Developing Anticipation Skills in Tennis Using On-Court Instruction: Perception versus Perception and Action

Abstract

On-court instruction involving either Perception–action training or Perception-only training was used to improve anticipation skill in novice tennis players. A technical instruction group acted as a control. Participants' ability to anticipate an opponent's serve was assessed pre- and posttest using established on-court measures involving frame-by-frame video analysis. The perception–action and perception-only groups significantly improved their anticipatory performance from pretest to posttest. No pretest-to-posttest differences in anticipation skill were reported for the technical instruction group. The ability to anticipate an opponent's serve can be improved through on-court instruction where the relationship between key postural cues and subsequent performance is highlighted, and both practice and feedback are provided. No significant differences were observed between the perception–action and perception-only training groups, implying that either mode of training may be effective in enhancing perceptual skill in sport.

A. Mark Williams, Nicholas J. Smeeton, and David Allen are with the Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, UK. A. Mark Williams is also based at the Learning Systems Institute, Florida State University, as is Paul Ward.