Spatiotemporal characteristics of rhythmic, stationary basketball bouncing in skilled and unskilled players.

The aim of this study was to investigate the spatiotemporal characteristics of rhythmic, stationary basketball bouncing in skilled and unskilled adult basketball players. Skilled (n=12) and unskilled (n=11) basketball players were asked to bounce a basketball every 700 msec. in as temporally stable and spatially accurate a manner as possible, while keeping their eyes fixed straight ahead. Spatial analyses revealed a lower variability of the ball bouncing point and less deviation from a target point in the performance of skilled players compared to unskilled players. Temporal analyses revealed no significant difference in variability of the interbounce interval in skilled versus unskilled players. However, skilled players had longer and more consistent contact time between hand and ball compared to the unskilled players. These results suggest that longer and more consistent hand contact with the ball play an important role in spatial control of basketball bouncing position.