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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1508627
This article is part of the Research Topic Multidisciplinary Aspects and Performance in Racket Sports-Volume II View all 5 articles

Anticipation training for expert tennis players when facing a specific player

Provisionally accepted
Celine Triolet Celine Triolet 1,2*Nicolas BENGUIGUI Nicolas BENGUIGUI 3
  • 1 Université Paris-Saclay, Saint Aubin, France
  • 2 Université d'Orléans, Orléans, France
  • 3 Université de Caen Normandie, Caen, Lower Normandy, France

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In fast ball sports, such as tennis, when spatiotemporal constraints are high, players have to anticipate the opponent action. Not much is known about how players acquire and improve this ability. The aim of this study was to use an implicit training protocol (no information was given to participants) based on the knowledge of one particular opponent to analyse how experts could improve their anticipation ability. Method. Professional tennis players were tested and trained in a protocol consisted of watching videos with temporal occlusions before the opponent stroke and guessing the direction of the stroke. Three groups took part in the experiment: one with a specific training with the same opponent as in pre-and post-tests; one with a various training with players other than the one used in pre-and post-tests (to control that the improvement is link with the knowledge of one specific opponent and not to an adaptation to the task) and one control group without practice. Results. Only the group trained with the same opponent increased its response accuracy. Discussion. Our results suggest that anticipation can be improved in professional tennis players with a very specific training providing information about the opponent.

    Keywords: anticipation training, contextual information, Tennis, implicit protocol, Experts

    Received: 09 Oct 2024; Accepted: 16 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Triolet and BENGUIGUI. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Celine Triolet, Université Paris-Saclay, Saint Aubin, France

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.