Patterns of visual search in basketball coaches. An analysis on the level of performance

The present study aimed to analyze sequences of visual basketball coaches with different levels of performance while viewing a set of formal 5x5 game. 8 subjects were analyzed and subdivided by different groups: a group of 4 superior performance coaches (Top) and 4 underperformed coaches (Bottom), with the classification criteria of its teams playing the championship final. The behavior of the gaze direction of the coach was registered by the eye tracker system, instrument mobile eye 1.35 (Applied Science Laboratories - ALS (R)), a simulation of a formal game episode 5x5 basketball practice situation. Later his gaze was categorized by SportsCode (R) software in 11 categories. Such categorization allowed the creation of categorical time series that were analyzed by Recurrence Qualitative Analysis (RQA) (Webber and Zbilut, 2005). The results appear to indicate that Top coaches: preferably use the category interpersonal area to begin the sequence of visual survey, since the Bottom coaches often use the sequences of the category offensive player with ball and the offensive player from ball side. It was concluded that basketball coaches with different performance levels having different sequences of visual display when view a formal 5x5 game. Basketball is one of the most popular team games played in almost every country in the world (Ostojic et al. 2006), competitive basketball is played not only in North America, where the game was invented and developed, but also on other continents (Ziv and Lidor, 2009). Although during the last years many scientific evidence had been published about basketball, to our knowledge there is no references about mini basketball (under-12 basketball). In that way, we consider determinant the control of the load of training and the intensity in this population of sportsmen.