When it comes to watching the whizzing ball as it hits the bounds line, referees will always misjudge the position of the ball. It isn't the feeling of the players unhappy with the referees' calls; it is the findings of the researchers from the University of California, Davis. The scientists studied the Wimbledon games and found that it is hard-wired into the brain of referees to mistakenly detect where the ball hits with respect to the line.

The human brain is by design wired in order to misread the position of fast moving objects. This holds true for many different things including but not limited to speeding cars, and tennis balls traveling faster than a speed of 100 mph. It stems from the fact that the object is moving faster than the eye can perceive and the brain can process it. The brain then anticipates the trajectory of the object, giving anticipation to the final location based off of a feel of how it will land. All of this occurs in the span of milliseconds. The end result: referees will occasionally perceive the ball having traveled farther in its flight than it really does treating balls as being out of bounds when it was in fact in bounds. These results are described from a new study in the journal Current Biology.

The lead scientist, David Whitney of the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain, along with his colleagues, studied over four thousand game points during the 2007 Wimbledon championship, and zoomed in on those points due to the ball being close to the line, or right on top. Using cameras with slow motion replay and an advance ball tracking system, the scientists found 83 cases where the referee made an erroneous call. Over three quarters of the calls were when the ball was called as being out when in fact it was in bounds. The 2008 Wimbledon tournament saw nearly 70% of out of bound calls which were really in bounds.

If it were not for the delay, referees would still be making the same number of mistakes overall, perceiving that the ball is landing earlier, and therefore in a different place than it really is landing. It really is not a problem with the referees, but rather how the human perceives fast motion. This perception could be a survival mechanism, over anticipating the location of a fast moving projectile to ensure not getting struck. While the number of erroneous calls was balanced evenly among the teams, they still have a psychological effect on the outcome of the match. The conclusions of the researchers were that the players should challenge calls made that were close to the line, as the ball tracking system will likely vindicate them. They also recommend the system to replace the referee's judgment all together. Such a move would be unlikely, however, unless it is embraced by the entire sport.

Originally posted 2008-11-04 05:34:28. Republished by Old Post Promoter

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anticipation, current biology, david whitney, end result, game points, human brain, many different things, moving objects, referee, referees, replay, slow motion, tennis balls, three quarters, trajectory, uc davis, university of california davis, wimbledon, wimbledon championship, wimbledon tournament