Gaze Behaviors During Serve Returns in Tennis: A Comparison Between Intermediate- and High-Skill Players

in Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology

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Camilo Sáenz-MoncaleanoFlorida State University

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Itay BasevitchAnglia Ruskin University

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Gershon TenenbaumFlorida State University

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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1123/jsep.2017-0253
Keywords:
expertise; quiet eye; movement initiation
In Print:
Volume 40: Issue 2
Page Range:
49–59
Restricted access

The authors studied gaze behaviors in high- and intermediate-skill tennis players while they performed tennis serve returns. Participants returned 40 serves in 4 serve locations while wearing a mobile eye tracker. The ball’s flight path was deconstructed into 3 distinct locations (i.e., ball before bouncing on surface, the bounce area, and ball after bouncing on surface), and gaze behaviors along with quiet-eye (QE) onset and durations were recorded. Results revealed that (a) high-skill players exhibited better return shots than their lower skill counterparts, (b) high-skill players and high-score shots were characterized by longer fixation durations on the ball at prebounce, and (c) longer QE durations were observed for high-skill players and high-score shots. Findings provide valuable insight into the relationship between gaze behaviors, QE, and performance in fast-pace interceptive sports.

Sáenz-Moncaleano and Tenenbaum are with Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL. Basevitch is with the Dept. of Sport and Exercise Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Sáenz-Moncaleano (contact@camilosaenzm.com) is corresponding author.
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