XR Programmers Give Their Perspective on How XR Technology can be Effectively Utilised in High-Performance Sport.

BACKGROUND: The successful use of extended reality (XR) in sport is highly dependent on the extent to which it can represent the perception-action couplings that exist in the performance setting. However, there are many unknowns regarding the effectiveness of XR technology which is limiting its adoption in sport. Therefore, providing high-performance sporting organisations with more information about the efficacy and utility of XR, specifically its strengths and limitations, is warranted. RESULTS: The results provide insight into the limitations of XR and how those limitations are likely to reduce the effectiveness of XR for training motor skills. The participants described opportunities provided by XR for measuring athlete performance and highlighted several practical applications for enhancing athlete and coaching performance. Using artificial intelligence (AI) for training tactical decision-making and creating new movement solutions was also a key finding. CONCLUSIONS: The use of XR in sport is in its infancy, and more research is required to establish a deeper understanding of its utility and efficacy. This research provides sporting organisations, coaches, athletes, and XR technology companies with insights into where XR technology can have the greatest positive impact on performance in sport.

Skilled swimmers maintain performance stability under changing attentional focus constraints.

Focusing attention externally, rather than internally, has generally proved advantageous as it avoids interfering with self-organzing processes. However, some research has suggested that this may not necessarily be the case with highly skilled individuals who by definition possess a greater capacity to either adapt or maintain stability under varied task constraints. This study aimed to address this gap by comparing the performance of skilled athletes under internal and external attentional focus conditions using the swimming dive start as a task vehicle. Using a counterbalanced repeated measures design, skilled swimmers performed dive starts in conditions of differing attentional focus - internal and external attentional focus. Kinetic and kinematic variables were collected and statistical analyses conducted to compare differences between conditions. The results revealed no differences in outcome performance (relative peak power, horizontal velocity, and time to 5 m) between internal and external focus conditions. However, remaining kinematic and kinetic measures revealed that all movement events occurred earlier in the movement sequence, suggesting superior self-organization of movement in the external focus condition. An external focus may be beneficial for the organization of movement control in skilled swimmers, but may not have an immediate impact upon the outcome of the task.

Taekwondo Fighting in Training Does Not Simulate the Affective and Cognitive Demands of Competition: Implications for Behavior and Transfer.

Enhancing practice design is critical to facilitate transfer of learning. Considerable research has focused on the role of perceptual information in practice simulation, yet has neglected how affect and cognition are shaped by practice environments and whether this influences the fidelity of behavior (Headrick et al., 2015). This study filled this gap by examining the fidelity of individual (cognition, affect, and actions) and interpersonal behavior of 10 highly skilled Australian Taekwondo athletes fighting in training compared to competition. Interpersonal behavior was assessed by tracking location coordinates to analyze distance-time coordination tendencies of the fighter-fighter system. Individual actions were assessed through notational analysis and approximate entropy calculations of coordinate data to quantify the (un)predictability of movement displacement. Affect and cognition were assessed with mixed-methods that included perceptual scales measuring anxiety, arousal, and mental effort, and post-fight video-facilitated confrontational interviews to explore how affect and cognitions might differ. Quantitative differences were assessed with mixed models and dependent t-tests. Results reveal that individual and interpersonal behavior differed between training and competition. In training, individuals attacked less (d = 0.81, p < 0.05), initiated attacks from further away (d = -0.20, p < 0.05) and displayed more predictable movement trajectories (d = 0.84, p < 0.05). In training, fighters had lower anxiety (d = -1.26, p < 0.05), arousal (d = -1.07, p < 0.05), and mental effort (d = -0.77, p < 0.05). These results were accompanied by changes in interpersonal behavior, with larger interpersonal distances generated by the fighter-fighter system in training (d = 0.80, p < 0.05). Qualitative data revealed the emergence of cognitions and affect specific to the training environment, such as reductions in pressure, arousal, and mental challenge. Findings highlight the specificity of performer-environment interactions. Fighting in training affords reduced affective and cognitive demands and a decrease in action fidelity compared to competition. In addition to sampling information, representative practice needs to consider modeling the cognitions and affect of competition to enhance transfer.