Abstract
Spatial occlusion involves removing specific sources of visual information such as an object, limb or other
information from the visuomotor workspace. In the sports context, limiting an athlete’s visual system to sub-optimal
conditions during complex motor skills such as the basketball dribble may be detrimental to performance. However,
when normal visual conditions are returned performance may rise above its previous threshold, as athletes then rely
less on visual information. In this study, we randomly assigned skilled basketball players into three groups; spatial
occlusion (SPO), practice (PRA) and control (CON) and asked participants to execute a basketball crossover dribble
task in a motion analysis laboratory. SPO and PRA groups underwent a pre-test, an acquisition phase, a post-test
and retention test, while the CON group underwent no acquisition phase. During the acquisition phase, participants
in the SPO group wore goggles that occluded vision of the limbs used during the basketball dribble., and the PRA
group completed the same acquisition phase without occlusion goggles.