The effect of observational training on the anticipation accuracy and visual search behavior of handball players in handball defense situations.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of observational practice on anticipation and visual search behavior in handball players in handball defense positions. The participants were 23 male handball players aged 16-19 years, who were members of Isfahan national youth and Pishgaman team. The players viewed clips of handball defense positions using eye-tracking glasses. They verbally expressed their anticipation about the outcome of the ball position during the pre-test. The players were divided into two groups: gaze behavior, which was observed (observation of output clips of eye-tracking glasses) and observation group, which observed only handball clips. Then the two groups were retested after 10 sessions of 45 minutes. The results of repeated measures analysis of variance and Muchly test with sphiricity assumed illustrated that the anticipation accuracy and visual search behavior of the gaze behavior group in the post-test were significantly better than the observation group. Defending handball players in the 3×3 position compared to the other two positions (2 × 2, 1 × 1), focused on the background and kinematics of the attacking player to anticipate and identify the attacking player pattern.