Visual reaction time scores (on the Batak Pro)
Description
Hypothesis: In the world of sport reaction times are an important contributor to the success of an athlete. Some sports are more reactive than others and athletes may be required to react to multiple stimuli (team sports) or an opponent (tennis, combat sports, etc). These sports are classified as "open skill" sports. Other sports like swimming, rowing or athletic requires the athlete to only react to the start gun and they perform a very repetitive, cyclic motion. These sports are defined as "closed skill". Due to what seems like clear reactivity demands differing between sports we hypothesised that open skill athletes would perform better than the closed skill athletes on the Batak Pro (a LED light frame used for testing visual motor reaction times). We were also interested in the impact of height, wingspan and ape index (ratio or height and wingspan) on one's ability to score highly on the Batak Pro. The Batak Pro frame is large (height of 2m) so we hypothesised that taller athletes who posses a larger wingspan will perform better than their shorter counterparts on the Batak Pro protocols. Methods: Each participant had one trial run and three testing trials. The averages and their top score scores are tracked in the data set attached. Results: Our data on trained athletes (competing for more than 5 years) showed no significant difference in reaction times on 4 protocols on the Batak Pro. This data also shows no significant correlations between physical characteristics and performance on any of the Batak protocols. Interpretations of this dataset: Accounting for the level of athletes being tested (not elite, national or international calibre) it suggests that no difference exists between open and closed skill athletes in reference to visual reaction times. This may be explained as either reactive ability is a trait that is developed and transferable through participation in sport and/or these athletes have yet not experienced reactive sport specific training in which elite calibre athletes may experience. It would be interesting to replicate this study on national/international level athletes. Data Set Legend: Classification: 1 = Closed Skill, 2 = Open Skill Sport: 1 = Rowing, 2 = Swimming, 3 = Field Sports, 4 = Combat Sports Batak Protocols: Accumulator, Evasion, 4 Corner Stretch-25 target, Mirror Race. See the Batak Pro manual for full descriptions of these protocols.
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Steps to reproduce
Methods: Each participant had one trial run and three testing trials for each of the four BatakPro protocols listed previously. The averages and their top score scores are tracked in the data set attached.