Comparison of decision-making skill in 360° video to the field setting in highly skilled rugby union players

Abstract Little evidence exists of whether decision-making in immersive 360° video is representative of the field setting in sport. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether decision-making performance of a representative exemplar competition specific skill was similar between 360° video and a field task. Fifteen players from skilled junior rugby union pathways and professional rugby union teams in Australia were recruited to complete a 360° video decision-making choice response task involving four attackers and three defenders. Their decision-making was previously assessed in a similar field decision-making task that was representative of rugby game play. Decision-making was scored according to an expert coach rating scale. After the 360° video task, participants completed a sense of presence questionnaire and answered interview questions relating to their experience during the 360° video task. Bland–Altman analysis confirmed that 360° video and field tests measured decision-making skill, providing evidence of the similarity in performance between test modalities. Further analysis indicated a significant difference between decision-making performance in 360° video and the field task, however, the absolute percentage difference between the two tests was only 9%. Moreover, participants rated presence in the 360° video task highly and five themes were identified from the responses to interview questions. These themes indicated that the participants’ believed the 360° video task was representative of the field setting and would be a beneficial method to assess and enhance decision-making skill. These findings suggest the 360° video task has construct validity in terms of representative task design. This provides important implications for assessment and training of decision-making skill in sport.