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Huffman, S 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9052-8727,
2024.
Situation awareness in equestrian polo: insights into experience, methods, and training.
PhD, Nottingham Trent University.
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Abstract
The equestrian sport of polo has been played for almost 2500 years and is characterised by high speeds, physicality, and visuo-cognitive complexities similar to team ball sports and driving. Given its dynamic characteristics, it is an ideal sport to investigate Situation Awareness (SA) and the cognitive skills that underly it. The aims of the thesis were to investigate the objective methods of SA assessment in polo, explore the role of experience in SA skills and the potential transfer of SA across sports, to explore some of the components behind SA skill, and to investigate a polo SA training for those with no experience in the sport. The first phase of the thesis investigated the validity of a static image ‘Spot the Ball’ (STB) Level I SA (perception) assessment tool for polo and soccer, explored the role of visual cues on perception in sports, and investigated if perceptual skills could transfer between similar sports. It was found that the STB tool discriminated sports experience, and that gaze cueing was a strong predictor of perception performance. No transfer effects were evident between polo and soccer. The second phase investigated the validity of a dynamic ‘What Happens Next?’ (WHN) SA assessment tool and the role of situational context on anticipation. An interaction effect of sport experience by type of situation presented in the video clips showed discrimination of sports experience (those with some polo playing experience) when provided with situational context about the plays, and it was found that polo players benefitted more than controls (those with no polo or sport experience) from additional situational context during the task. Lastly, the third phase developed two programmes aimed at training polo SA in participants with no polo experience. The WHN tool was used as a SA assessment and eye movements were used a measure of attentional allocation. The training programmes showed no evidence of improving polo SA, and eye movement behaviours indicated that novices primarily fixated on the ball and did not conduct wider searches indicative of higher order cognition, suggesting SA training may need a more scaffolded approach. The results of the thesis provide insights into equestrian polo SA, how sports experience drives SA, the validity of SA methodologies, and the practicality of training SA. It also furthers the understanding of SA within general sports settings, which is currently lacking.
| Item Type: | Thesis |
|---|---|
| Creators: | Huffman, S. |
| Contributors: | Name Role NTU ID ORCID |
| Date: | November 2024 |
| Rights: | The copyright in this work is held by the author. You may copy up to 5% of this work for private study, or personal, non-commercial research. Any re-use of the information contained within this document should be fully referenced, quoting the author, title, university, degree level and pagination. Queries or requests for any other use, or if a more substantial copy is required, should be directed to the author. |
| Divisions: | Schools > School of Social Sciences |
| Record created by: | Melissa Cornwell |
| Date Added: | 31 Jan 2025 09:57 |
| Last Modified: | 31 Jan 2025 09:57 |
| URI: | https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/52947 |
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