Effective anticipatory cues for courses and soins of tennis serves : Introducing reaction time and spatial occlusion paradigms

The purposes of this study were to: 1) examine anticipation timing and accuracy for courses and spins of tennis serves and 2) find effective anticipatory cues used by performers in the anticipation process. Fifteen tennis players (five players in high levels, ten players in middle levels) were observed each videoreplay and required to make quickly and accurately response selection decisions from filmed sequences of the tennis serve. The video was edited so that the subjects could observe serve motions only for limited amounts of space with from before three seconds racket-ball contact to after one half seconds it and five different spatial occlusion parts. The results were as follows: 1. The reaction time paradigm revealed that anticipation of both courses and spins was completed prior to the racket-ball contact. 2. Anticipation for courses, the relation between the accuracy anticipation and quickness anticipation was trade-off. 3. The spatial occlusion revealed that effective anticipatory cues for course were the ball and the racket with the arm holding it. And anticipatory cue for spins were the ball that seemed to be used earlier in a sequence of motion