EXPRESS: Higher order affordances for serve reception in volleyball

Using a head-mounted virtual reality system, we investigated the ability of skilled volleyball players to perceive virtual volleyball serves, and to use such information to control their actions in receiving serves. We compared shorter and taller groups of competitive players, and we varied the height of incoming serves. In two experiments, we found that, with very rare exceptions, participants used either an overhead or underhand technique to receive serves. Technique selection was reliably related to serve height, such that the overhead technique was used for higher serves and the underhand technique for lower serves. In Experiment 1, participants were free to move in any way they wished in receiving serves. We found that participants tended to step backward prior to receiving higher serves, such that there was a statistically significant relation between the serve height, the magnitude of backward stepping, and the likelihood of the overhead technique. In Experiment 2, participants were not permitted to step in any direction. Here, we found that participants tended to jump prior to receiving higher serves, such that there was a statistically significant relation between serve height, jump height, and the likelihood of the overhead technique. We argue that participants perceived higher order affordances for using anticipatory whole-body movements to optimize the two serve reception techniques. We interpret our results as an extension of the concept of affordance-based control.