Numerous studies have been conducted to examine the effects of an instructor's pointing gestures on learning performance across a wide range of academic domains. There are, however, few clear instructional guidelines for enhancing learning from this visual guidance. This study tested the combined effects of the coach's pointing gesture and gaze guidance on attention and recall performance in field-based sports. This study used a 3 (control vs. gesture vs. gesture/gaze) × 2 (novice vs. expert) between-subjects factorial design. Results showed a significant interaction effect between expertise level and experimental conditions on visual attention and memorization performance. Novice players scored higher after studying tactical instructions with pointing gestures and gaze guidance than players who studied the same instructions with pointing gestures, who in turn performed better than players who received instructions without cues. Expert players showed the same level of performance when they received the instructions without cues and with pointing gestures. However, they showed lower performance (notably in the visual attention and the mental effort measures) when they received the video with pointing gestures and gaze guidance compared to the instructions without gestures and with pointing gestures. These results suggest that the effectiveness of nonverbal visual guidance changes depending on the players’ level of expertise.

The question of how information of play should be presented so that tactical memorisation is optimised is still under discussion. To explore how players’ visual attentional resources are allocated when learning from a game system in basketball, eye movements were registered in the absence and presence of coaches’ pointing gestures. Expert (N = 48) and novice (N = 48) participants watched a video in which the coach either (i) described the basketball game system without using pointing gestures or (ii) described the basketball game system while pointing to the relevant aspects of it. The results of analyses of variance showed that the coach’s pointing gestures improved novice players’ performance (they achieved better recall performances, invested less cognitive load and showed more efficient visual search). However, this effect disappeared in expert participants, indicating a partial expertise reversal effect. Findings suggest that the effectiveness of coach’s pointing gestures depends on levels of players’ expertise.

Background: Improving the acquisition of complex tactical knowledge through video presentations has attracted considerable attention. Previous research has aimed to facilitate learning by structuring videos including pointing gestures and guided gaze. However, it is debatable whether these cues actually contribute to improved performance in the context of tactical learning for players with varying levels of expertise. Objectives: The present study examined the moderating roles of content complexity and expertise level on recall scores, mental effort, and visual attention while watching videos involving coach's pointing gestures and guided gaze, as well as videos with no cues. Methods: One hundred sixty novice and expert basketball learners were randomly divided into four groups: (i) simple content + no-cues, (ii) simple content + gesture/gaze, (iii) more complex content + no-cues, and (iv) more complex content + gesture/cues. They were instructed to learn the evolution of a tactical scene described by the coach, rate their mental effort invested during the learning phase, and reproduce the learned tactical scene. Results and conclusions: The results showed that regardless of the complexity of the content, novices achieved better recall performance and higher visual attention in the gesture/gaze condition than in the no-cues condition. However, the results showed that experts benefited equally from both conditions when the content was simple, whereas they benefited more from the gesture/gaze condition when the content was more complex. The results showed that the effectiveness of videos involving pointing gestures and guided gaze depends on the content complexity and the expertise level.

Coaches often use pointing gestures alongside their speech to reinforce their message and emphasize important concepts during instructional communications, but the impact of simultaneous pointing gestures and speech on learners’ recall remains unclear. We used eye-tracking and recalled performance to investigate the impact of a coach’s variously timed pointing gestures and speech on two groups of learners’ (novices and experts) visual attention and recall of tactical instructions. Participants were 96 basketball players (48 novice and 48 expert) who attempted to recall instructions about the evolution of a basketball game system under two teaching conditions: speech accompanied by gestures and speech followed by gestures. Overall, the results showed that novice players benefited more from instructional speech accompanied by gestures than from speech followed by gestures alone. This was evidenced by their greater visual attention to the diagrams, demonstrated through a higher fixation count and decreased saccadic shifts between the coach and the diagrams. Additionally, they exhibited improved recall and experienced reduced mental effort, despite having the same fixation time on the diagrams and equivalent recall time. Conversely, experts benefited more from instructional speech followed by gestures, indicating an expertise reversal effect. These results suggest that coaches and educators may improve their tactical instructions by timing the pairing of their hand gestures and speech in relation to the learner’s level of expertise.