Analysis of the differences in the knowledge of the tennis players, in function del level of expertise

Abstract

This study tries to verify the existence of a cognitive component in tactical tennis players behaviour that acquire different manifestations in function of level from sport skill. This cognitive component is of great importance because it conditions the decisional capacity of the tennis player during the game. The study was made with 12 tennis players (6 experts and 6 novices) allowed us to analyze the differences in the knowledge (declarative and procedural) between players of tennis of different level from expertise. The measurement of the knowledge has been made using adapted questionnaires of McGee and Farrow (1987) and verbal protocol of McPherson (1999a, 2000. The results show to differences of knowledge between experts and novice, so that the players with greater level of skill develop a greater knowledge, more structured and sophisticated, that allows them to accede to one more a more excellent information for the decision making. The correlational analysis sample that exists a strong relation between the general knowledge of game (declaratory and procedural) and the procedural knowledge in the action, which indicates the utility of this type of measurements to evaluate cognitive factors bound to the tactics and the decision making in tennis. Key Words: procedural knowledge, expertise, tennis.