The serve is a crucial skill in tennis. Young athletes' serve training usually consists in trying to reproduce a standard performance observing a model (an expert). Another training strategy is self-modelling, where athletes watch videos of their own performance. But, from a psychological viewpoint, are visual models the most effective way to improve a motor skill? From experimental sport psychology literature we know that acoustic representations of motor actions are useful models for improving the performance. A systematic use of self-models based on a rhythmical acoustic representation highlighted a standardization of the motor performance. In the present research we investigated the effect of different self-model-based trainings by manipulating the perceptual information: We tested a video only model, an audio only model, and an audio-video one. Twenty young tennis players were asked to perform a series of serves (100 trials). Each individual performance was videotaped, digitalized and edited to produce the three different models of the “best” serve (according to the instructor) performed by each athlete. Results show significant differences in the learning rate among athletes: The best result is obtained after acoustic stimulation only, the worst one with a video only model, while the audio-video model led to intermediate results. As it can be found in previous literature, data show also a strong tendency to a performance timing standardization. Data suggest that self-model trainings based on acoustic stimulation can be used as effective strategies to learn a motor action like the tennis serve.

THE USE OF VIDEO AND AUDIO MODELS FOR TRAINING THE SERVEIN YOUNG TENNIS PLAYERS

GALMONTE, Alessandra;
2009-01-01

Abstract

The serve is a crucial skill in tennis. Young athletes' serve training usually consists in trying to reproduce a standard performance observing a model (an expert). Another training strategy is self-modelling, where athletes watch videos of their own performance. But, from a psychological viewpoint, are visual models the most effective way to improve a motor skill? From experimental sport psychology literature we know that acoustic representations of motor actions are useful models for improving the performance. A systematic use of self-models based on a rhythmical acoustic representation highlighted a standardization of the motor performance. In the present research we investigated the effect of different self-model-based trainings by manipulating the perceptual information: We tested a video only model, an audio only model, and an audio-video one. Twenty young tennis players were asked to perform a series of serves (100 trials). Each individual performance was videotaped, digitalized and edited to produce the three different models of the “best” serve (according to the instructor) performed by each athlete. Results show significant differences in the learning rate among athletes: The best result is obtained after acoustic stimulation only, the worst one with a video only model, while the audio-video model led to intermediate results. As it can be found in previous literature, data show also a strong tendency to a performance timing standardization. Data suggest that self-model trainings based on acoustic stimulation can be used as effective strategies to learn a motor action like the tennis serve.
2009
models; motor learning; sport psychology
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11562/332345
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