Quiet Eye as a Mechanism for Table Tennis Performance under Fatigue and Complexity

The effect of quiet eye training on golf putting performance in pressure situation

To explores the effect and mechanism of quiet eye training on the accuracy of golfers´ putts in pressure situations and provides methods and basis for targeted attention training and control. 22 young golfers in China golf team aged from 13 to 18 were randomly assigned to the experimental group (quiet eye training group) and the control group (technical guidance group) according to gender. Both groups of participants underwent two consecutive weeks of push training (3 sets per day, 20 golf putts per set, rest for 3 min between sets) separately in accordance with the guidance of a professional psychological research group and an expert coach. Eye tracking technology, biofeedback technology, and subjective evaluation methods were used to test and analyze the push process of the two groups of participants before and after training under pressure situations (Eye movement behaviors and the heart rate were recorded by ASL Mobile Eye-XG and NeXus-2 biofeedback, pressure and state anxiety were evaluated by self-rating pressure scale and S-AI. Golf putting performance was recorded by a research graduate assistant). A higher hit ratio as well as lower pressure and SAI level was founded in quiet eye training group in the pressure situation, the quiet eye movement time and total fixation time was longer than technical group. The quiet eye training group has a better putting performance. Quiet eye training can improve the golf putting performance in pressure situations. After quiet eye training, the state anxiety decreased, the quiet eye movement time and the total fixation time increased in pressure situations.

Quiet Eye supports winner shots in a simulated table tennis competition

BACKGROUND

QE is defined as the final fixation on a specific location or object in the visuomotor workspace, for a minimum of 100 ms, that enables the athletes to gather relevant information before a critical movement. Several lines of research indicate that QE contributes to sports performance. However, its contribution to performance is derived mainly from research investigating isolated motor tasks. Therefore, little is known about its contribution in realistic competitional settings.

METHODS

The present study determined whether QE contributes to table tennis performance obtained from matches played in a simulated competition. Athletes (N = 10) performed two matches, one against a difficult and one against an accessible opponent. Gaze behavior was captured using Tobii Glasses 2.

RESULTS

We found that athletes made longer QE before winner balls (i.e., balls that scored a point), compared to forced and unforced errors (p_bonferroni  = 0.005, t = -4.45; p_bonferroni  <0.001, t = -6.45). Confirming that QE contributes to performance in a real match even in a competitional setting. We found no significant effect for the difficulty of the match, nor an interaction between the difficulty of the match and the type of shots Fs (1, 9) < 2.26, ps >0.16 0.70, η² _ps  < 0.20.

CONCLUSIONS

The present study provides evidence for QE's contribution to sports performance investigated in a "gold standard" ecological environment. More specifically, it provides evidence that QE gradually increases with the quality of the shot. Identical patterns were found regardless of the difficulty of the match.