The role of proximal body information on anticipatory judgment in tennis using graphical information richness

Abstract

ObjectiveRecent studies have reported that skilled tennis players are likely to use proximal body information for anticipating the direction of their opponent’s forehand shot. However, in these studies, the visual stimuli did not include visual information about the ball. Skilled players may have used proximal information owing to the lack of distal information. To address this issue, we developed a novel methodological approach using computer graphics (CG) images in which the entire body was presented by a combination of point-light display (i.e., poor graphical information, PLD) and polygons (i.e., rich graphical information). Using our novel methodological approach, we examined whether skilled tennis players use proximal body information when anticipating shot directions.Methods and resultsFifteen skilled tennis players and fifteen novice players tried to anticipate shot directions by observing four CG forehand strokes (ALPOL: all body parts were represented with polygon; RAPLD: racket and arm were represented with PLD; BOPLD: body parts without racket and arm were represented with PLD; and ALPLD: all body parts were represented with PLD). Our intention in creating CG models with such combinations (i.e., RAPLD and BOPLD) was that because of the richer graphical information provided by polygons compared to PLD, the participant’s anticipatory judgment would be influenced more by body parts expressed with polygons. The results showed that for skilled players, anticipatory judgment was more accurate when they observed RAPLD than when they observed BOPLD and ALPLD. In contrast, for novice players, there were no differences in the accuracy of anticipatory judgments with the four CG models.ConclusionsOnly skilled players made more accurate anticipatory judgments when body regions were expressed with rich graphical information, and the racket and arm were expressed with poor graphical information. These suggest that skilled players used proximal information to effectively anticipate shot directions.

Virtual reality to assess and train team ball sports performance: A scoping review

“…This result is particularly interesting since a reduction in stimulus information may ease the training of perceptual invariants in a task (Farrow, 2013;Lintern, Roscoe, & Sivier, 1990). On the other hand, a recent study by Fukuhara, Ida, Ogata, Ishii and Higuchi (2017) showed that, in a task where they had to anticipate their opponent's shot direction, skilled tennis players were affected by the richness of graphical information on bodily cues, whereas novice players were not. This suggests that skilled players and novices may not use the same visual cues, and that setup should be adapted according to the population's level of expertise.…”

Can Slow-Motion Footage of Forehand Strokes Be Used to Immediately Improve Anticipatory Judgments in Tennis?

“…We adopted computer graphic (CG) animations as visual stimuli to accurately evaluate recognition errors between the VAS scores and the original coordinate position output from motion capture data. We used CG animations of forehand shots to test the evaluation validity for anticipatory judgment of shot direction ( Fukuhara et al, 2009 ; Fukuhara et al, 2017 ). First, forehand stroke shots by a professional tennis player (22 years old, 11 years of tennis experience, and ranked in the top 30 in Japan) were recorded on the tennis court using three-dimensional motion capture cameras (Hawk system, Motion Analysis Inc.).…”

“…The forehand stroke in tennis is a rapid movement; therefore, the use of slow-motion footage should lead to the activation of the AON. Considering that skilled anticipatory judgments are underpinned by the detection of key kinematic cues from an opponent’s movements ( Jones and Miles, 1978 ; Shim et al, 2005 ; Abernethy and Zawi, 2007 ; Jackson and Mogan, 2007 ; Williams et al, 2009 ; Ida et al, 2011a , b ; Fukuhara et al, 2017 ), the prolonged time afforded to detect key kinematic cues from an opponent’s movements would lead to better anticipatory performance.…”

“…Moreover, if enhancing the recognition of key kinematic cues improves anticipatory judgment, then it was hypothesized that there would be a strong correlation between both performances. We also hypothesized that skilled players would outperform their novice counterparts in anticipating shot directions based on the findings of previous studies regarding anticipation in tennis ( Shim et al, 2005 ; Williams et al, 2009 ; Fukuhara et al, 2017 ).…”

Experimental Study of Spatial Cognition Capability Enhancement with Building Block Learning Contents for Disabled Children

“…Intellectual disability is the state where the development of cognitive abilities has remained at a level where the cognitive ability development is generally delayed due to intellectual functional disorder that occurred until the developmental stage. Mental rotation is a cognitive activity that rotates the visual stimulus presented in a rotated state mind and recognizes figures in an upright state without rotation [9]. Spatial recognition capability is the ability to quickly and accurately grasp and recognize the state and relationship of objects in 3D space such as position, orientation, attitude, size, shape and spacing of objects.…”