A cross-educational approach on skill-related movement technique performance: Central neuronal motor behaviour preceding the short badminton backhand serve

Training in a particular sport not only leads to a higher accuracy in movement, it also creates neuronal modulations in different areas of the brain. Electroencephalography (EEG) has been on the rise to detect these neuronal modulations to address applied research approaches in sports-specific setups with focus on movement-related cortical potentials (MRCP) especially the readiness potential (RP). While many studies considered the RP in laboratory settings using button pressing, there is little research on sport-specific movements performed in realistic setups. Therefore the aim of this study was to examine the short backhand serve of expert and novice badminton players. 16 healthy, right-handed men participated in this study, eight experts and eight novices. A surface EMG was recorded from limb muscles and simultaneous EEG was recorded. RP peak increased significantly (p < 0.05) in expert compared to novices when serving with the dominant hand. RP onsets revealed no significant changes (p = 0.70). In line with previous reports, this study pointed out that complex movements such as the short badminton backhand serve produces higher RP peaks when performed precisely, indicating for long lasting practice and level of experience.