The Influence of Skill and Intermittent Vision on Dynamic Balance

Two experiments are reported in which expert and novice gymnasts were required to walk across a balance beam as quickly as possible in various vision conditions. In Experiment 1, experts walked faster than novices in all vision conditions, showing the greatest superiority when vision was completely eliminated. Novices were more dependent on vision and were able to maintain their performance as long as a visual sample was available every 250 ms …