Visual Search Behavior of Experienced Players while Anticipating the Success of Basketball Free Throws

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the visual search behaviors of experienced basketball players with those of novices as they anticipated the success of a free throw. In basketball, the accurate judgment of the result of a free throw at an early time is an important factor in both performing the next play for the players and in deciding team tactics for coaches. The subjects were twelve experienced male basketball players and twelve novice counterparts. The task was to anticipate the success of free throws by responding verbally with IN , OUT or Uncertain while viewing randomized successful / unsuccessful video-based models of free throws. The video was captured from a position to the side of the shooter s shooting arm and perpendicular to the plane of the intended motion of the ball. The stimuli were temporally occluded after the ball released the shooter s hand and before the ball reached the goal. In addition, the participants visual search behaviors were acquired by using an eye movement tracking system. The results indicated that experienced players were able to anticipate a successful free throw earlier and more accurately than could the novices. Experienced players had an effective strategy to anticipate the result of free throws that was based on not only the ball s trajectory but also the use of shooter s coordinated motions as advanced cues for predicting the success of a free throw before the release of the ball. The experienced players viewing points were distributed on the shooter s lower body until the execution phase and then on the shooter s shooting arms before ball release. This effective visual search behavior is therefore one of the most important factors in improving accurate judgment at an early time.

Prediction of shot success for basketball free throws: Visual search strategy

“…The present study of visual search acitivity at a normal speed showed a tendency consistent with the results which were obtained by Ishibashi et al (2010). The novice group focused their gaze (fixation rate of more than 80%) initially on the upper body region and subsequently on the ball's trajectory at normal video speeds.…”

“…It had been speculated that basketball players could predict shot outcomes by capturing variables in the shooter's knee, wrist and finger joint angles (Aglioti et al, 2008). Following that, it was revealed that the experienced basketball players' viewing points were distributed on the shooter's lower body and arms (Ishibashi et al, 2010).…”

“…Tennis players also focus more on the opponent's arm and racquet, whereas novices maintain a fixation primarily on the ball (Goulet, Bard, & Fleury, 1989; Shim, Miller, & Lutz, 2005). Experienced basketball players were reported to have an effective visual search strategy to anticipate the result of free throws that was based on not only the ball's trajectory but also the shooter's lower body and arms (Ishibashi, Kato, Nagano, Ohgi, & Sasaki, 2010). Similar findings were found in high‐level competitors (Squash: Abernethy, 1990; Abernethy & Russell, 1987; Volleyball: Lee, 2010).…”

Visual search strategies of performance monitoring used in action anticipation of basketball players

“…The average time and number of fixations in the AOI of the expert athlete were significantly greater than those of the novice, which showed that the expert spent more time on the essential information and examined that region more frequently. Studies have shown that experienced basketball players can predict whether the ball will go through the hoop by observing the angle variables of the shooter's lower body and arm, wrist, and finger joints (Yukimasa et al., 2010 ). In this study, through the heat map of eye‐movement for two groups, it was found that the focus area of the expert was the player's body and arm.…”