Visual search behaviour in skilled field-hockey goalkeepers

In several sports, effective visual information pick-up has been shown to be crucial for successful goalkeeping. However, most of the studies that used videobased techniques, presented their participants with videos captured from a stationary camera view. In this study, we examined whether visual search behaviour and performance differ when presenting the stimuli with a moving camera view compared to a stationary camera view. To this end, we invited 15 skilled goalkeepers to watch video clips (from either a stationary or a moving camera perspective) of hockey penalty corners on a large screen, and to move a joystick in response to the actions observed. Visual gaze behaviour differed across the viewing conditions. Results suggest that in the moving camera condition visually tracking the ball resulted in visually `overshooting` the stopping location of the ball (i.e., gaze tracking briefly continued beyond that stopping location), thereby leading to performance decrements. In contrast, shifting gaze towards the ball-and-stick location prior to ball release was a more beneficial strategy among skilled hockey goalkeepers.
© Copyright 2010 International Journal of Sport Psychology. University of Tor Vergata. All rights reserved.

Bibliographic Details
Subjects:
Notations:sport games social sciences
Published in:International Journal of Sport Psychology
Language:English
Published: 2010
Online Access:http://www.ijsp-online.com/content/abstracts/abstract4104.php#c01
Volume:39
Issue:4
Pages:327-339
Document types:article
Level:advanced