Abstract
Spatial occlusion involves removing specific sources of visual information such as an object, limb or other information from the visuomotor workspace. In the sports context, limiting an athlete’s visual system to sub-optimal conditions during complex motor skills such as the basketball dribble may be detrimental to performance. However, when normal visual conditions are returned performance may rise above its previous threshold, as athletes then rely less on visual information. In this study, we randomly assigned skilled basketball players into three groups; spatial occlusion (SPO), practice (PRA) and control (CON) and asked participants to execute a basketball crossover dribble task in a motion analysis laboratory. SPO and PRA groups underwent a pre-test, an acquisition phase, a post-test and retention test, while the CON group underwent no acquisition phase. During the acquisition phase, participants in the SPO group wore goggles that occluded vision of the limbs used during the basketball dribble., and the PRA group completed the same acquisition phase without occlusion goggles. Kinematic data during the crossover dribble task revealed a significant SPO group change in the height of the dribble at the third metacarpal (p
Original language | English |
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Journal | Technological University Dublin |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Mar 2019 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Spatial occlusion
- visual information
- visuomotor workspace
- basketball dribble
- performance
- athletes
- motion analysis
- kinematic data