The goal of this study was to examine how expert and novice tennis players can use kinematic from the opponent and dynamic contextual information (i.e., the relative position of players on the tennis court) to anticipate tennis shots. Participants viewed film sequences under four different conditions that included low versus high contextual information and early versus late occlusion providing more or less kinematic information. Only experts significantly improved their response accuracy when more kinematic information was added (i.e., late occlusion). Findings show that experts and novices can use dynamic contextual information to anticipate, but only experts can anticipate based on low contextual information. Finally, experts are better able to use both types of information. Further studies should take into account the type and relevance of the information given to the participants to better understand the anticipation process.
© Copyright 2025 Movement & Sport Sciences - Science & Motricité. EDP Sciences. All rights reserved.