An Investigation of Tactical Transfer in Net Games

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to address the question of whether tactical understanding transfers across games in the net games tactical category. Subjects in the study were 21 (12 boys and 9 girls) randomly selected American ninth grade students, age 14‐15 years. Following initial video taping of badminton singles game play subjects received badminton instruction for five lessons. Instruction focused on solutions to the tactical problem of setting up to attack by the creation of space on the opponent's side of the net. After five lessons subjects were video taped again playing singles badminton. Subjects then received five lessons of instruction in pickleball investigating solutions to the same tactical problem. During the third lesson of pickleball instruction six subjects were randomly selected to answer structured written questions related to the similarities between badminton and pickleball and the degree to which learning badminton had helped with learning pickleball. Subjects were video taped again playing singles pickleball following five lessons of instruction. Decision‐making during game play was assessed by the Game Performance Assessment Instrument (Oslin et al., 1998). Repeated Measures ANOVA indicated that tactical understanding improved during badminton instruction end this improvement was sustained during pickleball. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for the sequencing of games instruction in the curriculum.