Abstract
In tennis, as in many disciplines of sport, fine spatio-temporal resolution is required to reach optimal performance. While many studies on tennis have focused on anticipatory skills or decision making, fewer have investigated the underlying visual perception abilities. In this study, we used a battery of seven visual tests that allowed us to assess which kind of visual information processing is performed better by tennis players than other athletes (triathletes) and non-athletes. We found that certain time-related skills, such as speed discrimination, are superior in tennis players compared to non-athletes and triathletes. Such tasks might be used to improve tennis performance in the future.
Highlights
In many sports, such as in tennis, excellent visual skills are necessary
Abernethy and Wood [5] showed that visual acuity and stereopsis in a prepost training paradigm did not lead to improvements in optometric vision beyond those resulting from familiarity
Dots were positioned with 1/10 sub-pixel precision while applying antialiasing techniques, and positions were updated at frame rate
Summary
In many sports, such as in tennis, excellent visual skills are necessary. From the 1950s on, a popular standpoint, advocated by optometrists, was that successful athletes are endowed with superior visual systems [1,2,3]. Studies comparing experts’ to novices’ performance have investigated skills such as anticipation of opponents’ intention based on partial information or advance cues [10,11], visual search strategies [1,12,13] or recognition and recall of typical patterns of play from memory [6,14,15]. These studies consistently showed that experts performed better than novices
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
