Effects of virtual reality batting practice on swing decision-making in highly-trained baseball batters

Baseball involves a dynamic confrontation in which the batter uses the pitcher's kinematics to support swing decision. However, replicating this representative perceptual information during real-world (RW) practice is difficult, as pitchers have a restricted number of maximum-effort pitches they can safely deliver. Virtual reality (VR) practice, where a batter faces a virtual pitcher, has been proposed to be an effective practice tool to provide representative perceptual information and train swinging decision. This study examined the transfer effects of supplementing RW batting training with VR practice on swing decision in baseball players. Twenty highly trained male baseball players were randomly assigned to either a pseudo-representative real-world only (RWG) or a RW plus representative VR (RW + VRG) batting practice condition. Throughout the six-week intervention, both groups completed their regular weekday training sessions. For the RW + VRG, a portion of their regular practices was replaced with 12 twenty-minute sessions of VR batting practice. Decision making was assessed pre- and post-intervention using a VR pitch recognition (PR) test and plate discipline during a real batting (RB) test. Bayesian analyses revealed moderate evidence for greater performance improvement following RW + VRG practice compared to the RWG practice, as observed in the PR test (BF = 4.4) and Z-swing % in the RB test (BF = 4.15). These exploratory findings suggest that VR batting practice is a promising complementary tool for enhancing swing decision-making.