Visual Search Behavior while Rebounding a Basketball in Tactical Situations

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine visual search behavior of experienced basketball players when they rebound a basketball by using an eye-movement registration system. In basketball games, the possession of the rebounding ball provides one of the most important statistical data needed to win games. In order to get the rebounding ball, the player is required both to perceive temporal and spatial information through a complex visual field and to react to an opponent player immediately. Therefore, the seven male subjects' experimental task was to block, or so called "box-out," the opponent offensive player under 3 randomized tactical plays in basketball 3-on-3 situations. Subjects' athletic careers ranged from 8 to 12 years （mean ± SD : 9.70 ± 1.50 years） . A subject, a defensive player, was fitted with an eye-tracking device （EMR-9, NAC Inc.） to acquire his viewing point for the detection of visual search behaviors.Subjects' kinematic data was also captured by 3 video cameras （S21, CANON, 60Hz） . The results showed that experienced players could react to the opponent player before the shooter's ball release timing quickly, almost without viewing the shooter. Experienced players showed constant fixations, fixation duration and fixation locations before the shooter released the ball, and the distribution of experienced players' viewing points was set at a spatial area between the shooter and the opponent player under 3 tactical plays. These results indicated that experienced players utilized the properties of an ambient vision system immediately for receiving visual information broadly in order to coordinate their actions ahead of the shooter and the opponent player action under the tactical situation. An effective visual search behavior is therefore an