Introduction Training to anticipate an opponent´s attack has become an important part of beach volleyball preparation. Gaze strategies affect anticipation accuracy, as good strategies improve the visual processing involved in anticipation. In this pilot study, we used stereoscopic videos and a head mounted display (HMD) to assess the gaze strategies of players professional and amateur and the effects of anticipation training. Methods Stereoscopic videos of 160 side out attacks per sex of German professional athletes with different attack types (shot or smash), attack directions (line or diagonal), attack sides (right or left), and attack positions (outside or middle) were recorded at the Olympic training center in Hamburg, Germany in August 2023. From these, 80 videos were shown to two professional beach volleyball players (1M,1F) with the HTC VIVE Pro Eye HMD11 headset. The data collection session was divided into one familiarity session (10 videos) and four data collections (20 videos each), wherein 10 videos from session 1 were repeated in session 4. The sessions were implemented in a software environment created using Unity v.2022.3f1. The videos were played consequently within each session, but each video was paused for 5 seconds at 200 milliseconds before the attacker made the final contact with the ball (Precontact time). During the pause, the players were asked to anticipate the attack's direction and type, which was annotated and then descriptively analyzed. Simultaneously, the gaze data of the players were recorded from the video start until the pause. A two-minute break was provided between sessions. Additionally, the gaze data of a male amateur player was recorded using the same procedure. The gaze data was qualitatively compared in four phases of the attack: reception, set, jumpstart, and precontact. Results The anticipation accuracy for attack type and direction improved across the sessions. Data showed that attack type, direction, side, and position affect the anticipation accuracy. Further, we observed a gaze strategy for better anticipations and differences in gaze strategies of professional and amateur players. Discussion Our results show that training improves anticipation accuracy and that potential gaze strategies exist for better anticipation. Further, differences in gaze strategies exist across professional and amateur players. These findings could be used to plan future studies. Also, using computer vision to quantitatively investigate gaze strategies in future studies is recommended.
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