The use of anticipation by elite squash players

• Published in: Journal of sports sciences Vol. 23; no. 11-12; pp. 1249 - 1250
• Main Authors: James, N, Caudrelier, T, Murray, S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01-12-2005
• ISSN: 0264-0414

Researchers have established that elite racket sports performers have the ability to anticipate their opponent's actions. However, few researchers have measured the extent to which players actually anticipate ball trajectories in competitive matches, although shot difficulty has been suggested as an important determinant. Anticipation was consequently assessed under realistic match conditions, played against players of similar ability controlling for shot difficulty. Eight elite squash players (4 males, 4 females) aged 17-24 years (mean plus or minus s: 20.13 plus or minus 2.99), with international or national rankings, were recruited from the English Institute of Sport. Participants undertook a competitive match against an opponent of matched ability and ranking. A high-speed camera (Motionscope PCI 1000S, Redlake Imaging Corporation, Morgan Hill, USA) captured hard (the player was under some form of pressure and therefore stroke options were reduced) and easy shots (the player was under no pressure and all stroke options were available) at 250 frames per second. The camera was configured so that when triggered the 4 s period before the trigger was captured, thus enabling the desired shot to be viewed before it was recorded. Biomechanical video analysis software (Quintic Consultancy Ltd, Coventry, UK) allowed accurate timings of racket-ball contact and foot movements (split-step initiation and first discernible movements directed towards returning the ball) to be calculated. Inter- and intra-reliability tests revealed maximum discrepancy between two timings of 0.012 s and 0.008 s respectively. Generally, elite players responded to their opponent's shot by using a split-step preparatory movement before making a move towards the ball (83.7% of the time). Occasionally, the player moved directly towards the ball (n = 17), but given the small sample size no further analysis was deemed feasible. A one-way between-groups analysis of variance revealed a significant difference (F sub(1,85) = 10.951, P < 0.05) in the initiation of the first discernible move towards the ball relative to racket-ball contact between hard (0.114 plus or minus 0.22 s) and easy shots (0.260 plus or minus 0.16 s). Given that elite performers' reaction times are likely to be in the range 0.12-0.2 s, it appears that players rarely decide to move to return the ball before racket-ball contact, particularly for easy shots. Even for hard shots, when stroke options may be reduced for the opponent, elite players, in the main, did not choose to use the anticipatory information, even though researchers have shown that they are able to use this information. Part of the explanation for this discrepancy may be that opponents were of a similar ability (i.e. previously researchers have not used elite participants when creating test films). It may be the case, therefore, that anticipation is risky against elite opponents due to their ability to disguise their intentions. Alternatively, players may not be sufficiently aware or confident of their ability to anticipate against this syandard of opponent, and therefore tend towards caution. Further studies are needed to ascertain why elite players, when playing against players of a similar ability, do not anticipate at the level predicted by the literature. It would also be interesting to establish whether coaching interventions could impact upon the strategies used by elite players.