The effect of visual occlusion training on the performance of Forehand Drive in unskilled Table Tennis players

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of visual occlusion training on the performance of forehand drive skill. Participants included 48 students (24.06 ±3.78 yrs.) who were divided into four groups: central vision, peripheral vision,, complete vision and control. The study consisted of three stages: pre-test, immediate and delayed retention tests. After the pre-test phase (30 trails), the participants of the experimental groups practiced the forehand drive in table tennis for eight sessions and five blocks of 100 trails in each session. At the end of the acquisition stage, the immediate retention test was performed and after two weeks, the retention test was performed with the same of the pre-test. The results of the immediately retention test showed that forehand skill was significantly improved in all three experimental groups compared to the control group (p≤0.05). Likewise, at this stage, the peripheral vision group showed the most progress. In the delayed retention test phase, the performance of the full vision and peripheral vision groups was better than the control and central vision groups, and the central vision group had a similar performance to the control group. Generally, according to the findings, considering the better performance of the peripheral vision group in the immediate and delayed retention tests compared to the control and central vision groups, It can be concluded that training with central vision occlusion is probably a type of training that improves performance in forehand drive in table tennis skill.