Kerstin Witte

Introduction: Meeting relevant prerequisites may improve movement readiness and skill development. In Martial Arts Tricking (MAT), diverse movement categories complicate individualized learning pathway selection. This proof-of-concept study investigates whether supervised machine learning can support personalized training by predicting trick performance and identifying influential athlete-specific features. Methods: Synthetic data representing plausible feature relationships were used to demonstrate the framework, not to infer real-world athlete performance. Multiple models were evaluated for predicting successful trick landings and identifying influential features, including body weight, age, experience and others. Results: Logistic regression was selected for its interpretability, achieving 81.8% mean accuracy in nested cross-validation and 84.3% accuracy in a separate stratified hold-out evaluation. Predicted probabilities illustrate how success likelihoods across trick categories could inform individualized learning pathway selection by highlighting athlete-specific strengths and weaknesses. Discussion: The study demonstrates the feasibility of an interpretable machine-learning framework rather than a validated coaching system. Real-world athlete data are required to establish practical effectiveness. The approach may also transfer to other sports.

Virtual reality (VR) technologies are increasingly used in neuropsychological assessment of various cognitive functions. Compared to traditional laboratory studies, VR allows for a more natural environment and more complex task-related movements with a high degree of control over the environment. However, there are still few studies that transfer well-established paradigms for measuring attentional distraction by novel sounds in laboratory settings to virtual environments and sports activities. In this study, the oddball paradigm, which is well established in laboratory settings for studying attention, is transferred to table tennis in a virtual environment. While 33 subjects played virtual table tennis, they were presented with a task-irrelevant sequence of frequent standard sounds and infrequent novel sounds. Trials in which an unexpected novel sound preceded the ball’s appearance resulted in a delayed racket movement compared to trials in which a standard sound was presented. This distraction effect was observed in the first part of the experiment but disappeared with increasing exposure. The results suggest that unexpected and task-irrelevant novel sounds can initially distract attention and impair performance on a complex movement task in a rich environment. The results demonstrate that versions of the well-established oddball distraction paradigm can be used to study attentional distraction, its dynamics, and its effects on complex movements in naturalistic environments.

Introduction: There is an increasing endeavor to use Virtual Reality (VR) technologies in sports training. Because visual perception is crucial for sports performance, it should also be considered in the development of VR tools. The aim of this review is to summarise the literature on the application fields and domains of sport in VR and to examine what needs to be considered when developing such VR training tools with regard to visual perception and its manipulation. Furthermore, it is still unclear to what extent the user's body or that of their teammates or opponents must be visualized in VR.Methods: The literature search was conducted based on five databases: PsychInfo, Pubmed, Scopus, SportDiscus, and IEEE Explore. Review articles and original articles written in English and published between 1 January 2015 and 31 March 2024 were considered.Results: Through a qualitative analysis of the selected research, we identified 12 reviews and 46 research articles. While the applications of VR in sports initially focussed on endurance sports at the beginning of the development of VR tools, within the last 5 years VR was found in almost all sports, such as team sports, martial arts, and individual sports. The most common sports domains in which VR is used are motor learning, training of visual perception, decision making processes, and anticipation skills, as well as many sport-specific trainings. The review provides an overview of the extent to which visual aids in VR can be used to optimize motor learning and training, also taking into account the transfer to the real world.Discussion: VR offers many opportunities to visually support sports training and motor learning. It has been shown that training in VR based purely on visual perception can be successful in many sports and sports domains. The following visualization options are already being used: different viewing perspectives, variation of the demonstrated speed of movement, use of virtual mirrors, visualization of the necessary body parts, visual manipulation to identify important stimuli, display of movement trajectories, and graphic aids. In future, more studies should be conducted to compare training under virtual conditions with training under real conditions and to investigate transfer effects. Eye tracking should also be used for this purpose in order to compare visual perception in VR and in reality. Less is known about how VR training can be realized in terms of frequency, duration, and intensity and how VR training can be combined with training in the reality world.

