Abstract
Analyzing visual search strategies in tennis is primarily focused on studying relationships between visual behavior and tennis performance. However, diverse movement characteristics among different servers suggest the importance of adjusting the visual search strategies of an individual while playing against different opponents. The aim of this study was to analyze whether visual search strategies can be attributed to the individual server and the returning player during the tennis serve return or return performance. Seventeen tennis players were enrolled in this study (five international players and 12 national players) producing a sample of 1,020 returns measured with mobile eye trackers. The random forest machine learning model was used to analyze the ability to classify the returning player [area under the curve (AUC): 0.953], individual server (AUC: 0.686), and return performance category (AUC: 0.667) based on the location and duration of the focal vision fixation. In international tennis players, the higher predictability of the server was observed as compared with national level players (AUC: 0.901 and 0.834, respectively). More experienced tennis players presented with a higher ability to adjust their visual search strategies to different servers. International players also demonstrated anticipatory visual behavior during the tossing hand movement and superior information pickup during the final phases of the stroke of a server.
Highlights
Efficient visual search strategies during interceptive precision tasks in highly dynamic sports have been associated with superior sports performance
For the data set combining tennis players from both groups, the highest predictability was observed for the returning player followed by the classification of the return performance category, and the lowest predictability was observed for the individual server
The highest sensitivity was observed for the returning player and the lowest for the individual server classification
Summary
Efficient visual search strategies during interceptive precision tasks in highly dynamic sports have been associated with superior sports performance. Several factors have been proposed to contribute to the characteristics of visual search patterns and their variability, such as temporal and spatial demands of the task, amount of information available during the task performed, and knowledge about visual properties and regularities of the environment (Paeye and Madelain, 2014; Dicks et al, 2017) In interceptive tasks, such as returning tennis serve, saving a penalty kick in soccer, or making a save in field hockey, intercepting a ball is performed under temporal and spatial constraints and requires movement preparation, execution, Adaptability in Visual Search Strategies and adaptation in a time window that can exceed the action of an opponent and the travel time of a ball (Jackson and Mogan, 2007; Müller and Abernethy, 2012; Morris-Binelli et al, 2021). The role of specific visual information varies between different phases of interception tasks and contributes to movement preparation and execution (Müller and Abernethy, 2012)
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