THE TRANSFER EFFECT OF VIRTUAL BASEBALL BATTING TRAINING ON PERFORMANCE IN YOUNG ATHLETES

Perceptual-cognitive skills are necessary for the successful completion of interceptive motor tasks, which aim to utilize the body or an implement to intercept a moving item (Davids et al., 2004). For example, for successful baseball batting, the ability of the hitter to interpret visual cues to support the swinging choice and then conduct the motor movement is crucial. Given that most of this perceptual information relies on vision, researchers have studied the effect of perceptual visual training programs on baseball skills. One technology that offers the possibility to practice the perceptual-motor component of the batting skills is virtual reality (VR). It has demonstrated promising potential in creating valid conditions for perceptual-cognitive applications in sports (Gray, 2019). In sum, VR affords controlled conditions, experimental task manipulation, does not require real pitching or pitchers, and increases the accessibility to training (Gray, 2019; Le Noury et al., 2022). According to recent research, batting performance improved with adaptive VR practice, as evidenced by game statistics and players' advancement to higher competition levels throughout the five years after the intervention (Gray, 2017). Only one study, though, has produced these findings, and there is also evidence to the reverse, indicating that more practice in a VR environment does not enhance the acquisition of baseball skills (Kincaid et al., 2021). The divergence between the results of those studies might be explained by the different experimental tasks used. While training session in Gray (2017) included pitch recognition tasks and batting motion in a virtual environment, participants in Kincaid et al. (2021) practiced a pitch recognition drill (ball position and color) that did not require identifying the type of pitch or any actual batting motion. These contradictory findings raise doubts about the effectiveness of VR visuomotor training for baseball batting. Additionally, since the evidence primarily evaluated outcome measures such as pitch recognition and plate discipline, it is limited in explaining the visual mechanisms that support the transfer of learning to real-world environments. In this context, examining oculomotor variables and motion kinematics could help clarify the mechanisms underlying the benefits of perceptual training on batting performance. Thus, the objective of this study is to examine how VR batting practice transfer to batting performance while facing a real pitcher. The performance will be evaluated at pre- and post-tests in a VR baseball batting practice group (VRG) and a real-world practice group (RWG) using a pitch recognition task and a real-world baseball batting test.

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