Abstract
This study investigated the characteristics of visual behavior during ball trapping among skilled soccer players. A total of 24 expert and 22 novice soccer players were asked to trap a grounder ball and pass it back to the place where the passer had moved. Simultaneously, the participants’ eye movements were recorded at 30 Hz, and the location where their gaze was directed was identified. Additionally, the pupil area was calculated for each frame. On assessment, the novice players tended to keep looking at the ball until just before the trapping. In contrast, the expert players tended to focus on the person to whom they will return the pass or to the areas where the ball will be passed. Furthermore, the pupil areas of the novice players were larger than those of the expert players during the phase immediately before ball trapping. The gaze behavior specific to expert soccer players, such as looking at the opponent or the area around the ball and not paying too much attention to where they are looking, may be due to their proficiency of ball control.
