Reaction time and ocular movements in volleyball

Aim. This research aimed at better understanding the relationship between gaze strategy and anticipation skills of expert vs. nonathlete volleyball players. Methods. Thirty participants (26 ± 5 years), 15 naïve and 15 expert volleyball players, watched several film sequences where a professional volleyball setter tossed a ball. Movies were stopped at hand-ball contact then subjects had to respond, pressing game pad buttons, as quickly and accurately as possible whether the ball would have been tossed to the right or to the left of the net. Eye position was recorded using a wearable video based eye tracker. The scene was divided into six interest areas in order to analyse gaze strategy and reaction time. Results. Expert group were more accurate in predicting the side of the setting and faster than control group, showing a shorter key-press RT (see table 1). They exhibited more fixations of shorter duration in comparison to nonathletes and significantly they preferred coach, trunk and hands interest areas. A further analysis was done within expert group to see the differences between correct and incorrect responses. Wrong answers were associated with longer periods of time fixating on coach and setter hands areas in comparison to successful ones. All preferred areas were equally fixated for correct responses both in left and right settings, while there was a greater occurrence of wrong responses in left settings. Conclusion. Successful expert tries to extract information as long as possible, but not too long, before pushing the button, than unsuccessful experts.