Training professional athletes using action and non-movement video games
I am making my digital artefact to investigate the idea of using video games as a means of vocational training. Video games related to sport, such as Madden NFL, NBS and MVP Basketball – to name a few – are becoming increasingly common in the culture. Covid-19 has prevented many athletes from training as many of us have been through weeks of lockdown. Additionally, Virtual Reality ( VR) has become more available, and with proper research carried out by STRIVR, we can evaluate the future possibility of using gaming as a form of vocational training. I also wanted to break the couch-potato stereotype to which video games are bound, particularly now that more work is being done on this subject.
With the sports world at a standstill during the COVID-19 pandemic, one platform may change how fans take in sports for years to come. Virtual reality could serve as a way to provide fans with experiences previously thought only possible at in-person events. During the first session of a two-part virtual conference called World Comes to Congress, sports media executives spoke about the spread of the new coronavirus and how it continues to shape our media landscape (Anguera & Gazzaley, 2015).
Training is an essential requirement for athletes in every sport. Stamina, stamina, and response times are only a few examples of what people who play sports need to put up to succeed at what they do. You wouldn’t necessarily think of video games and athletics in the same sport-based learning, but through playing video games, skills such as problem-solving, speed, hand-eye coordination and space awareness can be created. They are all essential traits, in fact, that athletes need to compete in their sports.
The aim of my Digital Artefact is to analyse the connexions between sports training and video games which have a positive effect on athletes. Will video games, I want to know, help athletes think abstractly? Will it affirm their strengths and their ability to play well? I aspire to find games that help cognitive and movement skills for people who may be in lockdown or just want to give virtual reality games a go with proven benefits if played correctly.
I would like to discuss the work of sports scientists who have already used video games analytics to check what others say is the next sports frontier (Estefanell, 2017).
An exemplar of a game that athletes use to concentrate on improving their gaming abilities is a software called IntelliGym. IntelliGym was originally designed for Israeli fighter pilots, who are measuring cognitive abilities such as spatial perception. Top European football clubs are actually using this system (Estefanell, 2017).
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My aim for this digital artefact is to identify the opportunity for professional athletes to use video games as sport-related training. I want to know if this is a useful cognitive skill measure and also physical advantages in both movement-based video games and non-motion-based video games.
Anguera, J.A. and Gazzaley, A., 2015. Video games, cognitive exercises, and the enhancement of cognitive abilities. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 4, pp.160-165.
Estefanell, I. (2017). Could video games be the key to athletic success? | CBC Sports. [online] CBC. Available at: https://www.cbc.ca/sports/brain-gaming-industry-athletic-success-1.4114268 [Accessed 25 Aug. 2020].
Game Cultures 