Author(s): UMEZAKI, S., TANIGUCHI, S., Institution: TENRI UNIVERSITY, Country: JAPAN, Abstract-ID: 2010

INTRODUCTION:
Visual search behavior plays a critical role in perceptual–motor performance in sport. In interceptive tasks such as baseball batting, previous eye-tracking studies have shown that skilled performers use advance kinematic cues from the pitcher to anticipate ball trajectory and timing [1,2]. However, most baseball-related gaze studies have relied on video-based stimuli or laboratory batting paradigms [3], and only a limited number of studies have examined gaze behavior under in situ conditions during actual sport performance. In particular, visual search behavior of infield defenders during ground-ball situations has not been sufficiently investigated. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to clarify in situ visual search behavior during ground-ball fielding by third basemen in baseball.
METHODS:
Fourteen collegiate baseball players competing in the Kansai University Baseball Division I League in Japan participated in the study (regular players: n = 7; non-regular players: n = 7). Participants performed a ground-ball fielding task at the third-base defensive position under live batting conditions while wearing a mobile eye-tracking system (Tobii Pro Glasses 2). The analysis interval was defined from the pitcher’s ball release to the moment of ball fielding. Gaze data were categorized into five predefined areas of interest (AOIs), and the proportion of gaze allocation to each AOI was calculated for each trial.
RESULTS:
A mixed two-way ANOVA with AOI (5 levels) and group (2 levels) revealed a significant interaction between AOI and group (F(4, 40) = 5.80, p = .001, partial η² = .37). Simple main effects analyses showed that the regular group allocated a greater proportion of gaze to the pitcher (AOI3), whereas the non-regular group allocated significantly more gaze to the batter (AOI4) (p < .01).
CONCLUSION:
These findings suggest that regular players may use advance visual information from the pitcher’s motion to anticipate ball direction, whereas non-regular players may rely more on reactive visual search at the moment of bat–ball contact. Overall, the results indicate that more skilled defenders may adopt a predictive visual search strategy that extracts critical visual information prior to ball contact.
[1] Kato & Fukuda (2002) / [2] Kishita et al. (2020) / [3] Ryu et al.(2013)