williams, 2007). We expected that the average hours per year in soccerspecific practice activities during adolescence (i.e., 13-18 years of age) would be a predictor of superior anticipation and decision making performance across participants (e.g., Ford et al, 2010a;Weissensteiner et al, 2008) and would differentiate skill groups (i.e., greater amounts of this activity will co-occur with higher scores on the test as indicated by group membership). We further expected, based on the findings of Ford et al (2009), that the average number of hours per year spent in soccer-specific play during childhood (i.e., 6-12 years of age) would be a predictor of test performance and would differentiate the skill groups.…”

“…The ability to anticipate and make decisions is presumed to be particularly important at the elite level in soccer, where these components of performance are more likely to discriminate players compared to anthropometric and physiological characteristics (Reilly, Williams, Nevill, & Franks, 2000;. Most recently, researchers have started to examine how these perceptual-cognitive skills are acquired by expert athletes (e.g., Ford, Low, McRobert, & Williams, 2010a). In this study, we extend work in this area by examining whether elite soccer players categorised as either high-or low-performing based on their performance on an interactive test film of anticipation and decision making can be differentiated based on the amount and/or type of activity undertaken during their development.…”

“…We further expected, based on the findings of Ford et al (2009), that the average number of hours per year spent in soccer-specific play during childhood (i.e., 6-12 years of age) would be a predictor of test performance and would differentiate the skill groups. Moreover, it is likely that hours accumulated in total soccer activity by 18 years of age will differentiate skill groups (cf., Ford et al, 2010a). We assumed that the development of anticipation and decision making in soccer is mainly a result of participation in the primary sport, rather than engagement in other sports per se (e.g., Berry et al, 2008), due to the low number of other sports engaged in by soccer players during their development (e.g., Ford et al, 2009;Ward et al, 2007).…”

“…The selection of players into groups based on subjective criteria may lead to individuals being classified incorrectly and there would appear to be clear advantages in using objective measures of performance (Ericsson, 2003). Ford et al (2010a) used an objective method to examine the types and amounts of developmental activities that co-occurred with superior anticipation ability in 45 elite cricket batters. The batters were stratified into high-(n ¼ 15) and low-performing anticipators (n ¼ 15) based on the rank order of their response accuracy scores on a film-based temporal occlusion test of anticipation.…”