While perceptual training can be effective in developing anticipation skills, it is not commonly incorporated into tennis practice sessions, especially for young players. This pilot exploratory intervention study aimed to assess the effect of perceptual-cognitive training based on video recordings of tennis serves modified by temporal occlusion on development of anticipatory skills in expert tennis players of various age categories, i.e. U12, U14, U18 and adults. A total of 19 participants were divided into intervention and control group based on the age. We used pre and post-test design with temporal occlusion design. The intervention group underwent a 3-week video-based perceptual-cognitive training program. Pre-tests results revealed that adults and U18 category reached better response rate compared to U14 and poor result of U12. After applying the perceptual-cognitive training, the results demonstrate its effect and improvement across all age categories. The U12 category showed considerable improvement, with both the U12 and U14 categories reaching the performance level of the U18 and adult participants in the post-test under the T4-T6 occlusion condition. Respecting the sample size, video-based perceptual training could be effective way to improve anticipation skills and performance even in young tennis players. However, further investigation in this area is needed to gain a deeper understanding.
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