Movement variability and skill level of various throwing techniques

This multiple-case study addresses the question of how information from the environment is integrated with mental images. Chess players (N = 4) of different skill levels were submitted to a visual imagery task with familiar stimuli (chess positions) and unfamiliar stimuli (boards containing shapes). A position that remained unchanged and a grid in which moves were displayed using a standard chess notation familiar to the participants were visually presented. The participants’ task was to mentally reproduce a sequence of moves from the original position. Retention of updated positions was assessed with a memory task. Eye movements were recorded during the entire experiment. We found that (a) players performed better with familiar than with unfamiliar stimuli; (b) there was a strong correlation between skill level and performance in the familiar, but not the unfamiliar condition; (c) players used the external board as an external memory store; but (d) there was no difference in the extent to which players of different skill levels shifted their attention to the external board. Using control tasks unrelated to chess, we established that the skilled and unskilled players did not differ with respect to general cognitive abilities. These results emphasize the role of long-term memory in expertise and suggest that players use processes that enable them to smoothly combine information from the environment with mental images.

This study aimed to examine the influence of sport skill levels on behavioural and neuroelectric performance in visuospatial attention and memory visuospatial tasks were administered to 54 participants, including 18 elite and 18 amateur table tennis players and 18 nonathletes, while event-related potentials were recorded. In all the visuospatial attention and memory conditions, table tennis players displayed faster reaction times than nonathletes, regardless of skill level, although there was no difference in accuracy between groups. In addition, regardless of task conditions, both player groups had a greater P3 amplitude than nonathletes, and elite players exhibited a greater P3 amplitude than amateurs players. The results of this study indicate that table tennis players, irrespective of their skill level, exhibit enhanced visuospatial capabilities. Notably, athletes at the elite level appear to benefit from an augmented allocation of attentional resources when engaging in visuospatial tasks.

Athletes’ risk decision-making significantly influences competitive performance; however, current research remains controversial regarding how framing effects, competitive state, and time pressure affect risk decisions among athletes of different skill levels. Through two experiments, this study investigated the effects of frame type (positive/negative), competitive state (leading/trailing), and time pressure (high/low) on risk decision-making among tennis players of varying proficiency levels. Both Experiments 1 and 2 recruited 120 tennis players (40 participants each in expert, skilled, and novice groups, with a male-to-female ratio of 3:1). The findings revealed that: (1) The novice group exhibited the highest susceptibility to framing effects, maintaining this characteristic even under high time pressure; (2) the skilled group demonstrated distinctive “transitional characteristics,” showing susceptibility to framing effects without time pressure but shifting toward extremely conservative decisions under high time pressure; (3) the expert group displayed the most stable decision-making patterns, primarily basing decisions on competitive state—adopting conservative strategies when leading and aggressive strategies when trailing, with minimal influence from framing effects and time pressure. The study demonstrates significant differences in risk decision-making characteristics across skill levels: novices possess immature decision-making mechanisms and are readily influenced by emotional and external factors; skilled players are in a developmental phase of decision-making ability, exhibiting notable context dependency; whereas experts demonstrate mature decision-making mechanisms, capable of making stable strategic choices based on competitive state. These findings provide novel theoretical perspectives for understanding the developmental patterns and influencing factors of athletes’ risk decision-making.

This study aims to test the reaction agility and stroke effect of table tennis players, explore the correlation between the reaction agility and stroke effect, and analyze the differences between players of different skill levels. Eighty male table tennis players (40 national first-level and 40 s-level) were recruited to participate in the reaction agility test (Speed Chase, Coordination, Reaction, and lower limb Explosive Force) and random full-court stroke effect test (speed, spin, and placement). There was a positive correlation between athletes' reaction agility and their stroke effect. Among these, the players' Turing Time (left) has a significant correlation with the ball speed (r = 0.291), the Turing Time (left) has a significant correlation with the spin speed(r = 0.864), and the Revering Time has a significant correlation with the placement (r = 0.250). There were significant differences in the Moving Distance, Reversing Time, Turning Time (left), and Turning Time (right) between the first- and second-level players (all p < 0.05). The reaction agility of table tennis players was significantly but weak correlated with their stroke effect. The first-level table tennis players had higher reaction agility and greater stroke effect (placement and spin speed) than the second-level players. The first-level table tennis players also exhibited faster direction-changing speed and greater rotational speed to left and right sides. Reaction agility tests under task-specific movements can better distinguish the differences of players' reaction agility at different skill levels. Enhancing players' moving speed and reversing ability, lateral coordination ability, and lower limb explosive force can help improve table tennis players' stroke effect.

What are the differences between the movements of an expert exhibiting superior performance compared with those of a novice or even an experienced person? Adopting a functional approach to tool use, this study presents results from experimental field research on stone knapping from Indian craftsmen of different levels of skill. The results showed that the differences in the levels of motor skill appeared in movement variability rather than in particular kinematic content. The higher is the level of motor skill, the more kinematic solutions are used, the more stable are the functional and the more variable the nonfunctional joint loadings. This study strongly suggests that to really understand learning processes and motor expertise, naturalistic challenging activities that require years of practice need to be elicited.

An investigation of the lower limb and trunk movements in the long chest pass for female basketball players of different skill levels

Commercial games possess various methods of game balancing. Each of them modifies the game's entertainment value for players of different skill levels. This paper deals with one of them, viz. a way of automatically adapting a game's balance which is based on the theory of incongruity. We tested our approach on a group of subjects, who played a game with three difficulty settings. The idea is to maintain a specific difference in incongruity automatically. We tested our idea extensively and may report that the results coincide with the theory of incongruity as far as positive incongruity is concerned. The main conclusion is that, owing to our automatically maintained balanced difficulty setting, we can avoid that a game becomes boring or frustrating.

