2015 Volume 51 Issue 2 Pages 96-102
The aim of this study was to clarify the quantitative relationship between tennis server's motion and receiver's anticipation with a multiple regression analysis by using the racket's kinematic parameters as explanatory variables and anticipatory judgment of ball direction as a dependent variable. Twelve expert tennis players and 12 novice players scored their anticipatory judgment of the ball direction on a visual analog scale (VAS) of tennis serves after observing video images edited in a temporal occlusion paradigm. At occlusion onset before the moment of racket-ball contact, the correct responses of expert players were above chance level but not those of novice players. Furthermore, the result of the regression analysis on the expert players' VAS score showed that the racket's kinematic parameters explained 10.3% of the anticipated score of ball direction for expert players. This result indicates that there is a linkage between the server's racket kinematics and the expert's anticipation.