Background: Physical activity interventions for people with dementia have shown promising effects in improving cognition and physical function or slowing disease-related decline. Immersive virtual reality (iVR), using head-mounted displays, facilitates realistic experiences by blurring the boundaries between VR and the real world. The use of iVR for people with dementia offers the potential to increase active time and improve dementia therapy and care through exercise interventions. However, the feasibility of using VR use in people with dementia, considering changes in motor, cognitive, psychological, and physiological parameters, remains insufficiently investigated. Objective: This study aims to investigate the feasibility of using iVR in people with dementia or mild cognitive impairment in nursing homes. Specifically, we examined changes in motor performance (balance and mobility), cognitive performance (global cognition and executive functions), emotional responses, and fear of falling using iVR. Methods: Utilizing a pre-post design, this study recruited 35 participants with mild-to-moderate dementia, assessed by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Participants underwent a single session involving iVR exposure, with pre- and postexposure assessments and a feedback form, to exclude negative effects on cognitive and motor functions, mood, anxiety levels, and balance performance. The use of iVR involved 4 scenes, with a total length of 8 minutes. These scenes depicted a park with short and rather passive impressions presented as a 360° video in a head-mounted display. Before and after using the iVR, cognitive parameters were assessed using the Trail-Making Test A (TMT-A), motor parameters were assessed using the FICSIT-4 (Frailty and Injuries: Cooperative Studies of Intervention Techniques-4) and Timed-Up-and-Go (TUG) tests, and psychological parameters were assessed using the Dementia Mood Picture Test, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and Short Falls Efficacy Scale-International (Short FES-I). The Emotion Rating Scale and the duration of use were recorded during use, and a feedback questionnaire was completed afterward in addition to the posttests. Paired t tests and Wilcoxon tests were used to examine pre-post differences. Results: Of the 35 initial participants, 33 completed the study, which corresponds to a dropout rate of 6%. All 33 participants, who had a mean of 83.71 (SD 5.01) years, had dementia. They showed no statistically significant difference in cognitive and motor performance before and after iVR use. Thus, no negative effects on cognitive and motor functions, mood, anxiety levels, and balance performance were observed. The emotion rating scale also showed that 72% (n=24) felt joy and fun during iVR use, 100% (n=33) showed no emotions such as fear, sadness, or anger, and 93% (n=31) were attentive during iVR use. Conclusions: The feasibility of using iVR for people with dementia can be rated positively. There were no changes in motor, cognitive, or emotional parameters that would increase the risk of falls or other negative emotional reactions during or after iVR use. Further studies are needed to investigate prolonged use in a more stimulating computer-generated environment and possible physical and cognitive tasks for people with dementia in nursing homes. Trial Registration: German Clinical Trials Register DRKS00030616; https://drks.de/search/de/trial/DRKS00030616

This pioneering study presents an in-depth biomechanical examinations of soccer’s diving header, aiming to quantify its impact on ball speed enhancement (BSE) and effective offensive range (EOR). Despite the diving header’s widespread acclaim and historical significance, there remains a dearth of scientific scrutiny into its biomechanical intricacies. Employing an innovative research design featuring a static hanging ball at varied offensive distances and heights, this study replicates diverse header scenarios. The results of 3D motion quantification have shown that a physically excellent player (identified through the maximal standing long jump test) could reach an EOR around 2.64 times his body height. Furthermore, this study unveils that proficient players could attain BSE surpassing 9 m/s, signifying the diving header’s heightened efficacy compared to traditional heading techniques, which could only result in 4.5 m/s. Correlation analyses unveil noteworthy relationships, highlighting the pivotal role of head speed at impact and the influence of minimizing speed drop and temporal disparities for amplified effectiveness. Considerations for optimizing diving header execution are introduced, emphasizing the necessity for targeted training programs. Despite acknowledged limitations inherent to its pilot nature, this exploration furnishes foundational knowledge to guide subsequent research and practical applications, providing valuable insights into soccer training and skill development through a biomechanical lens.