Impact of Gaze Shift Pattern on Athletic Performance

Abstract

Gaze shifts in sports provide important visual cues for anticipating and adapting to dynamic play situations. Volleyball athletes have been shown to rely heavily on gaze shifts from the ball to the spiker, particularly during blocking. Effective volleyball performance hinges on this gaze behavior, however, gaze shift patterns necessary for blocking success remain unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate whether a longer gaze duration for the ball compared to that for the spiker will increase the likelihood of the ball being blocked. To this end, 10 female college-level volleyball players wore Tobii Pro 2 glasses for an hour during practice matches and gaze trajectories were recorded. Timepoints corresponding to the specific events during ball blocking were extracted using the Tobii prob lab software and ball gaze and payer gaze duration ratios were calculated. Successes and failures at ball blocking were marked as 1 and 0 respectively following the gaze trajectories. Analysis showed longer gaze duration on the player versus the ball for all trajectories (ball=46%, player=54%) and for the success/failure trajectories (ball=34%, player = 66%). There was a longer gaze duration on players when interaction with the ball was anticipated (34%) compared to no ball interaction (46%). The ball gaze duration was 37% during blocking success compared to 31% during blocking failure, suggesting longer ball gaze times increase the chances of blocking success. Present findings indicate that quiet eye training could help volleyball athletes develop longer ball gaze durations for successful volleyball performance.

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