New research project in the run-up to the Squash World Championship
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New research project in the run-up to the Squash World Championship
The gaze behavior of squash players is the focus of a new research project between the German Squash Association (DSQV) and the Institute of Sport and Sports Science at the University of Kassel. Squash is ideal for our research questions because the players have to react to their opponent's strokes in a fraction of a second," says Prof. Hagemann, head of Department 02 "Psychology & Society". In his opinion, the project will enable intensive research to be carried out into the fundamentals of anticipation tasks, among other things. With the help of a modern eye movement system, the Kassel researchers are able to analyze the gaze behavior of squash players in a high temporal resolution when looking at opponent shots. Unlike in other return games, the ball can also be played behind the player's body, as both players are in the same playing area and are not separated by two halves of the game. This means that our viewing positions are not only frontal, but also sideways and backwards, which is a big difference to other backstroke games," says Ralf Brandt, who is responsible for science in the DSQV's teaching department. He is not only in charge of this project on behalf of the DSQV, but also as an active coach of national players.
For the top athletes in particular, who are preparing for the World Championships in Paderborn, it would of course be helpful to improve their anticipation performance with suitable instructions. We are looking forward to the insights we can gain from this project. Both Prof. Hagemann, from a scientific perspective, and Brandt, who wrote his thesis on anticipation training in squash at the coaching academy, have been studying anticipation performance in elite sport for several years.
In preparation for the planned series of studies, video recordings of squash shots were recently made as a first step (see photo). The recordings were made in collaboration with Ralf Brandt at the Borkstraße squash center in Münster (Westphalia).
Further information on the 23rd Men's Squash World Championships from 21.08.-27.08.2011 in Paderborn can be found here: