A Comparison between Novices and Experts of the Velocity-Accuracy Trade-Off in Overarm Throwing

Abstract

Expert team-handball players do not show the typical trade-off between speed and accuracy in overarm throwing. Van den Tillaar and Ettema (2003a) attributed this result to the uniqueness of the training experience of this group. The purpose of this study was to test their hypothesis by comparing experts with novices on overarm throwing by manipulating the goal of the task using different instructions. No trade-off between speed and accuracy was found for novices (n = 13; M age = 22.7 yr., SD = 2.2) or experts (n = 9; Mage = 24 yr., SD = 2.2): accuracy did not change by instruction. Furthermore, the linear velocities of the ball and endpoints of body segments and their timing were affected by instruction in a similar fashion in both groups. This finding indicates that training experience is not related to speed-accuracy tradeoff in overarm throwing.