Abstract

Interception is a fundamental aspect of daily activities, such as catching a moving ball in various sports. In ball-catching tasks, the endpoint of a movement can lie anywhere along the target’s trajectory [1]. Toss juggling exemplifies a motor skill that requires rhythmic catching and throwing of objects under spatial and temporal constraints. During the catching phase, a juggler’s hands begin moving even before fully estimating the target’s trajectory, with adjustments made to the targeted position during the movement. Simultaneously, the juggler must coordinate the act of throwing the ball already in hand. This study investigates anticipatory behavior in juggling, offering insights into movement planning during this activity. Specifically, we compare two juggling conditions: solo 3-ball cascade juggling (condition 1) and dyadic 3-ball cascade juggling (condition 2). Following an approach in [2], our goal is to demonstrate that jugglers can predict a ball’s trajectory earlier in solo juggling compared to dyadic juggling scenarios, due to predictions based on internally available information at ball release.