Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA.
Memory Clinic, Department of Neurology, Charles University, Second Faculty of Medicine and Motol University Hospital, Praha, Czech Republic.
Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2024 Oct;27(10):728-735. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2024.0258. Epub 2024 Sep 17.
There is growing interest in virtual reality (VR) training among competitive athletes and casual sports players alike as a tool to supplement real-life play within a highly controlled, intellectually stimulating environment. We examined data from a commercially available, recently released VR software for tennis for changes in and correlates of performance. Two most frequently used tasks were evaluated-Baseline Center and Quick Volley, which include Efficiency (both), Concentration (both), and Reaction Time (Quick Volley only) subtasks. In all, 1,124 (Baseline Center) and 745 (Quick Volley) users met inclusion criteria (completed more than four trials; active sometime between November 2022 and July 2023). We found that most users were male adults and were about evenly split between advanced/pro users and intermediate/beginner users. Two or three trajectories emerged across the subtasks. Performance gains were most pronounced on movement efficiency, especially early on. Adult users generally exhibited more improvement than junior users. Additionally, women and right-handed users improved more on Baseline Center subtasks, and advanced/pro users did better than intermediate/beginner users on Quick Volley subtasks. We discuss that, despite strong performance gains within VR environment, VR training may still reflect in better real-world performance, may increase confidence and accuracy of relevant movement, lower risk of injury, and present a welcome diversion from a potential monotony of performing sport-related tasks in purely real-world settings. Future research should explore the extent to which VR training transfers to real-world performance.
虚拟现实（VR）培训在竞技运动员和休闲运动爱好者中越来越受欢迎，它是一种在高度可控、富有挑战性的环境中补充真实运动的工具。我们研究了一款商业上可用的新发布的网球 VR 软件的数据，以了解其在性能方面的变化和相关性。评估了两个最常用的任务——基本中心和快速 volley，其中包括效率（两者）、注意力（两者）和反应时间（仅快速 volley）子任务。共有 1124 名（基本中心）和 745 名（快速 volley）用户符合纳入标准（完成了超过四次试验；在 2022 年 11 月至 2023 年 7 月之间的某个时间处于活跃状态）。我们发现，大多数用户是男性成年人，高级/专业用户和中级/初级用户的比例大致相当。在所有子任务中，有两个或三个轨迹出现。运动效率的提高最为显著，尤其是在早期。成年用户的表现通常比青少年用户的表现有更大的提高。此外，女性和右撇子用户在基本中心子任务上的表现提高更多，而高级/专业用户在快速 volley 子任务上的表现优于中级/初级用户。我们认为，尽管在 VR 环境中表现出了很强的性能提升，但 VR 训练可能仍然反映在现实世界的表现上，可能会增加相关运动的信心和准确性，降低受伤风险，并为在纯粹的现实世界环境中进行与运动相关的任务提供一种受欢迎的变化。未来的研究应该探索 VR 训练在多大程度上可以转化为现实世界的表现。
