A ‘reality’ check: comparing virtual reality and life-size video in football

Recent advancements in virtual reality (VR) have led researchers to question whether VR could offer a superior medium for perceptual-cognitive training in sport, above and beyond traditional representative task training such as video simulations. To address this question, 30 amateur and semi-professional footballers completed 96 trials of a 1-vs-1 drill, in both VR and life-size video conditions. The drill involved intercepting an oncoming attacker, whereby there were four possible outcomes: true right, true left, fake right, fake left. Participants responded significantly faster and reported significantly greater presence, face validity, enjoyment, and desire to repeat the session in the VR condition compared to the life-size video condition. There was no significant difference in response accuracy or susceptibility to deception between conditions. An additional thematic analysis of a coach’s evaluations of participant responses to VR and video stimuli was conducted, representing a novel approach to practitioner-informed extended reality (XR) validation in sport. The coach perceived responses in the VR condition as more representative of live ‘on-field’ duels and perceived that the life-size video condition may have allowed participants to better detect opponent cues and respond in a more controlled manner. These practitioner-informed observations are exploratory and reflect the perceptions of one coach, rather than independently established differences between conditions. Overall, these results demonstrate the positive role that VR may offer in perceptual-cognitive training and the importance of on-going evaluation as VR technology develops at pace.