ABSTRACT
Passing into open space and placing the ball accurately and timely for a moving team mate are important skills in soccer (Williams, 1973; McMorris and Copeman, 1991). This ability of anticipation-coincidence can be defined as the timing of an own response to coincide with a response triggered by an outside source. Since testing this skill under field conditions is difficult to achieve, a strict laboratory situation was chosen at the beginning (Henry and Grose, 1968; Abernethy, 1987). In our study two movements — the movement of a team mate and of a ball (which was controlled by a ball-possessing player) — had to be anticipated and coordinated. Anticipation of direction was not reguired. Most of the studies carried out so far, have chosen a typical one-on-one situation with the opposing player and/or the object (e.g. the racquet, the ball) moving towards the subject. A new aspect was brought into this investigation in so far as the subject had to coordinate the speed of his own pass with the movement of a player who was running away from him.