Interpersonal coordination analysis of tennis players from different levels during official matches

In a series of 3 experiments, the authors examined the ability of badminton players of different skill levels (12 experts and 12 nonexperts) to anticipate the direction of badminton strokes. Participants viewed either film or point-light displays under a range of temporal or spatial occlusion conditions. World-class players were able to consistently pick up useful predictive information from the advance (precontact) kinematics of both the lower body and the racquet when the motion of those features was presented in isolation, whereas recreational players' use of the same information depended on the concurrent presence of linked segments. Participants' information pickup closely matched key biomechanical changes in the movement pattern being viewed, although, contrary to a common-coding view of perception and action (e.g., W. Prinz, 1997), some important differences were evident between the characteristics of the experts' movement prediction and those of expert movement production.

Play is central to children’s learning and development in the early years, including the learning of mathematics. The aim of the present study was to explore how play skills are related to mathematical skills in toddlers by examining the correlations between different kinds of play skills and mathematical skills, and how level of play skills is related to mathematical skills. The participants were 1088 toddlers in Norwegian Early Childhood and Care institutions who were observed by the staff in 3-month periods beginning when they were 2½ years old. The skills in mathematics and play were assessed by structured observation. The overall scores for play skills and the scores for all types of play skills correlated significantly with the scores for all mathematical areas and the total score for mathematics. The skills Interaction in Play and Independence in Play displayed the strongest correlations with mathematical skills. Rule-based Play was difficult for the toddlers, whereas Pretend Play and Exploring and Construction Play correlated with mathematical skills and may be types of play that are more suitable when introducing mathematics in toddler groups. When the group of toddlers was divided into three subgroups according to their level of play skills, the level of play skills was strongly related to the level of mathematical skills. Toddlers with weak, middle or strong play skills also exhibited corresponding low, medium or high levels of mathematics skills, which emphasises the importance of understanding the relations between play and mathematical learning when working with toddlers.

Small/er soccer nations rely strongly on developing youth athletes into experts in adulthood due to financial, logistical, and coach education constraints. One factor that contributes to this expertise is activities engaged in during childhood. Researchers have described these activities by focusing on larger, well-developed countries that often have larger participation rates and higher competition levels than their smaller counterparts. Therefore, to provide more specific information to support talent development in smaller soccer nations, a survey of the youth development system of a small soccer nation was conducted, alongside recording the developmental activities of skilled and less-skilled soccer players within this system. Key stakeholders (e.g., technical director) completed a youth development system survey. Skilled soccer players ( n = 12) who were representing their country at U17 level and less-skilled players ( n = 13) that had never played for their country completed a Participation History Questionnaire. Skilled players engaged in significantly higher amounts of individual practice in both childhood and early adolescence compared to less-skilled players. Survey data indicated that the greater amounts of individual practice for the skilled players stemmed from a lack of finances, playing facilities, and a formal coach education program. Results from this study may inform future practices and processes in the youth development systems of small/er soccer nations and their national associations.

The purpose of this study was to discover the contributions of individual upper body segmental rotations to ball release speed for cricket bowling and determine whether attempting to forcefully flex the lower trunk leads to an increase in ball release speed and bowling accuracy. Three dimensional kinematic data of eight male fast bowlers were recorded by a Vicon motion capture system under three cricket bowling conditions: (1) participants bowled at their stock delivery speeds (sub-max condition), (2) participants bowled at their absolute maximal speeds (max condition), and (3) participants bowled at their absolute maximal speeds but forced to flex the lower trunk (max-trunk condition). The accuracy of each delivery was also measured. The results showed that the average ball release speeds for the max-trunk condition were faster than the other two conditions. A general pattern of proximal to distal sequencing was observed for all three conditions. There was a slight decrement in accuracy seen in the max-trunk condition with respect to the other two conditions. For all three conditions, the upper arm rotation made the largest contribution, followed in turn by torso and thorax rotation, pelvis rotation, linear velocity of pelvis, and forearm and hand rotation.

The results of experimental substantiation of the criteria of tactical readiness of qualified field hockey players are presented. Pedagogical sequential experiment provided for the establishment and formation stages of the study. The study involved 18 qualified field hockey players, analyzed 32 official games, during the participation of the team in the championships and cups of Ukraine, in the cup of European champions. To traditional criteria oftactical readiness, among which experts define the indicators of competitive activities, the application of innovative technologies, namely, a computer multimedia program for testing the level of tactical thinking, is proposed. Testing tasks were to determine the correct solution for complex alternate simulated gaming situations. It is recommended to take into account the number of tactical errors to the indicators of competitive activity, in addition to the quantitative and qualitative data of the implementation of game techniques (gears, driving, stops, gates, rounds, selections, interceptions), as well as specific coefficients of efficiency and intensity. Correlation analysis showed the presence of statistically significant relationships between the above indicators (r = 0.472-0.730), which indicates the informativeness of the selected criteria for control tactical activity. Obtaining the results and their processing according to the proposed criteria enabled the trainer to make adjustments to the hockey team's plans, raise the level of tactical knowledge and skills of players, individualize the training process, highlighted the main directions of its optimization in terms of tactical training.

Matchmaking Strategies for Maximizing Player Engagement in Video Games

Pattern Recognition in Cyclic and Discrete Skills Performance from Inertial Measurement Units